41The Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, 6 February 1778 (Franklin Papers)
DS : National Archives; copies in French and English: Massachusetts Historical Society, Harvard University Library, National Archives; copies in French: Archives du ministère des affaires étrangères (draft), Harvard University Library, Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid Treaty of Amity and Commerce. Traité d’Amitié et de Commerce The most Christian King, and the thirteen United States of North...
42VIII. Rules for the Regulation of the Navy of the United Colonies, 28 November – December 1775 (Adams Papers)
ART. 1. The Commanders of all ships and vessels belonging to the THIRTEEN UNITED COLONIES, are strictly required to shew in themselves a good example of honor and virtue to their officers and men, and to be very vigilant in inspecting the behaviour of all such as are under them, and to discountenance and suppress all dissolute, immoral and disorderly practices; and also, such as are contrary...
43The American Commissioners: Memorandum for the Dutch, [before 31 March 1778] (Franklin Papers)
Copy: the Marquess of Abergavenny, Eridge Castle, Sussex (1955) When the Ancestors of the present Inhabitants of the United States of America first settled that Country, they did it entirely at their own expence; The public of England never granted one Shilling to aid in their Establishment. Georgia is an exception for which public grants have been made. Had any such grants been ever made they...
The continental congress having been pleased to appoint us a committe for collecting an account of the hostilities committed by the ministerial troops and navy in America, since last March, with proper evidence of the truth of the facts related, the number and value of the buildings destroyed, and of the vessels inward and outward bound seised, by them as nearly as can be ascertained, and also...
45William Stevenson and the American Commissioners: An Exchange of Three Letters, 4 January 1778 (Franklin Papers)
(I) AL , (II) L , (III) AL : Harvard University Library We print the letters together because they are an entity: the first elicited the second, the second the third, all on the same day. The first was to the commissioners; the second was from, and the third to, Franklin and Deane alone. This was the second quarrel between Lee and his colleagues over who should carry copies of the...
46The Franco-American Treaty of Alliance, 6 February 1778 (Franklin Papers)
DS : National Archives; copies in French and English: Massachusetts Historical Society, National Archives (two), University of Virginia Library; copy in French: Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid The hope of concluding this treaty and the one that follows had been the commission’s mainstay for fourteen months, but negotiating them took less than three weeks. Gérard began the discussions on...
47The American Commissioners: Instructions to John Thornton, [11 December 1777] (Franklin Papers)
AD (draft): Library of Congress; copies: Library of Congress, Harvard University Library The mistreatment of American prisoners of war in England had long been on the commissioners’ minds. In February they had suggested to Lord Stormont an exchange, and the Ambassador had not replied. In April they had sent him depositions to back their claim that the British were behaving like savages, and to...
48The American Commissioners: A Public Announcement, 4 December 1777 (Franklin Papers)
D : American Philosophical Society Jonathan Loring Austin had ridden post haste from Nantes with his dispatches. On Thursday morning, December 4, he paused in Versailles for an hour’s sightseeing, and then at 11:30 A.M. he arrived in Passy. Rumor had preceded him, or so the story goes, and the commissioners were waiting in the courtyard. “Before he had time to alight Dr. Franklin addressed...
49The American Commissioners’ Interview on January 8 with Gérard: Four Documents, 1778 (Franklin Papers)
This meeting, in Deane’s quarters in Paris at six in the evening of January 8, was the commissioners’ reward for all the frustrations of the previous year. Vergennes had announced to them on December 12 that France was ready to negotiate, but three weeks of silence followed while the court attempted to secure Spanish participation. Then, when Madrid made clear that it had no intention of...