Chapter XII: Front Matter (12)

I have crossed the Chesapeake in this very ferry boat, in which my bold countryman crossed the Atlantic. I had been told by a man high in office in England, that resistance was a chimera in us, since their armed vessels would swarm so much in our rivers, as even to intercept the ferry-boats. His assertions are verified _vice versa_; our ferry-boats ruin their commerce. You smile, and think me amusing you. Be assured that is not the case. This very little boat took on her passage another brig of two hundred tons from Alicant, and sent her into America; she also took four or five vessels in the Channel, chiefly smugglers, and plundered them of their cash, and the Captain being a good natured fellow let them go, as he did a transport, which he took in sight of a man-of-war, and was obliged to give her up, bringing off, however, with him his people. He has promised for the future to burn those he cannot send in, and I believe will be as good as his word. This is the way the English serve not only ours, but the French vessels, which they take on our coast. The Captain tells me, he was told this last circumstance by several French Captains, whom he saw prisoners, (himself a prisoner) at New York. The eyes of this Court will be opened, it is to be hoped, before it is too late, a war being inevitable, in my opinion, to force an accommodation. They will unite with us on our own terms, and discerning from the past how little effective assistance we have to hope from France for the future, will make a war with this nation one article of the Federal Union. Whichever strikes first will probably succeed. Our valuable commerce is more hurt on the French coast than on our own. We have lost above £60,000 sterling, from South Carolina only, all which was coming to be laid out for French manufactures. It is a fact at present, that the manufacturers of this country cannot execute so fast as they receive orders.

The English papers published by the authority of General Howe, at New York, tell with triumph, that one of their cruisers has sunk a twenty gun French ship at some distance from the Delaware, and every soul perished. We have some fears that this is the Amphitrite. Another ship was taken, French property, a few leagues from the harbor of St Pierre, which she had just quitted. If they dare do this in their present critical situation, what will they not dare if successful, or at peace and united with us?

I wrote you before what I repeat again, that had General Howe got possession of Philadelphia last winter, as insolent a Memorial as that presented by Sir Joseph York, would have been presented by Lord Stormont here, and had not their demands been instantly complied with, the immediate destruction of the French commerce would have been the consequence. All the navy, all the army contracts are made, for five years, in England. Letters of marque were given to contractors, and friends of government, for what? To cruise against our trade? No; but to be ready at a signal given, to enrich themselves by the first captures on the French nation; for the gleanings of our commerce are no object to a private adventurer, assured as the English Ministry are of the pacific intentions of this Court. From the quarter I mentioned to you in my last, they will try his patience, and they do right, for the only hope they now have of conquering us is to deprive us of the means of resistance, and the hopes of foreign aid, which keeps up the spirits of the people. If the Amphitrite is really lost, General Washington will open the campaign without any of their military stores, so long promised, and so vainly expected, except about twelve thousand muskets.

We expect with impatience direct news from America; the moment it arrives I will communicate it to you. The gentlemen are well, and beg me to present compliments.

I am, Dear Sir, yours, &c.

WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

_P. S._ You will not mention publicly, for particular reasons, the history of the little privateer. When the Captain of our small privateer boarded the transport, and told him he was his prisoner, he very insolently asked where his ship was, not conceiving that any person would have crossed the ocean in so small a boat.

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TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

June 14th, 1777.

Gentlemen,

I have escaped, as much as I am able, from my chains, to make journeys to the Hague, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, in order to maintain and increase useful acquaintances; and when I obtain any light I communicate it to friends. The great majority, almost the whole of our merchants, are for you. The regencies of our cities, and among others Amsterdam, seem to take part with the Court, which is allied with and friendly to England. But all this is precarious, and will change with your fortune. Let us hear of a successful campaign, and your friends will show themselves, your partizans will multiply; they will lose by degrees this panic terror for a power, that is not loved by the multitude. These persons are chiefly large annuitants, whose hearts are in the sources of their income.

Another important truth, which I have learned at Amsterdam, is that no banking house is willing to take part, to the amount of a shilling, in the loan of five millions sterling, which England has raised, because they were not content with the offered premium and with her solidity, nor sure of selling the stock in detail. Distrust increases here, in proportion as England sinks. The premium ought to be two and a half per cent, but we know that in England even the bankers are content with their sales in detail at five eights per cent.

I have made acquaintance and connexion with a House, to whom I shall address in future all my despatches for you, and under cover to whom you may in safety address to me your letters, viz. Messrs Lalande & Fynge, merchants, Amsterdam. If you will send me regularly, by your vessels going to St Eustatia and Curaçoa, one at least of your best public papers to the address above pointed out, or in the packets of friends in France, I will make good use of it for your service in our periodical papers. They complain everywhere of knowing nothing of your affairs, but what the English wish Europe should know; and on this subject we have often to wait some months before the truth is unfolded from a heap of impostures, which do not fail sometimes to answer the malice of your enemies in leaving false impressions on minds, which I wish to be able to destroy in their birth.

I have the Honor to be, &c.

DUMAS.

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TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

August 22d, 1777.

Gentlemen,

In spite of my extreme circumspection, your enemies are not altogether without knowledge of me, and, not able to persecute me openly, are endeavoring secretly to deprive me of my post in this country. I sent an account yesterday to Paris, and today to a certain person at the Hague, of what has happened to me. I am sustained in all my losses by the firm resolution to live and die the faithful servant of United America, and by consequence, also, with the most profound respect for the honorable General Congress and yourselves. God bless your just arms.

_September 5th._--It would be useless for me to give you copies of the last letters that I wrote to Paris. They chiefly concern myself; and I await their answers. I will say only in general here, that from the moment when I was first honored with your orders and your confidence, I have devoted to you in every event, my person, services, and fidelity; and this for the love I bear to your cause, and on the most perfect conviction of its justice. I have conducted myself in the execution of your orders with all imaginable prudence, circumspection, and patience. At last, however, I am the victim of the suspicions and implacable hatred of your enemies. They have found it an easy task to injure me indirectly in the sordid, ungrateful, and treacherous heart of a person on whom my fortune depended, and who is devoted to them. I should be ruined, with my family, if I had not firm confidence of receiving in your service the annual stipend allotted for their subsistence, of which I have been deprived. To this injustice they have added the insult of tempting me by deceitful offers, which I rejected with disdain, because I could not accept them without exposing your secrets, or at least degrading the character with which you have honored me, in the eyes of those who have knowledge of it. My refusal has exasperated them against me; they will secretly ruin me as far as they are able. But I have said enough of myself.

Your enemies have begun to take the Dutch vessels in Europe as well as in America; among others, one for St Eustatia. They are impatient at Amsterdam to know how the Regency will take this; and they write me that this circumstance will, probably, be the cause of the detention of vessels, bound for the Islands, two months in this port.

I have the honor to be, &c.

DUMAS.

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TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

The Hague, October 14th, 1777.

Gentlemen,

If I do not speak to you in all my letters, of the person with whom you know I am connected at the Hague, it is not because this connexion does not continue daily, but because it is sufficient to give an account of our conferences to your honorable commission in Europe, and also, considering the time that my packets are on the way, my reports would be as superfluous and useless to you, as they would be long and difficult to decypher, or dangerous to transmit without cypher. The enemy alone would be able to profit by them. Moreover, I doubt not but your Commissioners transmit to you the result of all that passes.

Our States-General are assembled; and they have begun with labors, which by no means please your enemies. The first was to make a claim directly, in the name of their High Mightinesses, upon the English Minister for the Dutch vessel destined for St Eustatia, and taken in the Channel by an English vessel of war, under the pretext that the vessel was American built. (The Dutch had purchased her at Halifax.) Our States have sent instructions on this subject to their Envoy at London, with orders to have discontinued whatever process has been instituted by the captor before the English Judges against this vessel; and an order also to the owners of the vessel and cargo not to plead before the Judges, because they have proved here, that they had conformed in all things to the laws of this country, and to its conventions with Great Britain. We are impatient here to learn the answer of England.

Their second debate was on a petition in very strong terms, signed by a hundred of the principal commercial houses of Amsterdam, (except the house of Hope, devoted to England) for the purpose of asking a convoy for their vessels going to the West Indies.

I have all this from the best authority; as also that the party of your enemies in this country, though yet considerable, are visibly losing their influence, and cannot fail to seccumb, especially if the English continue to seize our vessels, and if they wish to engage this Republic to involve itself in a war on their account; for we desire here to be at peace with all the world.

I have the honor to be, &c.

DUMAS.

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TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

December, 16th, 1777.

Gentlemen,

I congratulate you, and the honorable Congress, and all United America with all my heart. This news (Burgoyne's capture) has made the greatest possible sensation in this country; a deep consternation among those who have all their interest in England; a marked joy among those who hate your enemies. My correspondent at Amsterdam writes thus. "Many thanks for the prompt advice of the affair so glorious for our friends. Letters from England received here this morning confirm it entirely. All was in motion today in our _cafés_ and on the exchange. The royalists here are entirely depressed, and even fear the like catastrophe for General Howe, if he hazard himself further into the country." This news has made an astonishing impression everywhere; all is considered lost to the English.

_December 19th._--I have received advice from my correspondents, to whom I had forwarded packets according to your orders, by which they inform me, under date of 26th of September and 18th of October, of having received and forwarded my packets for you. My correspondent at Amsterdam, who transmitted them to me, has pointed me to the following passage. "The Anti-Americans are not yet recovered from their fright; they see the Americans at present with a different eye, and desire strongly that the Ministry may be changed, that by mild means we may obtain peace as favorable as possible." Another writes from Rotterdam; "I received on the 11th, the account of the victory of General Gates. It was pulled out of my hands. I pray you as soon as you receive advice, that Howe has done as well as Burgoyne, to let me have the great pleasure of knowing it first, that I may regale many persons with the news. You cannot think what a bustle there is yet in all companies and _cafés_ about this affair, and how they fall on the English Ministers."

We have confirmation from Germany of the increasing obstructions, which the levying of recruits against America meets with.

I this moment learn that the States-General have despatched messengers of State extraordinary to all the Provinces; and it cannot be doubted that the contents of their despatches, which are kept secret, relate only to the catastrophe which the English have suffered in America, and to the consequences which it is presumed it will have, as well on this side of the ocean as on the other.

I have the honor to be, &c.

DUMAS.

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TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

The Hague, April 14th, 1778.

Gentlemen,

I have the satisfaction of being able to apprize you, that since the declaration of France, made here the 18th of March, affairs have taken in this country a most favorable turn. My last journey to Amsterdam has not been useless. But I cannot trust to paper, and to the vicissitudes of so long a voyage, the detail of my operations. I constantly give information to your honorable Commissioners, to whom I write almost every post. I will say only in general, that the cabal of your enemies fails in all the attempts it has made to engage this Republic to put herself in the breach for them. The Republic is firmly determined to the most perfect neutrality, if there be war; and I wait only the letters of the honorable Commissioners at Paris, whom I have requested to propose a friendship and commerce direct and avowed between your States and theirs.[28]

We are preparing a third piece upon credit. I will add copies of it to my packet when it is printed.

At the moment I am about to seal my packet, I learn for certain, "that Lord Chatham on the 7th of April in the House of Lords pleaded with so much warmth for not giving up the dependence of America, nor giving away the Americans, because he considered them a hereditament of the Prince of Wales, the Bishop of Osnaburgh, and the whole royal line of Brunswick, that he fainted away, but was soon recovered by the aid of two physicians. He confessed however that he did not know what the means were of preserving both."

I have the honor, &c.

DUMAS.[29]

FOOTNOTES:

[28] On this subject see a letter to M. Dumas in the Commissioners' Correspondence, Vol. I. p. 463.

[29] For a letter from the Committee of Foreign Affairs to M. Dumas, dated May 14th, 1778, see the Correspondence of the Commissioners in France, Vol. I. p. 386.

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TO M. VAN BERCKEL, PENSIONARY OF AMSTERDAM.

July 27th, 1778.

Sir,

Directed by the Plenipotentiaries of the United States of America in Paris, to send you the annexed copy of a treaty of amity and commerce concluded between France and the said United States, with the testimony of the high esteem and consideration they have for you in particular, and for all the honorable members of the Regency of Amsterdam in general, I acquit myself of these orders with all the satisfaction and eagerness, which my respectful devotion to the interest of this Republic dictates. The Plenipotentiaries pray you, Sir, to communicate this treaty in such a manner that copies of it may not be multiplied, until they have written me that it may be published and in the hands of all the world. I have carried this morning to Mr ---- a like copy with the same request.

I add to this a proclamation of Congress that I have received, and the communication of which I think will give you pleasure. It will appear in the Gazettes in French and Dutch, and ought to satisfy all the maritime powers, no less than it does honor to the sagacity and equity of Congress.

I am, with the truest respect, &c.

DUMAS.

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