BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS
I have never known a peace made, even the most advantageous, that was not censured as inadequate, and the makers condemn’d as injudicious or corrupt. Blessed are the peacemakers, as I supposed it to be understood, in the other world: for in this they are more frequently cursed. Being as yet rather too much attached to this world, I had therefore no ambition to be concerned in fabricating this peace: and know not how I came to be put into the commission. I esteemed it, however, an honour to be joined with Mr. Adams in so important a business.
The English played a desperate game. Fortune may have favoured them as it sometimes does a drunken dicer. But by their tyranny in the East they had at length rous’d the powers there against them, and I do not know that they had in the West a single friend. Thus empires, by pride & folly & extravagancy, ruin themselves like individuals.
MY DISPUTE WITH M. BEAUMARCHAIS
There arose a good deal of misunderstanding and dispute between Mr. Deane and Mr. Lee relating to the aids received thro’ the hands of M. de Beaumarchais.104 In 1776, being then in Congress, I received a letter from Mr. Lee acquainting me that M. Beaumarchais had applied to him in London, that 200,000 guineas had been put into his hands and was at the disposition of the Congress. Mr. Lee added that it was agreed between them that he (M. Beaumarchais) should remit the same in arms, ammunition &c. under the name of Hortalez & Co. Several cargoes were accordingly sent. Mr. Lee understood this to be a private aid from the government of France. But M. Beaumarchais later demanded from the Congress payment of a gross sum as due to him. I had, by order of Congress, desired him to produce his account that we might know exactly what we owed and for what: and he had several times promised it, but had not yet done it. In his conversations he often mentioned, as I was told, that we were greatly in his debt. Indeed, I imagine our country was really much obliged to M. Beaumarchais: and it is probable that Mr. Deane concerted with him for several large operations, for which he was not paid. These accounts in the air were unpleasant, and one was neither safe nor easy under them. It has been said that Mr. Deane, unknown to his colleagues, had written to Congress in favour of M. Beaumarchais’s demand, in which Mr. Lee accused him of having, to the prejudice of his constituents, negotiated a gift into a debt. The transaction was a darkness; and we knew not whether the whole, or a part, or no part of the supplies he furnish’d were at the expense of government, the reports we had being so inconsistent and contradictory; nor if we were in debt for them, or any part of them: whether it was the King or M. Beaumarchais who was our creditor. Perhaps we must make allowance for M. Beaumarchais’s not having been bred a merchant.
TO MANY LETTERS I NEVER RECEIVED ANY ANSWER
Thanks to God I still enjoyed health and good spirits, tho’ the English news writers had thought fit to kill me several times in their prints. It must at last have been true that I was dead; but the article reporting it was, as their papers phrased it, premature.
I received a letter from Mr. Jay in Spain complaining of the want of regular intelligence. I sympathized, because I suffered with him. I received indeed a number of letters from Mr. Lovell, but they were very short, and mostly to acquaint me that he could not write fully because the Committee of Correspondence were not easily got together. To many of my letters I never received any answer. The Congress had wisely put their finances into the hands of one intelligent person [Mr. Morris]; I wished they had done the same with their correspondence, by appointing a single secretary for foreign affairs.105 I answered Mr. Jay that I could not pay the bills that had arrived. This Court being fatigued and displeased by my repeated applications for more money to pay new and unexpected demands of bills drawn not only on me but on Mr. Jay, and Mr. Laurens, and Mr. Adams &c., had ordered their minister at Philadelphia to remonstrate against this irregular proceeding.
I WAS SORRY FOR HIS MISFORTUNES, BUT...
By this time, there were still remaining in the English prisons nearly 500 of our unhappy countrymen, some of whom had languish’d there for many years under commitments of high treason. A great number of other prisoners in America, instead of being exchanged, were cruelly and unnecessarily sent by Admiral Rodney to England in irons, and pack’d together in the unwholesome holds of the ships, which kill’d many.106
I received a letter signed by 280 American soldiers, stating in part:Feb. 3 1780 Forton Prison
May it please Your Excellency,
We the American prisoners residing at Forton Prison take the liberty of informing you by a couple of gentlemen from this place the situation of the prisoners on this side of the Atlantic and the bad consequences that attends of neglect of them.
The season being cold and blustering, our donation has now almost exhausted. We are kept in prisons, situated in the midst of their marine hospitals where rage all kinds of distempers. Their corpses are brought through the midst of us sometimes nine or ten of a day, contrary to all humanity. We are growing very sickly amongst us.
We are very discontented among us, being informed that it is entirely owing to your neglect that we have not been exchanged. For certainly we should have gone long ago were it not that Dr. Franklin’s age has rendered him incapable of that office. We earnestly hope, therefore, Your Excellency will condescend to answer this and let us know what is the reason for our being kept here so long when Britain would exchange us. Respectfully obedient humble servants and countrymen,
280 AMERICAN PRISONERS
The prisoners did not sign their above mentioned letter with any names, but I assured them in answer to their letter that these delays had not been owing to any neglect of mine.
I received a letter from Silas Talbot, a prisoner in Plymouth, who, Mr. Jay assured me, was a brave and enterprising officer, who desired some payment for his debts. I was sorry for his misfortunes, but I did not think it would be right for me to furnish him with the sum he desired. There were hundreds in the same situation, and if I were to comply with his request, how could I refuse the others? And even if I were willing to gratify them all, where would I find the money? It was easy for any man to write me a letter and tell me that Congress was indebted to him: I could not deny his assertion because I knew nothing to the contrary; but my ignorance of the facts, and my want of orders, if I knew it, made it improper for me to pay such debts. No one had any conception of the sums that were drawn from me by these applications: and I came to a resolution to make no difference on account of rank among the prisoners, because I knew nothing of their rank, but to consider them all as men, and relieve them equally as far as it lay in my power.
Nevertheless, I ordered another sum into the hands of Mr. William Hodgson, who was chairman of the committee that collected and dispens’d the charitable subscriptions for the American prisoners, a constant supply of a shilling each per week, and to make their winter allowance 18 pence. I wished it had been in my power to supply those honest, brave, patient fellows more liberally. I was infinitely oblig’d to him and his friends at Plymouth and Portsmouth for their kind care of our poor people.
WE HAVE NO NAME IN OUR LANGUAGE FOR SUCH VILLAINY
Mr. Thomas Digges, an American merchant residing in London, who pretended to be a zealous American and to have much concern for our poor people in the English prisons, drew upon me for their relief, at different times that winter, to the amount of £495 sterling, which he said had been drawn for upon him by the gentlemen at Portsmouth and Plymouth, who had the care of the distribution. To my utter astonishment, I learned that the villain had not apply’d above £30 of the money to that use, and that he had absconded with the funds. He who robs the rich of even a single guinea is a villian, but what is he who can break his sacred trust by robbing a poor man and a prisoner of eighteen pence given charitably for his relief, and repeat that crime as often as there are weeks in a winter, and multiply it by robbing as many poor men every week as make up the number of near 600! We have no name in our language for such atrocious wickedness and villainy as Digges. If such a f
ellow is not damn’d, ’tis not worth while to keep a devil.
That very great villian Digges later wrote me a letter in which he pretended he was coming to settle with me and to convince me that I had been mistaken with regard to his conduct; but he never appear’d, and I heard every day of new rogueries committed by him in England.
CRUEL CAPTIVITY OVER FOUR YEARS
The practice of sending prisoners taken in America to England greatly augmented the number of those unfortunate men, and proportionably increased the expense of relieving them. The subscriptions for that purpose in England had ceas’d. The allowance I made them of 6 pence each per week during the summer, tho’ small, amounted to a considerable sum; and during the winter I was obliged to double, if not treble it. They complained that the food given them was insufficient. Their petition to the English government to have an equal allowance with the French and Spanish prisoners was rejected; this made the small pecuniary assistance I sent them more necessary. The Englishmen promised either to send our people in exchange, or to surrender themselves to me in France, not one of which was regarded, so little faith and honor remained in that corrupted nation. (Our privateers when in the European seas rarely brought in their prisoners when they could get rid of them at sea.) By my last accounts the number in the several prisons amounted to upward of 800. Some of our poor brave countrymen had been in that cruel captivity over four years.
I received a letter from Francis Coffyn recommending the case of Thomas Beer and Samuel Stevens, rope makers, who had been obliged to flee from England on account of their having assisted our prisoners to escape, and who desired to go to America. I knew nothing of Beer but from Mr. Coffyn’s recommendation. Apparently he was one of those poor helpless bodies that God throws into the world to try its charity. It was very expensive and difficult to transport families in time of war, as they may be taken and carried back to England. I should therefore have thought it advisable for them to get into work at Dunkirk or Ostend, and maintain themselves there till a peace: Or if they could not find employment at those places, to go to Holland where there was a great demand for all kinds of workmen who were useful in fitting out ships. As there was now a considerable commerce carried on between America and Holland, and many American vessels were continually going from Amsterdam, where also the United States had a minister residing in Mr. Adams, I requested that Mr. Coffyn send the prisoners that way, recommending them to the care of John Adams Esq., Minister of the United States of America at Amsterdam.
I found that there were no people so improvident as seamen. We had several instances, when they had been furnished with money to bear their expenses to a seaport, that they stayed in Paris till it was spent, and then demanded more. Others riotously spent the whole sum given them for the journey in a few of the first days, and begged their way for the rest.
A gentleman arrived from America pressing me to accept immediately some bills he presented to me. I excus’d myself on account of the necessity I found of carefully examining all bills by the book we kept of acceptances, to see that none of a set had already been presented, and that it might take two or three days before we could get thro’ the examination so as to come at his bills in their turn. He agreed in the propriety of this, because he said he had heard at Nantes that two bills of the same set had been presented to Mr. Jay at different times, and that he had accepted both of them. Not a week passed in which some such impositions were not attempted to be put upon me: but our accounts were kept in so good a method that it was scarcely possible those attempts should succeed.
HE BRUSQUED THE MINISTERS TOO MUCH
Col. Laurens, son of Henry Laurens, came to France on business to solicit a large aid in money for the army. It was thought that, as he was a witness of their wants, he would be able to represent their situation and necessities more forcibly than I could do. He was indefatigable, while he stayed, and took true pains, but he brusqu’d the ministers too much, and I found after he was gone that he had thereby given more offence than I could have imagin’d. He obtain’d a promise of a loan of 10 million livres to be borrowed in Holland; but as that borrowing did not succeed, he in fact obtained nothing. Fortunately, good humour and a kind disposition towards us seemed again to prevail. I had before his arrival got the grant of 6 million, and had since obtained more, or I could not have paid Mr. Jay’s bills.
Holland did not seem to feel for us, or to have the least inclination to help us at first. No loan could be obtained there for our use, while so much was lent freely to our enemies. Some writer, I forget who, said that Holland was no longer a nation, but a great shop; and I began to think it had no other principles or sentiments but those of a shopkeeper.
I was exceedingly embarrass’d and distress’d by this business; and being obliged to apply repeatedly to the French court for aids, with one unexpected demand after another, I had given trouble and vexation to the ministers, by obliging them to find new funds for me, and thereby deranging their plans. They had, by their minister at Philadelphia, complain’d of these irregular unfunded drafts to Congress; and I was told that he had receiv’d a promise about the end of March 1781, that no more would be issued, until funds were in my hands to pay them.
The sentiment expressed by Mr. Robert Morris, “No country is truly independent until with her own credit and resources she is able to defend herself and correct her enemies,” appeared to me perfectly just. If Europe had been in peace, and its governments therefore under no necessity of borrowing, much of the spare money of private persons might then have been collectible in a loan to our states. But four of the principal nations107 being at war, all borrowing what they could, and bidding from time to time higher interest, money’d men would rather risk lending their cash to their own governments, then to those of their neighbors, than hazard it over the Atlantic with a new state, which to them hardly appeared to be yet firmly establish’d. Hence all our attempts to procure private loans had hitherto miscarried; and our only chance of pecuniary aids was from the governments of France or Spain, who being at war with our enemy were somewhat interested in assisting us. These two governments had indeed great revenues. But when it is considered that the ability of nations to assist one another is not in proportion to their incomes, but in proportion to their economy; and that saving and treasuringup in time of peace is rarely thought of by ministers, when the expenses of the peace equal, if they do not exceed, the incomes; therefore when a war came on, they were, with regard to the means of carrying it on, almost as poor as we, being equally oblig’d to borrow; the difference only was that they had a credit which we wanted; which we had indeed with our own people, but lost by abusing it. Our credit, however, could only procure from the monies that were to spare, and those in so general a demand were few. Hence it was, and because her treasuries had been long detain’d in America, that Spain was able to help us very little; and tho’ France did for us much more, it was not equal to our wants, altho’ I sincerely believed it equal to her abilities, the war being otherwise exceedingly expensive to her, and her commerce much obstructed. And thus I said to Mr. Morris, “You see, my dear friend, I have not endeavoured to flatter you with pleasing expectations of aids that may never be obtained; and thereby betray you into plans that might miscarry and disgrace you. Truth is best for you and for us all. When you know what you cannot depend on, you will better know what you can undertake. I shall certainly do what may lie in my power to help you; but do not expect too much of me.”
I had received a very friendly letter from Mr. Edmund Burke, who was anxious for the liberty of his friend, General Burgoyne. Mr. Burke had always stood high in my esteem; his affectionate concern for his friend rendered him still more amiable. I was sure the restoring another worthy man to his family and friends was an addition to his pleasure. Having no direct communications with the British ministers, and Mr. Burke appearing by a letter to be warmly interested in favour of his friend General Burgoyne to prevent his being recalled, I requested and empower’d him to negotiate that e
xchange. Congress had no wish to prosecute General Burgoyne, so it offered to exchange him for Mr. Laurens, who was being held prisoner in the Tower of London.
THERE WAS NOW A GREAT VOID FOR ME IN PASSY
Captain Folger, a relation of mine, represented to me that he and some other inhabitants of Nantucket (friendly to the British) had property in England which they desired to withdraw from thence in goods useful to the States, and requested a passport. Having never refused it in any other instance of the kind, I could not refuse him. If under cover of this passport he carried goods to the enemy, I said, let our people catch him and hang him with all my heart, tho’ it be true that he was a relation of mine; for I always think that a rogue hang’d out of a family does it more honour than ten that live in it. As to my being concerned with him or anybody else in trade licit or illicit, if they find it out, they are welcome to hang me into the bargain.
In the summer of 1781, Madame Brillon went to her apartment in Nice, leaving a great void for me in Passy. I often passed in front of her house. It seemed desolate. None of her amicable and laughing welcomes, none of her charming music, none of her lovable children running out to embrace me! In olden days, I broke a commandment, by coveting my neighbor’s house, together with my neighbor’s wife. Today, I don’t covet it anymore, so that I am less of a sinner. But as far as the wife is concerned, I still think those commandments very bothersome, and I am sorry that they were ever devised.
The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1757-1790) Page 24
