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George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10, Preface. (search)
r completeness are unique. Of the letters of the American commissioners, nearly all are in print; yet I have been able to make gleanings from unpublished papers of them all, and have full reports of their conversations with the British representatives. On the French side, I have papers drawn up for the guidance of the negotiation; the reports of Rayneval from England to Vergennes, repeated in the accounts addressed by Vergennes himself to Montmorin, the French ambassador at Madrid, and to Luzerne, the French minister at Philadelphia. On the British side, I have the official letters of Shelburne and Secretary Townshend, and of every member of the British commission; beside a profusion of the private letters and papers of Shelburne and of Oswald. I have also the private papers, as well as the official ones, of Strachey; and the courtesy of the present head of the family voluntarily gave consent to the unrestricted use of them. The Marquis of Lansdowne, of 1848, was persuaded tha
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10, Chapter 6: (search)
Chapter 6: Spain and the United States. 1778. early in the year, Juan de Miralez, a Spanish Chap. VI.} 1778. emissary, appeared in Philadelphia. Not accredited to congress, for Spain would not recognise that body, Luzerne to Vergennes, 17 Dec., 1779. he looked upon the rising republic as a natural enemy to his country; and through the influence of the French minister, with whom he had as yet no authorized connection, he sought to raise up obstacles on all sides to its development. Gerard to Vergennes, 16 and 29 July, 1778. He came as a spy and an intriguer; nevertheless congress, with unsuspecting confidence, welcomed him as the representative of an intended ally. Of all the European powers, Spain was the most consistently and perseveringly hostile to the United States. With a true instinct she saw in their success the quickening example which was to break down the barriers of her own colonial system; and her dread of their coming influence shaped her policy
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10, Chapter 9: (search)
coast fisheries by the law of nature and of nations? The fishery on the high seas, so Vergennes expounded the law of nations, is as free as the sea itself, and it is superfluous to discuss the right of the Americans to it. But the coast fisheries belong of right to the proprietary of the coast. Therefore the fisheries on the coasts of Newfoundland, of Nova Scotia, of Canada, belong exclusively to the English; and the Americans have no pretension whatever to share in them. Vergennes to Luzerne, 25 Sept., 1779. But they had hitherto almost alone engaged in the fisheries on the coast of Nova Scotia and in the gulf of St. Lawrence; deeming themselves to have gained a right to them by exclusive and immemorial usage. Further, the New England men had planned and had alone furnished land forces for the first reduction of Cape Breton, and had assisted in the acquisition of Nova Scotia and Canada. The fisheries on their coasts seemed to them, therefore, a perpetual joint property.
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10, Chapter 17: (search)
nterdict of the slave-trade, and the importation of slaves would therefore remain open to any state according to its choice. When on the seventeenth of June, 1779, a renunciation of the power to engage in the slave-trade was proposed as an article to be inserted in the treaty of peace, all the states, Georgia alone being absent, refused the concession by the votes of every member except Jay and Gerry. The rigid assertion of the sovereignty of each state 1780. fostered mutual jealousy. Luzerne, the French envoy who succeeded Gerard, soon came to the conclusion that the confederacy would run the risk of an early dissolution if it should give itself up to the hatred which began to show itself between the north and south. Vermont, whose laws from the first never bore with slavery, knocked steadily at the door of congress to be taken in as a state. In August, 1781, its envoys 1781. were present in Philadelphia, entreating admission. Their papers were in order; the statesmen of
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10, Chapter 19: (search)
have nointerest whatever to see America play the part of a power. The possibility of the dissolution of the general confederation, and the consequent suppression of congress, leads us to think that nothing can be more conformable to our political interest than separate acts by which each state shall ratify the treaties concluded with France; because in this way every state will be found separately connected with us, whatever may be the fortune of the general confederation. Vergennes to Luzerne, 27 Sept., 1779. Maryland was the only other state to take notice of treaties, and it did no more than approve the act of its delegates in ratifying them. The sentiment of congress was strong against these seeming assumptions of a separate voice on a subject reserved exclusively for the deliberation of all. Before the war was ended, both Maryland and Virginia applied to France for assistance, which the latter received. On the question of a closer union, Virginia hung nearly on the b
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10, Chapter 21: (search)
is of a long truce of at least twenty years, during which South Carolina and Georgia would remain with the English in return for the evacuation of New York. He had sounded Washington and others in America on the subject, and they all had repelled the idea. There are none but the mediators, wrote Vergennes, who could make to the United States so grievous an offer. It would be hard for France to propose it, because she has guaranteed the independence of the thirteen states. Vergennes to Luzerne, 1 Feb., 1781. Kaunitz, accordingly, set himself to work to bring the mediation to a successful issue. In the month of April, young Laurens arrived Chap. XXI.} 1781. at Versailles, preceded by importunate letters from Rochambeau and Lafayette to the ministry. His demand was for a loan of twenty-five million livres to be raised for the United States on the credit of the king of France, and in support of it he communicated to the French ministry his letter of advice from Washington. Fra
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10, Chapter 25: (search)
e knowledge and concurrence of the ministers of the king of France, and ultimately to govern themselves by their advice and opinion. That New Hampshire abandoned the claim to the fisheries was due to Sullivan, who at the time was a pensioner of Luzerne. Madison still persevered in the effort to obtain power for congress to collect a revenue, and that body named a committee to examine into the changes which needed to be made in the articles of confederation. The difficulty of continuing the war under them, so Aug. 27. wrote Luzerne on the twenty-seventh of August, proves equally the necessity of reforming them, produced, as they were, at an epoch, when the mere name of authority inspired terror, and by men who thought to make themselves agreeable to the people. I can scarcely persuade myself that they will come to an agreement on this matter. Some persons even believe that the actual constitution, all vicious as it is, can be changed only by some violent revolution. The Fre
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10, Chapter 28: (search)
He desired that hostilities of all kinds might be stayed. He treated captives always with gentleness; and some of them he set free. When Washington asked that the Carolinians who had been exiled in violation of the capitulation of Charleston might have leave to return to their native state under a flag of truce, Carleton answered that they should be sent back at the cost of the king of England; and that everything should be done to make them forget the hardships which they had endured. Luzerne to Rayneval, 10 June, 1782. Two hundred Iroquois, two hundred Ottawas, and seventy Chippeways came in the summer to St. Johns on the Chambly, ready to make a raid into the state of New York. They were told from Carleton to bury their hatchets and their tomahawks. Acting under the orders of Greene in Georgia, Feb. Wayne, by spirited manoeuvres, succeeded in wresting the state from the hands of the British, obliging them to abandon post after post and redoubt after redoubt, until they we
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10, Chapter 29: (search)
icularity a Mr. Livingston, afin qu'il puisse s'il le juge a propos ramener les deux plenipotentiaires americains á la teneur de leurs instructions. Vergennes to Luzerne, 14 Oct., 1782. After the capture of Minorca by the Duke de Crillon, Chap. XXIX.} 1782. Sept. the French and Spanish fleets united under his command to reduct, parliament was prorogued to the fifth of December. On the same day on which the final instructions to Oswald were written, Vergennes declared in a letter to Luzerne: There exists in our treaties no condi- 23. tion which obliges the king to prolong the war in order to sustain the ambitious pretensions which the United States re pour soutenir les pretentious ambitieuses que les États-Unis peuvent former, soit par rapport à la peche, soit par rapport à laetendue des limitss Vergennes to Luzerne, 23 Nov., 1782. In spite of all the cajoleries which the English ministers lavish on the Americans, I do not promise myself they will show themselves ready to yie