such parts may be restored; or, that if the freighters, or any of them, should think fit to appeal from this judgment to the congress, the produce so deposited may be disposed of according to their final determination. I have the honor to be, &c. SIR, B. FRANKLIN, Minister Plenipotentiary for the TO AN AGENT OF AMERICAN CRUISERS. Passy, May 30, 1780. In my last, of the 27th instant, I omitted one thing I had intended, viz. to desire you would give absolute orders to your cruisers not to bring any more Dutch vessels, though charged with enemies' goods, unless contraband. All the neutral states of Europe seem at present disposed to change what had before been deemed the law of nations; to wit; that an enemy's property may be taken wherever found; and to establish a rule that free ships shall make free goods. This rule is itself so reasonable, and of a nature to be so beneficial to mankind, that I cannot but wish it may become general. And I make no doubt but that the congress will agree to it in as full an extent as France and Spain. In the mean time, and until I have received their orders on the subject, it is my intention to condemn no more English goods found in Dutch vessels, unless contraband; of which I thought it right to give you this previous notice, that you may avoid the trouble and expense likely to arise from such captures, and from the detention of them for a decision. With great regard, and best wishes for the success of your enterprise, I have the honor to be, &c. B. FRANKLIN. SIR, TO DR. RUSHTON, LONDON. Passy, Oct. 9, 1780. I received and read with pleasure your thoughts on American finance, and your scheme of a bank. I communicated them to the Abbé Morellet, who is a good judge of the subject, and he has translated them into French. He thinks them generally very just, and very clearly expressed: I shall forward them to a friend in the congress. That body is, as you suppose, not well skilled in financing. But their deficiency in knowledge has been amply supplied by good luck. They issued an immense quantity of paper-bills, to pay, clothe, arm, and feed their troops, and fit out ships: and with this paper, without taxes for the first three years, they fought and baffled one of the most powerful nations of Europe. They hoped notwithstanding its quantity to have kept up the value of their paper. In this they were mistaken. It depreciated gradually. But this depreciation, though in some circumstances inconvenient, has had the general good and great effect of operating as a tax, and perhaps the most equal of all taxes, since it depreciated in the hands of the holders of money, and thereby taxed them in proportion to the sums they held and the time they held it, which generally is in proportion to men's wealth. Thus, after having done its business, the paper is reduced to the sixtieth part of its original value. Having issued 200 millions of dollars the congress stopped, and supplied themselves by borrowing. These sums were borrowed at different periods during the progress of the depreciation; those, who lent to the public, thereby fixed the value of the paper they lent, since it is to be repaid in silver, according to its value at the time of the loan. The rest went on depreciating; and the depreciation is at length only stopped by the vast nominal sums called in easily by taxes, and which will be by that means destroyed. Thus so much of the public debt has been in this manner insensibly paid, that the remainder, which you desire to know, does not exceed six millions sterling. And now they are working with new paper expressed to be equal in value to silver, which they have made to bear interest; and I have provided such funds to pay that interest, that probably its original value will be supported. In the mean time the vigor of their military operations is again revived, and they are now as able, with respect to money, to carry on the war, as they were at the beginning, and much more so with regard to troops, arms and discipline. It is also an increasing nation, sixty thousand children having been born annually in the United States since the beginning of the war; while their enemies are said to be diminishing. I am, sir, &c. · B. FRANKLIN. TO SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, ESQ. Passy, Dec. 3, 1780. The news of Mr. Laurens being taken must have reached you long since. He is confined in the Tower, but of late has some more liberty for taking air and exercise than first was allowed him. Certain papers found with him relating to the drafts of a treaty proposed in Holland, have been sent over to the stadtholder, who laid them before their high mightinesses, who communicated them to the government of the city of Amsterdam; which justified the transaction. This has drawn from England, a me morial delivered by Sir Joseph Yorke, demanding that the pensionary and magistrates of that city should be punished; and declaring that the king will resent a refusal of the states to comply with this demand. What answer will be given to this insolent memorial we do not yet know. But I hear it has produced much displeasure in Holland, and it is thought to have occasioned a more prompt accession to the armed neutrality which had before met with obstructions from the English party there. B. FRANKLIN. SIR, TO COUNT DE VERGENNES. Passy, Feb. 13, 1781. I have just received from congress their letter for the king, which I have the honor of putting herewith into the hands of your excellency. I am charged at the same time to represent in the strongest terms the unalterable resolution of the United States to maintain their liberties and independence, and inviolably to adhere to the alliance at every hazard, and in every event; and that the misfortunes of the last campaign, instead of repressing, have redoubled their ardor; that congress are resolved to employ every resource in their power to expel the enemy from every part of the United States, by the most vigorous and decisive co-operation with the marine and other forces of their illustrious ally that they have accordingly called on the several states for a powerful army and ample supplies of provisions; and that the states are disposed effectually to comply with their requisitions. That if in aid of their own exertions the court of France can be prevailed on to assume a naval superi ority in the American seas, to furnish the arms, ammunition, and clothing specified in the estimate heretofore transmitted, and to assist with the loan mentioned in the letter, they flatter themselves that under the divine blessing, the war must speedily be terminated with glory and advantage to both nations. By several letters to me from intelligent persons it appears that the great and expensive exertions of the last year, by which a force was assembled capable of facing the enemy, and which accordingly drew towards New York and lay long near that city, were rendered ineffectual by the superiority of the enemy at sea, and that their success in Carolina had been chiefly owing to that superiority, and to the want of the necessary means for furnishing, marching, and paying the expense of troops, sufficient to defend that province. The Marquis de la Fayette writes to me that it is impossible to conceive, without seeing it, the distress the troops have suffered for want of clothing; and the following is a paragraph of a letter from General Washington, which I ought not to keep back from your excellency; viz. "I doubt not you are so fully informed by congress of our political and military state, that it would be superfluous to trouble you with any thing relative to either. If I were to speak on topics of the kind, it would be to show that our present situation makes one of two things essential to us-a peace-or the most vigorous aid of our allies, particularly in the article of money; of their disposition to serve us we cannot doubt their generosity will do every thing their means will permit." |