Improbable Patriot

by Harlow Giles Unger

  Beaumarchais and Roderigue Hortalez often disappeared for days at a time, with Hortalez or the sieur de Ronac or a mysterious Monsieur Durand, among others, appearing at army bases in all corners of France, to check inventories of arms, powder barrels, uniforms, and tents, before hopping into a carriage and riding full speed to Le Havre, Brest, Bordeaux, or Rochefort to check on port facilities, capacity, and available labor. A master of disguise and theatrical makeup, Beaumarchais never appeared as the famed playwright Beaumarchais, whose known ties to the French court would arouse suspicions of British agents.

  Beaumarchais wrote in cipher to his friend Mary Johnston (Arthur Lee) in London that he hoped soon “to send to Cape François, on the island of San Domingo, a ship loaded with merchandise to the value of twenty-five thousand pounds sterling.”

  On your part, do not fail to send a ship loaded with good Virginia tobacco, and let your friend send in the ship an intelligent, discreet, and faithful person, with powers to receive the … merchandise … and to make remittances in tobacco, which I can no more do without than your friend can do without what I send him. … Let him give his notes to my house for what he shall not be able to pay in tobacco.8

  Beaumarchais’s fictional plots onstage seldom proceeded without complications, however, and his real-life offstage plots were no different. Just as he was establishing his own huge arms-trading enterprise, another French entrepreneur barged into the clandestine Franco-American arms trade, backed by no less a man than Benjamin Franklin. A scientist like Franklin, Monsieur le docteur Barbeu Dubourg and Franklin were old friends, and, like the Philadelphia scholar, he covered costs of his unremunerative scientific pursuits by engaging in various business enterprises. Thus, when the Secret Committee of Congress, of which Franklin was a member, appointed Connecticut delegate Silas Deane to go to Paris to find military supplies and recruit engineers, Franklin suggested that Deane contact Dubourg. He gave the Connecticut merchant a letter of introduction, addressed to “Mon cher ami Barbeu Dubourg,” calling him a “friend to the Americans” who was “prudent, faithful, secret, intelligent in affairs and capable of giving you very sage advice.”9

  Deane’s instructions were not dissimilar to those that Congress had given Arthur Lee, but the Committee of Secret Correspondence believed that British agents had infiltrated the congressional membership and that the British-educated Lee might himself be working with the British government. Unaware that Lee had already succeeded in his mission and planned working with Beaumarchais, the committee issued these instructions to Deane:

  With the assistance of Monsieur Dubourg, who understands English, you will be able to make immediate application to Monsieur de Vergennes, ministre des affaires étrangères … acquainting him that you are in France upon business of the American Congress in the character of a merchant. … acquaint him that … the Congress … was not able to furnish … the quantity of arms and ammunition necessary for its defense … and you have been dispatched by their authority to apply to some European authority for a supply. France has been pitched on for the first application, from an opinion that if we should come to a total separation from Great Britain, France would be looked upon as the power whose friendship it would be fittest for us to obtain and cultivate. That the commercial advantages Britain had enjoyed with the Colonies had contributed greatly to her late wealth and importance. That it is likely a great part of our commerce will naturally fall to the share of France, especially if she favors us in this application, as that will be a means of gaining and securing the friendship of the Colonies. … That the supply we at present want is clothing and arms for twenty-five thousand men, with a suitable quantity of ammunition, and one hundred field pieces.10

  Being businessmen themselves, the committee members realized that pure patriotism was not enough of an incentive for a merchant like Deane to undertake so hazardous a mission. Given the risks of a dangerous ocean crossing and the possibility of arrest and indefinite imprisonment — even possible execution — if captured by the British, they offered the Connecticut merchant a 5 percent commission on all purchases — in effect enough to yield him a large private fortune and fame as a hero of the American Revolution. The terms were much the same as those they had offered Arthur Lee for serving as agent in London and, before him, Benjamin Franklin.

  Deane arrived in Paris in early June 1776, but neither he nor Dr. Dubourg were aware of Beaumarchais or any French government plan to send arms to America. When Deane approached the French scientist, Dubourg saw an opportunity to profit handsomely by becoming Deane’s sole intermediary in the purchase of French arms. The Connecticut merchant was too experienced to fall victim to such a scheme, however, and demanded a meeting with Vergennes, who protested that France was neutral in the dispute between England and her colonies and had no intention of involving herself by engaging in the arms trade. In an aside, however, he noted that the government had no powers to restrict such trade in the private sector.

  Silas Deane, a Connecticut merchant and member of Congress, awarded contracts to Beaumarchais to supply the American Continental Army with arms, ammunition, and other essential military supplies.

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

  Elated that they were free to buy arms privately and ship them to America, Deane and Dubourg returned to Paris to draw up orders to private dealers for guns, ammunition, powder, and various other materials. The American military had other needs, however: engineers for road and bridge construction and demolition, and trained artillery officers to man and aim the big guns that Deane planned to buy in France. Dubourg gave Deane a list of well-known officers who, he believed, might be willing to go to America. Without ready cash for incentive bonuses and salary advances, however, Deane had to write to the Committee of Secret Correspondence before he could begin recruiting.

  Having just translated Arthur Lee’s pleas into a huge investment in Beaumarchais’s military supply program for the Americans, Vergennes was, to say the least, puzzled at the appearance of another American with credentials from the same American Congress asking for exactly what Arthur Lee had requested and what Beaumarchais was about to deliver. After rejecting Deane’s requests for French government assistance, Vergennes let the American know that someone unconnected with the government would contact him.

  Four days later, Beaumarchais appeared at Deane’s lodgings and disclosed that arms, ammunition, and military equipment worth more than 3 million livres were already on the way to French ports and would soon be en route to America. Beaumarchais’s revelations astonished and elated the American — and all but crushed Dubourg’s hopes of participating in the government arms trade. In a desperate attempt to insinuate himself into the trading arrangements, Dubourg met with Beaumarchais, who saw no reason to share prospective profits with anyone else and refused. Dubourg responded angrily with a letter to Vergennes questioning the playwright’s morals and ethics:

  Everyone knows his wit, his talents. … I believe he is one of the most proper men in the world for political negotiations, but … the least proper for mercantile enterprises. He loves display; they say he keeps women; he passes … for a spendthrift and there is not a merchant in France who does not think of him in this way. … Therefore, I was very much astonished when he informed me that you had charged him not only to aid you … but had concentrated on him alone the ensemble and the details of all the commercial operations.11

  The letter startled Vergennes at first; then, knowing Beaumarchais’s circumstances, he broke into laughter and sent it off to the playwright, who flew into a rage and immediately replied to Dubourg and sent a copy to Vergennes: “Et bien,” he began, “how does it affect our business if I like pomp and splendor, and maintain young ladies in my house?”

  The ladies who have been in my house for the last twenty years, sir, … are five in number — four sisters and one niece. To my great regret, two of these women have been dead for the last three years. I now keep only three, two sisters and my niece — which is still extravagant
for a private individual like myself. But what would you think if you knew me better and learned that I carried the scandal so far as to keep men as well: two nephews — very young and rather good looking? You have reasons for writing evil of me to the comte de Vergennes without knowing me. … They were not exactly words from the Gospel, but I am not angry, because M. de Vergennes is not a small man.12

  Fearful that he had damaged his standing at the Foreign Ministry, Dubourg sought to make amends by inviting Beaumarchais to sup with him, and by the end of the evening, Beaumarchais forgave the old man, knowing that Vergennes had already eliminated Dubourg as a player in the French arms trade with America and given Hortalez et Cie. a virtual monopoly.

  With Deane officially empowered by the Committee of Secret Correspondence to generate the arms purchases in France — and Lee maintaining suspiciously close ties to British officials — Beaumarchais severed relations with Lee to deal exclusively with Deane. At best, Beaumarchais reasoned, Lee was agent for but a few American colonies, while Deane represented the Congress and, in effect, all thirteen colonies. Like Deane and other agents Congress had appointed, Lee had envisioned harvesting 5 percent commissions on the arms deals with France, thus ensuring himself a private fortune, and a possible rise to heroic status and high office in America. As the youngest of the Lee brothers, he stood to inherit next to nothing from the family’s vast estates in Virginia — which was why his father sent him to London to study medicine and law and acquire other means of earning a living.

  Deane’s sudden appearance “enraged and disappointed” Lee, according to the contemporary historian Jared Sparks. “He [had] hoped to play the principal part in the enterprise. On hearing it was passing into the hands of Mr. Deane — a Connecticut merchant, no less — he hurried to Paris, accused Deane of interfering in his affairs, tried to cause a quarrel between Deane and Beaumarchais, and, not being able to succeed, returned to London vexed at his failure and furious with Deane.”13

  No less furious with Beaumarchais, he determined to wreak vengeance on both by writing to the Committee of Secret Correspondence accusing Deane and Beaumarchais of deceiving both the French and American governments by charging the Congress 3 million livres for what he said had been an outright gift of the French government. “M. de Vergennes, the minister and his secretary,” Lee wrote to the Secret Committee of Congress, “have repeatedly assured us that no return was expected for the cargoes sent by Beaumarchais. This gentleman is not a merchant; he is known to be a political agent, employed by the court of France.”14 With two influential older brothers in Congress — the great orator Richard Henry Lee and the sedate but beloved Francis Lightfoot Lee — Arthur Lee’s vicious accusations would haunt Deane and Beaumarchais for the rest of their lives.

  Despite difficulties understanding each other, Deane and Beaumarchais muddled their way through a pleasant first meeting, each leaving with warm feelings about his new partner and Deane returning directly to his hotel to pen a letter of understanding between the two. “With regard to the credit we require for the provisions and ammunition which I hope to obtain from you,” Deane wrote,

  twelve months have been the longest credit my countrymen have ever been accustomed to, and the Congress having engaged large quantities of tobacco in Virginia and Maryland, together with other articles in other parts which they will ship as fast as vessels can be provided, I have no doubt but very considerable remittance will be made within six months … and for the whole within a year. I hope, however, that … you will be able to wait for whatever sum may remain due after the credit we shall agree on is expired, having the usual interest allowed you.15

  After having Deane’s letter translated, Beaumarchais replied two days later with friendly words, assuring Deane that he was ready to extend as much as 3 million livres in credit to the U.S. Congress and pledged that American ships arriving with tobacco in France would sail back filled with military equipment. “As I believe that I am to deal with a virtuous nation, it will be enough for me to keep an exact account of all I advance. … I wish to serve your country as if it were my own, and I hope to find in the friendship of a noble-minded nation the true reward of the labor which I willingly undertake for them.”16

  Beaumarchais’s reply elated the Connecticut merchant, who had anticipated great difficulties and usurious terms in the market for clandestine arms purchases. “I am of the opinion that your proposals … are just and equitable,” he wrote to Beaumarchais.

  The generous confidence which you place in the virtue and justice of my constituents causes me the greatest pleasure … and permit me to assure you the United Colonies will take the most effectual measures to make you remittances, and to justify in every respect the sentiments you entertain of them.17

  The warm feelings that developed between the two men — and the zeal with which Deane espoused American independence, individual liberty, and equal opportunity — inspired Beaumarchais to make the American cause his own. Indeed, the American Revolution symbolized the war he had waged against the aristocracy his entire life. In his heart, Beaumarchais and Figaro were both American. “The respectful esteem I have for the brave people who defend their liberty under your leadership,” he wrote to the Committee of Secret Correspondence in Philadelphia,

  has induced me to form … a large commercial firm for the sole purpose of serving you in Europe, there to supply you with necessaries of every sort … clothes, linens, powder, ammunition, muskets, cannon or even gold for the payment of your troops, and in general every thing that can be useful for the honorable war in which you are engaged. Your deputies, gentlemen, will find in me a sincere friend, in my house a shelter, in my coffers money; and I shall assist them by every possible means in their transactions. … You may be certain, gentlemen, that my indefatigable zeal will … facilitate all trade operations much more to your advantage than to mine. … One thing can never change or decline: my avowed and ardent desire to serve you to the utmost of my power.18

  By November, Beaumarchais had convinced Deane of the sincerity of his belief in the American Revolution as a vehicle of change in the Western world’s political and social order — a change that would permit social equality, religious freedom, and equal opportunity. Deane confirmed Beaumarchais’s commitment in a letter to the committee:

  I should never have completed what I have, but for the generous, the indefatigable and spirited exertions of Monsieur Beaumarchais, to whom the United States are, on every account, greatly indebted, more so than to any other person on this side of the water. … Therefore I am confident you will make the earliest and most ample remittances. … I cannot in a letter do full justice to Monsieur Beaumarchais for his great address and assiduity in our cause; I can only say he appears to have undertaken it on great and liberal principles, and has, in the pursuit, made it his own.19

  Despite the ease with which they worked together, both Deane and Beaumarchais recognized the fragility of the business they were in. The Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years’ War specifically banned the very kind of arms traffic that the French foreign minister had sponsored. If the British ambassador to France, Lord Stormont, or his spies were to learn of the Beaumarchais-Deane arms deal and the role of French foreign minister Vergennes, Britain would almost certainly declare war against France — and France was not ready for war.

  From the first, however, the deal with Deane began to fray at the edges. Although Deane asked the Committee of Secret Correspondence to send ships to France to pick up the French military supplies, Arthur Lee’s letters infected the minds of committee members and, to Deane’s immense frustration, the committee failed to respond. No American ships ever arrived in French ports.

  “I shall not be able to provide them,” Deane finally admitted to Beaumarchais in late August 1776. He asked Beaumarchais both to procure vessels and disburse the security for each charter — an enormous outlay that Beaumarchais had not anticipated. Beaumarchais faced the challenge of revisiting major French ports to charter or
buy a fleet of cargo ships and find ship captains willing to risk their lives and the lives of their crews. Beaumarchais realized he could no longer manage his complex scheme without a confidential aide in the field — visiting military depots and ports, following up on shipments to America if necessary. He found the perfect candidate in Jean-Baptiste Théveneau de Francy, the brilliant younger brother of Théveneau de Morande, the “Journalist in Armor,” whom Beaumarchais had helped negotiate a hefty cash settlement from King Louis XV for not publishing the libelous memoirs of Madame du Barry. Though brother of a brilliant swindler, Francy proved one of the most decent, honest, and loyal characters in the ever-twisting plot of Beaumarchais’s life as an arms merchant.

  By the end of November 1776, Beaumarchais had acquired three ships, but without the steady stream of American ships that Deane had promised, he needed more warehouse space to store materials while his ships shuttled materials back and forth to America. At Le Havre alone, 200 cannons and mortars had accumulated at dockside, with more than 20,000 cannonballs weighing four pounds each; 25,000 rifles with bayonets; 10,000 grenades; 290,000 pounds of gunpowder; and clothing, blankets, and tents for 25,000 men. Deane then added to Beaumarchais’s burdens with a request for experienced artillery officers and engineers. Although Deane recruited many on his own — most notably, the marquis de Lafayette and Baron Johann de Kalb — Beaumarchais had to spend precious time in taverns and inns near major military bases, befriending officers to determine their political leanings. Acting on Deane’s assurances that the U.S. government would reimburse him, Beaumarchais gave cash bonuses to those who espoused the American cause and promised travel expenses, high salaries, six months’ pay in advance — and the highest leadership ranks in the army of the legendary George Washington. He recruited thirty officers — a dozen artillery officers, a dozen engineers, and the rest infantrymen — paying them all from Hortalez funds. Among the Beaumarchais recruits were the “count de Conway,” Kazimierz Pulaski, and the young engineer/architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant, who would remain in the United States after independence and help design the young nation’s capital city in Washington.