It may not be improper to observe that these instructions, and all others which you may receive from time to time, should be kept as secret as circumstances will admit. JOHN HANCOCK. Hancock, President of Congress, to Izard.* PHILADELPHIA, July 1, 1777. SIR: Herewith you will receive a commission from the Congress of the United States of North America, authorizing and appointing you to represent the said Congress, as their commissioner, at the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. You will proceed with all convenient expedition to the court of the grand duke, and will lose no time in announcing in form the Declaration of Independence made in Congress the 4th day of July, 1776. The reasons of this act of independence are so strongly adduced in the declaration itself, that further argument is unnecessary. As it is of the greatest importance to these States that Great Britain be effectually obstructed in the plan of sending German and Russian troops to North America, you will exert all possible address to prevail with the grand duke to use his influence with the Emperor and the courts of France and Spain to this end. You will propose a treaty of friendship and commerce with the said grand duke, upon the same commercial principles as were the basis of the first treaties of friendship and commerce proposed to the courts of France and Spain by our commissioners, and which were approved in Congress the 17th day of September, 1776, and not interfering with any treaties which may have been proposed to or concluded with the courts above mentioned. For your better instruction herein, the commissioners at the court of Versailles will be desired to furnish you from Paris, with a copy of the treaty originally proposed by Congress to be entered into with France, together with the subsequent alterations. that have been proposed on either side. You are to propose no treaty of commerce to be of longer duration than the term of twelve years from the date of its ratification by the Congress of the United States. And it must never be forgotten in those commercial treaties, that reciprocal and equal advantages to the people of both countries be firmly and plainly secured. There being reason to suppose that his Royal Highness makes commerce an object of his attention, you will not fail to place before him in *MSS. Dep. of State; 1 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 647. Izard never reached Florence, nor did he even receive any official recognition from Tuscany, whose government refused him permission even to visit its dominions. (See introduction, § 97.) As to Izard's course in remaining in Paris two years and drawing his salary, see introduction, § 179. the clearest light, the great advantages that may result from a free trade between Tuscany and North America. You will seize the first favorable moment to solicit, with firmness and respect, an acknowledgment of the independence of these States, and the public reception of their commissioner as the representative of a sovereign State. The measures you may take in the premises, and the occurrences of your negotiation, you will communicate to Congress by every oppor tunity. It may not be improper to observe that these instructions, and all others which you may receive from time to time, should be kept as secret as circumstances will admit. JOHN HANCOCK. A. Lee to the King of Prussia." BERLIN, July 1, 1777. SIR: Having been robbed in your city of Berlin in a most extraordinary manner, I have thus far relied on the common police. But as it seemed very probable that the individual who committed this robbery can not be prosecuted by the common police, I am obliged to disturb your majesty's quiet, and to request that an audience may be granted to me, in order to make my complaint, and to say some things thereupon which it is impossible to commit to paper or to confide to any one but your majesty. I am, sire, etc., ARTHUR LEE. Harrison et al., Committee of Foreign Affairs, to the Commissioners in Paris.t PHILADELPHIA, July 2, 1777. GENTLEMEN: Since our last of the 26th ultimo, which mentions the enemy being retreated to Amboy, we have to inform you that General Washington dismissed the Jersey militia, except about two thousand, and likewise countermanded the re-enforcement of three thousand men from General Putnam's division at Peekskill. We suppose General Howe to be apprised of these circumstances, as he immediately after returned with his whole force from Amboy, and made an attempt to cut off a division of our army under General Stirling, but without sucFor particulars we refer you to General Washington's letters, in the newspapers of the 2d instant. cess. A letter from General Washington, just received, informs that the *1 Spark's Dep. Rev. Corr., 439. See A. Lee to commissioners, June 28, 1777, supra, with note. + MSS. Dep. of State; 1 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 227, with verbal changes. enemy have totally evacuated the Jerseys, and are retreated to their last year's quarters on Staten Island. We inclose to you commission and instructions for Ralph Izard and William Lee; the first, appointed commissioner to the court of Tuscany, and the latter to the courts of Vienna and Berlin. Their instructions are so intimately connected with your own, that we have thought proper to send them open, to your confidential care, that you may give information to the gentlemen, and take every due step to forward the execution of the intention of Congress. B. HARRISON. R. MORRIS. T. HAYWARD. J. LOVELL. The King of Prussia to Arthur Lee. POTSDAM, July 2, 1777. The king having received Mr. Lee's letter, dated Berlin, 1st July, and his complaint of the robbery that has been committed, is pleased to return him for answer that his majesty has just ordered his minister of state, Baron de Schulenburg, to hear what he has further to offer on the subject; that for this purpose, Mr. Lee may communicate to the said minister without reserve everything he may wish to inform his majesty of, who assures him through the present letter, that an inviolable secrecy and profound silence shall be observed respecting the overtures he may think proper to make through this channel. FREDERIC.t Secret Journal of Congress. JULY 2, 1777. Resolved. That the committee for foreign affairs be instructed to prepare a commission to one or more of the commissioners appointed to foreign courts, to empower him or them to represent the Congress at the States-General of the United Netherlands. JULY 3, 1777. The committee for foreign affairs brought in the form of a commis sion to the commissioner to the States-General of the United Netherlands, which was read; whereupon Resolved, That the commission and instructions to the commissiouer to the States General of the United Netherlands be the same as those 1 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 439. † See note to A. Lee to commissioners, June 28, 1777, supra. given to the commissioners to the courts of Vienna, Berlin, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The committee for foreign affairs brought in the draft of a commission and instructions to the commissioner to be sent to the StatesGeneral of the United Netherlands, which were read. Ordered to lie on the table.* A. Lee to the Commissioners in Paris. BERLIN, July 6, 1777. GENTLEMEN: I informed you in my last of the 28th of my having been robbed of my papers, and having retrieved them in a few hours. Whether they were read I can not ascertain, but I think they would never have returned them had they known their contents. My journal book, which was among them, contains all our transactions in France and Spain. You will therefore judge whether it be proper to guard those courts against any complaints from England. As they have returned the evidence of what they will allege, it may well be treated as a forgery.‡ I have just learnt that the envoy has dispatched his secretary to London, but whether to guard against the storm which he expects his indiscretion will excite from hence, or to give the intelligence he obtained, or both, I know not. I have thought it prudent to wait here some days to see whether the ill humor he has excited will furnish a favorable opportunity of obtaining something, but I shall leave this place next week unless something from you should stop me; hitherto I have not been favored with a single line. I see in the English papers that cruisers are sent to the Baltic, which I am afraid are against Wickes. Perhaps you will think it proper to change the name of Boux's ship, to embarrass their complaints to the States, should they make any. I inclose you the price of several articles we want, and which seem to be cheaper here than in France. Adieu, As to mission to the Netherlands, see introduction, § 97. + MSS. Dep. of State; 1 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 439. ARTHUR LEE. This, if it be meant to suggest that the commissioners should take the ground that Arthur Lee's journal was a forgery, the reason being that as the journal was returned, the assertion, though untrue, could be safely made, is an extraordinary request, and none the less so from the fact that, while the originals were returned, Arthur Lee had no reason to believe that copies of them were not retained. Such copies were retained, and were sent to England. As to what papers were in the stolen package, there is a conflict which is examined, supra, in note to A. Lee to commissioners, June 28, 1777. Vergennes to the Commissioners at Paris.* [Translation.] VERSAILLES, July 16, 1777. GENTLEMEN: You can not forget that, at the first conversation I had with both of you, I assured you that you should enjoy in France, with respect to your persons, every security and comfort which we showed to foreigners; and as to your commerce and navigation, we would grant every facility compatible with the exact observation of our treaties with England, which the king's principles would induce him religiously to fulfil. In order to prevent every doubt with respect to the vessels that may participate in the favors which we grant in our ports to nations in amity, I must point out to you the article of the treaty which forbids the power of allowing privateers free access into our ports, unless through pressing necessity, as also with respect to the deposit and sale of their prizes. You promised, gentlemen, to conform thereto. After so particular an explanation, we did not press the departure of the ship Reprisal, which brought Mr. Franklin to France, because we were assured it was destined to return with merchandise. We had quite lost sight of this vessel, and imagined she was in the latitudes of America, when, with great surprise, we understood that she had entered L'Orient, after taking several prizes. Orders were immediately given that she should depart in twenty-four hours, and to conduct her prizes to the only admiralties that were authorized to judge of their validity. Captain Wickes complained of a leak. Being visited by proper officers, his allegation was found to be legal and admissible, the necessary repairs were permitted, and he was enjoined to put to sea again. After such repeated advertisements, the motives of which you have been informed of, we had no reason to expect, gentlemen, that the said Sieur Wickes would prosecute his cruising in the European seas, and we could not be otherwise than greatly surprised that, after having associated with the privateers the Lexington and the Dolphin to infest the English coast, they should all three of them come for refuge into our ports. You are too well informed, gentlemen, and too penetrating, not to see how this conduct affects the dignity of the king, my master, at the same time it offends the neutrality, which his majesty professes. I expect, therefore, from your equity, that you will be the first to condemn a conduct so opposite to the duties of hospitality and decency. The king can not dissemble it, and it is by his express order, gentlemen, that I acquaint you that orders have been sent to the ports in which the said privateers have entered, to sequester and detain them until sufficient security can be obtained that they shall return directly to their country, and not expose themselves by new acts of hostility to the necessity of seeking an asylum in our ports. As to the prizes they may have taken, if they have brought them into MSS. Dep. of State; 1 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 227, with verbal changes. |