American Aurora
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Friday, October 5, 1782. Today, Ben Franklin, John Jay, and Richard Oswold agree to a draft of a preliminary peace agreement to be submitted to the British king.1348 The treaty, based on Franklin’s four necessary articles (plus freedom to navigate the Mississippi), acknowledges complete American independence, the Mississippi as America’s western boundary, and rights to fish in the waters of Newfoundland.1349
Tuesday, October 15, 1782. Today, from Geneva, Benny Bache writes Ben Franklin,
Dear Grand Papa …
My life is uniform. I get up at half after 7, I breakfast to 8, from 8 to 11 I am in class, at 11 I have a Latin lesson to 12, from 12 to 1 I dine and learn by heart a lesson that our Regent gives us, from 1 to 3 I go to class, from 3 to 5 I do a task luncheon and do a theme, from 5 to 6 I do another Latin lesson, from 6 to 7 I translate Joseph Andrews and write my journal, from 7 I do my drawing lesson to 8, and then I sup and go to bed.
That is the work I do the Monday, the Tuesday and Friday; the Wednesday and Saturday I have no drawing master. Almost every Thursday and Sunday I go to Mme. Cramer’s …1350
Thursday, October 17, 1782. Today, three weeks after receiving news (from Matthew Ridley’s September 20th letter) that John Jay needs support against Vergennes,1351 John Adams leaves the Netherlands to join Franklin and Jay. As one historian has observed, “Neither Adams’s good reasons nor his bad ones sufficiently explained his remaining in the Netherlands in the face of British overtures and his misgivings about Franklin.”1352
Thursday, October 24, 1782. Today, John Jay notes in his diary:
I dined at Passy with Dr. Franklin, where I found [the secretary to the Count de Vergennes,] M. [Gérard de] Rayvenal … He desired to know the state of our negotiation with Mr. Oswold. We told him that difficulties had arisen about our boundaries … He asked us what boundaries we claimed. We told him … He contested out right to such an extent to the north … He inquired what we demanded as to the fisheries. We answered … He intimated that our views should not extend further than a coast fishery … Mr. Franklin explained very fully their importance to the Eastern states … He then softened …1353
Saturday, October 26, 1782. This afternoon, John Adams arrives in Paris, having toured Utrecht, Breda, and Antwerp en route from Amsterdam.1354
Sunday, October 27, 1782. Today, anticipating negotiations with the British, John Adams writes in his diary:
R.[idley] is still full of J.[ay]’s Firmness and Independance. [Jay h]as taken upon himself to act without asking Advice or even communicating with the C.[omte] de V[ergennes]—and this even in opposition to an Instruction [from Congress] … W. has … been very desirous of perswading F.[ranklin] to live in the same house with J.[ay].—Between two as subtle Spirits, as any in this World, the one malicious, the other I think honest, I shall have a delicate, a nice, a critical Part to Act. F.[ranklin]’s cunning will be to divide Us. To this End, he will provoke, he will insinuate, he will intrigue, he will maneuvre …1355
Tuesday, October 29, 1782. Today, Matthew Ridley visits John Adams and writes in his diary:
Called to see Mr. Adams. Dined with him. He is much pleased with Mr. Jay. [I w]ent in the morning to see D[r.] Franklin—[He] did not know of Mr. Adams Arrival. Spoke to Mr. A. [dams] about making a visit to Dr. F[ranklin]. He told me it was time enough—[I] represented to him the necessity of meeting. He replied there was no necessity—that after the usage he had received from [Franklin], he could not bear to go near him … He said the D[r.] might come to him. I told him it was not [his] place– the last comer always paid the first visit. He replied the Dr. was to come to him [since] he was first [in appointment] in the Comm[issio]n. I ask[ed] him how the D[r.] was to know he was here unless he went to him. He replied that was true, he did not think of that, and would go. Afterwards while pulling on his Coat, he said he would not, he could not bear to go where the D[r.] was. With much persuasion, I got him at length to go. 1356
Tonight, John Adams pays a visit to Franklin.1357 Mr. Adams:
I told him without reserve, my opinion of the policy of this Court, and of the principles, wisdom, and firmness with which Mr. Jay had conducted the negotiations in his sickness and my absence, and that I was determined to support Mr. Jay to the utmost of my power in the pursuit of the same system. The Doctor heard me patiently, but said nothing. 1358
Thursday, October 31, 1782. Today, from Paris, John Adams writes U.S. Secretary for Foreign Affairs Robert Livingston:
I set off for Paris, where I arrived on Saturday, the 26th of this month …
I find a construction put upon … our instructions by some persons which I confess I never put upon it myself … obliging us to agree to whatever the French ministers shall advise us to do, and to do nothing without their consent … I cannot think it possible to be the design of congress …1359
Tuesday, November 5, 1782. Today, John Adams writes in his diary:
Mr. Jay likes Frenchmen as little as Mr. Lee … He says they are not a Moral People. They know not what [morality] is. He dont like any Frenchman.—The Marquis de la Fayette is clever, but he is a Frenchman.— Our Allies don’t play fair, he told me … They want to place the Western Lands, Mississippi, and whole Gulph of Mexico into the Hands of [their ally] Spain. 1360
John Jay not only hates the French. He hates all Catholics.1361
Wednesday, November 6, 1782. Today, John Adams writes American Foreign Affairs Secretary Robert Livingston:
[Y]ou will, I am sure, not take it amiss if I say that it is indispensably necessary for the service of Congress and the honor of the office that [our affairs] be kept impenetrably secret from the French minister in many things …1362
Friday, November 8, 1782. Today, John Adams writes Foreign Affairs Secretary Robert Livingston:
In one of your letters you suppose that I have an open, avowed contempt of all rank …
If Mr. Jay and I had … taken the advice of the Count de Vergennes and Dr. Franklin … we should have sunk in the minds of the English …
The injunctions upon us to communicate and to follow the advice that is given us seem to be too strong …1363
Today, John Adams also writes his wife, Abigail:
G.[reat] B.[ritain] has … acknowledged Us a Sovereign State & independent Nation … Jay & I peremptorily refused to Speak or hear before We were put upon an equal Foot [by their first recognizing our independence before a treaty was written]. Franklin as usual would have taken the Advice of the C.[ount] de V.[ergenne] and treated without [formal recognition in advance] but nobody would join him.
As to your coming to Europe … I know not what to say. I am obliged to differ in Opinion so often from Dr. Franklin and the C. de Vergennes … and these Personages are so little disposed to bear Contradiction, and Congress have gone so near enjoining upon me passive Obedience to them, that I do not expect to hold any Place in Europe longer than next Spring … The Artifices of the Devil will be used to get me out of the Commission for Peace. If they succeed, I abandon Europe for ever for the Blue Hills [of Massachusetts] without one Instants Loss of Time or even waiting for Leave to return.1364
Saturday, November 9, 1782. Today, John Adams receives a visit from the Marquis de Lafayette. John Adams:
M. de la Fayette came in and told me he had been at Versailles … After some time he told me, in a great air of confidence, that he was afraid the Count [de Vergennes] took it amiss that I had not been to Versailles to see him. The Count told him that he had not been officially informed of my arrival, he had only learned of it from the returns of the police … Franklin brought the same message to me from the Count, and said he believed it would be taken kindly if I went. I told both the Marquis and the Doctor I would go to-morrow morning.1365
Sunday, November 10, 1782. Today, John Adams visits the Comte de Vergennes, receiving compliments for obtaining Dutch recognition of the U.S. as well as a Dutch commercial treaty:
The Comte invited me to dine … We went to dinner … The Comte who sat opposit
e was constantly calling out to me, to know what I would eat and to offer me petits Gateaux, Claret and Madeira &c. &c … The Compliments that have been made since my Arrival in France upon my Success in Holland would be considered a Curiosity, if committed to Writing … Vous avez fait reconnoitre votre Independence [You have won recognition for your Independence] … Another said Monsieur vous etes le Washington de la Negotiation [You are the Washington of Negotiation] … Compliments are the Study of this People and there is no other so ingenious at them.1366
Alexander Hamilton:
Stating this incident, [Adams] … might have added, they have also a very dexterous knack of disguising a sarcasm.1367
As a historian will later observe, “Adams never learned the true extent of French influence on his Dutch negotiation.”1368 Vergennes was pulling the strings at every turn.1369
Tuesday, November 12, 1782. Today, Mr. Adams writes in his diary:
The Compliment of “Monsieur, vous etes le Washington de la Negotiation” [Sir, you are the Washington of negotiations] was repeated to me by more than one person … A few of these Compliments would kill Franklin if they should come to his ears.1370
Wednesday, November 20, 1782. Today, John Adams records Franklin’s attitude on New England fishing rights and on America’s western boundary, two important peace issues:
Franklin said … [t]hat the Fisheries and Mississippi could not be given up. That nothing was clearer to him than that the Fisheries were essential to the northern States, and the Mississippi to the Southern and indeed both to all. I told him that [French Ambassador] Mr. Gérard had certainly appeared to America to negotiate to these Ends, vizt. to perswade Congress to give up both … I said … We must be firm and steady and should do very well.—Yes he said he believed We should do very well and carry the points.1371
Franklin, Adams, and Jay will carry these points, but, if France seems less than fully supportive, it must be remembered that France only obligated herself, by the Franco-American Alliance, to achieve America’s Independence—not these greater benefits.1372
Saturday, November 23, 1782. Today, French Foreign Minister Vergennes writes his minister at Philadelphia:
There is nothing in our treaties [with the United States] which obliges us to prolong the war to uphold the ambitious pretensions which the United States may make either on fisheries or on boundaries.1373
Saturday, November 30, 1782. Today, without first consulting the French Foreign Ministry, John Adams, John Jay, and Ben Franklin sign with Great Britain a “Preliminary Peace Treaty” that grants full American independence, American fishing rights, and the Mississippi as America’s western boundary.1374
Wednesday, December 4, 1782. Today, John Adams writes American Secretary of Foreign Affairs Robert Livingston:
It is with much pleasure that I transmit [to] you the preliminary treaty between the King of Great Britain and the United States of America …
As the objects for which I ever consented to leave my family and country are thus far accomplished, I now beg leave to resign all my employments in Europe … I should not choose to stay in Europe merely for the honor of affixing my signature to the definitive treaty …1375
Thursday, December 12, 1782. Today, John Jay writes Secretary of Foreign Affairs Robert Livingston:
You will receive from us a joint letter with a copy of the preliminaries … It gives me great pleasure to inform you that perfect unanimity has hitherto prevailed among your Commissioners here; and I do not recollect that since we began to negotiate with Mr. Oswold there has been the least division or opposition between us …1376
Sunday, December 15, 1782. Today, the Comte de Vergennes writes Ben Franklin of his displeasure that the commissioners did not consult with France before signing:
I am at a loss, Sir, to explain your conduct and that of your colleagues on this occasion. You have concluded your preliminary articles without any communication between us, although the instructions from Congress prescribes that nothing shall be done without the participation of the King …
You are wise and discreet, Sir; you perfectly understand what is due to propriety; you have all your life performed your duties …1377
Tuesday, December 17, 1782. Today, Benjamin Franklin formally responds to the Comte de Vergennes:
Nothing has been agreed in the preliminaries contrary to the interest of France … Your observation is, however, apparently just, that in not consulting you before they were signed, we have been guilty of neglecting a point of bienséance. But, as this was not from want of respect for the King whom we all love and honor, we hope it will be excused …
It is not possible for any one to be more sensible than I am, of what I and every American owe to the King, for the many and great benefits and favors he has bestowed upon us … And I believe that no Prince was ever more beloved and respected by his own subjects, than the King is by the people of the United States.1378
Thursday, December 19, 1782. Today, the Count de Vergennes writes his ambassador in Philadelphia:
I have the liberty to send you a translation of the preliminary articles which the American Plenipotentiaries have agreed to and signed with Great Britain, to be made into a treaty when the terms of peace between France and England shall be settled.
You will surely be gratified, as well as myself, with the very extensive advantages which our allies, the Americans, are to receive from the peace; but you certainly will not be less surprised than I have been at the conduct of the Commissioners. According to the instructions of Congress, they ought to have done nothing without our participation. I have informed you that the King did not seek to influence the negotiation any further than his offices might be necessary to his friends. The American Commissioners will not say that I have interfered and much less that I have wearied them with my curiosity. They have cautiously kept themselves at a distance from me. Mr. Adams, one of them, coming from Holland … had been in Paris nearly three weeks without imagining that he owed me any mark of attention, and probably I should not have seen him till this time if I had not caused him to be reminded of it …
I think it proper that the most influential members of Congress should be informed of the very irregular conduct of their Commissioners in regard to us. You may speak of it not in the tone of complaint. I accuse no person; I blame no one, not even Dr. Franklin. He has yielded too easily to the bias of his colleagues, who do not pretend to recognize the rules of courtesy in regard to us … If we may judge of the future from what has passed here under our eyes, we shall be but poorly paid for all that we have done for the United States and for securing to them a national existence.1379
Thursday, December 26, 1782. Today, Ben Franklin writes the Rev. Samuel Cooper of Boston:
We have taken some good steps here toward peace. Our independence is acknowledged; our boundaries as good and extensive as we demanded; and our fishery more so than the Congress expected …
I am extremely sorry to hear language from Americans on this side of the water, and to hear of such language from your side, as tends to hurt the good understanding that has so happily subsisted between this court and ours. There seems to be a party with you that wish to destroy it. If they could succeed, they would do us irreparable injury. It is our firm connection with France that gives us weight with England and respect throughout Europe. If we were to break our faith with this nation, on whatever pretense, England would again trample on us … We cannot, therefore, be too much on our guard how we permit private resentments of particular persons to enter into our public councils … In my opinion, the true political interest of America consists in observing and fulfilling, with the greatest exactitude, the engagements of our alliance with France and behaving at the same time towards England so as not to extinguish her hopes of a reconciliation. 1380
Friday, January 3, 1783. Today, in the Continental Congress, the Journals report:
The minister plenipotentiary of France transmitted to the secretary for foreign affairs a note …
Philadelphia, December 31, 1782.
The minister plenipotentiary … received orders to express … the satisfaction which the King his master has felt for the conduct [the Congress] have held on the overtures that were made at different periods by the British commissioners commanding at New York to bring about a partial negotiation with the United States [independent of France] …
Resolved, That the [American] Secretary for foreign affairs inform the Minister of France that Congress learn with great pleasure that the steps taken by Congress … in opposition to the attempts of the British court to bring about a partial negotiation has been satisfactory to his Most Christian Majesty: that his Majesty’s conduct … is sufficient to inspire a just abhorrence of every act derogatory to the principles of the alliance …1381
Monday, January 20, 1783. Today, France adds its signature to the Preliminary Peace Treaty between Britain and America. Hostilities will now cease. A “definitive” treaty between all warring parties will be signed in September when France’s allies, Spain and the Netherlands, have agreed to the treaty.1382
Thursday, January 30, 1783. Today, from Geneva, Benny Bache writes his grandfather,
I have not received the parcel of Books you mentioned me in your letter that you had sent to me. I shall mention when I receive them. I heard yesterday with a great deal of pleasure that the peace was made Because that gives me hopes of seeing you soon if you have not changed your resolution of coming and Because that takes away a great part of your occupations.1383