all Jay's acts and views, and records : " The
i 3 Life of Shelburne, 285.
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doctor heard me patiently, but said nothing." In the next conference with Oswald, Franklin turned to Mr. Jay and said : " I am of your opinion, and will go on with these gentlemen in the business without consult- ing this court." l The following is an anecdote of the period. Dr. Franklin, one day sitting, during the dis- cussion of the question of instructions, in Mr. Jay's room, said : " Will you break your instructions ? " " Yes," replied Mr. Jay, who was smoking a pipe, " as I break this pipe," and he threw the fragments into the fire. Adams, after the negotiations were concluded, wrote : " He (Franklin) has gone on with us in entire harmony and unanimity throughout, and has been able and useful, both by his sagacity and his reputation, in the whole negotiation." 2 It is greatly to Franklin's credit that he did not allow a matter which he regarded as of secondary importance to interfere with the cor- diality of his cooperation with his colleagues.
While these negotiations were going on with Oswald, the British ambassador, Fitzherbert, was conducting negotiations with Vergennes and the Spanish ambas- sador, and between the two sets of negotiators there seems to have been no consultation or concert of action. Of the Anglo-French negotiations, Adams writes, they " are kept secret not only from us, but from the Dutch ministers, and we hear nothing about Spain." 3
In the negotiations with Oswald, on the American
side, three points were of supreme importance, (1) the
boundary to the Mississippi, (2) the free navigation of
the Mississippi, and (3) the right to the fisheries off
1 3 J. Adams's Works, 336. 3 Ib. 5 Dip. Cor. Rev. 857.
THE TREATY OF PEACE AND INDEPENDENCE. 65
the northeast Atlantic coast. On the side of the Brit- ish two points were held to be essential, (1) American independence must be complete and free from France, and (2) British debts must be secured and the loyalists restored to their rights.
On the northeast boundary the British at first de- manded the whole of Maine, then to the Penobscot River; but the St. Croix River was finally decided upon. As to the northern boundary, two lines were proposed the one through the Great Lakes to the source of the Mississippi; and the other, an alternate line offered by the Americans along the 45 of latitude. The former was ultimately accepted.
The Mississippi, the source of which was then sup- posed to be in British territory, it was agreed should be forever open to both countries. This provision subse- quently became abrogated by the acquisition of Louisi- ana from France.
The fishery discussion was long and difficult, but re- sulted successfully for the United States, as the Ameri- can fishermen were admitted on equal terms to Canadian waters. The debts due British subjects were to be paid, and Congress was to recommend the States to restore confiscated estates of loyalists, but it was given to be understood that the recommendation could not be carried out.
The treaty was signed on November 30, 1782, Henry Laurens, who arrived from London only two days be- fore, joining with Adams, Franklin, and Jay in its exe- cution. It is said that on this occasion Franklin, for the second time in France, donned the " spotted velvet
66 .
Manchester suit" worn at the session of the British privy council, but there is some question about this. The treaty was merely preliminary, and it was pro- vided that the final treaty, which was to embrace its stipulations, should not be concluded until a treaty between Great Britain and France was ready to be signed.
Strachey, secretary to the Minister of the Colonies, who had been sent over to assist Oswald, after the negotiations were practically concluded, wrote : " Are we to be hanged or applauded ? … If this is not as good a peace as was expected, I am confident it is the best that could be made." 1
On signing the treaty, Adams wrote : " Thus far has proceeded this great affair. The unraveling of the plot has been to me the most affecting and astonishing part of the whole piece." 2
It has been well said that it would be difficult to find a parallel in modern diplomacy to the complica- tions and perplexities by which at the outset the Ameri- can commissioners were surrounded. While France was ready to carry out the terms of the alliance, and make no treaty that did not secure the independence of the Colonies, she was, on the other hand, pledged by a secret treaty with Spain not to make peace till Gibral- tar was restored, and she sought to restrict the bound- aries of the Colonies. From the time that Jay reached the conclusion that it was the plan of France and Spain to oppose the claims of the Colonies both as to bound- aries, the fisheries, and compensation to the loyalists,
1 3 Life of Shelburne, 303. 2 3 J. Adams's Works, 336.
THE TREATY OF PEACE AND INDEPENDENCE. 67
the American commissioners had conducted their nego- tiations with the British commissioners without consul- tation with Vergennes, and he was not informed of the signing of the preliminary treaty until after it had taken place. This was not only in direct contraven- tion of their instructions, but of the spirit of the treaty of alliance of 1778.
The defense of the commissioners is that it was the only course left open to them to save the vital interests of their country. It is apparent that such was the con- viction of Adams and Jay. Vergennes, on being in- formed of the signing of the preliminary treaty, looked to Franklin as the only friend of France on the com- mission, and reproachfully addressed him a communi- cation : " I am at a loss to explain your conduct and that of your colleagues on this occasion. You have concluded your preliminary articles without any com- munication between us, although the instructions from Congress prescribe that nothing shall be done without the participation of the king. … You are wise and discreet, sir; you perfectly understand what is due to propriety; you have all your life performed your duties. I pray you to consider how you propose to fulfill those which are due to the king." 1
Franklin's reply was : " Nothing has been agreed, in the preliminaries, contrary to the interests of France; and no peace is to take place between us and England till you have concluded yours. Your observation is, however, apparently just that in not consulting you before they were signed we have been guilty of neglect-
1 6 Dip. Cor. Rev. 140.
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ing a point of bienseance. But as this was not from want of respect for the king, whom we all love and honor, we hope it will be excused, and that the great work, which has hitherto been so happily conducted, which is so nearly brought to perfection, and is so glorious to his reign, will not be ruined by a single indiscretion of
ours."
Vergennes, apparently conscious of the design of France to thwart the aspirations of the Colonies, ac- cepted Franklin's excuse and loaned him for the Colonies six million livres; but meanwhile he had written the French minister in Philadelphia that Congress should be informed of the conduct of the commissioners, but not in a tone of complaint. " I blame no one, not even Dr. Franklin. He has yielded too easily to the bias of his colleagues, who do not pretend to recognize the rules of courtesy in regard to us. … If we may judge of the future from what has passed here under our eyes, we shall be poorly paid for all that we have done for the United States, and for securing for them a national existence." 2 This letter, although temperate in language, manifests the deepest feeling, and it created a profound impression on Congress.
Luzerne, the French minister, made known to Sec- retary Livingston
