XVI. Dec. CHAP. that now was the happy moment for France to take a lasting revenge on her haughty enemy. 1776. But Franklin betrayed no symptoms of sharing their impatience, avoiding jealousies by keeping the company of men of letters, and appearing to be absorbed in the pursuits of science. Meantime the policy of the court unfolded itself. In the morning of the twenty-eighth, the three American commissioners waited by appointment on Vergennes. He assured them protection, read their commissions, and received the plan of congress for a treaty with France. Vergennes spoke freely to the commissioners of the attachment of the French nation to their cause. Prizes taken under the American flag might be brought into French ports, with such precautions as would invalidate complaints from Great Britain. Of Franklin he requested a paper on the condition of America. Their future intercourse he desired might be most strictly secret, without the intervention of any third person. He added that as France and Spain were perfectly in accord, they might communicate freely with the Spanish ambassador. The Count de Aranda, then fifty-eight years old. was of the grandees of Aragon. By nature proud, impetuous, restless, and obstinate, he had never disciplined his temper, and his manners were ungenial. A soldier in early life, he had been attracted to Prussia by the fame of Frederic; he admired Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Rousseau; and in France he was honored for his superiority to superstition. His haughty self-dependence and force of will just fitted him for the service of Charles the XVI. 1776. Third in suppressing the riots of Madrid and driving CHAP. the Jesuits from Spain. As an administrative reformer he began with too much vehemence ; but Dec. thwarted by the stiff formalities of officials, and the jealousies of the clerical party, he withdrew from court to fill the embassy at Paris, where he was tormented by an unquiet eagerness for more active employment. His system was marked by devotedness to the French alliance, and hatred of England, on whose prosperity and power he longed to see France and Spain inflict a mortal blow. But he was a daring schemer and bad calculator, rather than a creative or sagacious statesman; and on much of the diplomatic business with France, relating to America, he was not consulted. Jan. On the twenty-ninth of December, 1776, and again six days later, the American commissioners 1777. held secret but barren interviews with Aranda. He could only promise American privateers, with their prizes, the same security in Spanish ports which they found in those of France; he had no authority to expound the intentions of his king; his opinions, which passionately favored the most active measures in behalf of America, were known at Madrid, and passed unheeded. He did not deceive the sagacity of Franklin, who always advised his country "to wait with dignity for the applications of others, and not go about suitoring for alliances;" but a few weeks later, Arthur Lee, in his eagerness to negotiate with Spain, took from Aranda a passport for Madrid. On the fifth of January, the commissioners presented to Vergennes a written request for eight CHAP. ships of the line, for ammunition, brass field-pieces, XVL and twenty or thirty thousand muskets. The reasonJan. ing was addressed alike to France and Spain: "The 1777. interest of the three nations is the same; the opportunity of securing a commerce, which in time will be immense, now presents itself; if neglected, it may never return; delay may be attended with fatal consequences." This paper excited no interest in the Spanish government, which was only anxious to secure the exclusive commerce of its own colonies, and did not aspire to that of the United States. At Versailles, the petition was reported to the king, in the presence of Maurepas, and made the subject of the calmest deliberation n; and on the thirteenth, Gerard, meeting the commissioners by night, at a private house in Paris, read to them the careful answer which had received the royal sanction. The king could furnish the Americans neither ships nor convoys, for such a partiality would be a ground of war, into which he would not be led but by methods analogous to the dignity of a great power, and by the necessity of his important interests. "Time and events must be waited for, and provision made to profit by them. The United Provinces," so the new republic was styled, "may be assured, that neither France nor Spain will make them any overture that can in the least contravene their essential interests; that they both, wholly free from every wish for conquests, always have singly in view to make it impossible for the common enemy to injure the United Powers. The commercial facilities afforded in the ports of France and Spain, and the tacit diversion of the XVI. two powers whose expensive armaments oblige CHAP. England to divide her efforts, manifest the inter- 1777. est of the two crowns in the success of the Americans. The king will not incommode them in deriving resources from the commerce of his kingdom, confident that they will conform to the rules prescribed by the precise and rigorous meaning of existing treaties, of which the two monarchs are exact observers. Unable to enter into the details of their supplies, he will mark to them his benevolence and good-will by destining for them secret succors which will assure and extend their credit and their purchases." Of this communication, which was due to the confidence inspired by Franklin, - of Arthur Lee Vergennes did not so much as notice the name,— the promises were faithfully kept. Half a million of livres was paid to the banker of the commissioners quarterly, the first instalment on the sixteenth. After many ostensible hindrances, the "Seine," the "Amphitrite," and the "Mercury," laden with warlike stores by Deane and Beaumarchais, were allowed to set sail. Of these, the first was captured by the British; but the other two reached their destination in time for the summer campaign. The commissioners were further encouraged to enter into a contract with the farmers-general to furnish fiftysix thousand hogsheads of tobacco; and on this contract they received an advance of a million livres. Thus they were able to send warlike supplies to America. To France the British ministry sent courteous remonstrances; towards the weaker power of Hol Jan. Feb. XVI. Feb. 1 CHAP. land they were overbearing. A commerce existed between St. Eustatius and the United States: the 1777. British admiral at the Leeward islands was "ordered to station proper cruisers off the harbor of that island, and to direct their commanders to search all Dutch ships and vessels going into or carrying out of the said harbor, and to send such of them as shall be found to have any arms, ammunition, clothing, or materials for clothing on board, into some of his majesty's ports, to be detained until further orders." The king "perused, with equal surprise and indignation," the papers which proved that the principal fort on the island had returned the salute of the American brigantine "Andrew Doria," and that the governor had had "the insolence and folly "2 to say: "I am far from betraying any partiality between Great Britain and her North American colonies." The British ambassador at the Hague, following his instructions, demanded of their high mightinesses the disavowal of the salute and the recall of the governor: " till this satisfaction is given, they must not expect that his majesty will suffer himself to be amused by simple assurances, or that he will hesitate for an instant to take the measures that he shall think due to the interests and dignity of his crown."4 This language of contempt and menace incensed all Holland, especially the city of Amsterdam; and a just resentment influenced the decision of the States and of the 1 Suffolk to the Lords of the Admiralty, 15 Feb. 1777. 2 Suffolk to Sir Joseph Yorke, 14 Feb. 1777. 3 De Graaf, governor of St. Eus tatius, to Mr. President Greathead, 23 Dec. 1776. 4 Memorie van den heer Yorke te 's Gravenhage. Exhibitum den 21 February, 1777. |