CHAPTER XII.

COMMISSIONER TO NEGOTIATE PEACE.

1

1782-1784.

BEFORE M. Gérard left America, he suggested to Congress the propriety of appointing a minister plenipotentiary to reside in Europe, ready to negotiate a peace whenever he might be invited to it. The Chevalier de la Luzerne, upon his arrival in Philadelphia, renewed the suggestion. In both cases, it was the expectation of the French ministry,' says Mr. Adams, that Dr. Franklin would be elected.' If this expectation was entertained, it was disappointed. In 1779, Mr. Adams was appointed as sole minister plenipotentiary for peace, and also to make a treaty of commerce with Great Britain. In 1781, Congress associated with Mr. Adams in the commission for peace, Mr. Jay, Mr. Franklin, Mr. Laurens, and Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Adams' commission to negotiate a treaty of commerce was annulled, and not renewed to the five commissioners who were appointed in his stead.

Mr. Jay arrived at Paris the 23d of June, 1782. After placing his family in a hotel, he went immediately out to Passy to pay his respects to Dr. Franklin.

6

He certainly is a valuable minister,' he wrote to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and an agreeable companion.'' Mr. Adams was still at Amsterdam, Mr. Jefferson in America, and the health of Mr. Laurens so much impaired from his confinement in the Tower, that he thought of

going to the United States rather than to Paris. The skirmishing business of the negotiation, therefore, devolved upon Mr. Jay and Dr. Franklin. How this was conducted, the sequel will disclose.

In the meantime it is proper to observe that Congress, through the influence and address of the Chevalier de la Luzerne, expressly instructed their commissioners 'to make the most candid and confidential communications upon all subjects to the ministers of our generous ally, the King of France, and to undertake nothing in the negotiations for peace or truce without their knowledge and concurrence.' This action of Congress was highly distasteful to Mr. Jay. It was equally so to Mr. Adams. 'Congress,' he says, 'surrendered their own sovereignty into the hands of a French minister. Blush! blush, ye guilty records! blush and perish! It is glory to have broken such infamous orders. Infamous, I say, for so they will be to all posterity. How can such a stain be washed out? Can we cast a veil over it and forget it?'1 Mr. Jay requested Congress to take an early opportunity of relieving him from a station where, in character of their minister,' he said, 'I must necessarily receive and obey (under the name of opinions) the directions of those on whom I really think no American minister ought to be dependent, and to whom, in love for our country and zeal for her service, I am sure my colleagues and myself are at least equal.' But, however unpalatable the instructions of Congress might have been to their servants, they were, nevertheless, bound to obey them, unless very cogent reasons required a different line of conduct. It must be recollected, too, that it was stipulated in the treaty of alliance, that neither of the two parties should

1

2

Adams' Works, vol. iii., p. 359. Mr. Adams was very indignant that his commission was annulled, and others associated with him in the negotiation.

Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. vii.; Letter to the President of Congress, September 20th, 1781.

conclude either truce or peace with Great Britain without the formal consent of the other first obtained.'

2

When Mr. Jay arrived at Paris, he found there Mr. Richard Oswald, a London merchant who had lived in America, was familiar with the country, its people, circumstances, commerce, &c. He had the reputation of being a man of candor and integrity. Dr. Franklin described him as an old man, who seemed to have no desire but that of being useful in doing good,'' and Lord Shelburne as a pacifical man, conversant in those negotiations which are most interesting to mankind.' He had been at Paris since April, with authority to consult Dr. Franklin on the mode of beginning and pursuing a negotiation. Mr. Thomas Grenville was also there, with instructions to treat with M. de Vergennes. He was a son of the celebrated George Grenville, who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, brought into form the Stamp Act, and established it by act of Parliament. He was the friend of Fox, who described him as a man of 'excellent qualities of heart and head.' 'I sometimes a little doubt Mr. Grenville,' said Dr. Franklin. He is clever, and seems to feel reason as readily as Mr. Oswald, though not so ready to own it. A young man, naturally desirous of acquiring reputation, seems to aim at that of being an able negotiator.''

. .

3

On the 7th of August, Mr. Oswald communicated to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jay a copy of the King's order to the Attorney-General to prepare a commission to pass the great seal, empowering him to negotiate a peace or truce with any commissioner or commissioners named, or to be named, by the thirteen colonies or plantations. in North America, or any body or bodies, corporate or politic, or any assembly or assemblies, or description of

'Franklin's Works, vol. ix., p. 336. 'Ibid, p. 271.

2 Ibid, p. 240. Ibid, p. 336.

men, or any person or persons whatsoever.' The commission itself was to be sent in eight or ten days.

Mr. Oswald first called on Dr. Franklin at Passy, then returned to Paris, and called on Mr. Jay. 'He is a man of good sense,' he wrote Mr. Secretary Townsend, of frank, easy, and polite manners; he read over the copy of the commission, and Mr. Townsend's letter accounting for its not being under seal, and then said, by the quotation from the act of Parliament on the commission, he supposed it was meant that independence was to be treated upon, and was to be granted perhaps as the price of peace; that it ought to be no part of a treaty; it ought to have been expressly granted by act of Parlia ment, and an order for all troops to be withdrawn previous to any proposal for treaty. As that was not done, the King, he said, ought to do it now by proclamation, and order all garrisons to be evacuated, and then close the American war with a treaty. He said many

things of a retrospective kind. . . He returned to the subject of independence, as not being satisfied with its being left as a matter of treaty. . . He said peace was very desirable, and the sooner the better. But the great point was, to make such a peace as should be lasting. . The peace he meant was such, or so to be settled, that it should not be to the interest of either party to violate it. This, he said, was the only security that could be proposed to prevent those frequent returns. of war, by which the world was kept in continual disturbance.' '

1

On the 10th of August, Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jay had a conference with M. de Vergennes on the subject of Oswald's commission. Vergennes said names signified

1

Mr. Oswald to Mr. Secretary Townsend, August 7th 1782. Franklin's Works, vol. ix., p. 377. The valuable letters of Mr. Oswald were furnished to Mr. Sparks by the Marquis of Lansdowne, and he has printed extracts from them as notes to illustrate Franklin's correspondence of this period.

little; that the King of Great Britain styling himself the King of France was no obstacle to the King of France treating with him; that an acknowledgment of the independence of the United States, instead of preceding, must, in the natural course of things, be the effect of the treaty, and that it would not be reasonable to expect the effect before the cause. This opinion of M. de Vergennes we cannot help thinking was well founded. It coincided with Franklin's. He thought the commission would do. But Mr. Jay insisted that it would be descending from the ground of independence to treat under the denomination of colonies. I told the minister,' he says, 'that we neither could nor would treat with any nation in the world on any other than an equal footing.' He suspected that the French Court wished to postpone an acknowledgment of American independence by England for sinister

purposes.

After Mr. Oswald's interview with Mr. Jay, he took 'a quiet and convenient opportunity' to bring to the attention of Dr. Franklin some of the topics which had been discussed in the course of it. The Doctor asked Mr. Oswald if he had instructions. He said he had, and that they were under his Majesty's hand and seal, and authorized him to grant independence unconditionally in every sense, and he saw no reason why it should not make the first article of the treaty. He was sure, he said, that all pretensions would be as properly, expeditiously, and effectually settled under his present commission as in the way proposed by Mr. Jay. The Doctor replied,' says Mr. Oswald, that Mr. Jay was a lawyer, and might think of things that did not occur to those who were not lawyers. And he at last spoke as if he did not see much or any difference; but still used such a mode of expression as I could not positively say would preclude him from

'Letter to Gouverneur Morris, October 13th, 1782. Writings of Jay, p. 105.