American Aurora

by Richard N. Rosenfeld

  British General Charles O’Hara, acting on behalf of General Charles Cornwallis (who has pleaded illness), attempts to surrender Cornwallis’ sword to French Commander in Chief General the Comte de Rochambeau, but Rochambeau magnanimously refuses to accept the surrender weapon and directs the British general to George Washington.1316

  Today, George Washington writes the Continental Congress:

  I have the Honor to inform Congress that a Reduction of the British army, under the Command of Lord Cornwallis, is most happily effected …

  On the 17th instant, a Letter was received from Lord Cornwallis … [T]hat Correspondence was followed by the Definitive Capitulation, which was agreed to and Signed on the 19th …1317

  Tom Paine:

  We arrived at Boston the twenty-fifth of August … DeGrasse arrived with the French fleet in the Chesapeake at the same time, and was afterwards joined by that of Barras, making thirty-one sail of the line. The money was transported in wagons from Boston to the bank at Philadelphia … And it was by the aid of this money, and this fleet, and of Rochambeau’s army, that Cornwallis was taken; the laurels of which have been unjustly given to Mr. Washington …

  I have had, and still have, as much pride in the American Revolution as any man, or as Mr. Washington has a right to have; but that pride has never made me forgetful whence the great aid came that completed the business. Foreign aid (that of France) was calculated upon at the commencement of the Revolution. It is one of the subjects treated of in the pamphlet “Common Sense,” but as a matter that could not be hoped for unless independence was declared. The aid, however, was greater than could have been expected.1318

  Saturday, October 20, 1781. Today, General Charles Cornwallis writes his commander in chief, Sir Henry Clinton:

  I have the mortification to inform your Excellency that I have been forced to give up the posts of York and Gloucester and to surrender …

  [O]n the morning of the 16th, I ordered a sortie of about 350 men … killing or wounding about 100 of the French troops who had the guard of that part of the trenches and with little loss on our side. This action … proved of little public advantage … I had therefore only to choose between preparing to surrender next day or endeavoring to get off with the greatest part of the troops … [A] diversion by the French ships of war that lay at the mouth of the York River was to be expected … I therefore proposed to capitulate …1319

  Friday, October 26, 1781. Today, from Yorktown, American Brigadier General Anthony Wayne writes Robert Morris:

  The surrender of Lord Cornwallis with his Fleet &Army … is an event of the utmost consequence & if properly improved may be productive of a Glorious & happy peace; but if we suffer that unworthy torpor & supineness to seize us which but too much pervaded the Councils of America after the Surrender of Gen’l Burgoyne [at Saratoga], we may yet experience great Difficulties,—for believe me, it was not to the exertions of America that we owe the Reduction of this modern Hannibal. Nor shall we always have it in our power to Command the aid of 37 [French] sail of the Line and 8,000 [French] Auxiliary veterans.—Our Allies have learned that, on this Occasion, our regular troops were not more equal to one half their Land force … [O]ur means & numbers were far inadequate …1320

  As one historian will recall, “At Saratoga, France furnished the guns and ammunition that led to Burgoyne’s surrender; at Yorktown, it was French money, troops, and ships that brought Cornwallis to a like fate.”1321

  Monday, October 29, 1781. Today, on his return voyage to England,1322 British Commander in Chief Sir Henry Clinton writes British Colonial Secretary for North America Lord George Germain:

  Your lordship will therefore of course suppose my surprise was great when I heard [the French Admiral] de Grasse had brought with him 28 sail of the line and that [our British Admiral] Sir Samuel Hood had only 14 … To this inferiority, then, I may with confidence assert, and to this alone, is our present misfortune to be imputed.1323

  Friday, December 14, 1781. Today, in Amsterdam, John Adams writes former Massachusetts congressional delegate Francis Dana:

  I have recd a new Commission for Peace in which [five of us] are the ministers. I have recd also a Revocation of my Commission to make a Treaty of Commerce with [Britain].—These last novelties, I suppose, would nettle Some Men’s Feelings; but I am glad of them. They have removed the cause of Envy, I had like to have said, but I fear I must retract that, since 18 [cypher for Adams] still stands before 17 [cypher for Franklin] in the Commissioners.1324

  Friday, January 25, 1782. Today, Benjamin Franklin writes Benny Bache:

  Dear Benny,

  I received your letter … together with the drawings which please me … But I expect you will improve; and that you will send some to me every half Year that I may see how you improve …

  Let me know whether you learn Arithmetick in your School … I am ever, my dear Child,

  Your Affectionate Grandfather, B. Franklin1325

  Saturday, February 16, 1782. Peace negotiations will soon begin. Today, Ben Franklin writes an English friend, David Hartley:

  [T]here has been mixed in some of your conversations and letters various reasonings to show that, if France should require something of us that was unreasonable, we should then not be obliged by our treaty to join with her in continuing the war. As there had never been such requisition, what could I think of such discourses … [K]nowing your dislike of France, and your strong desire of recovering America to England, I was impressed with the idea that such an infidelity on our part would not be disagreeable to you; and that you were therefore aiming to lessen in my mind the horror I conceived at the idea of it. But we will finish here by mutually agreeing that neither you were capable of proposing, nor I of acting on, such principles.1326

  Wednesday, February 27, 1782. Today, the British Parliament votes to end the war with America and to negotiate peace.1327

  Friday, March 22, 1782. Today, Benjamin Franklin opens peace negotiations with Britain by writing his old friend, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Earl of Shelburne:

  I embrace the opportunity of assuring the Continuance of my ancient Respect for your Talents and Virtues, and of congratulating you on the returning good Disposition of your Country in favour of America, which appears in the late Resolutions of the Commons … I hope it will tend to produce a General peace … to which I shall, with infinite Pleasure, contribute every thing in my Power.1328

  Saturday, April 6, 1782. Today, British Secretary of State Lord Shelburne responds to Benjamin Franklin’s letter:

  I have been favoured with your Letter and am much oblig’d by your remembrance … Your letter, discovering the same disposition, has made me send you Mr. Oswold … I have thought him fittest for the purpose. He is a pacifical man, and conversant in those negotiations which are most interesting to mankind …1329

  Tuesday, May 28, 1782. Today, in the Continental Congress, a committee reports a meeting with the French minister in Philadelphia. The Secret Journals of the Continental Congress report:

  [T]he minister [from France] communicated some parts of a despatch which he had received from the Count de Vergennes, dated the 9th of March, 1781 … respecting the conduct of Mr. Adams; and … gave notice to the committee of several circumstances which proved it necessary that Congress should draw a line of conduct to that minister of which he might not be allowed to lose sight …

  The minister concluded on this subject that if Congress put any confidence in the king’s friendship … they would be impressed with the necessity of prescribing to their plenipotentiary … a thorough reliance on the king and would direct him to take no step without the approbation of his majesty …1330

  Wednesday, July 10, 1782. Today, British negotiator Richard Oswold reports to Lord Shelburne, now Britain’s Prime Minister, that, after discussions with Franklin that started in early April, Franklin has set forth, at a meeting this morning, conditions of peace, some “necessary,” some “advisable,” that Great Brit
ain should offer America:

  1st. Of the first class necessary to be granted, Independence full and complete in every sense, to the Thirteen States, and all troops to be withdrawn from thence. 2d. A settlement of the boundaries … 3d. A confinement of the boundaries of Canada … on an ancient footing. 4th. A freedom of fishing on the Banks of Newfoundland and elsewhere, as well for fish as whales …

  Then, as to advisable articles … 1st. To indemnify many people … 2d. Some sort of acknowledgment … of our error in distressing those countries so much as we have done … 3d. Colony ships and trade to be received … 4th. Giving up every part of Canada … 1331

  Since March, Ben Franklin has had to conduct British peace negotiations on his own. The four other American peace commissioners aren’t available. Commissioner Henry Laurens was captured by the British while crossing the Atlantic. He won’t join the negotiations till just before a treaty signing. Thomas Jefferson won’t cross the Atlantic unless the British assure his safe-conduct. Thus, he won’t come until after a final treaty is ratified and hostilities have ceased.1332 John Jay arrived in Paris on June 23rd but has been incapacitated by influenza.1333 John Adams won’t return to Paris from the Netherlands, loathing to be near Franklin or to consult with Vergennes.1334

  Saturday, July 20, 1782. Today, from the Netherlands, John Adams writes his American friend Edmund Jenings:

  [Franklin’s] base Jealousy of me and his Sordid Envy of my Commission for making Peace, and especially of my Commission for making a Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain, have stimulated him to attempt to commit an Assassination upon my Character at Philadelphia, of which the World has not yet heard, and of which it cannot hear untill the Time shall come when many voluminous State Papers may be laid before the Publick, which ought not to be untill we are all dead.—But this I swear, I will affirm when and where I please that he has been actuated and is still by a low Jealousy and a meaner Envy of me, let C.[ount] Vergennes or F.[ranklin] himself complain of it again to Congress if they please, it would be my day to answer there in Person or by Letter.—The anonymous Scribbler charged me with clandestinely hurting Franklin.—I have done nothing clandestine.—I have complained of Franklin’s Behavior in Company with Americans. So have I in Company with the French & Spanish Ambassadors … This is an odd Sort of Clandestinity.—that I have no Friendship for Franklin I avow.—that I am incapable of having any with a Man of his Moral Sentiments, I avow. As Far as such State shall compel me to act with him in publick affairs, I shall treat him with decency & perfect Impartiality. Further than that I can feel for him no other sentiments than Contempt or Abhorrence …1335

  Saturday, July 27, 1782. Today, British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne writes his peace negotiator, Richard Oswald:

  I am to acknowledge receipt of your [letter of the 10th] … [Y]ou are at liberty to communicate to Dr. Franklin … to satisfy his mind, that there never have been two opinions, since you were sent to Paris, upon the most unequivocal Acknowledgment of American Independency … But to put this matter out of all Possibility of Doubt, a Commission will be immediately forwarded to you containing Full Power … to make the Independency of the Colonies the Basis & Preliminary of the Treaty now depending & so far advanc’d that, hoping as I do with you that the Articles call’d advisable will be dropp’d & those call’d necessary alone retained as the ground of Discussion, it may be speedily concluded … I shall consider myself as pledg’d to the Contents of this Letter.1336

  Monday, August 12, 1782. Today, in Paris, Benjamin Franklin sends U.S. Foreign Affairs Secretary Robert Livingston a tally of monies France has advanced to America:

  All the accounts given us … made the debt [to France] to an even sum of eighteen millions, exclusive of the Holland loan [ten millions] for which the king [of France] is guarantee … [Y]ou will discover several fresh marks of the King’s goodness toward us, amounting to the value of near two millions. These added to the free gifts made to us at different times, form an object of at least twelve millions, for which no returns but that of gratitude and friendship are expected. These, I hope may be everlasting.1337

  Today, in Geneva, Switzerland, Benny Bache turns thirteen years old. For the past several months, he has been witnessing an unsuccessful democratic uprising in Geneva, and this week, he writes in his diary:

  I prepared to go to the class for the first time for several months during which the Genevese had had some troubles, which had, so to speak, [shut] the town and which had not ceased until France, Switzerland, and Piedmont were engaged and had sent troops now occupying the town, … [T]he professors were obliged to teach their classes in their own houses, such was the state of Geneva.1338

  Though Geneva has neither king nor formal nobility, an old aristocracy denies political rights to ordinary burghers and artisans. This year, inspired by the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau, the “natives” of Geneva have demonstrated for a more democratic government. As Benny can see, a standing army is a formidable response to such claims.1339

  Sunday, August 18, 1782. Today, in The Hague, John Adams drafts (but decides not to send) a request that Congress replace him as a peace commissioner:

  For my own Part, I will be very explicit with Congress. If I were now the sole Minister for treating of Peace, I should decidedly refuse to enter into any Conferences with any one whatsoever without full powers to treat with the United States of America. If I had been alone [as the sole negotiator], when the first messengers were sent over, I mean when … Mr. Oswald came over, my answer would have been clear, that I would never treat with such a Plenipotentiary—If my Opinion had been asked by Dr. Franklin, I should have given him the same … But instead of this, Dr. Franklin … tells them that no express Acknowledgment of our Independence will be insisted on [except as part of a peace treaty]. Thus it is that all American Affairs are conducted by Dr. Franklin—I have not refused to act in the [peace] commission with him [only] because I thought it possible that I might … do some little good in it or prevent some evil. But I despair of doing much to such a degree that I beg Congress would release me from this Tye and appoint another Minister of that commission in my Room. 1340

  Sunday, September 1, 1782. Today, Britain’s Secretary of State, Thomas Townshend, instructs his peace negotiator, Richard Oswold:

  I am commanded to signify to You His Majesty’s [King George III’s] Approbation of Your conduct in communicating to the American Commissioners … that the Negotiation for Peace and the Cession of Independence of the Thirteen United Colonies were intended to be carried on and concluded … I am commanded to signify to you His Majesty’s disposition to agree to the Plan of Pacification proposed by Doctor Franklin himself … The Articles specified by Doctor Franklin, and recited in your Letter to the Earl of Shelburne of the 10th of July last, are … stated by you as all that Doctor Franklin thought necessary; and His Majesty … has authorized You to go to the full extent of them …1341

  Friday, September 6, 1782. Today, from the Netherlands, John Adams writes U.S. Secretary of Foreign Affairs Robert Livingston:

  You require Sir to be furnished with the most minute Details of every Step that Britain may take towards a Negotiation for a General or partial Peace … Dr. Franklin wrote me that he should keep me informed of any thing that passed by. But I have had no advice from him since the Second of June.

  [A]lthough it is proper to be open … and confidential with the French Ministers, yet we ought to have opinions, Principles, and Systems of our own … [O]ur Ministers should not be bound to follow their Advice, but when it is consonant with our own … Congress should firmly support their own ministers against all Secret Insinuations … Either Congress shall recall all their ministers from Europe and leave all Negotiations to the French Ministry or they must Support their Ministers against all Insinuations … To send Ministers to Europe who are supposed by the People of America to see for themselves, while in effect they see or pretend to see nothing but what appears thro’ the eyes of a French Minister is to betra
y the just [Deputations] of that people.1342

  Friday, September 20, 1782. Today, from Paris, American Matthew Ridley (a European business agent for Maryland) writes John Adams about a conversation with John Jay:

  I have had one serious Conversation with J[ay]. He appears to me very desirous of seeing you—were it only for a few hours—he says he has some things to consult you upon that he cannot put to Paper … I find … J.[ay] firm—I wish he was supported … The English have come here for Peace …

  I believe very little if any progress is made … I wish sincerely you knew all that is passing here …1343

  Ben Franklin has been suffering with kidney stones since the third week in August,1344 so John Jay has taken on a larger role in the British peace negotiations.1345

  Wednesday. October 2, 1782. Today, alluding to French naval losses earlier in the year,1346 French Foreign Minister Vergennes writes France’s ambassador to Spain:

  In a word, our great goal, the goal common to the two crowns [France and Spain] and to all the warring powers, being a prompt and honorable peace … it is by … more trenchant means that we must get there.

  When I speak of a prompt peace, I speak from personal knowledge of the need and necessity. We no longer can entertain any disastrous illusions. Our means are no longer the same. Our respective navies, which ought to be stronger in number than at the outset of the war, are, for both of us, below what they were at the beginning. That of England is, however, more consistent today than it was then. As to financial means, I don’t hesitate to say that ours, after six hundred millions in extraordinary expenses, are very weak …1347