This was the germ of the deliberate policy Franklin and Deane pursued during 1777: to create such an open scandal about French connivance in American raids that it could not be effervesced in private conversations between Stormont and Vergennes. Stormont then delivered to Vergennes threats only a step removed from war. She was starting out as a beggar at the court of Versailles, and she would have to keep on begging until the war was over. The French Revolution was one of the most senseless . This treaty was a promise from France to help the fight against the British. His beloved wife had died, and his best friend Robert Morris had thrown him over because he had told the truth about Tom. Dr. Bancroft was an old friend of Franklins from his London days. On the same day he wrote Richard Henry Lee: My idea of adapting characters and places is this: Dr. Franklin to Vienna, as the first, most respectable, and quiet; Mr. Deane to Holland; and the alderman [William] to Berlin. Wentworths connection with the secret service was not suspected; Franklin regarded him as a former patriot who had joined the Tory ranks and must be treated with caution. Since this ruined Arthur Lees flattering picture of himself as Americas first envoy to Madrid, he was enraged. However, Izard and Arthur Lee let no day pass without earnest efforts, and on January 2, 1781, a move was made in Congress for Franklins recall. With a fur cap on his unwigged gray head, Franklin took up his studies of the Gulf Stream where he had dropped them on his voyage home from England. When Franklin came to the signing . He was a bosom friend of Alderman Lee and had accepted his appointment by the Adams-Lee bloc in Congress as envoy to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Every man aboard was lost except the cook. Nor had Vergennes, who was extremely cool in his calculations. Moreover, orders would be given for British warships to seize the French fishing fleet daily expected from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. There must be a breaking point somewhere in his patience. His, Soon Beaumarchaiss coach was tearing down the road to Paris so fast that it overturned and he injured an arm. As was demonstrated at the Battle of Yorktown, the French alliance was decisive for the cause of American independence. No man of his century could approach Franklin as a subtle and effective propagandist. Contrary winds kept the Reprisal from entering the Loire to make the port of Nantes. England, Franklin said suavely, could hardly object to France sending the battleships with their crews, since Britain herself was borrowing or hiring troops from other states. Shipping was at a premium; in the last year the price of vessels had tripled. Franklin enjoyed the brief engagements. He made for the English Channel, where he took four small merchantmen, which he sent to Lorient under prize masters. Meanwhile, Grard warned, the negotiations must be kept secret. Franklin resolved to break through any limitations put on his mission by Congress. It is also true that Franklin could have helped along such conspiratorial work without leaving a trace of his part of it. Athur Lee, who became Congress agent in London after Franklins departure, had been in conspiratorial relations with Beaumarchais during his visits to England. The fact that he was a genius, and a genius of such multiple gifts that he might easily inspire alarm or jealousy in others, had early taught him the art of using screens and disguises. These reports were written in invisible ink between the lines of love letters addressed to Mr. The warehouses lining her one street, a mile long, were crammed with munitions, ships stores, bolts of cloth; sacks of sugar and tobacco covered the very sands, and the roadstead was packed with merchantmen. They found the star of them all in Dunkirk. Nobody could find the prizes, which had been sold. As a result of Lees carelessness in leaving his portfolio in his room when he went out to dine, the commissioners had to abandon the building of a great frigate in Amsterdam, and she was sold to Louis XVI at cost. This must not happen again. The American Revolution. This well-connected young man had been sent direct from Congress to buy two ships to serve as packets for the mission. Getting a fleet for Washington was high on Franklins agenda. Still hopeful that Congress had ships to command, they spoke of raids on Greenland whalers and Hudson Bay fishing fleets, and urged that Navy ships convoy shipping in the Caribbean, since England would now send privateers and heavy units of her fleet there. Most of the supply was still down in the Caribbean, but the fact remains that there must have been more powder on the continent than the various colonies and the merchants were willing to release to Congress. Hodge was not released until the last of the fishing fleet was safely home in France. The alliance of France with the American Patriots started on February 6, 1778, when the King of France signed a treaty with Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. In the late 1780s, Jefferson witnessed first-hand the beginnings of the French Revolution and what would become the eventual overthrow of King Louis XVI and the French monarchy. American victory over the British in the Battle of Saratoga convinced the French that the Americans were committed to independence and worthy partners to a formal alliance. A French expeditionary force arrived in the United States in 1780. His new cutter, the Revenge , had been bought by William Hodge of Philadelphia, who had also obtained Conynghams first ship. This blogpost looks at the important French role in the American Revolution. In 1776, the Continental Congress sent diplomat Benjamin Franklin, along with Silas Deane and Arthur Lee, to France to secure a formal alliance. Privateers could accomplish wonders, but they could not fight the great British ships of the line. Almost every transaction carried out for Congress was a mixture of public and private business, an accepted practice. He helped Beaumarchais buy and fit out eight ships, prudently scattered in various ports: the Amphitrite, Mercure, Flammand, Mre Bobie, Seine, Thrse, Amelia , and Marie Catherine . The powder was stolen; Bermuda was fed. A certain Monsieur Hortalez, said the courier, was sending munitions worth 200,000 to the Cape, Martinique, and Statia, which American captains could obtain for Congress simply by saying Hortalez to the port commandant. Ferreiro, Larrie D. Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France & Spain Who Saved It. It was a long time before this contract with the Farmers General could be satisfied, since few ships could now run the British blockade of the American seaboard. Bancroft was still the mission confidant at Passy; certain Americans who sat at Deanes dinner table reported on ship movements to the British secret service, and Captain Joseph Hynson, who happened to be Lambert Wickess stepbrother, stole an entire pouch of dispatches intended for Congress, which contained all the secret correspondence between the mission and the French ministry for the last eight months. 2. His Amphitrite and Mercure were already home, having delivered their supplies at Portsmouthgunpowder and blankets and clothing, sixty cannon, and 12,000 stand of arms. In making this special adaptation of her book for AMERICAN HERITAGE, she has re-created that less familiar but vital struggle behind the scenes which was necessary at Versailles before Cornwallis could march out, in defeat, at Yorktown while the drums beat for the birth of a new nation. The French Revolution began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille on July 14th. Knowing George III as he did, Franklin realized the importance of insulting him while all Europe looked on. Conclusion. Almost consciously Lee longed for that consummation. It meant only the familiar rite of changing the property on paper. As for the French islands, the Cape developed into a prime source for munitions, and Martinique became an American privateer base before Franklin sailed. Moreover, he knew that Franklin was talking sense; if Washington was losing battles there were reasons for his setback which France could do a great deal to remedy. Vergennes promptly granted the requested interview. A swarm of workmen then changed the marks of the vessels by slapping on new coats of paint, changing the figurehead, and such devices. Spain had been fighting Portugal in South America and had favored just such an alliance with the hope of getting Portugal as her share of the plunder. However, over time divisions of opinion became apparent between federalists and anti-federalists. He decided that Jonathan Williams, the soul of probity, should be drawn into the Lee crusade against all rivals, and soon Congress was hearing about Williams embezzlements of public funds. Franklin prudently released his grandnephew from his post as special agent for the mission, and he remained in Nantes in private business. Support with a donation>>. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975. The Charleston move is part of a broader British strategy to hang on to the southern colonies, at least, now that the war is stalemated in Pennsylvania and New York. A new nation had emerged, and in time each individual would realize his new identity. Even respected modern historians will repeat some of Arthur Lees calumnies about Franklin and Deane, Jonathan Williams, and William Carmichael, though they have been disproved over and over since their creation in a sick mind. Stormont was instructed to tell Vergennes that the Rebels game was up. His contract with Wentworth gave him 500 down, the same amount as yearly salary, and a life pension. America, Franklin retorted, is ready to fight fifty years to win it.. France, planning a war of revenge, saw in the growing revolt of the thirteen colonies a chance to weaken her chronic enemy, and by 1766 she was ready to rush to their support if they broke with England. His jealousy of Franklin, which grew into a nightmare for Americans on two continents, had begun in 1770 when Massachusetts appointed Franklin its agent in England, and Lee his inactive deputy to replace him if he left England or if he died. It could not supply Washington gunpowder in 1775 nor cope with the enlarging task of war procurement. In 1865, Edouard de Laboulaye (a French . French Empire wanted to take revenge on the British Empire for its defeat in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). He often held back information or distorted it, and Wentworth sensed this and by summer made him take an oath before he delivered an oral report. Part 2 focuses on the French land and naval forces that assisted the U.S. in combating the British military. The royal loan was followed by an advance of a third million by the Farmers General of the French Revenue, who administered the government monopoly of tobacco and hoped for large shipments from Congress. British spies were everywhere. A blacksmiths son, he had worked his way through Yale and had started to practice law when he married the daughter of a great merchant family. People heavily associate the French Revolution with the American Revolution, due to the many general similarities. But if she should declare war on France, we conceive that by the united force of France, Spain, and America, she will lose all her possessions in the West Indies, much the greatest part of that commerce which has rendered her so opulent, and be reduced to that state of weakness and humiliation which she has, by her perfidy, her insolence, and her cruelty both in the east and the west, so justly merited.. On the last day of the year the bad news arrived from Spain: Charles III was unwilling to enter an alliance with America. Dubourg, said the archivist, amassed arms with the help of the brilliant new foreign minister, the Comte de Vergennes, who was determined to make the American rebellion a success; and Montaudoin shipped this contraband to America. Free subscription>>, Please consider a donation to help us keep this American treasure alive. No charge was made against Deane, but for two years Congress kept him in Philadelphia at its pleasure while the press vilified him. The romantic era of secret aid was finished; there would be no more subsidies and loans from Versailles, and his company was already in financial straits. Morris was as stubborn as George III about refusing to believe bad news, but when he was finally convinced of his mistake he was full of contrition. On his first escape from Old Mill in 1779, Conyngham tunneled out with 53 companions. Every step in preparing the lugger for a cruise was watched by the British in Dunkirk. He terrorized the towns on the east coast of England and Scotland. This rule was so thoroughly disobeyed that great shipping houses like Willing & Morris of Philadelphia kept factors, or at least correspondents, all over Europe and the Caribbean to take care of their trade. They were sure that the men who were shouldering the executive functions of a nonexistent Administration were in the wrong: Washington, Franklin, Morris, Deane, John Jay, and their hardheaded allies. In mortal terror of discovery, Bancroft was always called Edwards or some other cover name in the secret files, and even in private conferences with Wentworth and Lord Stormont. France aided the colonists by providing military armaments and loans. He went back to London in a fury. This cat and mouse game was only part of the new turn in French policy. Inequality of Rights. By the summer of 1777 Arthur Lee openly accused Deane and Beaumarchais of appropriating 200,000 which he said the Bourbons had intended as a free gift to America. 900 seconds. February 6, 1778. The colonies could not conclude treaties until they declared themselves a nation, and the necessity of getting military supplies and the support of a powerful fleet did a great deal to hasten independence. From 1790 to 1794, the revolutionaries grew increasingly radical. General Washington in the American Revolution. It was plain that Vergennes rather disliked him and gave every evidence that he was dealing with him only because he represented someone important. The King was progressing from the swaddling clothes of a dominant mother to the strait jacket of his manic seizures, and even in his long periods of sanity his balance was precarious. He might have included the foreign islands, since all colonial America had been united for a century and a half in its resistance to the mercantilism of Europe. He sent his first secretary, Grard de Rayvenal, to Passy with his congratulations and the suggestion that Franklin might now press the treaty negotiation which France had avoided for nearly a year. The Virginia delegates differed upon his appointment. For once Wentworth brought the King good news, the only kind he could ever believe. The providence which was evidently favoring the American cause got the rest of the fleet safely to the mainland except the Seine , which the British captured after she had unloaded part of her cargo on Martinique. The first British protests were made to the French ambassador, Noailles, who blandly replied that in a great nation there are many turbulent spirits eager to run after adventures. He did not attempt to have his turbulent compatriots released from prison. The involvement of France in the American War of Independence (1775-1783) was not only significant in the progress of the war itself but also as a critical moment for France. Athur Lees mission to Spain had done nothing to warm her heart to America. The two Lees and Izard were busily writing letters about the expected alliance. Stamp Act of 1765. Conyngham lusted for his fine new cutter, which mounted 14 six-pounders and 22 swivels, and would have a crew of more than a hundred American and French seamen. He was free for a time to be the scientist, finding in nature a fidelity to laws beyond the reach of human meddling. All George III had to offer his erring children, who would of course return to colonial status, was the repeal of the obnoxious acts since 1763, which had precipitated the war. The Revolution precipitated a series of European wars, forcing the United States to articulate a clear policy of neutrality in order to avoid being embroiled in these European conflicts. Here are five ways the French helped Americans win their freedom. They asked that frigates be sent over by August to cruise against Englands Baltic trade and attack the British Isles. However, Franklin had boarded the Reprisal for that very purpose. The joint conquest was proposed of Canada, the Floridas, and the British West Indies. He was the dark personality of the family: a paranoid constantly haunted by the most fantastic suspicions of the people around him; a captious, hypercritical man who never married or made a simple friendship; a man with inflated notions of his own Tightness and genius who suffered tortures of jealousy of anybody above him. While a gifted and expert secret agent can develop a second personality which keeps him from making slips, in Bancrofts case this doubling of self may have reflected a profound split in the psyche. Beaumarchais wrote masterly letters to Louis XVI, arguing that with timely secret help from France the Americans would win their war and clip Britains wings. The memoir to Vergennes asked for a French loan of 2,000,000 (which Congress had hopefully requested) . There would soon be an unfavorable change in the Spanish ministry: Grimaldi, friendly to America, would be replaced as chief minister by the Count of Floridablanca, who feared that an America now independent would before long overrun Spanish possessions in the New World. Like a good diplomat, he conveyed these urgent demands to the ministries in a most persuasive form, but he had already gauged the situation in the royal courts and expected no miracles. It looked like a checkmate. Deane and Beaumarchais were already fast friends, working in harmony to load the Hortalez fleet with war supplies. It was a fine moment for his debut. Most of them were of no earthly use to the Commander in Chief and drained an impoverished Congress of money and patience. Wentworth reported to Eden that he had found Deane vain, desultory and subtle and indeed the commissioner must have had some difficulty keeping a straight face. If Vergennes had any doubts about Franklins grasp of Bourbon aims, they were resolved by the Doctors masterly letter of January 5. Compared to the antics of the French Revolution, the infamous Tea Party in Boston was like the sisters at the convent sneaking into the dorm of the rival convent and shorting their sheets. Franklin knew that Vergennes, who for years had befriended America, would scuttle her the instant she ceased to serve his purpose. Long before it got into feeble action, eleven of the colonies had started their own navies, and several of them commissioned their own privateer fleets. The Revenge was owned half by Congress and half by Hodge and David Conyngham, a wealthy cousin of the captains who was on a business trip to Europe. Economic historians will recognize the invaluable research and work of two individuals in particular that this article draws from: Merrill Jensen, and . Some of them were British merchants; others were American sea captains who could be trusted to deliver letters or verbal messages to people on the Continent. In mid-November George III, who had no intention of starting a war with France, decided it would be useful to know the Spanish plans and sent Paul Wentworth to Paris to find out how Charles III stood. He had a large family and expensive tastes, and needed and loved money. Hortalez & Company now became what it had always pretended to bea private concernand he kept on sending supplies to the United States until after Yorktown. Lord Stormont, the British ambassador, had been sputtering at Vergennes for two years about the shipping of contraband from French ports, and now he raised such a storm that the minister had to forbid the sailing of one Hortalez vessel after the other. In November 1789, Richard Price . But he had not reckoned on the reversal of Spanish policy. Since George III was violently against a war with the Bourbons these warnings disturbed him, but they did not change his fixed purpose to bully the colonies into obedience. He agreed to investigate the matter. But Beaumarchais had already outlined his plan for Hortalez & Company in a memoir to the King, and he persuaded Vergennes that this was the perfect device for concealing the Bourbon conspiracy against Britain. Lee next stormed Prussia. It also meant that mainland meat and fish would spoil for lack of salt. It was an entirely new sort of war because the United States was a new sort of country, whose survival depended less on land fighting than on a complex of factors in which Franklin was deeply involved. He must gather exhaustive information on the missions dealings with Congress, with Versailles, with merchants shipping out contraband. During the struggle for American independence, France provided the money, troops, armament, military leadership, and naval support that tipped the balance of military power and paved the way for the Continental Army's ultimate victory. Carmichael wrote a strong-action letter to William Bingham on Martinique, mincing no words as to the policy being carried out in France: I think your situation of singular consequence to bring on a war so necessary to assure our independence, and which the weak system of this court seems studiously to avoid. The court of France, he wrote, is the great wheel that moves them all and he added that of all posts he preferred Paris for himself. America needed French aid of every sort: ships, supplies, loans, to begin with. Thus torn from its context, the military side of the Revolution is implausible.). But Bancroft was in the most strategic position of any informer, and his conduct at Passy was mysterious. February 6, 1778. During the Revolution this tiny island was the clearinghouse for American trade with the Caribbean and Europe, including Britain. The Treaty of Alliance (1778) between the United State and France was signed February 6, 1778. Perhaps the greater part of Edward Bancroft was truly American. British Debt. In his plain dress, still wearing his comfortable fur cap, he was the natural man Rousseau had taught the French to revere, and a symbol of Utopia. Congress had sent the King the Olive Branch Petition, which paralyzed war efforts for many months. DuVal, Kathleen. A box tree on the south terrace of the Tuileries Gardens had a convenient hollow under the trunk, and into this hole a bottle containing the gallant letter was let down by a string.