States engage for the payment of the arms, artillery and ammunition, and to defray the expense of the convoy. This application has now become the more necessary, as the private purchase made by Mr. Deane of those articles is rendered ineffectual, by an order forbidding their exportation.

We also beg it may be particularly considered that while the English are masters of the American seas, and can without fear of interruption, transport with such ease, their army from one part of our extensive coast to another, and we can only meet them by land-marches, we may possibly unless some powerful aid is given us, or some strong diversion be made in our favour, be so harrassed and be put to such immense distress, as that finally our people will find themselves reduced to the necessity of ending the war by an accommodation.

The courts of France and Spain may rely with the fullest confidence, that whatever stipulations are made by us, in case of granting such aid, will be ratified and punctually fulfilled by the congress, who are determined to found their future character with regard to justice and fidelity on a full and perfect performance of all their present engagements.

North America now offers to France and Spain her amity and commerce. She is also ready to guaranty in the firmest manner to those nations all her present possessions in the West Indies, as well as those they shall acquire from the enemy, in a war that may be consequential of such assistance as she requests. The interests of the three nations are the same. The opportunity of cementing them and of securing all the advantages of that commerce which in time will be immense, now presents itself. If neglected it may never again return. And we cannot help suggesting that a considerable delay may be attended with fatal consequences.* BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, SILAS DEANE, ARTHUR LEE,

Commissioners of the Congress of N. America."

* On the paper from which this memorial is copied, Mr. Lee has endorsed, “presented to Count Vergennes, through Mons. Girard, Jan. 5th, 1777.”

In the month of December 1777, Congress resolved to appoint commissioners to the courts of Vienna, Spain, Prussia, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In the month of May, Mr. Lee was appointed sole commissioner to the court of Spain, by virtue of the following

“Resolved, That a commission be made out and sent to Arthur Lee, Esq. empowering him in behalf of the United States, to transact such business at the court of Spain as shall be intrusted to him by congress, agreeably to the instructions that may be given him, and transmitted by the Committee of Foreign Affairs."* At the same time William Lee, Esq. a brother of Arthur Lee, who had been acting as an agent of the colonies at the Hague, was appointed commissioner to the courts of Vienna and Berlin, and Ralph Iszard, Esq. was appointed in the same capacity to the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. These appointments are here mentioned because many of the letters of both these gentlemen are still preserved among the MSS. of Mr. Lee, and are too interesting and too important to the history of the United States, to be omitted in his correspondence. They will be found in No. 7 of the Appendix. The commission to Mr. Lee may be found in the second volume of the secret journals of the old congress, p. 46.

The commissioners to the court of France were furnished with the plan of a treaty to be presented to that court accompanied with detailed instructions, which will be seen in No. 4 of the Appendix.(a) In pursuance of their instructions they immediately proposed to form a treaty of alliance and commerce with France. But France had suffered so severely in the late war with Great Britain, that she declined for the present entering into any sort of treaty with the United States, lest it should be considered by England a violation of neutrality, and a cause of war against France. The commissioners however pressed the subject from time to time on the attention of the French ministry. The utmost good will was entertained by the king and his cabinet towards the Unit* See Secret Journals, &c. vol. ii. p. 44.

ed States. They were furnished with a large supply of warlike stores, and a loan of money was granted. Every thing was done with alacrity which could be done with secrecy to aid the United States in carrying on the war. The cause of America was exceedingly popular with the French people. It became a theme of enthusiastic applause with their orators and poets, and a subject of interest and reflection to their practical and theoretic states

men.

In reply to the foregoing memorial the commissioners received from the king a communication explaining his views in regard to the United States. They were such as have been stated. To this communication the commissioners replied as follows.

"We thank Mons. Girard for the polite and explicit manner in which he has communicated his majesty's

message.

We beg to return our most grateful sense of the gracious intentions which his majesty has had the goodness to signify to our states, and to assure his majesty that we shall ever retain the warmest gratitude for the substantial proofs he has given us of his regard, and that we will endeavour in due time to impress our constituents with the same sentiments.

We feel the strength of the reasons his majesty has been pleased to assign for the conduct he means to hold; and the magnanimity of his motives. We beg leave to assure his majesty that we shall at all times and in all things endeavour to conform ourselves to the views he has opened for us, as nothing is farther from our intentions than to precipitate his majesty into any measures which his royal wisdom and justice may disapprove. And if in any thing we should contravene those purposes, we shall always be happy and ready to amend it according to the advice and direction of government.*

Signed,

Paris, January 14th, 1777."

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
SILAS DEANE,

ARTHUR LEE.

* This reply is taken from the original MSS. written by Mr. Lee.

The reader will recollect how dark and forboding were the prospects of the United States in the winter of 1777. The successes of the British armies already in America, and the increasing vigour of the ministry in taking measures to prosecute the war by means of additional troops. from England and Germany, had caused the deepest dejection in the minds of the people, and had disappointed the courts of Europe most friendly to us. The court of

France was operated upon by this state of things, and acted with more and more caution towards the United States. The commissioners however did not despond; but redoubled their efforts to enlist France actively and openly in our behalf. They urged upon the French ministry that the distressed and threatened condition of their country made it more and more the policy of France to take part with North America at once, in order to save the states and rescue them forever from the dominion of Great Britain; and thus secure an opportunity which might now be lost of increasing the strength, safety and commerce of France. The following interesting memorial presenting and enforcing these views and arguments of the commissioners, was drawn up by Mr. Lee, approved by his colleagues, and presented by him to Count de Vergennes. The perilous condition of the states of Maryland and Virginia is strongly represented,

"PARIS, February 1st, 1777.

Messrs. Franklin, Deane and Lee, ministers from the congress of the United States, beg leave to represent to his excellency the Count de Vergennes, that besides the general alarming accounts of the success of the English against their country they have just received authentic intelligence from England that eight thousand men, chiefly Germans, under the command of General Burgoyne, are to be sent early in the spring to America, and to be employed, with some ships of war, in the invasion of Virginia and Maryland.

That if not by some means diverted from their design it will be in their power to destroy a great part of those states, as the houses and estates of the principal inhabi

tants are situated on the navigable waters, and so separated from each other as to be incapable of being defended from armed vessels conveying troops, the place of whose landing cannot be foreseen, and consequently force cannot be assembled in all places sufficient to oppose them.

That great danger is also to be apprehended from the blacks of those states, who, being excited and armed by the British, may greatly strengthen the invaders, at the the same time that the fear of their insurrection will prevent the white inhabitants from leaving their places of residence and assembling in such numbers for their own defence against the English as otherwise they might do.

That the greatest part of the tobacco of those states is probably collected as usual in the warehouses of the inspectors, which are also situated on navigable waters, and will be liable to be taken and destroyed by the invaders; that the destruction of these two states probably may make a great impression on the people in the rest, who, seeing no prospect of assistance from any European power, may be more inclined to listen to terms of accommodation.

That the supplies of arms and ammunition of war which they have been made to expect from France, having been by various means delayed and retarded, are not likely to arrive before the commencement of the next campaign, and may perhaps be despaired of, especially if those supplies are to be carried first to the French islands.

That notwithstanding the measures taken to convince the court of Britain that France does not countenance the Americans, that court, according to our information, believes firmly the contrary; and it is submitted to the consideration of your excellency, whether, if the English make a conquest of the American states, they will not take the first opportunity of showing their resentment, by beginning themselves the war that would otherwise be avoided; and perhaps beginning it as they did the last, without any previous declaration.

That upon the whole, we cannot on this occasion omit expressing our apprehensions, that if Britain is now suf