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Nearing France, Dr. Franklin changed the captains orders. Franklin looked upon these fleets with the lust of a patriot whose country was in mortal danger for lack of their support. This rule was so thoroughly disobeyed that great shipping houses like Willing & Morris of Philadelphia kept factors, or at least correspondents, all over Europe and the Caribbean to take care of their trade. Franklin and Deane now wrote the committee urging action in every sea where British carried on commerce. May 12, 1780. Masonry was powerful in France and all-powerful in Nantes, and for perhaps a generation its exporters had been sending American brothers, along with bills of lading and business papers, sheaves of French Masonic literature in exchange for similar pamphlets from the colonies. The winter of Valley Forge was beginning, and its bleakness was in the comfortable house at Passy too. During the struggle for American independence, France provided the money, troops, armament, military leadership, and naval support that tipped the balance of military power and paved the way for the Continental Army's ultimate victory. For a complication of reasons the Massachusetts cousins, John and Samuel Adams, had formed a close alliance with the Virginia brothers, Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee. Wentworth, he wrote North, is an avowed stock jobber and I never let that go out of my mind. Lord Stormont, the British ambassador, had been sputtering at Vergennes for two years about the shipping of contraband from French ports, and now he raised such a storm that the minister had to forbid the sailing of one Hortalez vessel after the other. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce recognized the U.S. as an independent nation and promoted trade between France and America. Following hard on the American Revolution (1776-83), the sweeping aside of the French feudal order demonstrated the irresistible rise of freedom and enlightenment. took place in France and India. British firms had also been running munitions to the colonies, and continued to do so, despite orders-in-council. On January 24 Wickes sailed out of Nantes with a French pilot and several French seamen aboard, strengthening the desired impression of collusion with Versailles. Spain had suffered less, but she was tied to France by the Bourbon Family Compact. Soon Beaumarchaiss coach was tearing down the road to Paris so fast that it overturned and he injured an arm. In March the Doctor was given a charming house at Passy on the grounds of the Htel Valentinois, which belonged to the merchant prince Donatien le Rey de Chaumont. After this momentous decision of December 17, Deanes meeting with Wentworth was a decided anticlimax. Without changing his normal contacts Franklin could easily have guided a conspiracy to make the Revolution a reality instead of a lost cause. By a supple turn of the wrist, Franklin transformed Franco-American relations. Monticello Guide Olivia Brown looks at Jefferson's reaction to this momentous event and the small but significant role he played in it. Many of them were now flocking to Europe, for the word had been passed of the hospitality of French and Spanish ports if the proper techniques of evasion were followed. Franklin knew that Vergennes, who for years had befriended America, would scuttle her the instant she ceased to serve his purpose. Copyright 1949-2022 American Heritage Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. Vergennes was alarmed. Naval affairs were stagnant; the privateers attracted all the able seamen. Revolutionary leadership of George Washington Head of the colonial forces. The requested battleships were not forthcoming; it was explained that France needed every unit of her Navy for her own purposes, which of course meant her expected war with Britain. On the same day he wrote Richard Henry Lee: My idea of adapting characters and places is this: Dr. Franklin to Vienna, as the first, most respectable, and quiet; Mr. Deane to Holland; and the alderman [William] to Berlin. The fact that he was a genius, and a genius of such multiple gifts that he might easily inspire alarm or jealousy in others, had early taught him the art of using screens and disguises. It is the House of Crommelin at Amsterdam which is chiefly concerned in this trade with the Colonies, tho some others have their share., In later reports Sir Joseph drew such an alarming picture of Dutch gunrunning, especially to the Caribbean, that the British sent a Navy sloop and cutter to spend the winter at Texel Island near Amsterdam. They provided ideological underpinnings. Dr. Bancroft was an old friend of Franklins from his London days. Plainly neither side wanted to start hostilities, and they had perfected a system for avoiding a rupture. Hoping to calm down the furor, Franklin appeared in public as little as possible. What thus started as an acknowledged business arrangement was twisted by Arthur Lee into a fantasy which better suited his private purposes, all directed toward immortalizing Arthur Lee. The United States, far from asking something for herself, was in reality advancing Bourbon interests and fighting their war. This treaty was a promise from France to help the fight against the British. Arthur Lee was rewarded by memories of turmoil, which he loved and which he was expert in creating. But he had not reckoned on the reversal of Spanish policy. The conversation continued with this sort of exchange, and Franklin kept it going for two hours. After Lees visit he proffered no more aid and listened to Floridablanca. Later Congress backed up this pledge and authorized all tenders necessary to get Bourbon help. But Montaudoin and all Nantes had begun to increase clandestine trade with the thirteen colonies about 1770, long before Franklin decided on his personal break with England. A few days later Louis XVI made the United States a loan of 2,000,000 livres. Vergennes had patiently dissembled Frances violations of neutrality in one encounter after the other with Stormont. As was demonstrated at the Battle of Yorktown, the French alliance was decisive for the cause of American independence. The French support NATO modernization efforts and are leading contributors to the NATO Response Force. Late in October, 1776, Benjamin Franklin sailed for France to direct the foreign sector of the extraordinary war into which his young country had been plunged. As a past master in the art of making the other man feel that he was acting solely for him, Vergennes recognized this basic technique in diplomacy. It had only an overworked legislature trying to perform administrative functions. Knowing George III as he did, Franklin realized the importance of insulting him while all Europe looked on. For the first time since Britain was a maritime power, Deane wrote Morris, the River Thames and others of its ports were crowded with French and other ships taking in freight, in order to avoid the risk of having property captured.. He had to fend off a break with England until France was ready for war. They were based on the Plan of 1776, drafted chiefly by Franklin, and they laid down his cherished, and essentially modern, principles of free trade and settled the wholly new problem of how a republic should conduct its relations with a kingdom. Then he captured the Kings packet, England registered the expected sense of outrage; the whole country seethed with the news. The new physiocratic school had its followers on both sides of the Atlantic. On the land, if Washington finally got enough men and guns, he might wear down British troops far from their home base. Lord North had instructed him to explore the possibility of a truce on terms short of independence, and William Eden had given him an unsigned letter to show Franklin and Deane (the British too avoided Arthur Lee) which declared that England was ready to make great concessionsshort of independence. Somehow the wild Irishman, repeating the maneuver of the sound and sober Wickes, created an infinitely greater reaction. France was a long-term historical rival with the Kingdom of Great Britain, from which the Colonies were attempting to separate.. A Treaty of Alliance between the French and . His widening circle of intimates included people of great influence: Masons, scientists and scholars, men and women of the aristocracy. He had spent years in Surinam and was an expert on tropical plants; he had written a natural history of Guiana and perfected new vegetable dyes for cloth. France had been secretly aiding the American Colonies since 1776, because France was angry at Britain over the loss of Colonial territory in the French and Indian War. But somehow, even when he acted in a cheap way, Silas Deane was not cheap. At once, on March 17, the commissioners sent memoirs to the French and Spanish ministries urging a triple war against Britain and her ally Portugal. Apprehensive as he was about Britain, Vergennes risked war to release Captain Wickes and Captain Henry Johnson, who had sailed in company with him on the Irish cruise, from their long protective arrest in port. Robert Morris had arranged Toms appointment under the delusion that the youth had reformed during a long stay abroad and was to be trusted with the public business. The foreign alliances of France have a long and complex history spanning more than a millennium. On Christmas Day Washington wrote Congress: Our want of powder is inconceivable. Three weeks later there was not a pound in his magazines. In terms of violent behavior, the American Revolution can't hold a candle to the French Revolution. The letter announcing his imminent arrival in Madrid was received with consternation. The French Revolution began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille on July 14th. The French Revolution was one of the most senseless . The United States, far from asking something for herself, was in reality advancing Bourbon interests and fighting their war. And Franklin, Voltaire, and Rousseau were linked together as the presiding geniuses of the century. Bingham was in other privateering ventures with Robert Morris and had made St. Pierre a virtual American war base. General Washington in the American Revolution. With Deane and Carmichael, and all those shadowy young Americans who helped the great privateering drive of 1777, he organized an underground system for escapes. It meant only the familiar rite of changing the property on paper. He already knew Deane, and wished not to know Arthur Lee, but he was consumed with curiosity about Franklin. The result of this conflict would not only determine the fate of the thirteen North American colonies, but also alter the balance of colonial power throughout the world. Grimaldi told him that the King was presenting the Americans stores of arms, clothing, and blankets which their ships could pick up at New Orleans and Havana. Vergennes had answered, Nous ne d sirons pas la guerre, mais nous ne la craignons pas. In sending on this encouraging word to Congress, Franklin added his own hopes about the Franco-British war: When all are ready for it, a small matter may suddenly bring it on.. But once these two great steps in the right direction were made, it was easy to push through resolutions for negotiating foreign alliances. Britain won the Seven Years War and imposed the Peace of Paris which bred the next cycle of conflict with the Continental powers. Bancroft belonged to the American patriot group in London and wrote able papers defending the cause of the thirteen colonies. Finally the almost moribund Board of Trade and Plantations was given the assignmentwhich doubtless proved profitableof issuing permits to merchants wishing to export warlike stores. Franklin had no doubt guessed, when the courier returned from Europe in September with news of tremendous shipments of arms by Monsieur Hortalez, that the real name of this mysterious friend was France. By early 1775 the British embassy in France estimated that war supplies worth 32,000,000 livres (about $6,000,000) had been shipped from that kingdom to the colonies. The alliance of France with the American Patriots started on February 6, 1778, when the King of France signed a treaty with Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Deane, Carmichael, and Jonathan Williams were on the watch for daring and trustworthy captains for Admiral Franklins strategic naval force. Support with a donation>>. He helped Beaumarchais buy and fit out eight ships, prudently scattered in various ports: the Amphitrite, Mercure, Flammand, Mre Bobie, Seine, Thrse, Amelia , and Marie Catherine . France and Britain drifted into hostilities without a declaration of war when their fleets off Ushant off the northwest coast of France on June 17, 1778. Getting a fleet for Washington was high on Franklins agenda. If Vergennes had any doubts about Franklins grasp of Bourbon aims, they were resolved by the Doctors masterly letter of January 5. It happened that Franklin and Morris were the only members of the Committee of Secret Correspondence in town when the courier arrived, and they resolved to keep the news to themselves. It was a long time before this contract with the Farmers General could be satisfied, since few ships could now run the British blockade of the American seaboard. It was plain that Vergennes rather disliked him and gave every evidence that he was dealing with him only because he represented someone important. Now the picture had entirely changed, and Spain hoped to make peace with the new king on the Portuguese throne. His private period of turmoil and decision lay behind him, and he could think calmly of what must be done to make Jeffersons great charter a reality. Arthur Lee knew he was being kept out of important conferences, and yet within a few months he was writing friends that he alone had negotiated the French alliance, though Franklin and Deane tried to take credit for the work. If Vergennes had any doubts about Franklins grasp of Bourbon aims, they were resolved by the Doctors masterly letter of January 5. In a few swift parries Franklin suggested what his technique of dealing with the ministry would be. Like a good diplomat, he conveyed these urgent demands to the ministries in a most persuasive form, but he had already gauged the situation in the royal courts and expected no miracles. He signed only his initials. Later Lee developed this fantasy into a sinister engine of destruction against those he hated. He returned to Paris with his usual air of pompous impeccability, for his conscience was light. Vergennes was so disheartened by the bad news which had arrived even before these disasters were known, and he so much dreaded a sudden declaration of war by Britain, that in August he formally closed the ports of France to American privateers and their prizes. By April American privateers had taken so many British seamen prisoner that the British fleet was not half manned, and Stormont hinted to Vergennes that peace could not last much longer if France continued to arm the United States. Because the future could somehow work in him he had become the sort of man coming generations would repeat. Anything he could learn about the missions connections with Spain and other countries was wanted. It looked like a checkmate. Franklin had already urged that France and Spain conclude treaties of amity and commerce with the United States, and his letter went farther, offering these powers a firm guarantee of their present possessions in the West Indies, plus any new islands they conquered in a war growing out of their aid to the United States. What was the intended purpose of the Albany Congress in 1754? The Secret Committee, dominated by the capable merchant Robert Morris, methodized the smuggling of war supplies from Europe, which had been going on for years. The Comte de Vergennes. However, Deane had already made a magnificent contribution to the Revolution in helping France to help America. He contributed a million livres to the colonies war chest and his uncle, Charles III of Spain, followed suit. Deane was up to his neck in business affairs and was essential to their success, for Tom Morris was clearly unfit to carry out any operation but commandeering cargoes from Congress to finance his endless debauch. The prize crew of five Americans and sixteen Frenchmen were put in prison, and the prize master was forced to confess that Conyngham had made other captures. Franklin insisted on British recognition of American independence and refused to consider a peace separate from France, America's staunch ally. The move was long overdue, for the Americans had been making a brilliant success of their sea raids all over the Atlantic and the Caribbean. The royal loan was followed by an advance of a third million by the Farmers General of the French Revenue, who administered the government monopoly of tobacco and hoped for large shipments from Congress. When the royal nod transmogrified Beaumarchais into Roderigue Hortalez, he wrote Lee over that signature, announcing the formation of his house and his intended shipments to the Cape, to be paid for by remittances of American tobacco. George Washington was appointed commander of the Continental Army in 1775. Since Nantes was the key port for American purposes, Franklin made a personal sacrifice and sent his grandnephew Jonathan Williams there as the special agent for the commissioners. (We must remember that all this was happening before Lexington.). The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774-1787. And the French people, cheering in the streets and squares, were as proud of Saratoga, he wrote home, as if it had been a Victory of their own Troops over their own Enemies.. Only a great heart and a great faith could survive. He raided in the North Sea and the Baltic; he sailed around England and then around Ireland, everywhere taking prizes.