295 President Laurens accused: “Henry Laurens’ Speech to Congress,” December 9, 1778, Smith, Letters of Delegates, vol. 11, 312-15; letter, Laurens to Samuel Huntington, December 11, 1778, Ibid., 330.
295 Paine repeated the charges: “Thomas Paine’s Reply,” December 15, 1778, Deane Papers, vol. 3, 86-100.
296 He responded that in fact Deane: “Robert Morris to the Public,” January 7, 1779, Smith, Letters of Delegates, vol. 11, 430-31.
296 The insults and counter insults: Stahr, John Jay, 99.
297 Samuel Adams charged: Letter, Samuel Adams to John Winthrop, December 21, 1778, Smith, Letters of Delegates, vol. 11, 363.
297 Years after the Revolution: Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics, 254; Stahr, John Jay, 92.
298 At the conclusion, he answered: “Silas Deane’s Narrative,” December 21, 1778, Deane Papers, vol. 3, 197-98.
299 Tom Paine, who did not hesitate: “Thomas Paine’s Defence of the Lees,” January 8, 1779, Deane Papers, vol. 3, 221-23.
299 At this point, the French ambassador Gérard: Letter, Gérard to President of Congress, January 5, 1779, Deane Papers, vol. 3, 246-47.
299 Deane’s friend, Pennsylvania delegate Gouverneur Morris: “Gouverneur Morris’s Speech in Congress,” January 7, 1779, Smith, Letters of Delegates, vol. 11, 426.
299 On January 12, 1779, Congress unanimously: Proceedings in Congress, Deane Papers, vol. 3, 247-56; Potts, Arthur Lee, 215-16; Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America, 158-61.
300 The committee recommended to Congress: Stahr, John Jay, 99-101; Proceedings of Congress, February 23, 1779, Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence , vol. 3, 58-61.
301 John Adams wrote to Massachusetts: Letter, Adams to Lovell, September 21, 1779, in The Adams Papers: Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 3, 231 note 1, quoted in Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics, 260.
301 The junto was losing delegates: Potts, Arthur Lee, 239-40.
302 Gérard and Deane’s friends: Rakove, The Beginnings, 249-74; Stahr, John Jay, 102-4.
302 Lee received notice: Potts, Arthur Lee, 240-41; Stahr, John Jay, 103-4.
303 One of the British ships: Letter, Deane to Simeon Deane, August 4, 1780, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 176-78; Clark, Silas Deane, 155-58.
303 He tried to console himself: Letter, Deane to James Wilson, May 13, 1780, Deane Papers, vol. 3, 151.
303 Franklin, recalling his own ordeal: Letter, Deane to Bancroft, November 23, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 537-40; letter, Deane to Samuel Parsons, October 21, 1782, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 517.
304 But he doubted that: Letter, Deane to Robert Morris, September 2, 1780, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 215.
304 Deane had told Congress: “Silas Deane’s Narrative, December 21, 1778,” Deane Papers, vol. 3, 203-4.
305 To his brother Simeon: Letter, Deane to Simeon Deane, May 16, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 340.
305 He could think of no historical: Ibid., 343-44.
305 To another friend: Letter, Deane to Jesse Root, May 20, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 349-50.
305 Deane argued to another delegate: Letter, Deane to James Wilson, May 10, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 312-13.
306 He wrote to Jesse Root: Letter, Deane to Jesse Root, May 20, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 360.
306 Even after the French agreed: Ibid., 373-75.
306 It was now clear to Deane: Ibid., 361-63.
306 Deane expressed himself even more bluntly: Letter, Deane to Benjamin Tallmadge, May 20, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 388-89.
CHAPTER 35
308 On October 24, Rivington began publishing: “The Intercepted Letters,” October 20, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 500-501; letter, George III to Lord North, March 3, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 502.
309 The very day that Rivington announced: Letter, Deane to Barnabas Deane, October 21, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 507.
310 Arguably, Deane tried to make the publication: Letter, Deane to Charles Thomson, June 1, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 394-99. In this letter to the secretary of Congress, for example, Deane discusses a new edition of the Abbé Raynall’s Histoire Philosophique & Politique, which was critical of France, rather than discussing his own views on the alliance.
310 Months before Deane wrote the letters: Letter, George III to Lord North, March 3, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 502.
310 Historians have pointed: e.g., Van Doren, Secret History of the American Revolution , 417-18.
311 In July 1781, Lord North sent: Letter, Lord North to the King, no. 3373, July 19, 1781, Correspondence of King George III, vol. 5, 255.
311 The king acknowledged receiving: Letter, George III to Lord North, July 19, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 503.
311 A month later, George III approved: Letter, George III to Lord North, August 7, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 503.
311 For these reasons, it seems clear: Hayden, “The Apostasy of Silas Deane,” 95-103.
312 His friend Jeremiah Wadsworth: Letter, Jeremiah Wadsworth to Deane, November 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 525-27.
312 Barnabas worried that his brother: Letter, Barnabas Deane to Jacob Sebor, November 11, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 531-33.
313 His brother Simeon: Letter, Simeon Deane to Deane, November 14, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 535.
313 Major Tallmadge wrote Deane: Letter, Benjamin Tallmadge to Deane, December 27, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 557-58.
313 Allies in Congress: Letter, Thomas Paine to Jonathan Williams, November 26, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 543-45.
313 Deane feared that: Letter, Deane to Barnabas Deane, January 31, 1782, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 22.
313 Only Beaumarchais showed some sympathy: Letter, Beaumarchais to Robert Morris, June 3, 1782, Shewmake, For the Good of Mankind, 401-402.
313 Deane wrote a long letter to Franklin: Letter, Deane to Franklin, February 1, 1782, Franklin, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 36, 507-10.
314 In Deane’s view, the burdens: Ibid., 511-14.
314 Deane acknowledged that he had been accused: Ibid., 517-24.
315 Privately, he wrote to Morris: Letter, Franklin to Robert Morris, March 30, 1782, Franklin, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 37, 74.
315 To Deane, Franklin wrote: Letter, Franklin to Deane, April 19, 1782, Franklin, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 37, 172-73.
316 Deane replied to his old friend: Letter, Deane to Franklin, May 13, 1782, Franklin, Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 37, 365-66.
316 But Franklin would continue to insist: Certificate of Benjamin Franklin, December 18, 1782, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 117.
317 Alone and depressed, Deane remained: Letter, Deane to Bancroft, November 23, 1781, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 537-40; letter, Deane to Samuel Parsons, October 21, 1782, Deane Papers, vol. 4, 517.
318 The final battle plan had been drawn up: Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington, 131-32.
319 Yet Deane was happy: Letter, Deane to Barnabas Deane, July 25, 1783, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 173; letter, Deane to Jay, February 28, 1783, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 136-37, 140.
319 His friend Jay cautioned him: Letter, Jay to Deane, February 22, 1783, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 131.
319 Deane’s son, Jesse, was ill: Letter, Deane to Simeon Deane, April 1, 1783, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 145-46.
319 He also was looking into developing: Letter, Deane to James Wilson, April 1, 1783, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 149-52; letter, Deane to Barnabas Deane, August 10, 1788, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 489-90.
319 The day after Deane arrived in London: Letter, Deane to Barnabas Deane, July 25, 1783, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 176; letter, Deane to Franklin, October 19, 1783, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 213.
320 So Deane remained in this unfamiliar city: Letter, Deane to Robert Morris, October 10, 1783, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 201-4.
320 When Jay, now minister to Spain: Letter, Deane to Jay, January 21, 1784, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 279-80; letter, Jay to Deane, February 23, 1784, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 280-81.
321 He wanted to leave England: Lette
r, Deane to Barnabas Deane, November 10, 1788, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 494-95; letter, Deane to Lord Sheffield, June 30, 1788, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 482-83; letter, Deane to Barnabas Deane, August 10, 1788, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 489-92: letter, Winthrop Saltonstall to Deane, November 19, 1788, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 502-3.
322 In his disoriented condition: Letter, Deane to Barnabas Deane, November 10, 1788, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 495; letter, Jefferson to Jay, August 3, 1788, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 485-86; letter, Jay to Jefferson, Office for Foreign Affairs, November 25, 1788, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 504-5; letter, Jefferson to Jay, March 15, 1789, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 514.
322 Rather than waiting for Foullay: Letter, Jefferson to Bancroft, March 2, 1789, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 512-13.
323 Deane could no longer manage: Letter, Deane to Barnabas Deane, February 1, 1789, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 511.
323 As Washington prepared: Letter, Barnabas Deane to Deane, December 6, 1788, Deane Papers: Correspondence, Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society 23 (1930), 235-36; letter, Deane to John Jay, June 25, 1789, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 526; letter, Deane to Barnabas Deane, April 7, 1789, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 514.
324 That June Deane wrote: Letter, Deane to Washington, June 25, 1789, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 526.
324 On Tuesday, September 22, 1789, Deane left: Boyd, “Silas Deane,” 540; letter, John Brown Cutting to Thomas Jefferson, September 30, 1789, Jefferson, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 15, 500; letter, Edward Bancroft to Joseph Priestley, May 8, 1790, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 533-36.
324 Among Deane’s possessions: Letter, Barnabas Deane to Theodore Hopkins, February 25, 1790, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 533.
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325 Only days before Deane left: Letter, John Brown Cutting to Thomas Jefferson, Sep. 30, 1789, Jefferson, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 15, 500; Boyd, “Silas Deane,” 173-74.
325 He had recovered from his long illness: Stinchcombe, “A Note on Silas Deane’s Death,” 619-24.
325 The circumstances of his demise: Anderson and Anderson, “The Death of Silas Deane: Another Opinion,” 104.
325 A few months after Deane’s death: Letter, Edward Bancroft to Joseph Priestley, May 8, 1790, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 533-36.
328 In Bancroft’s novel, Charles Wentworth Esq.: Bancroft, Charles Wentworth, 69- 70.
328 Bancroft had prescribed medication: Quoted in Davidson and Lytle, After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, xxix.
328 Before Deane left London: Boyd, “Silas Deane,” 165-87, 319-42, and 515-50.
329 He continued to receive payments: “Edward Bancroft’s Memorial to the Marquis of Carmarthen,” September 17, 1784, reprinted in Bemis, “The British Secret Service and the French-American Alliance,” 493-95.
329 No one suspected Bancroft’s treachery: Rumors that Bancroft was a spy first surfaced around 1884. George Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. 5, 17. But even Francis Wharton in his classic work in 1888 on early American diplomatic history dismissed the idea that Bancroft was a spy as manifestly absurd. See Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. 1, 640-41.
329 After Congress abruptly recalled Arthur Lee: Letter, Arthur Lee to John Page, (June 4?, 1781), quoted in Potts, Arthur Lee, 251.
329 Lee also submitted a claim: Potts, Arthur Lee, 250.
330 Lee became the leading opponent: Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics, 297-98.
330 Lee’s report denied: Report of a Committee of Congress, November 4, 1783, reprinted in 27th 2d H.R. 952, p. 6.
330 Since Congress had already appointed Thomas Barclay: Ibid.
331 Fearing the rise of this new class: Potts, Arthur Lee, 254-60; Rakove, The Beginnings , 273-74.
331 To the end of his life, Lee’s: Potts, Arthur Lee, 258-59; Hendrick, The Lees of Virginia, 369-70.
331 As a result of Lee’s pro-British leanings: Potts, Arthur Lee, 258-59.
331 After Lee left Congress in 1784: Ibid., 267.
332 The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Silas Deane’s Latin Dissertation, 1755, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Library.
332 Lee had succeeded in preventing Deane: An Act for the Settlement of the Accounts of Silas Deane, S.155, signed into law by President John Tyler on August 10, 1842 (27th 2d S., 155, July 27, 1842).
332 The congressional report found: Report of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims, 27th 2d H.R. 952, p. 4.
332 Specifically, Congress criticized Lee’s: Ibid., 27th 2d S.R. 88, p. 3, 5.
CHAPTER 37
333 In 1782, under pressure from the French ambassador: Morton and Spinelli, Beaumarchais, 283-91; Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 264.
334 He had recently established a company: Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 234.
335 To the end of his life Beaumarchais: Quoted in Grendel, Beaumarchais, 294.
336 Beaumarchais had nearly completed the palatial mansion: Lemaitre, Beaumarchais , 310-13; Loménie, Beaumarchais and His Times, 411-13.
337 That night Beaumarchais returned home: Lemaitre, Beaumarchais, 313-16.
337 Beaumarchais returned home from l’Abbaye: Ibid., 298, 313-14, 324-32.
339 After her appearance at Versailles: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 120-22; Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 262-63.
339 For a while, d’Eon lived comfortably: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 125-33.
340 For a time d’Eon held on to her own flat: Ibid., 133-35.
EPILOGUE
342 Thomas Copeland, a surgeon on Millman Street: “Certificate of Thomas Copeland, surgeon, Times (London), May 25, 1810, and “Declaration of William Bowing,” British Library, Add. MSS 27937, fo. 49.
343 American revolutionaries frequently used the language of moral virtue: Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 65-70.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I am grateful to the following institutions and libraries for allowing me access to their holdings:
Amherst College Library
Archive de la ministère des affaires étrangères, Quai d’Orsay
Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley
Beinecke Library of Yale University
Bibliothèque nationale de France
British Library Manuscript Reading Room
Connecticut Historical Society
Harvard University Library
Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room
Lincoln’s Inn Archives
Middle Temple Archives
New Hampshire State Archives
New York Public Library
San Francisco Public Library
State of Connecticut Archives
COLLECTED PAPERS
Adams, John. The Works of John Adams. Vol. 2. Edited with an introduction by Charles Francis Adams. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1865.
———. The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams. Edited by Lyman Henry Butterfield. 4 vols. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1961.
Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron de. La politique de Beaumarchais. Microform edited by Jacques Donvez, 1900.
———. Correspondance. 4 vols. Edited by Brian N. Morton and Donald Spinelli. Paris: A.-G. Nizet, 1969.
Beaumont, Charles d’Eon de. The Maiden of Tonnerre: The Vicissitudes of the Chevalier and the Chevalière d’Eon. Edited and translated by Roland A. Champagne, Nina Ekstein, and Gary Kates. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Colonial Connecticut Records, 1636-1776. The Colonial Connecticut Records Project. http://www.colonialct.uconn.edu.
Continental Congress. Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905.
Cushing, Harry Alonzo, ed. The Writings of Samuel Adams. 4 vols. 1904-1908. Reprint, New York: Octagon Books, 1968.
Deane, Silas. The Paris Papers; or, Mr. Silas Deane’s Late Intercepted Letters to His Brothers, and Other Intimate Friends, in America. Reprint by James Rivington, New York: Livingston, 1782.
———. The Deane Papers, 1737-1789. Edited and translated by Charles Isham. 5 vols. New York: New-York Historical Society Collections, 1886.
———. The Deane Papers: Correspondence Between Silas Deane, His Brothers and Their Business and Political Associates, 1771-1795. Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society 23. Hartford, Conn.: 1930.
Doniol, Henri. Histoire de la participation de la France à l’établissement des Etats-Unis d’Amérique. Correspondance diplomatique et documents. 6 vols. Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1886-1889.
Franklin, Benjamin. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. Edited by William B. Willcox, vols. 15, 17-26; edited by Claude A. Lopez, vol. 27. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.
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