Benjamin Franklin Presents Treaty Plan to King of France, December 28, 1776

So soon as the idea of independence had taken the practical shape of a resolution and declaration adopted by the Continental Congress, the Americans began to contemplate the necessity of foreign aid, material and moral. Congress appointed a Secret Committee of Correspondence for the purpose and sent Silas Deane, of Connecticut, upon a half-commercial, half-diplomatic mission to France.

Franklin was at first opposed to seeking foreign alliances. “A virgin state,” he said, “should preserve the virgin character, and not go about suitoring for alliance, but wait with decent dignity for the application of others.”

But Franklin soon became chief suitor in Europe.

Later in the autumn of 1776 Dr. Franklin was sent by the Continental 914Congress as a diplomatic agent to France. He sailed in the ship Reprisal. The passage occupied thirty days during which that vessel had been chased by British cruisers and had taken two British brigantines as prizes.

Franklin landed at Nantes, December 7. Europe was not prepared for his arrival, having had no advance notice of his coming and the event was in consequence one of great surprise. By this time Franklin’s fame was world-wide.

The courts were filled with conjectures, and in England the story was current that Dr. Franklin was a fugitive for his own personal safety. Burke said, “I never will believe that he is going to conclude a long life, which has brightened every hour it has continued, with so foul and dishonorable a flight.”

On the Continent it was concluded that he was in Europe on a most important mission. To the French he spoke frankly, saying that twenty successful campaigns could not subdue the Americans, that their decision for independence was irrevocable and that they would be forever independent states.

On the morning of December 28, Franklin, with the other commissioners—Silas Deane, of Connecticut, and Arthur Lee, of Virginia—waited upon Vergennes, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, when he presented the plan as suggested by the Continental Congress for a treaty, by which it was hoped the states might obtain their independence.

The Commissioners were instructed to press for an immediate declaration of the French Government in favor of the Americans. Knowing the desire of the French to widen the breach and cause a dismemberment of the British Empire, the Commissioners were to intimate that a reunion of the Colonies with Great Britain might be the consequence of delay.

Vergennes spoke of the attachment of the French nation to the American cause and requested a paper from Dr. Franklin upon the condition of America and that in the future intercourse with the sage might be in secret, without the intervention of a third person. Personal friendship between these two distinguished men became strong and abiding.

The French Minister told Franklin that as Spain and France were in perfect accord, he might communicate freely with the Spanish Minister, the Count de Aranda.

With him Franklin, Deane and Lee held secret but barren interviews, for Spain was quite indifferent. Aranda would only promise the freedom of Spanish ports to American vessels.

As for France, she was at that time unwilling to incur the risk of war with Great Britain, but when the defeat and surrender of Burgoyne was made known at Versailles late in 1777, and assured thereby that the American Colonies could help themselves, the French Court was ready to listen to Franklin. To him was chiefly due the successful 915negotiation of the treaty of alliance which meant so much to the American cause at that critical period in the War for Independence.

The presence of an agent of the British Ministry in Paris, on social terms with the American Commissioners, hastened the negotiations, and February, 1778, two treaties were secretly signed at Paris by the American Commissioners and the Count de Vergennes on the part of France. One was a commercial agreement, the other an alliance contingent on the breaking out of hostilities between France and Great Britain.

It was stipulated in the treaty of alliance that peace should not be made until the mercantile and political independence of the United States should be secured.

Franklin continued to represent the States in France until 1785, when he returned home. He took an important part in the negotiations for peace. In 1786 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania; and, in 1787 he was the leading member in the convention which framed the National Constitution.

Dr. Franklin had deserved confidence in his ability and honesty. To Silas Deane was intrusted the receipt and expenditure of money by the Commissioners to France. The jealous, querulous Arthur Lee, who was the third Commissioner, soon made trouble.

Lee wrote letters to his brother in Congress (Richard Henry Lee), in which he made many insinuations against both his colleagues. Ralph Izard, of South Carolina, Commissioner to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who felt offended because he was not consulted about the treaty with France, when he also was in Paris, sent home similar letters to those of Lee.

William Carmichael, of Maryland, a secretary of the Commissioners, who had returned to Philadelphia, insinuated in Congress that Deane had appropriated the public money to his own use. Deane was recalled.

Out of this incident sprang two violent parties. Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, and other members of Congress, who were commercial experts, took the side of Deane, and Richard Henry Lee, then chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, opposed him.

Deane published in the Philadelphia Gazette an “Address to the People of the United States,” in which he referred to the brothers Lee with much severity and claiming for himself the credit of obtaining supplies from France through Beaumarchais. Thomas Paine replied to Deane, making use of public documents in his charge.

The statement called out loud complaints from the French Minister and Paine’s indiscretion cost him his place as secretary of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

This discussion among diplomatic agents soon led to the recall of all of them except Franklin, who remained sole Minister at the French Court.

Franklin testified to Deane’s strict honesty and private worth, but 916Arthur Lee had the ear of Congress, and Deane had to suffer. He died in obscurity and poverty at Deal, England, August 23, 1789. He has since been vindicated and all unjust suspicions have been removed, thus confirming the judgment of the wise Franklin.

From Franklin’s advent in the French Court, December 28, 1776, until he sailed for his home in Philadelphia, in 1785, he was held in the high esteem which his talents, experience and personality entitled him.