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Documents filtered by: Author="Franklin, Benjamin" AND Recipient="Vergennes, Charles Gravier, comte de" AND Period="Revolutionary War"
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We have the Honour to acquaint your Excellency, that Mr. Adams, appointed by the Congress to replace Mr. Deane in the Commission here, is safely arrived, and purposes to wait upon you as soon as recovered a little from the Fatigue of his Voyage. The Ship in which he came is a Frigate of 30 Guns, belonging to the Congress. In her Passage she took a large Ship from London to New York, with a...
By sundry Letters from Merchants of Bourdeaux and Nantes, we are inform’d, that many Adventures to America are discouraged by the high Price of Insurance, and the Number of Captures made by the English, which together have an Operation almost equal to an Embargo; so that the Commerce which might be so advantageous, to both Countries, by supplying their mutual Wants, is obstructed, and the...
We had this Morning the Honour of receiving your Excellency’s Letter of the 13. Instant relative to the Boston Frigate. We beg leave to assure your Excellency that the Frigate called the Boston, now at Bourdeaux, is a Ship of War belonging to the 13 United States of North America, built and maintained at their Expence, by the Honourable Congress. We therefore, humbly presume that his Majestys...
We herewith communicate to your Excellency a Resolution of Congress relative to the Treaties, which we request may be laid before the King. Thereby his Majesty will perceive the unfeigned Sentiments of that Body, as well as those of the whole American People, whose Hearts the King has gained by his great Benevolence towards them, manifested in these Treaties, which has made so deep an...
There are several Subjects, which we find it necessary to lay before your Excellency; to which we have the Honour to request your Attention. At a time when the Circumstances of the War may demand the Attention of Gouvernment, and without doubt call for great Expence, we are very sorry to be obliged to request your Excellency’s Advice respecting the Subject of Money but the Nature of the War in...
By some of the last Ships from America, we received from Congress certain Powers and Instructions, which we think it necessary to lay before your Excellency, and which we have the Honor to do in this Letter. We have the Honor to enclose to your Excellency a Copy of the Contract made between the Committee and Mr. Francy, a Copy of Mr. Francy’s Powers, and a Copy of the list of Articles to be...
We had last Evening the Honour of your Excellencys Letter of the twenty fourth of this Month, in Answer to ours of the twenty Eighth ultimo relative to the Liberty for Americains to pass through this Kingdom with their Effects, in their Way home, Duty free, inclosing Copy of a Letter from Mr. Necker to your Excellency, upon the same subject. We shall take the Liberty to pursue the Rules...
We have received, the Letter which your Excellency, did Us the Honour, to write to us, on the twenty seventh of the last Month: together with a Copy of a Letter from the Ministre of the Marine to your Excellency, of the twenty first of the Same Month. Convinced of the Propriety of those Ecclaircisements, which his Excellency demands, We had recourse to our Instructions from Congress, and...
We have the Honour to inform your Excellency that we are ready to execute and exchange the Declarations, concerning the Omission of the eleventh and twelfth Articles of the Treaty of Commerce, and to request your Excellency to appoint a Day to wait on your Excellency for that Purpose. We have the Honour to be with the most respectful Consideration Your Excellency’s most obedient and most...
The Alliance between this Kingdom, and the United States of America, is an Event of such Magnitude in their History, that We conceive it would be highly pleasing to our Constituents, to have the Picture of their his Majesty their illustrious Friend and Ally, to be kept in some Public Place where the Congress sits. We would carefully avoid every Thing which would be disagreable to the King and...
To His Excellency Count de Vergennes, Minister & Secretary of State for foreign Affairs: At the time the American War began there was very little real Money in that Country, the same having been constantly drawn out as fast as it came in to pay for British Manufactures and Importations of foreign Goods by the British Merchants, with the Duties and other Expences occasioned by their Monopoly....
Some late Proceedings of the Enemy, have induced us, to submit a few Observations to your Excellency’s superior Lights and Judgement. His Britannic Majesty’s Commissioners, in their Manifesto of the 3d of October, have denounced “a Change in the whole Nature and future Conduct of the War,” they have declared “that the Policy as well as Benevolence of Great Britain, have thus far checked the...
We have been favoured with a Letter signed by many Gentlemen of Nantes and dated the fifteenth of this Month, informing us that most of their Vessels were ready to sail to America, and that others were expected to be ready immediately, so that the Convoy need not wait at all, but might be ordered as soon as Convenience will permit. These Gentlemen are very desirous of a Convoy through the...
We had the honor of receiving your Excellency’s Letter of the 20th. enclosing M. de Sartine’s Answer, relative to the Convoy which we requested of your Excellency, for the Ships now assembled at Nantes. We are totally at a loss to understand what Mr. de Sartine writes of four Vessels mentioned by us, as ready to sail and a Convoy having sailed with two of them. We never mentioned any thing...
It is now near six Months that Capt. McNeil, of the Mifflin Privateer from America, has been embarras’d with a Process on Account of a French Ship, which he retook from the English after she had been three Days in their Possession. The Laws of France are clear with regard to the Validity of this Prize, and our Captains have Orders, contained in their Commissions, to submit their Prizes to the...
ALS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères We beg Leave to acquaint your Excellency, that we are appointed and fully impowered by the Congress of the United States of America, to propose and negotiate a Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and the said States. The just and generous Treatment their Trading Ships have received, by a free Admission into the Ports of this Kingdom,...
ALS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: Harvard University Library. On Sunday, January 5, the commissioners went to Versailles. That evening they sent a brief note to Vergennes asking for an audience on Monday morning. Such an interview in the spotlight of the court would have been quite different from the previous clandestine meeting in Paris, but the idea never seems to...
AL : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères Dr. Franklin, Mr. Dean, and Mr. Lee, present their most respectful Complimts. to the Count de Vergennes; and request an audience of his Excellency, to-morrow morning, at such hour as he shall be pleas’d to appoint. Notation: 1777. Janvier 5. In BF ’s hand according to Stevens ( Facsimiles , VI , no. 613), but actually in Arthur Lee’s. We have...
D : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères The situation of the United-states, require an immediate supply of Stores of various sorts, of which a proportion of Military for the opening and supporting the coming Campaign. Vessels or Ships belonging to the United-States cannot be procured, and if they could, the Danger and Risque would be very great. Diffuculties have arose at the...
ADS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: Harvard University Library This memorandum, most of it in Franklin’s hand, marks a distinct departure from the position that he generally maintained. He “was from the first averse to warm and urgent solicitations with the Court of France,” Silas Deane remarked years later. “His age and experience, as well as his philosophical temper,...
D : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères We have ordered no Prizes into the Ports of France, nor do we know of any that have entered, for any other purpose than to provide themselves with necessaries untill they could sail for America, or some Port in Europe, for a Market. We were informed this was not inconsistent with the Treaty between France and Great Brittain, and that it would...
AD : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères In the several Memoires which Mr: Deane had the honor of presenting previous to the arrival of his Colleagues, the history of the dispute between the United States of America and Great Brittain was brought down to the Time of presenting the Memoires, the situation and resources of the United States justly stated; and Conjectures as to the...
AD : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères While Great Brittain engross’d the Commerce of the United States, merchandize imported from thence into France was considered as British, and Consequently subject to the same duties, Customs &c, as if imported direct from the Islands of Great Brittain or Ireland. Since the separation of those States from Brittain it is presumed their...
ALS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: Archivo Historico Nacional On March 14 the commissioners received their first dispatches from America. Among them was the letter above of December 30 from the committee of secret correspondence, enclosing the Congressional authorization to offer Versailles territorial inducements to enter the war. Deane promptly informed Vergennes that...
AD : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: Harvard University Library On the 19th of November, the Congress resolved, That 100 brass Cannon 3 pounders 50 6 pounders 50 12 pounders 13 18 pounders 13 24 pounders
LS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; AL (draft) and copy: Harvard University Library The Commissioners from the United States of America desire to represent to his Excellency the Count de Vergennes, that they have received Intelligence of a Vessel belonging to the States having been taken by the Culloden, an English Ship of War, close on the Coast of France; and that the same...
ALS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères To his Excellency the Count de Vergennes, Minister for Foreign Affairs We the underwritten, Commissioners from the Congress of the United States of N. America, beg leave to represent to your Excellency, that Captain Burnel, Commander of an armed Vessel commissioned by the said States, did lately take Refuge in the Port of Cherburgh with his...
ALS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copies with variations: Harvard University Library, National Archives (two) We are very sensible of the Protection afforded to us and to our Commerce since our Residence in this Kingdom, agreeable to the Goodness of the King’s gracious Intentions, and to the Law of Nations; and it gives us real and great Concern, when any Vessels of War,...
ALS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères Capt. Wicks when he left France on his last Cruise was ordered not to return if he could possibly avoid it, but to intercept some of the Irish Linnen Ships, and proceed with them for America where the Article was much wanted. Unfortunately he miss’d those Shipps, and having giv’n The Alarm, he had no way to avoid being taken but by sheltering...
LS : Archives du Ministère des affaires étrangères; copy: Harvard University Library After Wickes’s squadron was sequestered on July 15 and Conyngham sailed from Dunkirk two days later, the commissioners’ relations with Versailles might have been expected to improve. Instead they grew worse, largely because Conyngham disobeyed his orders and took prizes. When one was recaptured, and most of...