Franklin to Adams.* PASSY, Saturday, September 26, 1778. DEAR SIR: I very much approve your plan with regard to our future accounts, and wish it to be followed. The accounts that have been shown you are only those of the person we had intrusted with the receiving and paying our money, and intended merely to show how he was discharged of it. We are to separate from that account the articles for which Congress should be charged and those for which we should give credit. It has always been my intention to pay for the education of my children, their clothes, etc., as well as for books and other things for my private use; and whatever I spend in this way I shall give Congress credit for, to be deducted out of the allowance they have promised us. But as the article of clothes for ourselves here is necessarily much higher than if we were not in public service, I submit it to your consideration whether that article ought not to be reckoned among expenses for the public. I know I had clothes enough at home to have lasted me my lifetime in a country where I was under small necessity of following new fashions. I shall be out of town till Monday. When I return we will, if you please, talk further of these matters, and put the accounts in the order they are hereafter to be kept. With great esteem, I am your most obedient, humble servant, I enclose a letter just received from Mr. Ross. Some answer should be sent him; I have not had time. Enclosed are his late letters. If any good news arrive, my servant may be sent express to me with it. Vergennes to the Commissioners at Paris.t [Translation. ] VERSAILLES, September 27, 1778. GENTLEMEN: In your letter of the 28th ultimo you remind me of the promise of the king, by the eighth article of the treaty of amity and commerce, signed the 6th of February last, to use his exertions with the Barbary powers to provide for the security of the commerce and navigation of the citizens of the United States in the MediterraI have communicated your request to M. de Sartine, to whose department it belongs, and you will see by the reply of that minister, of which I send you a copy, that he considers it reasonable, but re nean. *7 J. Adams' Works, 48. † 1 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 337; or more accurate translation in Mss. vol. 105, p. 143, Letters of Joint Commissioners. quires further explanations before he can receive the orders of the king on this matter. I beg you, gentlemen, to have the goodness to communicate them to me, and to be assured that the king will cheerfully do all in his power to satisfy the wishes of the United States, and promote their views with the different Barbary powers. I have the honor to be, gentlemen, etc., DE VERGENNES. Franklin, Lee, and Adams to Sartine." PASSY, September 27, 1778. SIR: We have received the letter which your excellency did us the honor to write to us on the 21st instant relative to the Isabella, retaken from a Guernsey privateer, by Captain M'Neil, in the General Mifflin. It is extremely probable that Count d'Estaing has retaken several American vessels from the English. We shall, no doubt, soon have intelligence what has been done in those cases. We have advised Captain M'Neil to leave one-third of the produce of the Isabella in the hands of such public officer as your excellency shall point out, to be repaid to him, or restored to the original proprie tor of the Isabella hereafter, according to the rule which shall be adopted by the two nations; and to this Captain M'Neil has agreed. Captain M'Neil will have the honor to deliver this letter to your excellency, and is ready to give your excellency any assurance you may require of him, and to take the charge of your dispatches respecting this affair, if your excellency is disposed to do him the honor to trust them to his care. We have the honor to be, etc., B. FRANKLIN. Franklin, Lee, and Adams to Dumas.t PASSY, September 27, 1778. SIR: We received yours, in which you hint that it is wished by some of our friends that the commissioners would propose a treaty to your government. It would really be a great pleasure to them to be instrumental in cementing a union between the two republics of Holland and the United States by a treaty of amity and commerce similar to that lately concluded with France, or varying where circumstances might * MSS. Dep. of State; 1 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 337, with verbal changes. require it. But having received no answer from the grand pensionary to a letter they respectfully wrote to his excellency some months since, expressing their disposition to such a good work they apprehend that any further motion of that kind, on their part, would not, at present, be agreeable; though they still hold themselves ready to enter upon such a treaty when it shall seem good to their high mightinesses. We have the honor to be, etc., B. FRANKLIN. R. H. Lee and Lovell, for Committee on Foreign Affairs, to Bingham.* PHILADELPHIA, September 28, 1778. SIR: Your several favors up to the 28th of July came duly to our hands, and having been communicated to Congress, were received as agreeable proofs of your regular correspondence. The papers which you enclose are with the marine committee, who will doubtless take occasion soon to report upon the contents. This will be conveyed to you in a small schooner, which perhaps is not fit for a winter's return to this coast. You will determine, in conjunction with the captain, whether to send her back immediately, or to make the best use of her for the public in your neighborhood till a proper month for her return. She is confided thus to your discretion. No absolute judgment can at this instant be formed of the intended movements of the enemy. A course of Dunlap's papers will convey to you a general insight into the posture of our military affairs. It is not probable that any considerable decision in the field will take place this fall, and the councils in Britain appear to be for relinquishing the mad project of subjugating us by arms. It was to give conveyance to the letters of the French minister that the bearer was at this season dispatched to Martinique; so that you will get further information of our affairs through the general, with whose confidence you are so much honored. You will herewith receive the second volume of the journals of Congress, but lately published. And as it was uncertain whether you had ever received the first, that also is sent; the index at least will be new to you and serviceable. We are, sir, etc., R. H. LEE. MSS. Dep. of State 1 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 339. A. Lee to Vergennes.* CHAILLOT, September 28, 1778. SIR: I had the honor of your excellency's letter of the 23d. I should not trouble you with an answer, did it not appear to me necessary to show that the blame it imputes to me is by no means merited. For that purpose your excellency will permit me to remind you of what is the fact, that I was not present when the conversation relative to M. Holker, to which your excellency refers, passed between you and my colleagues. I imagine, too, it arose accidentally, as the intention of conversing on that subject was not communicated to me. With regard to the duties, my knowledge of them arose from a transaction of my own as commissioner for Spain, in which my colleagues had no concern. I have always been so sensible of the impropriety of one commissioner acting, or being acted with, for the whole, in what regards their deputation here, as scrupulously to avoid setting the example. Therefore I entirely agree with your excellency that such a precedent should never be permitted. It was not my intention to make any complaint about the duties, which were probably imposed for wise purposes, but to offer my opinion to your excellency of what I conceive might be beneficial to that union, which my connection and myself have always been most zealous in advising, and for the permanency of which it is therefore natural that I should be particulary anxious. I have the honor to be, etc., Izard to Adams.‡ ARTHUR LEE. PARIS, September 28, 1778. SIR: I am favored with your letter of 25th, and agree with you in opinion that there is no necessity of discussing the question respecting the commissioners now. Inconveniences might rise from it, and no valuable purpose be answered that I know of. I agree with you, likewise, if the fishery of New England has proved injurious by introducing luxury and vanity, it must be the fault of the people rather than of the fishery. If the quantity of money which is acquired by the fishery affords an argument for the discontinuance of it, I am afraid it may be applied with equal propriety against every other industrious means of introducing wealth into the State. The passion for ribbons and lace may easily be checked by a few wholesome sumptuary laws; and the money that has hitherto been employed on those articles will be found very useful toward sinking our enormous national debt. This debt, I fear, will not be sunk during my life. Till that is done, I do not think that any danger to our morals is to be apprehended from our excessive riches. *1 Sparks' Dip. Rev, Corr,, 517, Not given above, +7 J. Adams' Works, 50. I should be obliged to you if you would let me know whether you think the reasons which were given in my last letter respecting the treaties are well founded. I am very willing to communicate my sentiments to you on the other articles, but submit it to you whether it would not be better that this should be done verbally rather than by letter. I have the honor to be, with much esteem, your friend and humble servant, R. IZARD. Gardoqui to A. Lee.* MADRID, September 28, 1778. SIR: A severe illness, which almost reduced me to the last, has prevented my giving you punctual answers to your favors down to the 1st instant; but embracing the first moments of my recovery, I have to say that I am afraid I did not explain my sentiments clearly in my last. The hints given you were purely mine, and as a friend, who wishes the best to both, in order that you might make use of them as you thought proper; and of course I can not say anything about your powers and treaties, being things out of my way, with which it would be improper for me to meddle. I wish most heartily that things may be accommodated happily for both parties; so I pray consider this as such, as I should be sorry that hints given you without either design or authority should be thought otherwise, or meet with results of consequence. In this same light, and as a sincere friend, who wishes the best intelligence between your constituents and this side, I have now to add, that the capture of the Swedish ship the Henrica Sofia, Capt. P. Held, loaded with Spanish property, and bound from London to Teneriffe, by Captain Cunningham, of the Revenge privateer, has occasioned the utmost disgust on this side. I would therefore recommend to you not only the immediate release of said vessel, but likewise to give the strictest orders to said Cunningham to pay more regard to the territories of this kingdom and to the Spanish flag; for there has been such complaints about his conduct, that I hear orders have been sent to the sev eral ports to prevent his entry; besides which, there are rumors that he is not properly an American privateer, being manned by French adventurers, who, with their commander, have acted contrary to the law of nations. Some of my friends, with whom I tried to raise a sum for you, desire to know the length of time you want it, the interest you will allow, and whether you will pay said interest in tobacco, and at what price it will be reckoned in Bilboa, with all other particulars that may offer to * 1 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 516. |