CHAPTER VII

PLENIPOTENTIARY TO FRANCE

1

JOHN JAY related a strange incident which occurred in November, 1775. An old gentleman of French appearance, lame, and with a military bearing, appeared in Philadelphia and promised to Congress the assistance of Louis XVI. "Gentlemen," said the mysterious foreigner, "if you want arms, you shall have them; if you want ammunition, you shall have it; if you want money, you shall have it." Of all these things the Congress had urgent need, but it was also necessary that they should know the name and credentials of the envoy who promised so liberally. In answer to such inquiries he drew his hand with a significant gesture across his throat, and said, "Gentlemen, I shall take care of my head." Nothing further was learned of him, and in another day he had vanished from Philadelphia, rather than removed in any bodily sense.

Many were convinced that he was really an emissary of the French government. Help was eagerly and confidently looked for from abroad. Spain, Holland, and France were unsleeping enemies of Great Britain. Congress was prepared to believe that France would welcome an opportunity to loosen the ties between America and England. A committee of secret correspondence was appointed, and Franklin penned letters to his liberal friends in England, to a grandee in Spain, a physician in Paris, and a lawyer at The Hague. Silas Deane was despatched to France with instructions drawn up by Franklin to engage in extensive business operations for the

1 See "Life of John Jay," Vol. I, p. 39.

benefit of the colonies.1 Ten months passed away while the country tossed in nervous impatience, waiting for some word in answer to the letters, or for some sign from Silas Deane. The letter that then arrived, in September, 1776, from Dr. Barbeu Dubourg encouraged Congress to send an embassy to France. On the 26th of December they unanimously elected Franklin and Jefferson. The latter declined on account of the ill health of his wife, and Arthur Lee was chosen in his stead. Silas Deane was retained as the third commissioner. Turning to Dr. Rush who sat beside him, Franklin said, when the result of the balloting was announced, "I am old and good for nothing; but, as the store-keepers say of their remnants of cloth, 'I am but a fag end, and you may have me for what you please."'" His last act at home, before departing upon a journey from which it was probable he would never return, was to lend to Congress between three and four thousand pounds.

He arrived in France on the Reprisal after a stormy voyage, beaten for thirty days by November gales. They brought in with them to Quiberon Bay two prizes, a brigantine laden with tar, turpentine, and claret, and another with a cargo of cognac and flaxseed. Franklin went ashore at Auray, in Brittany, so weakened by the voyage that he could scarcely stand, and on the 7th of December reached Nantes. His coming was unexpected, but he had friends in the city, and elaborate entertainment was at once prepared

1 Deane arrived in France, June, 1776, and was in Paris on the 5th of July. He travelled by Bermudas and Spain, the route of greatest security. 2 A sixteen-gun ship, commanded by Captain Wickes. Franklin was accompanied by William Temple Franklin (aged seventeen) the illegitimate son of William Franklin, and Benjamin Franklin Bache (aged seven), eldest son of Sarah (Franklin) Bache.

for him. Lord Stormont, the British ambassador in Paris, wrote to Lord Weymouth (December 11, 1776): "I learnt yesterday evening that the famous Doctor Franklin is arrived at Nantes, with his two grandchildren. They came on an American privateer, which took several English vessels in her passage. Some people think that either some private dissatisfaction or despair of success have brought him into this country. I cannot but suspect that he comes charged with a secret commission from the Congress, and as he is a subtle artful man, and void of all truth, he will in that case use every means to deceive, will avail himself of the general ignorance of the French, to paint the situation of the rebels in the falsest colours, and hold out every lure to the ministers, to draw them into an open support of that cause. He has the advantage of several intimate connexions here, and stands high in the general opinion. In a word, my Lord, I look upon him as a dangerous engine, and am very sorry that some English frigate did not meet with him by the way."

A second letter, written the next day (December 12) by Lord Stormont to the same correspondent, and marked "most confidential," read as follows:

"I am forced to trouble Your Lordship with a few Words more. My suspicions with regard to Franklin are confirmed. He came over in a Forty Gun Ship to give more Eclat to his Mission and was at Versailles last Night as I am positively assured. He pressed to be instantly rec1 as a Minister from the Independent Colonies but in a Council that was held last Night upon the occasion, It was resolved

1 A belief expressed by Franklin's old friend, Sir Grey Cooper, who wrote from New York (October 28, 1776), "The arch - Dr. Franklin has lately eloped under the cloak of plenipotentiary to Versailles."

to decline this for the present. He talks the Language I expected, represents the Affairs of the Rebels as being in the most flourishing Condition, says that General Howe never will dare to attack Washington and adds that the Hessians who were advanced before the Main Army had attacked, and had been repulsed with loss. It is not to be doubted that he will make France the Most insidious and tempting offers, and there is, I think, but too much Reason to fear that he will draw her into the Snare."

Stormont corrected his error concerning the visit to De Vergennes in a letter of December the eighteenth. Half Paris believed that Franklin had gone at once to Versailles; but he tarried a fortnight at Nantes, while his presence in Europe continued to excite universal interest and curiosity. Madame du Deffand wrote to Horace Walpole: "The object of Dr. Franklin's visit is still problematical; and what is the most singular of all is that no one can tell whether he is actually in Paris or not. For three or four days it has been said in the morning that he had arrived and in the evening that he had not yet come.'

While the ministers with more or less success sought to persuade themselves that Franklin was seeking safety in selfish flight from a forlorn cause, statesmen, like Burke and Rockingham, were undeceived. "I persuade myself," wrote Burke, "that Franklin is come to Paris to draw from

1 Deane wrote to the Committee of Correspondence that for a long time nothing had so occupied the minds of people as the arrival of Franklin. The prefect of police informed De Vergennes that a great sensation in Paris had been occasioned by the approach of Franklin, and that the departure of Beaumarchais had caused no less sensation. The public connected the two circumstances and found in the coincidence a proof that the insurgents had no desire for reconciliation. See Doniol, Vol. II, p. 101.

that court a definitive and satisfactory answer concerning the support of the colonies. If he cannot get such an answer, (and I am of opinion that at present he cannot,) then it is to be presumed he is authorized to negotiate with Lord Stormont on the basis of dependence on the crown. This I take to be his errand: for I never can believe that he is come thither as a fugitive from his cause in the hour of its distress, or that he is going to conclude a long life, which has brightened every hour it has continued, with so foul and dishonourable flight."

Lord Rockingham, replying to some correspondent who had communicated to him the news of Franklin's arrival, said: "In regard to this event I cannot refrain from paying my tribute of admiration to the vigour, magnanimity and determined resolution of the Old Man. The horrid scene at a Privy Council is in my memory, though perhaps not in his. It may not excite his conduct. It certainly deters him not.He boldly ventures to cross the Atlantic in an American little frigate, and risks the dangers of being taken, and being once more brought before an implacable tribunal. The sight of Banquo's ghost could not more offend the eyes of Macbeth, than the knowledge of this old man being at Versailles, should affect the minds of those who were principals in that horrid scene.

"Depend upon it he will plead forcibly. He has but to combat a degree of folly in a very few in France. He is so armed with proofs of the facility with which France and Spain may now give a deadly blow to this country, that I can no longer enjoy the chief comfort I had in the reliance, that though the political conduct of this country was weak or infatuated beyond all bounds yet the Courts of France and Spain were still more weak and blind.