To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 19 December 1795
From Gouverneur Morris
London 19 Decr 1795
My dear Sir
I have had it several Times in my Mind to write to you since my Arrival in this City but Something or other has always happened to prevent it. I might have told you near a Month ago that Mr Liston the British Minister at Constantinople is appointed to represent this Court in America. Speaking with Ld Grenville on the Subject the other Day he said “Your Friend Woranzow is very angry that I have taken Liston from Constantinople he won’t understand that it is more important for us to have an able Minister in America than at the Porte.”1 It is true that Woranzow is vexed for he tells me that Liston managed Matters extremely well and is one of the very few good diplomatic Characters which this Country possesses. When I first saw Mr Adams (understanding that he was empowered to negotiate with this Court during Mr Pinkney’s Absence) I offerd him any Assistance which I could give but to my great Surprize he told me that he was here merely as a private Individual.2 A Day or two afterwards Ld Grenville gave me very different Information and then in Conversation after stating what I conceivd to be the true Policy of Great Britain respecting the West India Islands and their commercial Intercourse with us (in which he agreed and said he had treated on that very Ground) I observd that the Difference might I thought be settled on very simple Ground viz. after limiting the Size of the Vessels to state a Maximum of Duty on the Export of their Productions in our Bottoms the Precise Rate to be fixed from Time to Time by the King. He was struck with the Idea and thought that “Something might be made out of it.”3 Let me not forget to mention (tho it comes in here rather crosswise) that nothing will so strongly affect the Government of this Country as the View of an American Navy tho in Embrio wherefore I do most ardently desire that Something may be done this Session towards it’s Establishment. And I do flatter myself that in the present Temper of America Any Taxes for that Object would be chearfully borne. In a Republican Government the Friends to the Country must watch for favorable Moments to get those Things done which are needful for the public Weal. A strange Story has been handed about here of a Conspiracy in America between the french Minister and others I presume that it arose from the Affair of Mr Randolph which Ld G. related to me as also the additional Hints communicated by him to Mr Jay for your Use.4 I feel myself bound to communicate to you a Circumstance which has some Relation to the same Object. Shortly after my Successor arrivd in Paris (viz. two or at most three Days) a Person who was in the Habit of telling me what past calld and began a Conversation by saying “this new Minister you have sent us will never do here.” Why? “He is either a Blockhead himself or thinks that we are so” I can’t suppose either to be the Case and as I know him to be strongly attach’d to your Revolution I should think he would succeed very well. “No it is impossible: only think of a Mans throwing himself into the Arms of the first Persons he met with on his Arrival and telling them he had no doubt but that if they would do what was proper here he & his Friends in America could turn out Washington. If he meant to deceive us the Artifice was too gross and if he was in earnest that Circumstance proves him to be unworthy of our Confidence. Besides he made this Declaration to People who tho they stand high at present must soon loose Ground for Reasons I have already communicated.” I cannot beleive the Fact. “You may rely on it ’tis true I did not hear him nor have I yet seen him but it was mention’d to me by one of those to whom he spoke immediately after it had passed and I have taken the earliest opportunity to inform you of it.” He then told me other Parts of the Conversation of him and of his Secretary particularly the latter, which ran Counter to the Views of the ruling Party altho intend[e]d to flatter them. I own that notwithstanding the clear and direct Manner in which this was stated I did not beleive it but concluded my Informant to have been deceivd I took however the earliest opportunity to apprize Mr Munroe that he was mistaken as to the Temper and Views of those in Power and to desire he would recommend Caution to Mr Skipwith leaving him to take to himself as much of the Recommendation as he should think proper. I shall add nothing on this Chapter except my fervent Wish and earnest Exhortation that you do by no means resign. You cannot conceive how important it is to our foreign Concerns that you should hold your Seat. I dare say you must see every Day that it is essential to our dearest domestic Interests. So God grant you Health and inspire you with the Determination to exercise that Firmness and Decision of Character with which his divine Providence has endowed you.
I find this will be but a desultory Letter tho I think you will glean something from it. You will have seen that Monsieur de Puisaye is arrested by the Royalists of the Western Coast of France. If it was not from Treason it was certainly thro great Incapacity that he caused the Failure of the Quiberon Expedition. It was indeed too feeble but the Plan was his own and tho I think the Ministers here confided in him too much that does not lessen his Responsibility. I am persuaded that great Efforts would have been made from hence in that Quarter and probably with Effect but the wild thundering Manifesto of the new french King rendered it impossible to stand forth in his Favor. Hence a Change of System became unavoidable and administration had Reason to congratulate themselves that they had gone no farther.5 The bringing back to the Vendée that victorious Army which had dictated Terms of Peace to feeble Spain obliged the Royalists to disperse & conceal themselves but late Transactions on the german Frontier having oblig’d the french Government to reinforce their Armies and send to that Effect the Troops which overawed Paris those in the Vendée are it seems to replace them and so the disaffected begin again to hold up their Heads.6 It has not escapd your Penetration that France is now a military Government and of Course still in the strait Road to single Despotism should she obtain Peace with the allied Powers: but there seems at present to be a very wide Distance between her Expectations and theirs. She doubtless is exhausted but what convulsive Struggles she may still make seems uncertain. In my opinion not much. Austria is also much weakned in her Finances. But this Country is still fresh as a youthful Bridegroom of which Nothing can afford a clearer Proof than the present Complaints among one Party of the Monied Men that they had not permission to supply the Minister with 18 Millions at [£]4.13.6 perCent Interest. This new Loan bears above ten perCent Advance in the market altho there is no Covenant on the Part of Government not to open a new one.7 Indeed it is expected that a considerable Sum will be borrowed for the Emperor and so high is the Spirit of the People upon the late Successes of the Austrian Armies that he may have just as much as he chuses to ask for.8 It is on the Ground of these superior Resources that the well inform’d here expect his Majesty’s Ministers will be able to dictate their own Terms to France. This could not be done should that Country come forward and offer now to retire from Holland and Flanders which by & bye they will be forced to do: for even at present Nothing will I beleive prevent Marshal Clairfayt from attempting (at least) to march into the low Countries but the well grounded Doubt whether he could seasonably collect the needful Magazines for the Subsistence of his Army. It is expected every Moment here that an Express will arrive to announce the Capture of Trincomale and the valuable Island of Ceylon.9 In short if Holland be not speedily restor’d to the Stadtholder Great Britain will soon possess all of the Dutch Possessions in India which she may think it worth while to take. As to St Domingo the Elements have hitherto fought in favor of the french and detaind here the immense Armament fitted out against it.10 Not less than twenty five thousand effective Men! Let the Success be what it may the Effort is wonderful. I have already assigned a sufficient Reason why I say nothing on the subordinate Questions depending between this Country and us neither will I say a Word about Mr Pinkney’s Treaty with Spain which you will doubtless receive before this Letter reaches you.11 But I will drop one Hint upon a great leading Point viz. the Right of neutral Powers to trade with the West India Colonies of a beligerent Power upon a Permission given by such Power during the War. I will not discuss this as a Question of Law neither would I ever in any Situation attempt to support what I conceivd to be unjust. Yet as a Statesman I will venture to say that this Government is contending now for the ⟨ve⟩ry Point which it is our Interest to establish and which ⟨w⟩ould form our main Reliance should we be engaged in ⟨a⟩ny War against those who have such Colonies. Adieu my dear Sir I am ever and most truly yours
Gouvr Morris
ALS, DLC:GW; ALS (marked “Copy”), DLC:GW; ALS (letterpress copy of the ALS marked “Copy”), DLC:GW; LB, DLC: Gouverneur Morris Papers. The ALS marked “Copy” probably was enclosed with Morris’s letter to GW of 5 Jan. 1796. The letterpress copy is docketed by GW, in part, “19th Decr 1796 Duplicate,” but 1795 is the correct date.
1. Robert Liston (1742–1836) began his tenure as British minister to the United States in May 1796 and served until December 1800. The letter of credence from George III officially announcing his appointment to GW is dated 12 March 1796 (copy, DNA: RG 59, entry 32). Morris is quoting from a conversation with Lord Grenville of 12 Dec. ( 226).
2. Morris met with John Quincy Adams at London on 24 Nov. ( 214).
3. This conversation with Lord Grenville took place on 3 Dec. ( 220).
4. About the resignation of Secretary of State Edmund Randolph and its relation to the French minister Fauchet, see Timothy Pickering to GW, 31 July, and n.3 to that document; GW to Oliver Wolcott, Jr., and Pickering, 12–18 Aug., and notes; and Randolph to GW, 19 Aug., and n.1 to that document. Grenville had told Morris on 12 Dec. that Randolph “had propos’d a Plan to render the Western Insurrection a Means of Uniting America with France in the War against Britain” ( 225).
5. For the failed expedition, see Morris to GW, 23 Aug., and n.4 to that document. Joseph-Geneviève de Puisaye, comte de Puisaye (1755–1827), represented the nobility of Perche in the 1789 Estates General. After joining the royalist forces and fleeing France, he helped plan the failed expedition. A report of his arrest for “a treasonable correspondence with the Usurpers of France” appeared in The St. James’s Chronicle; Or, British Evening-Post [London], 10–12 December. Puisaye resigned from the royalist army in late 1797 and migrated to Canada in 1798. Louis XVIII (1755–1824), brother of Louis XVI, was recognized by the royalists as king of France following the death in 1795 of the former king’s son, Louis XVII.
In the Declaration of Verona issued in July 1795, Louis XVIII told the citizens: “You proved faithless to the God of your forefathers; and that God, justly offended, has made you feel the weight of his anger; you rebelled against the authority which he had established, and a sanguinary despotism, and an anarchy no less fatal have alternately continued to harass you with incessant rage.” Therefore, the people must “renounce the dominion of those treacherous and cruel usurpers who promised you happiness . . . . return to that holy religion which had showered down upon France the blessings of Heaven. . . . [and] restore that government which, for fourteen centuries, constituted the glory of France.” Louis admitted that “time had corrupted” the “purity” of the ancien regime, but he declared that “the regal authority” must “be restored to all its rights” before reform could take place. Believing that “seduction and violence” had led the populace to favor “the revolutionary schemes,” Louis promised mercy for all but the regicides, but warned that he would treat those who “should persist in rebellion” with “inexorable rigour” ( 2:592–98).
6. About the royalist uprising in the Vendée region of western France, see Edward Newenham to GW, 8 March 1794, and n.2 to that letter. For the French setbacks on the German frontier, see n.8 below. Morris had received information about the French troop movements from the Comte de Damas ( 229).
7. The loan to cover expenses for 1796 was negotiated in November 1795 and brought before Parliament in William Pitt’s speech on the budget of 7 December. Complaints about the negotiation of that loan led to the appointment on 15 Dec. of a select committee “to inquire into the circumstances of the Negotiation of the late Loan.” The committee reported on 9 Feb. 1796, and the House of Commons debated resolutions on the subject from 22 to 29 Feb. 1796 ( 32:556–69, 763–831).
8. Morris is referring to the breaking of the French siege of Mainz in October and to the French surrender of Mannheim to the Austrians in November ( 193, 224).
9. After the fall of the Netherlands to the French, Great Britain mounted an expedition to prevent the port of Trincomalee, Ceylon, held by the Dutch, from falling into French hands. The expedition left from Madrid in July, armed with letters from the Prince of Orange and hoping for a peaceful occupation. Although the local Dutch commanders chose to resist, the city and forts surrendered in late August, news of which reached London in early January 1796 (The St. James’s Chronicle; Or, British Evening-Post [London], 5–7 Jan. 1796).
10. The expedition against Santo Domingo and the Leeward Islands involved some 25,000 troops under the command of Gen. Ralph Abercromby. It was expected to sail in October, but storms and adverse winds delayed the main departure until 9 Dec., and a portion of the expedition did not leave until January (E. Johnson’s British Gazette, and Sunday Monitor [London], 6 Sept.; The St. James’s Chronicle; Or, British Evening-Post [London], 10–13 Oct.; The Star [London], 10 Dec.; The Oracle, Public Advertiser [London], 23 Dec.; George Pinckard, Notes on the West Indies: Written during the Expedition under the Command of the Late General Sir Ralph Abercromby … [3 vols., 1806; reprint Westport, Conn., 1970], 1:26–163).
11. The Treaty of Friendship, Limits, and Navigation with Spain was signed 27 Oct. ( 318–45). On 3 Dec., Grenville told Morris of a report that Thomas Pinckney had “concluded a Treaty of Navigation … leaving the Treaty of Commerce for another Year” ( 220–21).