Foreign Affairs. It is fair to presume, therefore, that he was the most active member of the Committee, and that its business was carried on chiefly by him.*

The first public recognition of the independence of the United States by a foreign power was recorded in the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and of Alliance Eventual and Defensive between the United States and France, signed at Paris, February 6, 1778, by Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, on the part of the United States, and by C. A. Gérard, on the part of France; and following this treaty, in July, 1778, came Gérard, the first representative of a foreign state to the United States. He was styled Minister Plenipotentiary, † and bore a commission also as Consul-General. ‡

* James Lovell was born in Boston, October 31, 1737, graduated at Harvard in 1756, and was a school-teacher. He was imprisoned by the British after Bunker Hill battle, but exchanged, and entered Congress December, 1776, serving till 1782. He espoused the cause of General Gates against Washington (Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography). He was a member of the Committee of 1779 to furnish a design for a seal of the United States, but the design was not adopted (The Seal of the United States, Department of State, 1892).

+Secret Journals of Congress, II, 92.

Department of State MS. archives.

Soon after his arrival, he transmitted to the President of Congress a copy of the speech he intended to deliver at his first audience, and it was referred, with the question of the ceremonies to be observed in receiving him, to R. H. Lee, Robert Morris, and Witherspoon.** They prefaced their report with the following "observations:"

That Ministers being of three different classes, viz. 1. ambassadors, 2. Ministers Plenipotentiary and Envoys and 3. Residents, it will be necessary to establish a ceremonial for each according to their respective Dignity. That your Committee report for an Ambassador the following Ceremonial, viz

When he shall arrive within any of the United States he shall receive from any Battery, Fort or Castle the same salute or other Honors which are paid to the Flag of the Prince or State which he shall represent† and when he shall arrive at the Place which the Congress shall be he shall wait upon the President and deliver his credentials or copies thereof. Three members of Congress shall then be

deputed to wait upon him.*

*Department of State MS. archives.

"Also at all Places where there are guards Centries and the like he shall receive the same military Honors and Respect which are paid to a General officer in the service of the United States of the highest Rank." (Note in original MS.)

For a Resident Minister the committee proposed to omit the honor of escort by three members of Congress and to substitute a Master of Ceremonies. The other ceremonies were modified in the same proportion.

The consideration of so much of this report as related to Ambassadors and Resident Ministers was postponed as unnecessary at the time. The ceremonies in the case of Ministers Plenipotentiary were prescribed in the following resolutions which were adopted:

At the time he is to receive his audience, the two members [who are to act as his escort] shall again wait upon him in a coach belonging to the States; and the person first named of the two shall return with the minister plenipotentiary or envoy in the coach, giving the minister the right hand and placing himself on his left, with the other member on the front seat.

When the minister plenipotentiary or envoy is arrived. at the door of the Congress hall, he shall be introduced to his chair by the two members, who shall stand at his left hand. Then the member first named shall present and announce him to the President and the house; whereupon he shall bow to the President and the Congress, and they to

him. He and the President shall again bow unto each other, and be seated, after which the house shall sit down.

Having spoken and been answered, the minister and President shall bow to each other, at which time the house shall bow, and then he shall be conducted home in the manner in which he was brought to the house.

Those who shall wait upon the Minister, shall inform him, that, if in any audience he shall choose to speak on matters of business, it will be necessary previously to deliver in writing to the President, what he intends to say at the audience; and if he shall not incline thereto, it will, from the Constitution of Congress, be impracticable for him to receive an immediate answer.

The style of address to Congress shall be "Gentlemen of the Congress."

All speeches or communications in writing may, if the public ministers choose it, be in the language of their respective countries. And all replies, or answers, shall be in the language of the United States.

After the audience, the members of Congress shall be first visited by the Minister Plenipotentiary or Envoy.*

These ceremonies were followed when the French Minister had his first audience, August 6, 1778. The Committee of Foreign Affairs

*Secret Journals of Congress, II, 94 et seq.

did not participate in the ceremonies as a committee. The communications of the French Minister were sent direct to the President of Congress, and were considered by the whole Congress after having been reported upon by some special committee. Upon occasion, in the event of some communication of importance, the President of Congress would declare that, in his opinion, it was expedient that the Congress and the Minister should confer. The latter would then meet the Congress in committee of the whole, and the result of the interview would be reported to the Congress itself. The Minister held the right to be present, however, when foreign affairs were being discussed, and thus became a potent factor in the conclusions reached. His dispatches to his Government are in themselves a record of the proceedings of the Congress.

The discussion of negotiating a treaty of

*After the Department of Foreign Affairs had been organized a few unimportant changes were made in these ceremonies. (Department of State MS. archives.)