Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, March 12, 1783.

DEAR SIR,

Captain Barney, commanding the American packet boat which has been long expected with official intelligence from our Ministers in Europe, arrived here this morning. He brings a supply of money, the sum of which I cannot as yet specify, and comes under a passport from the King of Great Britain. The despatches from our Ministers are dated the fifth, fourteenth, and twenty-fourth of December. Those of the fourteenth enclose a copy of the Preliminary Articles, provisionally signed between the American and British Plenipotentiaries. The tenor of them is, that the United States shall be acknowledged, and treated with as free, sovereign, and independent; that our boundaries shall begin at the mouth of the St. Croix, run thence to the ridge dividing the waters of the Atlantic from those of St. Laurence; thence, to the head of Connecticut river; thence, down to forty-five degrees North latitude; thence, to Cadaraqui; thence, through the middle of Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Superior, to Long Lake, to the Lake of the Woods; and thence, due West to the Mississippi; thence, down the middle of the river to latitude thirty-one; thence, to Apalachicola, to Flint river, to St. Marys, and down the same to the Atlantic; that the fisheries shall be exercised nearly as formerly; that Congress shall earnestly recommend to the States a restitution of confiscated property, a permission to the refugees to come and remain for one year within the

[ocr errors]

States to solicit restitution; and that in the most obnoxious cases restitution may be demanded of purchasers on reimbursing them the price of the property; that debts contracted prior to 1775 shall be mutually paid according to sterling value; that all prisoners shall be mutually set at liberty, troops withdrawn, and all records and papers restored; that the navigation of the Mississippi, from the source to the mouth, shall be mutually free for the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of America. A proposition, comprehending the West Indies, was offered on the subject of commerce, but not admitted on the part of Great Britain.

In the course of the negotiation, Great Britain contended for not only the limits marked out in the Quebec act, but all ungranted soil, for a contraction of the fisheries, and for absolute stipulations in favor of the loyalists.

The despatches of the fourteenth speak also of the principal preliminaries between France and Great Britain being settled; but of little progress being made in those between Holland and Spain, and the latter; and of none between Spain and the United States.

A letter, of the twenty-fourth of December, from Dr. Franklin, varies the scene somewhat. It says, that uncertainties were arising from the unsettled state of minds in England; and encloses a letter from the Count de Vergennes, observing, that difficulties had arisen from the very facilities yielded on the part of France; and concluding with these words, as well as I can recollect, "Je ne désespère pas; J'espère plutôt; mais tout est incertain."

Franklin's correspondence on this occasion denotes a vigor of intellect, which is astonishing at his age. A letter to the British Minister, on the case of the Tories in particular, is remarkable for strength of reasoning, of sentiment, and of expression. He concludes his letter to Congress with observing, that he is now entering on his seventy-eighth year, fifty of which have been spent in the public service; and that having lived to see, like Simeon of old, the salvation of his country, his prayer is that he may be permitted to retire from public life. Mr. Adams has also transmitted his resignation.

The arrival of this intelligence will probably procure from Congress some final decision with respect to Mr. Jefferson.

Having given you all the facts which hurry would admit, I leave you to your own conclusion as to the object of them."

107

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, March 18, 1783.

My letter, by express, communicated to you the outlines of the intelligence brought by Captain Barney from our Ministers in Europe. The tediousness of the cypher does not permit me now to enter into detail. I can only add, that, notwithstanding the flattering aspect of the Preliminary Articles, there are various circumstances which check our confidence in them, as there are some which will detract from our joy, if they should be finally established.

To explain this, it must suffice to observe, that the latest letters from our Ministers express the greatest jealousy of Great Britain; and, secondly, that the situation of France between the interfering claims of Spain and the United States, to which may perhaps be added some particular views of her own, having carried her into a discountenance of our claims, the suspicions of our Ministers on that side gave an opportunity to British address to decoy them into a degree of confidence which seems to leave their own reputations, as well as the safety of their country, at the mercy of Shelburne. In this business, Jay has taken the lead, and proceeded to a length of which you can form little idea. Adams has followed with cordiality. Franklin has been dragged into it. Laurens, in his separate letter, professes a violent suspicion of Great Britain, and good will and confidence toward France. The dilemma to which Congress are reduced is infinitely perplexing. If they abet the proceedings of their Ministers, all confidence with France is at an end, which, in the event of a renewal of the war, must be as dreadful as in that of peace it may be dishonorable. If they disavow the conduct of their Ministers, by their usual frankness of communication, the most serious inconveniences also present themselves. The torment of this dilemma cannot be justly conveyed without a fuller recital of facts than is permitted. I wish you not to hazard even an interlined decypherment of those which I have deposited in your confidence.

Despatches were yesterday received from General Washington, which have revived and increased our apprehensions on that side. There seems to be

reason to suspect that the intrigues of the civil creditors fan the discontents of the army. The conduct of Washington does equal honor to his prudence and to his virtue.

The state of our foreign affairs and of the army, combined with the difficulty and uncertainty of providing for justice and for our finances, and with the approaching exit of Morris, give a peculiar solemnity to the present moment. God send us a speedy and honorable deliverance from every danger. Pray hasten the new cypher which you have promised.108

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, March 25, 1783.

Your favor of the fifteenth instant was duly received yesterday. Mine, by yesterday's express, will have notified the consummation of our wishes by the settlement of the preliminaries of a general peace on the twentieth of January. The enclosed gazette will add all the circumstances under which the happy event is brought to us; happy it may indeed be called, whether we consider the immediate blessings which it confers, or the cruel distresses and embarrassments from which it saves us. The pecuniary aid of France, for the year 1783, had been unalterably limited to six millions of livres. The greatest part of this sum had been anticipated, and how our army could have been kept together for three months is utterly beyond my solution. As it is, God only knows how the plans in agitation for

« ZurückWeiter »