Tuesday, September 17, 1776. Today, in the Continental Congress, the Journals report:
Congress took into consideration the plan of treaties to be proposed to foreign nations …
Resolved, That the following plan of a treaty be proposed to His Most Christian Majesty [of France].
PLAN OF TREATIES …
ART. XXVI. It shall be lawful for all and Singular the Subjects of the Most Christian king, and the Citizens, People, and inhabitants of the said States, to Sail with their Ships with all manner of Liberty and Security … [even] to the Places of those who are now are or hereafter shall be at Enmity with the Most Christian King or the United States … And it is hereby Stipulated that free Ships [ships under the flag of neutral nations] shall also give a Freedom to Goods, and that every Thing shall be deemed free and exempt which shall be found on board the Ships … Contraband goods being always excepted.
ART. XXVII. [U]nder the Name of Contraband, or prohibited Goods, shall be comprehended arms, great guns, bombs with their fuzees [&c.] …835
This commercial treaty to be proposed to France comprises the “Plan of 1776,” an American offer to replace British mercantilism with freedom of the seas and freer American trade. Freedom of the seas even includes the right to trade with a friend’s enemies during wartime (except for arms shipments, of course).836 John Adams:
[I argued t]hat … in preparing Treaties to be proposed to foreign Powers and in the Instructions to be given to our Ministers, we ought to confine ourselves strictly to a Treaty of Commerce. That such a Treaty would be an ample Compensation to France for all the Aid We should want from her …837
When we met [in committee] to deliberate on the subject, I contended for the same Principles which I had before avowed and defended in Congress, namely that we should avoid all alliance … that a treaty of commerce … which would opperate as a Repeal of the British Acts of Navigation … and admit France into an equal participation of the benefits of our commerce … would be an ample Compensation to France for Acknowledging our Independence and for furnishing Us … Supplies of Necessaries … Franklin … ventured so far as to intimate his concurrence with me in these Sentiments; though, as will be seen hereafter, he shifted them as easily as the Wind ever shifted, and assumed a dogmatical Tone in favor of the Opposite System … When it came before Congress … [m]any motions were made to insert in [the Treaty of commerce] Articles of entangling Alliance … It was chiefly left for me to defend … We did defend it with so much Success that the [model] Treaty passed without one Particle of Alliance …838
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1776
The Pennsylvania Gazette
The proposed PLAN or FRAME of GOVERNMENT
for the Commonwealth or STATE of PENNSYLVANIA …
(Printed for Consideration.)
Sect. 1. THE Commonwealth of State of Pennsylvania shall be governed hereafter by an Assembly of Representatives … and a President and Council …
Sect. 6. Every freeman, of the full age of twenty-one years, having resided in this State or Commonwealth for the space of one whole year … and paid public taxes during that time, shall enjoy the rights of an elector [voter] …
Sect. 9. The Members of the House of Representatives shall be chosen annually by ballot …
Sect. 13. The doors of the House … shall be and remain open …
Sect. 14. The votes and proceedings of the House of Representatives shall be printed weekly …
Sect. 18. The Supreme Executive Council shall consist of nine members to be chosen … by the House of Representatives … to serve for three years … elections … of one third annually for ever …
The President and Vice President shall be chosen annually by the joint ballot of the House of Representatives and the Council out of the members of the Council. No person shall be President for a longer space of time than three years together …
Sect. 36. The printing presses shall be free to every person who undertakes to examine the proceedings of the legislature or any part of the government; and the House of Representatives shall not pass any act to restrain it …
The Pennsylvania constitutional convention will adjourn in ten days. William Temple Franklin (Benny Bache’s cousin) will recall:
[A] convention was assembled at Philadelphia in July, 1776, for the purpose of settling a new form of government for the then State of Pennsylvania. Dr. Franklin was chosen president of this convention. The constitution formed and established at that period for Pennsylvania was the result of the deliberations of that assembly and may be considered as a digest of Dr. Franklin’s principles of government. The single legislature and the plural executive appear to have been his favorite tenets.839
Under the leadership of Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania has followed Tom Paine’s prescription for truly democratic government, i.e., universal manhood suffrage, a single legislative chamber which is popularly and proportionately elected every year, and a plural executive chosen by and serving at the pleasure of that legislature. Convention member Timothy Matlock:
When the debate was nearly closed, Doctor Franklin was requested by the Convention to give his opinion … and he declared it to be clearly and fully in favour of a legislature to consist of a single branch, as being much the safest and best.840
Another observer:
[The convention] concluded justly that the power of government really resided in the body of the people and, considering we have no hereditary King nor Lords, whose prerogatives entitle them to negatives [vetoes] in their own right, a negative or power of controuling the united will of the whole community is not only absurd and ridiculous, but highly dangerous.841
Tom Paine:
The Constitution formed by the Convention of 1776, of which Benjamin Franklin (the greatest and most useful man America has yet produced) was President, had many good points in it …
The sage Franklin has said, “Where annual election ends, tyranny begins”; and no man was a better judge of human nature than Franklin … When a man ceases to be accountable to those who elected him … he ceases to be their representative … “I am elected,” says he, “for four years; you cannot turn me out, neither am I responsible to you in the meantime. All that you have to do with me is to pay me.” …
[A] Senate is an imitation of what is called the House of Lords in England … This is aristocracy. This is one of the pillars of John Adams’s “stupendous fabric of human invention” … John Adams knew but little of the origin and practice of the Government of England. As to constitution, it has none.
The Pennsylvania Convention of 1776 copied nothing from the English Government … All the members of the Legislature established by that Constitution sat in one chamber and debated in one body …842
To those, like John Adams, who argue for a second legislative chamber (a senate) to represent propertied interests, Ben Franklin answers:
The Division of the Legislature into two or three branches in England, was it the product of Wisdom or the effect of Necessity arising from the preexisting Prevalence of an odious Feudal System? which government, notwithstanding this Division, is now become in Fact an absolute Monarchy …843
If this [wealthy] minority is to chuse a Body expressly to controul that which is to be chosen by the great Majority of the Freemen, what have this great Majority done to forfeit so great a Portion of their Right in Elections? Why is this power of Controul, contrary to the spirit of all Democracies, to be vested in a Minority instead of a Majority? … [T]he accumulation … of Property … and its Security to Individuals in every Society must be an Effect of the Protection afforded to it by the joint strength of the Society in the Execution of its Laws. Private Property is therefore a Creature of Society, and is subject to the Calls of that Society, even to its last farthing; its Contributions therefore to the public Exigencies are not to be considered as conferring a Benefit on the Publick, entitling the Contributors to the Distinctions of Honour and Power, but as the Return of an Obligation …
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p; [T]he important ends of Civil Society, and the personal Securities of Life and Liberty, these remain the same in every Member of the society; and the poorest continues to have an equal Claim to them with the most Opulent …844
To those, like John Adams, who say “a plural executive is a great evil …,”845 Ben Franklin answers:
[Will] its errors or Failures … [be] more or greater than … expected from a single Person?846
To those, like John Adams, who prefer the executive to have a longer term of office “beyond the Reach of every annual Gust of Folly and of Faction,” Ben Franklin answers:
On this it may be asked, ought it not also to be out beyond the reach of every triennial, quinquennial, or septennial Gust of Folly and of Faction, and, in short, beyond the Reach of Folly and of Faction at any period whatever? Does not this reasoning aim at establishing a Monarchy at least for life … or, to prevent the Inconveniences …, does it not point to an hereditary succession?847
The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 applies Ben Franklin’s philosophy of democratic government. Before this new constitution, an English Quaker and wealthy merchant aristocracy ruled Pennsylvania. Ninety percent of Philadelphians (including virtually all the artisans and ordinary working people) couldn’t vote because they couldn’t meet heavy property qualifications. Those who lived outside Philadelphia, like German and Scotch-Irish farmers, met property qualifications but were underrepresented by voting apportionment which discounted the outlying districts.848 Under this new constitution, all this will change. Universal manhood suffrage (without property qualification and with enlarged representation for outlying districts) will work a social revolution, shifting political control from the old wealthy English aristocracy to the more recently immigrated Germans and Scotch-Irish. In the words of one historian, “In no state were the leveling principles of democracy so thoroughly carried out as in Pennsylvania.”849
What might this democratization do to Pennsylvania’s war effort? Will Pennsylvania’s aristocrats fear the newly enfranchised democrats more than they fear British rule? Might the newly enfranchised immigrant groups decide their enemy has been their homegrown aristocracy rather than the British king? John Adams:
[Pennsylvania will be] rendered much less vigorous in the cause by the wretched ideas of government which prevail in the minds of many people in it.850
Wednesday, September 25, 1776. Today, George Washington writes:
We are now, as it were, upon the eve of another dissolution of our Army … [U]nless some speedy and effectual measures are adopted by Congress, our cause will be lost … [A] good Bounty [should] be immediately offered … To place any dependance upon Militia is assuredly resting upon a broken staff …851
Thursday, September 26, 1776. Today, John Adams writes:
The late Events at New York have almost overcome my Utmost Patience … The Cowardice of New England men is an unexpected discovery to me … I conclude that such detestable Behaviour of whole Brigades could not have happened without the worst Examples in some Officers of Rank …
I pity the Situation of the General … I make it my Rule to cover all Imperfections in the Generals …
I recollect that Polybius … never imputed any defeat to the fault of the men but universally to the folly and incapacity of their Commanders. Our Generals and other Officers must learn the same Justice and Policy. General imputations of Cowardice … are false, or, if true, it is the fault of the Officers … The frequent Surprizes by which our Officers and Men are taken, in the most palpable trapps, convince me that there is a dearth of Genius among them …852
Today, in the Continental Congress, the Journals report:
Agreeable to the order of the day, Congress proceeded to the appointment of commissioners to the court of France:
Resolved, That three be appointed.
The ballots being taken, Mr. [Benjamin] Franklin, Mr. [Silas] Deane, and Mr. [Thomas] Jefferson, were elected …
Resolved, That secrecy shall be observed until the further Order of Congress; and that until permission be obtained from Congress to disclose the particulars of this business, no member be permitted to say any thing more upon this subject than that Congress have taken such steps as they judged necessary for the purpose of obtaining foreign Alliance.853
John Adams declines to be nominated.854
Friday, September 27, 1776. Today, congressional delegate Richard Henry Lee of Virginia writes Thomas Jefferson:
The plan of foreign treaty is now finished … In my judgment, the most eminent services that the greatest of sons can do America will not more essentially serve her and honor themselves than a successful negotiation with France. With this country, everything depends on it … We find ourselves greatly endangered by the Armament at present here … I fear the power of America will fail in the mighty struggle …
The idea of Congress is that yourself and Dr. Franklin should go on different ships– The Doctor, I suppose, will sail from hence.855
Seventy-year-old Benjamin Franklin will travel to France. Today, he observes to fellow congressional delegate Benjamin Rush,
I am old and good for nothing; but, as the store-keepers say of their remnants of cloth, I am but a fag end, and you may have me for what you please to give.856
Thomas Jefferson will not travel. Thomas Jefferson:
[S]uch was the state of my family that I could not leave it, nor could I expose it to the dangers of the sea, and of capture by British ships, then covering the ocean … I declined therefore, and Dr. [Arthur] Lee was appointed in my place.857
Arthur Lee, Ben Franklin’s former deputy, who is already in London, will replace Jefferson as the third American commissioner.
Sunday, September 29, 1776. Today, John Adams writes Colonel Henry Knox about Washington’s defeats in New York:
I agree with you that there is nothing of the vast in the Characters of the Ennemy’s General or Admiral … But I differ in Opinion from you when you think that, if there had been, they would have Annihilated your Army … It is very true that a silly Panick has been spread in your Army and from thence even to Philadelphia. But Hannibal spread as great a Panick, once at Rome, without daring to take Advantage of it …
The Rumours, Reports, and Letters … represent the New England Troops as Cowards, running away perpetually … I must say that your Amiable General [Washington] gives too much Occasion for these reports by his Letters …858
Tuesday, October 1, 1776. Caron de Beaumarchais’ shipments of French government arms have yet to arrive. Today, Ben Franklin’s Committee of Secret Correspondence writes commercial agent William Bingham in the French West Indies to learn whether Beaumarchais’ “fronting” company, Roderique Hortalez & Cie., has delivered the arms there:
We are now at the 1st of October … [W]e desire you to enquire of the General and Governor [of Martinique] whether they have received any Arms or ammunition from Monsr. Hortalez with directions to deliver the same to any person properly authorized by Congress to receive them … If none such are arrived, enquire if they have any advice of such and request that they make known to you when they do arrive.
We desire you to make the like application to the Governor of st. Eustatia …859
Today, fearing that news of Washington’s defeats will discourage France from sending arms, Ben Franklin writes Congressional agent Silas Deane in Paris:
[W]e suppose the [British] Generals Military opperations will be ushered into the World with an eclat beyond their true merits or at least the conduct of our people and their present Situation will be misrepresented as ten times worse than the reality. We shall therefore State these things to you as they really are. The Fleet under Ld. Howe … remained several Weeks at Staten island without making any attempt. The first they did make was on Long Island when they landed 20,000 men or upwards. [A]t this time we had our Army consisting of not more than 20,000 [e]ffective men stationed at Kings bridge, New York, and on Long Island. 6 to 7000 was the whole of our Force on the latter and a
bout 3000 of them … took possession of some heights and intended to annoy the Enemy in their approaches.
They however out General’d us, and got a body of 5000 Men between our people and the Lines, so that we were surrounded and of course came off second best … Genl. Howe … expected to have caught every man we had on that Island, but Genl. Washington saw and frustrated his design by an unexpected and well conducted retreat across the Sound …
The Enemy immediately marched up a large Body of Men opposite to Hell Gate. Our people threw up entrenchments on York island to oppose their landing, but Shame to say, on the day of Tryal, two Brigades behaved infamously and cou’d not be stopped by the intreatys or Threats of the General [Washington] who came up in the midst of their flight …
The Enemy took possess[ion] of [New York] city and incamped on the plains of Harlem. Our side occupy the Heights of Harlem … [T]he City of New York has been on Fire and its said one fifth or one sixth of it is reduced to ashes … 860
American defeats on Long Island and at New York sound like Washington’s loss at Fort Necessity in 1754 and Braddock’s massacre in 1755. Washington’s troops were “injudiciously deployed,” “out general’d,” and in flight despite “intreatys or Threats of the General.”
Wednesday, October 2, 1776. Today, John Adams writes Brigadier General Samuel Holden Parsons of Connecticut that the army could have won the battles of Long Island and New York City:
I think, Sir, that the Enemy, by landing upon [Long] Island, put it compleatly in our Power to have broke their plans for this Campaign and to have defended New York. But there are strong Marks of Negligence, Indolence, Presumption, and Incapacity on our Side, by which scandalous Attributes We lost the Island wholly and Manhattan Island nearly … Sir, it is manifest that our Officers were not acquainted with the Ground; that they had never reconnoitered the Enemy; that they had neither Spies, Sentries, nor Guards placed as they ought to have been; and that they had been shamefully remiss in Obtaining Intelligence of the Numbers and Motions of the Enemy as well as of the nature of the Ground …
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