just that speculations and disputations do us little service. Our credit and weight in Europe depend more on what we do than on what we say; and I have long been humiliated with the idea of our running about from court to court begging for money and friendship, which are the more withheld the more eagerly they are solicited, and would perhaps have been offered if they had not been asked. The supposed necessity is our only excuse. The proverb says, "God helps them that help themselves," and the world, too, in this sense, is very godly.

As the English papers have pretended to intelligence that our troops and the French disagree, perhaps it would not be amiss to get these extracts inserted in the Amsterdam Gazette.

With great respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,

Franklin to Jay.*

B. FRANKLIN.

PASSY, October 2, 1780.

DEAR SIR: I received duly and in good order the several letters you have written to me of August 16 and 19, September 8 and 22. The papers that accompanied them of your writing gave me the pleasure of seeing the affairs of our country in such good hands, and the prospect, from your youth, of its having the service of so able a minister for a great number of years. But the little success that has attended your late applications for money mortified me exceedingly; and the storm of bills which I found coming upon us both has terrified and vexed me to such a degree that I have been deprived of sleep, and so much indisposed by continual anxiety as to be rendered almost incapable of writing.

At length I got over a reluctance that was almost invincible, and made another application to the government here for more money. I drew up and presented a state of debts and newly expected demands, and requested its aid to extricate me. Judging from your letters that you were not likely to obtain anything considerable from your court, I put down in my estimate the $25,000 drawn upon you, with the same sum drawn upon me, as what would probably come to me for payment. I have now the pleasure to acquaint you that my memorial was received in the kindest and most friendly manner, and though the court here is not without its embarrassments on account of money, I was told to make myself easy, for that I should be assisted with what was necessary. Mr. Searle arriving about this time, and assuring me there had been a plentiful harvest and great crops of all kinds; that the Congress had demanded of the several States contributions in produce, which would be cheerfully given; that they would therefore have plenty

*2 Jay's Life, 62; 1 Corr. and Pub. Papers of John Jay, 432.

of provisions to dispose of; and I being much pleased with the generous behavior just experienced, I presented another paper, proposing, in order to ease the government here, which has been so willing to ease us, that the Congress might furnish their army in America with provisions in part of payment for the services lent us. This proposition, I was told, was well taken; but it being considered that the States having the enemy in their country, and obliged to make great expenses for the present campaign, the furnishing so much provision as the French army might need might straiten and be inconvenient to the Congress, his majesty did not at this time think it right to accept the offer. You will not wonder at my loving this good prince; he will win the hearts of all America.

If you are not so fortunate in Spain, continue, however, the even good temper you have hitherto manifested. Spain owes us nothing; therefore whatever friendship she shows us in lending money or furnishing clothes, etc., though not equal to our wants and wishes, is, however, tant de gagne. Those who have begun to assist us are more likely to continue than to decline, and we are still so much obliged as their aid amounts to. But I hope and am confident that court will be wiser than to take advantage of our distress and insist on our making sacrifices by an agreement which the circumstances of such distress would hereafter weaken, and the very proposition can only give disgust at present. Poor as we are, yet as I know we shall be rich, I would rather agree with them to buy at a great price the whole of their right on the Mississippi than sell a drop of its waters. A neighbor might as well ask me to sell my street door.

I wish you could obtain an account of what they have supplied us with already in money and goods.

M. Grand informing me that one of the bills drawn on you having been sent from hence to Madrid was come back unaccepted, I have directed him to pay it, and he has, at my request, undertaken to write to the Marquis D'Aranda to assist you with money to answer such bills as you are not otherwise enabled to pay, and to draw on him for the amount, which drafts I shall answer here as far as $25,000. If you expect more acquaint me. But pray write to Congress, as I do, to forbear this practice, which is so extremely hazardous, and may some time or other prove very mischievous to their credit and affairs. I have undertaken, too, for all the bills drawn on Mr. Laurens that have yet appeared. He was to have sailed three days after Mr. Searle, that is, the 18th July. Mr. Searle begins to be in pain for him, having no good opinion of the little vessel he was to embark in.

We have letters from America to the 7th August. The spirit of our people was never higher; vast exertions making preparatory for some important action; great harmony and affection between the troops of the two nations; the new money in good credit, etc.

I will write you again shortly, and to Mr. Carmichael.

I shall now

be able to pay up your salaries complete for the year; but as demands unforeseen are continually coming upon me, I still retain the expectations you have given me of being reimbursed out of the first remittances you receive.

If you find any inclination to hug me for the good news of this letter, I constitute and appoint Mrs. Jay my attorney, to receive in my behalf your embraces.

With great and sincere esteem, I have, etc.,

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

Dumas to Franklin.*

THE HAGUE, October 3, 1780.

SIR: I have just seen our friend. Their high mightinesses have received a courier from Petersburgh, with a convention drawn up by the empress. Our friend is well satisfied with the conduct of the plenipotentiary of the republic and their despatches, which are

First. The convention founded on that made between the northern courts, to which are added two articles. One of them has for its object the restitution of the vessels taken from the republic; the other is, that in case the republic should, on account of this convention, be attacked, molested, or injured, the other powers shall take part and make common cause with her and will defend her. To this is added a separate article, importing that the design of the armed neutrality is to endeavor, as soon as it is perfected, to make peace between the belligerent powers. Second. The despatches inform us that the ministers plenipotentiary learned from the minister of Prussia that the English envoy at Petersburgh had declared to her Imperial majesty that his court would pay due respect to the armed neutrality of the northern powers provided Holland was excluded from it.

Our friend informed me with great pleasure that this republic will not be able to retreat; that it must sign in spite of the opposition of the temporizers, who have now no pretense for delay, without rendering themselves absolutely odious and becoming responsible for consequences. The French ambassador has also received despatches from the French minister at Petersburgb.

Our friend has no doubt but the King of Prussia will accede to the convention; and very probably the emperor will do the same. For the empress was so well pleased with his visit that she made him a present of a man-of-war; and we have no longer any doubts of the accession of Portugal.

I have it from the best authority that the empress will not relinquish her simple and noble plan to establish for the nations a maritime code

5 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 318.

equally honorable and beneficial to all. Besides, there are two circumstances which confirm me in this:

First. The apparent concert between the northern ministers and those of France, Spain, and Prussia with the cabinet at Petersburgh.

Second. The orders given in Russia and Sweden to fit out immediately for sea new fleets equal to those they have already fitted out.

The King of Sweden, in his passage here, as well as his whole journey, discovered very little regard for the English. A good deal of pains was taken to induce him to accept an invitation to sup with Sir Joseph Yorke. He supped twice with the French ambassador, who entertained him twice with a play, which was acted at a theatre fitted up for the purpose. His excellency the ambassador was so obliging as to present me himself with six tickets to attend the two plays with my wife and daughter.

I have the honor to be, etc.,

J. Adams to Dumas.*

DUMAS.

AMSTERDAM, October 4, 1780. SIR: I have just received your favor of the 3d, and thank you for the early information of the arrival of the courier from the plenipotentiaries of this republic at Petersburgh. I hope that this republic will agree without delay to the armed neutrality, but I should be glad to see a copy of the despatches, if possible, or at least as exact an account of their substance as may be. I should be glad also to learn whether the object of the congress is simply to form a plan for supporting each other and making a common cause in defense of those principles only which the three northern powers have already adopted, or whether they have in contemplation a more extensive regulation of maritime affairs. I do not see how this congress can have a peace between the belligerent powers for its object, when the parties who compose it have already so positively declared for a neutrality. I wish with all my heart that another republic had a minister at the congress, or at least at the court of Petersburgh. Neither the cause nor the country of America are anderstood in any part of Europe, which gives opportunity to the English to represent things as they choose. Onestà è sempre la causa di colui che parla solo.

I do not expect peace so soon as next spring, and I should dread the interposition of the congress at Petersburgh in the business. They understand not the subject. It is impossible they should. America is not represented there and can not be heard. If they should take into consideration the affair of peace, I should be apprehensive of some recommendations to save the pride, or what they would call the dignity,

*7 J. Adams' Works, 263.

of England, which would be more dangerous and pernicious to America than a continuance of the war. I do not dread a continuance of war; I should dread a truce ten times more.

If all the powers at the congress at Petersburgh would agree together to acknowledge American independency, or agree to open a free commerce with America and admit her merchant ships and vessels of war into their ports like those of the other belligerent powers, this, I think, would be just; indeed, that perfect neutrality which they profess requires it. Rufusing admittance to the American flag while they admit that of England is so far from a neutrality, that it is taking a decided part in favor of England and against one of the belligerent powers-a power, too, which in point of numbers, wealth, industry, capacity, military and naval power, as well as commerce, is quite as respectable as several of those which are or will be represented in the congress at Petersburgh.

I have the honor to be, etc.,

Instructions to Jay.*

JOHN ADAMS.

IN CONGRESS, October 4, 1780. On the report of a committee to whom were referred certain instructions to the delegates of Virginia by their constituents, and a letter of the 26th of May from the honorable John Jay, Congress unanimously agreed to the following instructions to the honorable John Jay, minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America at the court of Madrid:

That the said minister adhere to his former instructions respecting the right of the United States of America to the free navigation of the river Mississippi into and from the sea; which right, if an express acknowledgment of it can not be obtained from Spain, is not by any stipulation on the part of America to be relinquished. To render the treaty to be concluded between the two nations permanent, nothing can more effectually contribute than a proper attention not only to the present but the future reciprocal interests of the contracting powers. The river Mississippi being the boundary of several States in the Union, and their citizens, while connected with Great Britain, and since the Revolution, having been accustomed to the free use thereof, in common with the subjects of Spain, and no instance of complaint or dispute having resulted from it, there is no reason to fear that the

* MSS. Dep. of State; 4 Sparks' Dip. Rev. Corr., 218; 1 Corr. and Pub. Papers of John Jay, 434.

It is worthy of notice that in Jay's instructions of Oct. 4, 1780, the national idea was subordinated to that of the States, and he was instructed to insist that the Mississippi River was "the boundary of several States in the Union," and in Madison's report of Jan. 8, 1782, this same position was taken.