American Aurora
Page 59
Wednesday, February 5, 1783. John Adams wants to be the first Minister Plenipotentiary (ambassador) from the United States to Great Britain. Today, he writes the president of Congress:
The Resolution of Congress of the 12 July 1781 “that the Commission and the Instructions … given to the Honourable John Adams … be and they are hereby revoked” was duly received by me in Holland, but no Explanation of the Motives to it or the Reasons on which it was founded was ever transmitted to me …
[It is now time in] my own opinion … to send a Minister directly to St. James’s with a Letter of Credence to the King as a Minister Plenipotentiary and a Commission to treat of a Treaty of Commerce …
[I]f I had to give my vote for a Minister to the Court of Great Britain … I should think of no other object of my Choice than [Mr. Jay] … provided that Injustice must finally be done to him who was the first object of his Country’s choice.1384
Thursday, February 6, 1783. Today, John Adams pursues the subject of his appointment as Minister to Great Britain in a letter to Thomas McKean, a congressional delegate from Delaware:
The most important mission of all is now opened to the Court of Great Britain.—You know very well that I have been unfairly treated in that Matter, and you must be sensible that it is impossible for me to stay in Europe at any other Court … In the Name of Common Justice, then give me my [quietus] and let me return home, by accepting my Resignation immediately, that I may not be exposed to the further disgrace of waiting in Europe with the Air of a Candidate and an Expectant of that Mission, if foreign Finesse and domestic Faction have determined that I shall not have it …1385
Tuesday, February 11, 1783. Today, Virginia congressional delegate James Madison writes Thomas Jefferson:
Congress yesterday received from Mr. Adams several letters dated September not remarkable for any thing unless it be a display of his vanity, his prejudice against the French Court & his venom against Doctr. Franklin.1386
Tuesday, February 25, 1783. Today, the American commissioners in Paris sign an agreement with France on the funding of America’s obligations. Article II of this agreement includes:
[I]t has been found proper to recapitulate here the amount of the preceding aids granted by the King [of France] to the United States, and to distinguish them according to their different classes …
In the third class are comprehended the aids and subsidies furnished to the Congress of the United States, under the title of gratuitous assistance, from the pure generosity of the King, three millions of which were granted before the treaty of February, 1778, and six millions in 1781; which aids and subsidies amount in the whole to nine million livres turnois. His Majesty here confirms, in case of the need, the gratuitous gift to the said Congress of the said thirteen United States.1387
This recapitulation of French aid may be one of the great understatements of the eighteenth century. France has bankrupted herself in aiding America, expending perhaps two billion livres to send 47,000 officers and men, 3,668 cannon, and sixty-three ships of the line across the Atlantic to wage the Americans’ war.1388 France had as many as 8,400 soldiers on American soil at one time. Six hundred thirty-seven Frenchmen lost their lives in the effort to liberate Savannah; 186 Frenchmen gave their lives at Yorktown.1389
Wednesday, March 12, 1783. Today, the Continental Congress receives the Preliminary Peace Treaty as well as a fifty-five-page “Peace Journal,” prepared by John Adams and placed in the packet for Secretary of Foreign Affairs Robert Livingston. The journal includes Adams’ personal diary entries on his success in the Netherlands, his steadfastness in dealing with Britain, and his independence from (contrasted with Franklin’s subservience to) France.1390 John Adams:
[C]onsidering that, in the Conferences for the Peace, I had been very free which I had Reason to expect would be misrepresented by Franklin, I suddenly determined to throw into the Packet for [Secretary for Foreign Affairs Robert] Livingston, what was intended for another.—Let them make the most and the worst of it.1391
Tuesday, March 18, 1783. Today, James Madison writes fellow Virginian Edmund Randolph:
In this business [of negotiating without consulting the French court], Jay has taken the lead & proceeded to a length of which you can form little idea. Adams has followed with cordiality. Franklin has been dragged into it … The dilemma to which Congress are reduced is infinitely perplexing. If they abet the proceedings of their ministers, all confidence with France is at an end …1392
Thursday, March 20, 1783. Today, Benjamin Franklin writes fellow peace commissioner Henry Laurens:
I hear frequently of [Mr. Adams’] Ravings against M. de Vergennes and me, whom he suspects of Plots against him which have no Existence but in his troubled Imagination. I take no Notice and we are civil when we meet …1393
Friday, March 21, 1783. Despite all France has done, John Adams is deeply suspicious. Today, he writes a friend, Massachusetts political leader General James Warren:
[I]t is devoutly to be wished that … some other Minister may take the place of Vergennes … He has meant us too much Evil, is too conscious of it, and too sensible that we know it …
It is not easy to assign the Reason for his long continual Rancour against the Rights to our Fisheries and the Western Lands, against our obtaining loans or subsidies from the King … He wished to keep us dependent …
His attack on me in his Letters to Dr. Franklin which the Dr. was left to transmit to Congress without informing me was an attack on the Fishery and Western Country. Franklin’s motive was to get my Commission, and Vergennes’ motive was to get it for him, not that he loved Franklin more than me but because he knew Franklin would be more obsequious—The Pretense that I had given offence was a mere Fiction. Such an invention they knew would be the most likely to intimidate Members of Congress and carry their Point. I repeat it, it was not true that I had given offence. To suppose that I had is to suppose him the most Senseless Despot that ever existed. The Secret was that I was known to be a Man who would neither be deceived, wheedled, flattered, or intimidated into a surrender of them. Franklin he knew would let him do as he pleased and assist him without an excuse for it …
I cannot account for his Enmity to us … He thought by crippling us, he could keep us dependent and oblige us to join France in a future War against England … But he has been vastly disappointed, and the truth is that the American Ministers made the Peace in Spite of him, let his hireling Trumpeters Say what they will.1394
Tuesday, March 25, 1783. Today, from Philadelphia, American Secretary of Foreign Affairs Robert Livingston writes the American peace commissioners in Paris:
I feel no little pain at the distrust manifested in the management of [the treaty negotiations]; particularly in signing the treaty without communicating it to the court of Versailles till after the signature … The concealment was, in my opinion, absolutely unnecessary …1395
Friday, March 28, 1783. Today, John Adams writes Abigail:
If I receive the Acceptance of my Resignation, I Shall embark in the first ship …
I am Sometimes half afraid that those Persons who procured the Revocation of my Commission to King George may be afraid I shall do them more harm in America than in England, and therefore of two Evils to choose the least and manoeuvrer to get me sent to London …
Nothing in Life ever cost me so much Sleep, or made me so many grey Hairs, as the Anxiety I have Suffered for these Three Years … No body knows of it. Nobody cares for it.1396
Wednesday, April 9, 1783. Today, John Adams writes his friend General James Warren:
I hope this will find you in Congress …
It is utterly inconceivable how Congress have been deceived into such Instructions as they gave Us which, without all Controversy, would have ruined our Country, if they had been obeyed …
I am in expectation every hour of receiving your Acceptance of my Resignation, and indeed I stand in need of it. The Scenes of Gloom, Danger, and Perplexity I have gone thro’ …
have affected my Health to a great degree and, what is worse, my Spirits.—Firm as Some People have been complaisant enough to suppose my Temper is, I assure you it has been shaken to its foundations … When a Man sees entrusted to him the most essential interests of his Country—sees that they depend essentially upon him, and that he must defend them against the Malice of Enemies, the Finesse of Allies, the Treachery of a Colleague … you may well imagine a Man does not sleep on a Bed of Roses …
The Fever, which I had in Amsterdam, which held me for five days, exhausted me in such a Manner that I never have been able to recover from it entirely … But I am not yet however so weak as to stay in Europe with a Wound upon my Honour—And if I had the Health of Hercules, I would go home Leave or no Leave the Moment another Person is appointed to Great Britain—No fooling in such a Match—I will not be horse jockeyed—at least if I am, De Vergennes and Franklin shall not be the Jockies …
It is not that I am ambitious of the Honour of a Commission to St. James’s … I could be happier I believe at the Hague. But my Enemies, because they are Enemies or Despisers of the Interests of my Country, shall never have such a Triumph over me … Decide my Fate therefore as soon as possible …1397
Thursday, April 10, 1783. Today, John Adams writes his former co-commissioner Arthur Lee, now a Virginia congressional delegate:
I expect soon to see a proposition to name the 18th Century, the Franklinian Age, le Siecle Franklinnien, & am willing to leave the Question, whether it shall have this epithet or that of Frederick, to the Dr. & the King: tho’ the latter will stand a poor Chance with a certain French Writer who, within a few weeks, has said that the Dr. after a few ages, will be considered as a God, and I think the King has not eno’ of the Caesar in him to dispute …
The title of “Founder of the American Empire” which … the English newspapers give [the Dr.] does not, most certainly belong to him … [T]here is such a prostitution of all Justice, such a Confusion of Right & Wrong, virtue and vice, to accomplish the Apotheosis of Dr. F.[ranklin] as ought to excite the indignation of every honest man.1398
Sunday, April 13, 1783. Today, John Adams writes his Massachusetts colleague James Warren:
I have in some late Letters opened to You in Confidence the Dangers which our most important Interests have been in … from the vain, ambitious and despotic Character of one Minister, I mean the C.[ount] de Vergennes. But You will form but an imperfect idea after all of the Difficulties We have had to encounter, without taking into Consideration another Character, equally selfish and interested, equally vain and ambitious, more jealous and envious, and more false and deceitful. I mean Dr. Franklin …
His whole Life has been one continued Insult to good Manners and to Decency … [T]he Effrontery with which he has forced [his illegitimate] Offspring up in the World, not less than his Speech of Polly Baker [sympathizing with an unwed mother], are Outrages to Morality and Decorum which would never have been forgiven in any other American. These things, however, are not the worst of his Faults. They shew, however, the Character of the Man; in what Contempt he holds the opinions of the World, and with what Haughtiness he is capable of persevering through Life in a gross and odious System of Falsehood and Imposture …
[S]trict and impartial Justice obliges me to say that, from five Years of Experience of Dr. Franklin which I have now had in Europe, I can have no Dependence on his Word. I never know when he speaks the Truth and when not. If he talked as much as other Men and deviated from the Truth as often in proportion as he does now, he would have been the Scorn of the Universe long ago. But his perpetual Taciturnity has saved him …
[H]is Philosophy and his Politicks have been infinitely exaggerated … until his Reputation has become one of the grossest impostures that has ever been practiced upon Mankind since the Days of Mohamet …
A Reputation so imposing … produces all the Servility … that is produced by the imposing Pomp of a Court and of Imperial Splendour. He had been very sensible of this and has taken Advantage of it.
As if he had been conscious of the Laziness, Inactivity and real Insignificance of his advanced Age, he has considered every American Minister who has come to Europe as his natural enemy … From the same detestable Source came the Insinuations and prejudices against me, and the shameless abandoned Attack upon me … These are my Opinions, tho’ I cannot prove them otherwise than by what I have seen and heard myself … The C.[ount de Vergennes] … has found him so convenient a Minister, ready always to comply with every Desire, never asking for any thing but when ordered and obliged to ask for Money, never proposing any thing, that he has adopted all His Passions, Prejudices, and Jealousies, and has supported him as if his own Office depended upon him. He and his office of interpreters have filled all the Gazettes of Europe with the most senseless Flattery of him, and by means of the Police, set every Spectacle, Society, and every private Club and Circle to clapping him with such Applause as they give to Opera girls. This being the unfortunate Situation of foreign Affairs, what is to be done?
Franklin has, as he gives out, asked Leave to resign … I wish with all my Soul he was out of public Service and in Retirement, repenting of his past Life and preparing, as he ought to be, for another World …
France has suffered as much as America by the unskillful and dishonest Conduct of our foreign affairs. They have no Confidence in any but him … They have not only not confided in any other, but have persecuted every other …
For my own part, I have been made a Sacrifice to such Intrigues in so gross a manner that unless I am restored and supported, I am unalterably determined to retire.1399
Tuesday, April 15, 1783. Today, at West Point in upstate New York, a new military order, the Society of the Cincinnati, holds its first meeting. George Washington will be its president. From a statement of the society’s purpose:
[T]he officers of the American Army … combine themselves into one SOCIETY OF FRIENDS to endure as long as they shall endure, or any of their eldest male posterity, and, in failure thereof the collateral branches, who may be judged worthy of becoming its supporters and members.1400
Are George Washington and his fellow officers creating a titled and hereditary order of nobility?
Wednesday, April 16, 1783. Today, John Adams writes Abigail:
I begin to suspect that French and Franklinian Politicks will now endeavor to get me sent to England for two Reasons, one that I may not go to America where I should do them more Mischief as they think than I could in London. 2. That the Mortifications which they and their Tools might give me there might disembarrass them of me sooner than any where.
Is it not Strange and Sad that Simple Integrity should have so many Ennemies? … If I would have given up the [firm positions I took], I might have had [like Franklin] Gold snuff Boxes, Clappings at the Opera, I don’t mean from the Girls, millions of Paragraphs in the Newspapers in praise of me, Visits from the Great, Dinners, Wealth, Power, Splendor, Pictures, Busts, statues, and every Thing which a vain heart, and mine is much too vain, could desire … Liberty and Virtue! When! oh When will your Ennemies cease to exist or to persecute!1401
Thursday, May 1, 1783. Today, in the Continental Congress, the Journals report:
Ordered, That a commission be prepared to Messrs. J. Adams, B. Franklin and J. Jay, authorising them, or either of them in the absence of the others, to enter into a treaty of commerce between the United States of America and Great Britain.1402
John Adams has recovered his commission to negotiate a commercial treaty with Britain but again must share the commission with Franklin.
Friday, May 2, 1783. Today, John Adams writes in his diary,
I told Mr. Hartley [who replaced Richard Oswold as Britain’s negotiator] the Story of my Negociations with the C. de Vergennes about communicating my [peace and commerce] Mission to [British Colonial Secretary] Ld. G. Germaine 3 Years ago and the subsequent Intrigues and Disputes, &c. It is necessary to let the English Ministers know where their danger lies, and the
Arts used to damp the Ardour of returning friendship …
In Truth Congress and their Ministers have been plaid upon like Children, trifled with, imposed upon, deceived. Franklin’s Servility and insidious faithless Selfishness is the true and only Cause why this Game has succeeded. He has aided Vergennes with all his Weight, and his great Reputation, in both Worlds, has supported this ignominious System and blasted every Man and every Effort to shake it off. I only have had a little Success against him.1403
Sunday, May 25, 1783. Today, from Paris, John Adams drafts a letter to Foreign Affairs Secretary Robert Livingston:
Any one who knows anything of my History may easily suppose that I have gone thro’ many dangerous, anxious & disagreeable Scenes before I ever saw Europe: But all I ever Suffered in public life has been little in Comparison of what I have suffered in Europe, the greatest & worst part of which has been caused by the Dispositions of the C. de Vergennes, aided by the Jealousy, Envy & selfish Servility of Dr. Franklin.1404
Adams will choose not to send this letter.
Monday, May 26, 1783. Today, the Continental Congress votes to disband the army … The Journals report:
Resolved, That the Commander in Chief be instructed to grant furloughs to the non-commissioned officers and soldiers in the service of the United States, inlisted to serve during the war, who shall be discharged as soon as the definitive treaty of peace is concluded …1405
Monday, June 23, 1783. Today, Benjamin Franklin writes Benny Bache,
My dear Child …
I … am pleased to see that you improve in your writing …
I write by this Post to Mr. Marignac, requesting that he would permit you to come and see me and stay with me during the Vacation of the Schools … I hear you have been sick, but … I hope you are … strong enough to undertake the Journey …1406