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. Introduction. He was a young man of complete integrity and far from ordinary gifts, whom Franklin could well have used in Paris. Americans, for instance, were forbidden to trade directly with foreign countries or with the foreign islands of the Caribbean, except in a few commodities which could be sold under cumbersome and expensive restrictions. Almost consciously Lee longed for that consummation. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce recognized the U.S. as an independent nation and promoted trade between France and America. He would not believe reports which meant bad news for England, or fully credit those which came from spies whose personal lives this virtuous burgher disapproved. In August, 1774, Sir Joseph Yorke, for years the British ambassador at The Hague, wrote his superior, the Earl of Suffolk: As the contraband trade carried on between Holland and North America is so well known in England I have not thought it necessary of late to trouble your Lordship with trifling details of ships sailing from Amsterdam for the British Colonies, laden with teas, linnens, etc., But now he had something serious to report: My informations says that the Polly , Captain Benjamin Broadhurst, bound to Nantucket has shipped on board a considerable quantity of gunpowder. Besides, five British warships blockaded the harbor. Delays which were not the fault of Deane and Beaumarchais held up most of the fleet for months after lading. No doubt the colonies hoarded local supplies for their own defense, and the merchants hoarded their stocks for higher prices. Every step in preparing the lugger for a cruise was watched by the British in Dunkirk. Franklin knew what he had won for his beloved country. February 6, 1778. The country had no President and Cabinet, no executive departments, no constitution. Discovering that point at which the common interests of France and the United States diverged would be a delicate task, and also an enjoyable one since he was matching wits with Franklin. 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. He and his friend the Marquis de Bouille, the new governor of Martinique, had a privateer fleet with American masters and French and Spanish crews which was making itself felt in the Caribbean. His emotional balance was precarious. It was February, and the ominous shift in the ministry from the friendly Grimaldi to the hostile Floridablanca was taking place. 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. He added, Take care that America and the West Indies dont glide through our fingers.. He spent much of the latter half of 1776 in Paris as mentor to the inexperienced American, and the close friendship thus begun lasted as long as Deane lived. A week later she was halfway out of the harbor when a British sloop and cutter were sighted. In order to make the war effective he reminded Vergennes of things Vergennes could do for the Bourbon cause: release the Hortalez ships, foster the American trade, and lend Congress money. Edmund Pendleton was, according to John Adams . Podcast: Libert, Unit, Egalit. A new nation had emerged, and in time each individual would realize his new identity. As such is their miserable policy, it is our business to force on a war for which purpose I see nothing so likely as fitting our privateers from the ports and islands of France. Affairs at Nantes became more and more tangled, and William Lee did nothing to straighten them out. But his eventual victory depended on two essentials which only Europe could provide: military supplies of all sorts and a powerful navy. The defeat was so ugly for France that it led them to lose all the colonies in the Americas. Captain Conyngham had lost his ship on the last voyage, and was given command of the Surprise , a lugger newly bought for Congress. The American Revolution had a multifaceted effect in France, extending the national debt, contributing . A clever negotiator could have done much there, for Frederick the Great despised the British and the little German states that sold them mercenaries; he took a lively interest in the progress of the American war and was ready to expand Prussias trade with the Americans, which so far had been clandestine. Congress was shipping them tobacco, furs, and other valuable products to buy war supplies and ships, but Tom Morris and Penet claimed every cargo arriving in France. Between them Beaumarchais and Deane amassed arms and every necessary article of clothing for an army of 30,000 men. If successful, France would get as her share half the Newfoundland fishery and all the sugar islands; Spain would be enriched by Portugal and the Floridas, and the United States would gain Canada, Bermuda, and the Bahamas. Apprehensive as he was about Britain, Vergennes risked war to release Captain Wickes and Captain Henry Johnson, who had sailed in company with him on the Irish cruise, from their long protective arrest in port. 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. Perhaps the greater part of Edward Bancroft was truly American. The Committee of Secret Correspondence, under Franklin, engaged agents abroad to explore the possibilities of foreign alliances. When he arrived at Nantes Penet kept him drunk and hostile to the Paris commissioners. The requested battleships were not forthcoming; it was explained that France needed every unit of her Navy for her own purposes, which of course meant her expected war with Britain. But he was needed more in Nantes. The French Revolution was a momentous historical event that set enduring patterns for modern revolutionary movements and for much of modern politics in general. 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 commissioners had written privately to Robert Morris that his brother must be removed, but their letters were not received for months. The commissioners drew on it for their expenses, for the purchase of war supplies, for building three frigates in Holland and France, and for keeping up the maritime war in European waters. Moreover, importers of cannon and powder had to arm their merchantmen, and if their merchantmen were transformed into privateers, as many were, they needed a large supply of ammunition. In their eyes she was still colonial, an outlying province of Europe. 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. Plainly neither side wanted to start hostilities, and they had perfected a system for avoiding a rupture. Robert Morris alcoholic half brother Thomas had just been appointed by Congress as its commercial agent for all of France. A disguised British vessel at Dunkirk had alerted the warships, and as soon as the Revenge was in the open sea she was chased by several British frigates, sloops of war, and cutters. But the, In a few swift parries Franklin suggested what his technique of dealing with the ministry would be. For all his enjoyment of high life and high-level intrigue, he was a seismograph about social upheavals and an intellectual who understood their necessity. Franklin wrote his Committee of Foreign Affairs of the prodigious success of our armed ships and privateers. London merchants had lost nearly 2,000,000 in their West Indies trade, and insurance had soared to 28 per cent, he boasted. A growing fleet of American privateers had already brought prizes into the various French ports, and a system had been perfected for their disposal. Tom Morris was dragging out the last months of his wretched life, and Lee saw no point in beating a dead horse. To formalize the colonial complaints against Parliament. As Americas sole diplomat Franklin had done all that one man could do to influence the ministries of Europe. In 1782, Benjamin Franklin rejected informal peace overtures from Great Britain for a settlement that would provide the thirteen states with some measure of autonomy within the British Empire. Since Wentworth often slipped across to Paris, much of Bancrofts information could be delivered verbally, but he made a weekly report in writing. Vergennes may never have realized what had happened during that fateful year of 1777. Here are five ways the French helped Americans win their freedom. As the American who best understood both sides of the Atlantic, Franklin had carried much of that burden, and for a long time to come would carry all the responsibility for getting maximum aid from the neutral powers without compromising the future of the new republic. Privateers could accomplish wonders, but they could not fight the great British ships of the line. During the last eighteen months Conyngham had been in and out of the port, always hull down before the British realized he had vanished, and this time they were determined to get him. Even though some consider King Louis to just be a contributor he . Too much depended on Franklin. 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. The French Revolution was one of the most senseless . There was no mention of payment. But Franklin and Deane knew what to expect from Arthur Lee. Though he knew that affairs at Nantes were in a frightful state, William Lee lingered in Paris until August to confer with his brother about rearranging American foreign affairs to enhance the family glory. Then he tried to tempt Deane with the honours and emoluments which the King would bestow on him if he brought about a reconciliation. But he had not reckoned on the reversal of Spanish policy. Copyright 1949-2022 American Heritage Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. If this scheme can be executed, it will disconcert all the plans at one stroke, without an appearance of intention, and save both the public and me.. Somehow the wild Irishman, repeating the maneuver of the sound and sober Wickes, created an infinitely greater reaction. Shipping was at a premium; in the last year the price of vessels had tripled. 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 blogpost looks at the important French role in the American Revolution. Tobacco and rice, strictly reserved to England, were now rushed across the Atlantic to Amsterdam or Lorient and exchanged for cannon, powder, teas, and other goods which Americans could not do without. It inspired the French to launch their own revolution for liberty and equality. He had come to the point where he must drop his perilous but always enjoyable collaboration with Franklin and play for France alone. But once these two great steps in the right direction were made, it was easy to push through resolutions for negotiating foreign alliances. The choice of Washington as commander in chief of the military forces of all the colonies followed immediately upon the first fighting, though it was by no means inevitable and was the product of partly artificial forces. He must gather exhaustive information on the missions dealings with Congress, with Versailles, with merchants shipping out contraband. By October Beaumarchais had spent the original 2,000,000 livres from the Bourbon kings, plus another million from France, and 2,600,000 livres in the form of credit from French merchants. The story goes that he was rushing to play the stock market, and no doubt he was. Wickes took two small merchantmen which ran down their colors with alacrity. His, Soon Beaumarchaiss coach was tearing down the road to Paris so fast that it overturned and he injured an arm. DuVal, Kathleen. The story goes that he was rushing to play the stock market, and no doubt he was. The Americans' victory over the British may have been one of the greatest catalysts for the French Revolution. May 12, 1780. The sacred British mails were rushed down to Passy, and then the storm broke at Versailles. Monticello Guide Olivia Brown looks at Jefferson's reaction to this momentous event and the small but significant role he played in it. A few hours later Vergennes warned his royal master that it looked very much as if Britain had at last offered America her independence, opening the way to an alliance with the motherland. His future United States included Canada and the Floridas and the British West Indies, especially Bermuda and the Bahamas. All this was so familiar to Franklin that it did not discourage him; he simply had to be on his guard for the moment when Vergennes would stop playing for the joint interests of both countries and play for France alone. But the accident was symbolic: Hortalez & Company had suffered a. Franklin immediately got to work at this dismal situation. Franklin took charge of diplomatic duties, Arthur Lee undertook missions to Spain and Prussia which happily kept him out of Paris at a crucial period, and Deane continued his commercial activities. Our want of powder is inconceivable, wrote Washington in the bitter early days of the Revolution. Gunrunning to America was certainly going on in 1774, and no doubt Franklin knew about it. A generation after the end of the Revolutionary War, new revolutions emerged in nearly a dozen Spanish colonies in Central and South America. In the summer of 1775 Colonel Henry Tucker, whose clan dominated island affairs, came to Philadelphia in a state of worry and resentment. At the first hint of this the Doctor tendered his resignation, which to his relief was not accepted. 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. He was the Edward Edwards of the secret service, the master spy of the century. 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. Conyngham shook them off and began the most spectacular cruise of the war. Whereas French intervention in the war would help turn the tide in favor of the Americans, the debt it incurred would contribute to the later French Revolution (1789-1799 . The American people had shown their power. 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. He was evidently buying arms and setting up a smuggling base in the Low Countries. He was to evoke this nightmare more than once, but it never lost its effect. On February 6, 1778, Benjamin Franklin was in France signing the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance. But the early ratio of seven British merchantmen captured to one American lost was rapidly declining, and Britains patrol of the seaboard was making it difficult to maintain a supply line of military and civilian goods. France Allied with American Colonies. Sailcloth and shoes, embroidered waistcoats and fusils, cannon and wig powder were crated and piled on the docks for shipment to the country that needed everything. Yet, it represented much more to those individuals who proposed the gift. America, Franklin retorted, is ready to fight fifty years to win it.. There was nothing to do but restore the packet and the brig to England and order the arrest of Conyngham and his crew. Students will analyze maps, treaties, congressional records, first-hand accounts, and correspondence to determine the different roles assumed by Native Americans in the American Revolution and understand why the various groups formed the alliances they did. Franco-American Alliance, (Feb. 6, 1778), agreement by France to furnish critically needed military aid and loans to the 13 insurgent American colonies, often considered the turning point of the U.S. War of Independence. This well-connected young man had been sent direct from Congress to buy two ships to serve as packets for the mission. France did not wait for the announcement of July Fourth. Representatives of the French and American governments signed the Treaty of Alliance and a Treaty of Amity and Commerce on February 6, 1778. 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. Within 50 years, the European empires in the Americas would shrink and new nations would spread across the whole of the Americas. The foreign alliances of France have a long and complex history spanning more than a millennium. French ships engaged British vessels almost immediately after Britain declared war on France in March of 1778. Bancroft is entirely an American and every word he used on the late occasion was to deceive; perhaps they think Mr. Wentworth has been sent from motives of fear and if that is Franklins opinion the whole conduct he has shewn, is wise and to me it [unravels] what other ways would appear inexplicable.. To Vergennes, Americans were shedding their blood in order to bleed England.