La Luzerne to George Washington, 1 June 1781
From La Luzerne
Philada 1st June 1781.
Sir
I have received the letter which your Excellency did me the honor to write on the 23d of the past month and that of the Count de Rochambeau with which it was accompanied.
I wait with extreme impatience the news of the arrival of the French Division before New York and no one can desire more warmly than I do to see it under your immediate command. I hoped most fervently that you would have been this Spring in the command of a more considerable Body of Auxiliaries. The causes which have hindered the execution of that plan have been so urgent and so decisive that I am sure you will approve them after I shall have had the honor of making you acquainted with them.1 I have nevertheless been much pained that I could not explain to you this change of Measures, and my attachment to the Cause which you defend has made me feel as sensibly as any Citizen of America all the delays which could happen to the assistance which we wish to give to the Thirteen States.
I am impressed with the necessity of maintaining a perfect confidence with your Excellency upon these different points and I shall seize the first occasion which presents itself to visit your Army.2
In the mean time I am going to transmit to Monsr the Count de Grasse what your Excellency did me the honor to write to me about.3 Be persuaded that I shall use the most pressing motives to determine him, and I shall do it with so much the more Zeal as I feel the necessity of it. I shall transmit to that General an extract of your letter and nothing appears to me more likely to give weight to the demand which I shall make from him.4
The King has charged me, Sir, to inform Congress that he grants them a gratuitous subsidy to enable them to make the greatest efforts in the course of this Campaign. This subsidy amounting to six Million of Livres Tournois is to be employed in the purchase of Arms—Ammunition and Cloathing and it is the intention of the King that the surplus shall be at the disposal of Congress.5 I have not been instructed as to what will be the exact amount of this surplus, but in the mean time it is fixed at one million and an half which shall be employed by the superintendant of Finances of the thirteen States according to the direction which you shall give him, and after the arrangements which you shall make with him in the Visit which he intends making you.6
I have informed Congress and I intrust it to your Excellency that the Emperor and the Empress of Russia have offered their mediation to the Court of London, which has accepted it. It has also been equally ⟨o⟩ff⟨ere⟩d t⟨o⟩ th⟨e⟩ C⟨our⟩t of Versailles and that of Madrid. But we have given the proper answer to leave to Congress time to determine if it suits them to put the Interests of the thirteen States into the hands of the Mediators.7 In all suppositions, it is of the greatest importance that the Allies make all their Efforts to drive the enemy from this Continent, and nothing will be more likely than the success of the confederate Arms to make a successful negociation.8 I have the honor to be &.
de la Luzerne
Translation, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; LS, in French, DLC:GW; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 14.
1. La Luzerne refers to the expected arrival from France of the second division of the French expeditionary force. The French court had decided against sending the second division (see Rochambeau to GW, 11 May, n.2).
2. La Luzerne arrived at GW’s headquarters on 6 July (see the entry for that date in , 3:390).
3. La Luzerne refers to GW’s request for additional naval aid (see GW to La Luzerne, 23 May).
4. La Luzerne’s letter for Lieutenant General de Grasse has not been identified.
5. See Rochambeau to GW, 11 May, n.2.
6. See Robert Morris to GW, 29 May (first letter); see also Morris to GW, 15 June and 2 July. Morris arrived at headquarters on 11 Aug. (see the entry for that date in , 3:408).
7. When he wrote on 9 March, French foreign minister Vergennes had informed La Luzerne about the offer of mediation from Empress Catherine II of Russia and Emperor Joseph II of Austria (see , 1:152–55). The mediation proved unsuccessful (see John Laurens to GW, 24 March, and n.2 to that document). La Luzerne sent Congress a memorial dated 26 May concerning the mediation offer (see , 20:560–62; see also Samuel Huntington to GW, 3 June, and n.2 to that document).
Catherine II (the Great; 1729–1796) became empress of Russia in 1762.