me when you are cool and good-humored and I will justify myself to you." Mr. Jefferson adds that they never saw each other afterwards. 1
i 1 Dip. Cor. Rev. 538.
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 37
Lee was seconded in his unworthy work by Kalph Izard, who had been accredited as minister to Tuscany, but not being received, was staying in Paris. Franklin represents him as " a man of violent and ungoverned passions/' and states that he and Lee " had a number of Americans about them, who were always exciting disputes, and propagating stories that made the service very disagreeable." John Adams, who, some weeks after the treaties had been signed, arrived in Paris to replace Deane, makes the following entry in his diary : " It is with much grief and concern that I have learned, from my first landing in France, the disputes between the Americans in this Kingdom; the animosities be- tween Mr. Deane and Mr. Lee; between Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee; between Mr. Izard and Dr. Franklin; between Dr. Bancroft and Mr. Lee; between Mr. Car- michael and all." He adds he had heard that Deane and Bancroft had made fortunes by " dabbling in the English funds, and in trade, and in fitting out priva- teers. … I am sorry for these things; but it is no part of my business to quarrel with anybody without
cause." 1
We can well understand how very distasteful such a state of affairs would be to one so little inclined to controversy and so much above deceit and intrigue as Franklin. The situation finally became so intolerable that he made it the subject of a communication to the president of Congress, which is so characteristic of the man that I give from it the following extract :
" Speaking of Commissioners in the plural, puts me 1 3 J. Adams's Works, 138.
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in mind of inquiring, if it can be the intention of Con- gress to keep three Commissioners at this Court. We have, indeed, four, with the gentleman intended for Tuscany, who continues here, and is very angry that he was not consulted in making the treaty, which he could have mended in several particulars and, perhaps, he is angry with some reason, if the instructions to him do, as he says they do, require us to consult him. We shall soon have a fifth, for the envoy to Vienna, not being received there, is, I hear, returning hither. The necessary expense of maintaining us all is, I assure you, enormously great. I wish the utility may equal it. I imagine every one of us spends nearly as much as Lord Stormont [English minister] did. It is true he left behind him the character of a niggard, and when the advertisement appeared for the sale of his house- hold goods, all Paris laughed at an article of it, per- haps very innocently expressed, ' a great quantity of table linen, that has never been used.' ' That is very likely/ say they, 'for he never invited any one to dine.' But as to our number, whatever advantage there might be in the joint counsels for framing and adjusting the articles of the treaty, there can be none in having so many for managing the common business of a resident here. … And where every one must be consulted on every particular of common business, in answering every letter, etc., and one of them is offended if the smallest thing is done without his con- sent, the difficulty of being often and long enough to- gether, the different opinions and the time consumed in debating them, the interruptions by new applicants
THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 39
in the time of meeting, etc., occasions so much post- poning and delay, that correspondence languishes and occasions are lost, and the business is always behind hand. I have mentioned the difficulty of being often and long enough together. This is considerable, where they cannot be all accommodated in the same house; but to find three people, whose tempers are so good, and who like one another's company and manner of living and conversing as to agree with themselves, though living in one house, and whose servants will not, by their indiscretion, quarrel with one another, and by artful misrepresentations draw their masters in to take their parts to the disturbance of necessary harmony, these are difficulties still greater and almost insurmountable. And in consideration of the whole, I sincerely wish the Congress would separate us." l
Notwithstanding the efforts of Lee's friends, Con- gress followed Franklin's advice to separate the envoys. Deane had already been called home, Lee was dropped from the diplomatic service, Adams returned to America, and Franklin was commissioned sole minister to France in 1778; in which position he remained for seven eventful years, until relieved by Thomas Jefferson in 1785.
Mr. Deane's later career was unhappy and disgrace- ful. On his return to America he sought to have his accounts adjusted by Congress, but Arthur Lee's charges of dishonesty had preceded him and to this was added local jealousy in his own State. He was conscious that he had rendered to the cause of independence important services in Paris, and he expected to be received with
1 2 Dip. Cor. Rev. 658.
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honor. Instead he was met in Congress by suspicion, his accounts were attacked, and after long delays a just settlement was refused him. He was turned away from the doors of the body which should have manifested its gratitude, a disappointed and aggrieved man. He returned to Europe and eventually accepted service and pay from the British government, sealing his apostacy by a series of letters urging the Colonies to give up the struggle and return to British allegiance. In 1784, when Jay was passing through London on his return to America, Deane sought an interview with him which the former refused by letter, in which he told him that he (Deane) had possessed his esteem, that he had been attached to him, and he would have been willing to hear an explanation of his late conduct but for one cir- cumstance. " I was told that you received visits from, and was on terms of familiarity with, General Arnold. Every American who gives his hand to that man, in my opinion, pollutes it." l
There is no evidence of the truth of Lee's charges; Franklin vindicated Deane' s integrity, and he died in poverty. The government did tardy justice to his con- duct and services in Paris, under an Act of Congress of August 11, 1842, by paying to his heirs the sum of $36,998, fifty-eight years after his death. From the days of Aristides, the ingratitude of republics has been a byword in the world. There was no intent on the part of Congress to do Deane an injustice, but it was misled by the malevolence of Lee, and its action brought about the disgrace of the earliest diplomatic representa- tive of the country.
i 1 Dip. Cor. Rev. 570.
Chapter II
THE treaties of commerce and alliance with France were followed by three events which had an important influence upon the fortunes of the Colonies, to wit : the declaration of war against England by Spain, the armed neutrality of the nations of northern Europe, and the treaty made by Holland with the United States.
Spain, in 1779, was still a formidable power, and its large possessions in the New World made it of the utmost importance to the Continental Congress to estab- lish friendly relations with it. Early efforts had been made by Dr. Franklin, through the French court and by correspondence, to secure its common action with France, and to the treaty of 1778 a secret clause was appended, providing for the adhesion of Spain to the alliance. In 1779 John Jay, of New York, one of the most distinguished and able of the revolutionary lead- ers, was appointed minister at Madrid, and for two years he labored with assiduity, but fruitlessly, to secure a treaty of friendship and alliance. So anxious was Congress to effect an alliance with that country that it authorized Mr. Jay to surrender the right of navigation of the Mississippi, and make a renunciation of ah 1 claims to or designs upon its American territory, as its price. Fortunate was it for the future of our country that Mr.
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Jay's mission was a failure, although conducted with marked ability and dignity on his part,
