American Aurora

by Richard N. Rosenfeld

  Today, French Foreign Minister Vergennes also writes Ben Franklin:

  You ask me, in accordance with Mr. Adams request, that the orders given to [our Minister Plenipotentiary to the U.S.] M. le Chevalier de Luzerne, in relation to the [devaluation] resolution of Congress … be revoked … because [Mr. Adams] is able to prove these orders to have been based on misinformation.

  Mr. Adams, on the 22d instant, addressed to me a very long discussion on the matters in question; but his letter contains nothing but abstract arguments, hypotheses, and calculations which … are anything but analogous to those of the alliance which subsists between his Majesty and the United States …

  The King is so persuaded, Monsieur, that your personal opinion … differs from that of Mr. Adams, that he does not apprehend giving you any embarrassment in soliciting you to support before Congress the representations which his minister is charged to lay before that body … The King expects that you will lay the whole before Congress, and His Majesty flatters himself that this senate, imbued with other principles than those developed by Mr. Adams, will satisfy His Majesty that it judges the French worthy of some consideration on its part, and that it knows how to appreciate the marks of interest which His Majesty does not cease to manifest towards the United States.1178

  John Adams:

  The Count, and he says the King, was persuaded that the Doctor was fully of opinion with him; that is to say, in favor of the orders. How did he know this? … There is no way of accounting for this strange phenomenon, but by supposing that the whole business was previously concerted between the minister and the ambassador to crush Mr. Adams and get possession of his commission for peace. No expression can be too vulgar for so low an intrigue, for so base a trick …1179

  Saturday, July 1, 1780. Today, in another letter to the French Foreign Minister, John Adams stands firm:

  I had this morning the honor of your letter of the 30th of June.

  It is very certain that the representations from his Majesty … will be attended to by Congress … As in my letter of the 22d of last month, I urged such reasons as appeared to me incontestable …

  I have the honor to agree with your Excellency in opinion that any further discussions of these questions is unnecessary.1180

  John Adams will recall:

  I was piqued a little, and wrote him, as I thought, a decent, though, in a few expressions, a gently tingling rejoinder. This was insufferable; and now both the Count and the Doctor, I suppose, thought they had got enough to demolish me and get my commission.1181

  Thursday, July 6, 1780. Today, from New Jersey, George Washington writes his brother-in-law, Fielding Lewis:

  I may lament in the bitterness of my soul, that the fatal policy which has pervaded all our measures from the beginning of the War, and from which no experience however dear bought can change, should have reduced our army to … removing our Stores from place to place to keep them out of the way of the enemy instead of driving that enemy from our country—

  It may be asked how these things have come to pass? the answer is plain-and may be ascribed to … a fatal jealousy [fear] (under our circumstances) of a Standing Army—by which means we neglected to obtain Soldiers for the War when zeal and patriotism run high, and men were eager to engage for a trifle or for nothing; the consequence of which has been that we have protracted the War—expended Millions and tens of Millions of pounds which might have been saved, and have a new Army to raise and discipline once or trice a year, and with which we can undertake nothing because we have nothing to build upon, as the men are slipping from us every day by means of their expiring enlistments. To these fundamental errors, may be added another which I expect will prove our ruin, and that is the relinquishment of Congressional powers to the States individually, all the business is now attempted, for it is not done, by a timid kind of recommendation from Congress to the States …

  [W]e are attempting an impossibility and very soon shall become (if it is not already the case) a many headed Monster—a heterogenious mass—that never will or can steer to the same point. The contest among the different States now is not which shall do the most for the common cause—but which shall do least.1182

  Benny Bache will later write:

  Whoever reads the correspondence of Mr. Washington will in truth find that, during a part of the war, his troops were commonly as his friends have intimated, “few and bad;” and they will equally find that the proximate causes of the fact which such as he describes, namely, the employment of a fluctuating militia instead of troops inlisted for suitable periods; the want of arms, the want of clothing; &c.—But Mr. Washington forgot to speak of the ulterior causes, most of which rested principally with himself. A man of spirit and address, for example, would have brought things to a short issue [to a head] … But Mr. Washington was too timid and frigid and too tenacious of his post. Perhaps he was afraid of hearing it retorted that his own bad generalship had caused the loss of many and various stores, and that an army was not likely to be kept steadily together which was dispirited by distress, defeat, and inactivity. A great man … like Hannibal … knows how to provide resources, even when neglected by his Legislature and his nation.1183

  Monday, July 10, 1780. Today, Ben Franklin writes French Foreign Minister the Comte de Vergennes:

  I received the letter your Excellency did me the honor of writing to me, dated June 30th, together with the papers accompanying it, containing the correspondence of Mr Adams … [I]n this I am clear, that if the operation [of the dollar devaluation] directed by Congress … occasions, from the necessity of the case, some inequality of justice, that inconvenience ought to fall wholly on the inhabitants of the United States who reap with it the advantages obtained by the measure; and that the greatest care should be taken that foreign merchants, particularly the French, who are our creditors, do not suffer by it. This I am so confident the Congress will do …1184

  Today, the large French fleet under Admiral de Ternay (carrying the 5,500-man French army under General Rochambeau) arrives at Newport, Rhode Island.1185

  Thursday, July 13, 1780. Today, George Washington writes,

  It cannot be too much lamented that our preparations are still so greatly behind-hand. Not a thousand Men that I have heard of have yet joined the army …1186

  Today, in Paris, unaware that France has sent a fleet of warships (which arrived in Newport on Monday), John Adams urges French Foreign Minister Vergennes to provide more naval assistance:

  Most people in Europe have wondered at the inactivity of the American army for these two years past … The true cause of it is, the English have confined themselves to their strong holds in seaport towns, and have been sheltered from all attacks and insults by the guns of their men-of-war, and forever will be so, while they have superiority at sea …

  The English, ever since the alliance, have been fearfully apprehensive of an attack upon their strong hold upon the coast by the French. This is what induced them to retreat from Philadelphia to New York …

  I beg leave to entreat in the most earnest manner that a powerful fleet may be ordered to winter somewhere in North America …

  [T]he state of things in North America has really become alarming, and this merely for the want of a few French men-of-war upon that coast.1187

  Monday, July 17, 1780. Today, John Adams resumes discussion with the French Foreign Minister about his commissions to negotiate peace and commercial treaties with Britain:

  In your Excellency’s letter to me of the 24th of February last, I was honored with your opinion … “With regard to the full powers which authorize you to negotiate a treaty of commerce with the Court of London, I think it will be prudent not to communicate them to … the British Ministry …”

  I should have been very happy if your Excellency had hinted at the reasons, which were then in your mind, because … I am not able to collect any reasons …1188

  Tuesday, July 18, 1780. Furious that Vergennes won’t allow him to deal with Britain, tod
ay John Adams writes his American confidant Edmund Jenings:

  I had myself the honour to be the first who ventured to break the Tie in Congress on the subject of foreign alliances—and to contend against very great Men, whom I will not name at present, that it was the interest and Policy of France to Support our Independency … that we ought not to give France any exclusive Priviledges … That diminshing the Power of the natural Enemy of France … was quite enough to make it her interest to support us … and if my Life should be Spared I am determined Posterity shall know which was my Treaty and which was other Peoples Treaty.1189

  Thursday, July 20, 1780. Today, in Paris, French Foreign Minister Vergennes informs John Adams that France has already sent to America the fleet Adams requested:

  I have received the letter which you did me the honor to write me on the 13th of this month … The [Admiral] Chevalier de Ternay and the [General] Count de Rochambeau are sent [to America] with the express design which is the subject of your letter. They will concert their operations with Congress and with General Washington …

  You will perceive, Sir, by this detail that the King is far from abandoning the cause of America and that his Majesty, without having been solicited by Congress, has taken effectual measures to support the cause of America.1190

  Saturday, July 22, 1780. Today, in the United States, George Washington writes the Continental Congress:

  I have sent on definitive proposals of co-operation to the French General and Admiral … The die is cast, and it remains with the States either to fulfil their engagements, preserve their credit, and support their independence, or to involve us in disgrace and defeat.1191

  Tuesday, July 25, 1780. Today, in Paris, the French Foreign Minister answers John Adams’ letter of the 17th:

  I have received the letter, which you have done me the honor to write on the 17th of this month. I have read it with the most serious attention … I persist in thinking that the time to communicate your Plenipotentiary power to [British Colonial Secretary] Lord [George] Germain is not yet come, and you will find [with this letter] the reasons on which I ground my opinion. I have no doubt you will feel the force of them, and that they will determine you to think with me. But if that should not be the case, I pray you, and even require you, in the name of the King, to communicate your letter and my answer to the United States and to suspend until you shall receive orders from them, all measures with regard to the English Ministry.1192

  Wednesday, July 26, 1780. Today, John Adams writes a stiff reply to the Comte de Vergennes on the issue of Adams’ peace commission:

  I have received the letter which your excellency did me the honour to write on the 25th of this month …

  I shall transmit [my letter and your excellency’s answer] to Congress …

  There is a great body of people in America as determined as any to support their independence and their alliances, who, notwithstanding, wish that no measure may be left unattempted by Congress or their servants to manifest their readiness for peace …

  I can not … agree in the sentiment that proposing a treaty of peace and commerce [to Britain] is discovering a great deal of weakness …

  Your excellency’s letter will convince [Congress] that my apprehensions were wrong, and your advice will undoubtedly be followed, as it ought to be; for they cannot promise themselves any advantages from the communication [with the British] equivalent to the inconveniency of taking a measure of this kind—which ought not to be done but in concert—against the opinion of the ministry of France.1193

  Thursday, July 27, 1780. Today, John Adams responds unappreciatively to French Foreign Minister Vergennes’ disclosure that a fleet and army have been dispatched to America:

  Since my letter of the 21st, and upon reading over again your Excellency’s letter to me of the 20th, I observed one expression, … “that the king, without having been solicited by the Congress, had taken measures …”

  Upon this part of your letter, I must entreat your Excellency to recollect that Congress did as long ago as 1776, before Mr. Franklin was sent off to France, instruct him … to solicit the King for six ships of the line … But if it was only suspected by Congress that a direct application from them to the king was expected, I am assured that they would not hesitate a moment to make it …

  I certainly will not disguise my sentiments from your Excellency …1194

  Saturday, July 29, 1780. Today, obviously upset, the French Foreign Minister writes John Adams:

  I have received the letter, which you did me the honor to write on the 27th of this month. When I took upon myself to give you a mark of my confidence by informing you of the destination of Messrs de Ternay and Rochambeau, I did not expect the animadversion which you have thought it your duty to make on a passage of my letter of the 20th of this month. To avoid any further discussions of that sort, I think it my duty to inform you that Mr. Franklin being the sole person who has letters of credence to the King from the United States, it is with him only that I ought and can treat of matters which concern them …1195

  Monday, July 31, 1780. Today, French Foreign Minister Vergennes writes Ben Franklin:

  The character with which you are invested … induce me to communicate to you a correspondence which I have had with Mr Adams.

  You will find, I think, in the letters of that Plenipotentiary, opinions and a turn which do not correspond either with the manner in which I explained myself to him or with the intimate connexion which subsists between the King and the United States … I desire, that you will transmit them to Congress that they may know the line of conduct which Mr. Adams pursues with regard to us, and that they may judge whether he is endowed, as Congress no doubt desires, with that conciliating spirit which is necessary for the important and delicate business with which he is intrusted.1196

  John Adams will write:

  I know of no right that any government has to require of an ambassador from a foreign power to transmit to his constituents any complaints against his colleagues, much less to write libels against them … [Franklin] proved himself, however, a willing auxiliary, but it was at the expense of his duty and his character …

  It seems that the Count was not perfectly satisfied that his first letter, of the 30th of June, and the Doctor’s representations to Congress in obedience to it, would be sufficient to accomplish all his purposes. This thunderbolt, flaming and deadly as it was, must be followed by another still more loud and terrible, to bellow throughout America, and consequently, over all the world. On the 31st of July, 1780, he writes another letter to Dr. Franklin, in which he more distinctly explains his design and desire to get Mr. Adams removed from his commission for peace …

  The expressions “that congress may judge …” brought the matter home to the business and bosoms of congress. The design could no longer be concealed. I had no other business at that time confided to me but my commissions for peace and a treaty of commerce with Great Britain. The latter he intended to destroy, and in this he succeeded.1197

  With the French government refusing to deal any longer with John Adams, Mr. Adams leaves France for the Netherlands, where he will spend two frustrating years (until the American Revolution is won!) before obtaining Dutch recognition and a commercial treaty.1198 Benjamin Franklin:

  He is gone to Holland to try, as he told me, whether something might not be done to render us a little less dependent on France.1199

  John Adams:

  [I] was pursued into Holland by the Intrigues of Vergennes and Franklin at least as much as I ever had been in France, and was embarrassed and thwarted, both in my negotiations for a loan and in those of a political nature, by their Friends, Agents, and Spies, as much at least as I ever had been in France.1200

  Monday, August 7, 1780. Today, French Foreign Minister Vergennes transmits his correspondence with John Adams to the new French minister, the Chevalier de La Luzerne, in the United States. He also instructs his new minister:

  I give you these details, Monsieur, in order
that you confer confidentially with the President [of Congress] and principal members of the Congress, and thus enable them to judge whether the character of Mr. Adams is such as to qualify him for the important task confided to him by Congress. As far as I am concerned, I foresee that this plenipotentiary will do nothing but raise difficulties and cause vexation on account of a stubbornness, a pedantry, a self-sufficiency and a self-conceit which render him incapable of handling political questions, and especially of treating with the representatives of the great powers who, assuredly, will not accommodate themselves either to the tone or logic of Mr. Adams. These reflections seem to me to deserve all the more attention because this plenipotentiary … seems to me to be only very feebly attached to the alliance; so that it would cost him nothing to take steps which would imply the ingratitude of the United States, whilst the opposite sentiment forms the basis of his instructions. Is such an agent suitable for us, can he be suitable for the United States?1201

  Wednesday, August 9, 1780. Today, Ben Franklin writes the Continental Congress:

  Mr. Adams has given offence to the Court here, by some sentiments and expressions contained in several of his letters written to the Count de Vergennes. I mention this with reluctance … I send them herewith. Mr. Adams did not show me his letters before he sent them … Mr. Adams … seems to have endeavored supplying what he may suppose my negotiations defective in. He thinks, as he tells me himself, that America has been too free in expressions of gratitude to France; for that she is more obliged to us than we to her; and that we should show spirit in our applications. I apprehend that he mistakes his ground, and that this Court is to be treated with decency and delicacy. The King, a young and virtuous Prince, has I am persuaded, a pleasure in reflecting on the generous benevolence of the action in assisting an oppressed people, and proposes it as part of the glory of his reign. I think it right to increase his pleasure by our thankful acknowledgments, and that such an expression of gratitude is not only our duty, but our interest … Mr. Adams, on the other hand … seems to think … a greater air of independence and boldness in our demands will procure us more ample assistance. It is for the Congress to judge and regulate their affairs accordingly.