When the royal nod transmogrified Beaumarchais into Roderigue Hortalez, he wrote Lee over that signature, announcing the formation of his house and his intended shipments to the Cape, to be paid for by remittances of American tobacco. February 6, 1778. And finally Franklin played his trump card, the possibility that America might be forced back into the British Empire unless some powerful aid is given us or some strong diversion be made in our favor. He knew that the Bourbon nightmare was the picture of Britain, reunited with her American colonies, sweeping Spain from the lower Mississippi and both Bourbon powers from the Caribbean. According to Doniol, Franklin dealt through Sieur Montaudoin of Nantes, a great shipping merchant, and the savant Dr. Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg. Lord North relayed the meticulous royal commands to the secret service, whose active head during the war was William Eden, a genius at directing espionage. Vergennes kept him safe in jail, for the minister was co-operating with Franklins policy up to a dangerous point. But he had not reckoned on the reversal of Spanish policy. By a supple turn of the wrist, Franklin transformed Franco-American relations. 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. This period of conflict began in 1698 with the War of the Grand . 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. If France refused armed intervention, the Americans prayed the wise kings advice, whether to try to get help from some other power, or to make offers of peace to Britain on condition of their Independency being acknowledged.. Franklin and Deane now wrote the committee urging action in every sea where British carried on commerce. First these navies quarreled head-on, in the English Channel and then in the entirety of the Atlantic Ocean, in a war of escorts. England registered the expected sense of outrage; the whole country seethed with the news. 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. Every Tuesday evening an agent of Stormont would pick up the letter and leave another with new instructions. He did extremely well in these successive careers, and now at forty held a position of high honor. He was also making them a gift of 375,000 livres. At the moment, Nantes was all, The American was adulated, wined and dined. The American Revolution - US History Scene It curtailed foreign trade at the moment when the country, which produced almost nothing useful in war, most needed to increase imports. 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. The defeat was so ugly for France that it led them to lose all the colonies in the Americas. It made the French . French Alliance, French Assistance, and European diplomacy during the For once Wentworth brought the King good news, the only kind he could ever believe. 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. However, Franklin had boarded the, But now he had something serious to report: My informations says that the, In later reports Sir Joseph drew such an alarming picture of Dutch gunrunning, especially to the Caribbean, that the British sent a Navy sloop and cutter to spend the winter at Texel Island near Amsterdam. Now he hurried his preparations, and Captain Wickes was ordered to make all speed to Nantes, and to avoid action if possible. This well-connected young man had been sent direct from Congress to buy two ships to serve as packets for the mission. In March the Doctor was given a charming house at Passy on the grounds of the Htel Valentinois, which belonged to the merchant prince Donatien le Rey de Chaumont. The American Revolution was by no means a purely American-British conflict. But his most important work was with the new firm of Hortalez & Company, which really meant the House of Bourbon. Franklin had already planned his mission to France, where he would be joined by his fellow commissioners, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee. It caused many French nobles and clergy to move to the newly independent United States. The letter announcing his imminent arrival in Madrid was received with consternation. It did contribute to the huge French debt that was the root cause of the French Revolution by accepting Military and economic assisstance from France during the American Revolution. Some inner mechanism in the Lee genes transmuted whatever was wrong with the Lees into something much worse that was wrong with their enemies. Between 1778 and 1782 the French provided supplies, arms and ammunition, uniforms, and, most importantly, troops and naval support to the beleaguered Continental Army. 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. The foreign alliances of France have a long and complex history spanning more than a millennium. Compare And Contrast The American Revolution And French Revolution. New York: Random House, 2015. 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. 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. On February i he urged that France enter her unavoidable war at once, and the next day gave Vergennes the personal pledge of the commissioners that if France entered the war the United States would not make a separate peace with Britain. This was amazing enough; France had broken through the limits of her ostensible neutrality and was allowing Martinique to become a base of war against Britain. B.) But he had met Deane, and wrote him asking for a rendezvous, hinting that he had come to promote peace. Franklin and Morris could hardly have believed Captain Wickes news on his return to Philadelphia if a courier had not come back from Europe at the same time with even more wonderful tidings. Wickes got clean away, only to founder in a storm off the Banks of Newfoundland. Franklin could make his quip about Philadelphia taking Howe while he privately worried about his family and friends there, about Washingtons reverses, and the dreadful paralysis that had seized the French ministry. 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. The colonies needed these things . Masonry was powerful in France and all-powerful in Nantes, and for perhaps a generation its exporters had been sending American brothers, along with bills of lading and business papers, sheaves of French Masonic literature in exchange for similar pamphlets from the colonies. The French Connection - Statue Of Liberty National Monument (U.S They might refit in the island ports, stock up their magazines, cruise the Caribbean, and bring their prizes in to St. Pierre for judgment in Mr. Binghams court of admiralty. Whatever disaster happened in 1777, he wanted to build a friendship between the French and American peoples which would last for many generations, and he calmly laid the foundations of that friendship in his own daily associations. If Vergennes had any doubts about Franklins grasp of Bourbon aims, they were resolved by the Doctors masterly letter of January 5. A number of ill-advised financial maneuvers in the late 1700s worsened the financial situation of the already cash-strapped French government. Q. With British warships on the prowl the voyage was dangerous, but Franklin had brought his grandsons along. The Doctor, instead of staying with the Montaudoins, allowed himself to be captured by people he disliked. 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. That formality over, Vergennes was ready for his great move. On May 2, 1776, Louis XVI signed documents committing France to action as a secret American ally, in violation of her treaties with Britain. The Declaration of Independence served as a model for the French Revolution. Vergennes was so disheartened by the bad news which had arrived even before these disasters were known, and he so much dreaded a sudden declaration of war by Britain, that in August he formally closed the ports of France to American privateers and their prizes. The French government has immediately recalled its ambassadors to the US and Australia for consultation in response to America's recently announced national security partnership with the United . 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. Which French foreign minister and supporter of American independence convinced the French king to form an alliance with the Patriots? At last America would hear of the third Lee brother, hitherto a cipher, as its savior in Europe. Franklin had already urged that France and Spain conclude treaties of amity and commerce with the United States, and his letter went farther, offering these powers a firm guarantee of their present possessions in the West Indies, plus any new islands they conquered in a war growing out of their aid to the United States. Early in 1774 Franklin had written from London to a friend at home that he wished Americans might know what we are and what we have. After much private groping and anguish he had discovered what he was: not a colonial American, but that new man, an American. However, Franklin had boarded the Reprisal for that very purpose. So too was our want of guns, supplies, and everything needed in a war against one of the major powers of the earth. The Secret Committee, dominated by the capable merchant Robert Morris, methodized the smuggling of war supplies from Europe, which had been going on for years. The exhibit traces the American naval effort in its three components: the Continental Navy, state navies, and privateers. In 1758 Britain found a new strategy. Sieur Montaudoin shared many interests with Franklin; both were members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, enthusiasts of the new physiocratic school, and Masons. Almost every transaction carried out for Congress was a mixture of public and private business, an accepted practice. And so the man who believed that there never was a good war or a bad peace, old Dr. Benjamin Franklin, a man laden with the worlds honors who might easily have pleaded age and weariness, set out for France in his seventy-first year to secure these necessities for his country. 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. Now he must placate Stormont. The Treaty of Alliance (1778) between the United State and France was signed February 6, 1778. Above all we needed an ally. George Washington - Revolutionary leadership | Britannica 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. The French Revolution was one of the most senseless . Islanders and continentals had worked out a prototype of the free trade which was one of Franklins major objectives. Between 1775 and 1825, revolutions across the Americas and Europe changed the maps and governments of the Atlantic world. It led the French to seek an alliance with the Americans to dethrone Louis XVI. 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. France had been secretly aiding the American Colonies since 1776, because France was angry at Britain over the loss of Colonial territory in the French and Indian War. The two Lee brothers in Congress saw that their brothers in London were put in posts of influence. The French Alliance [ushistory.org] But the accident was symbolic: Hortalez & Company had suffered a bouleversement . Affairs at Nantes became more and more tangled, and William Lee did nothing to straighten them out. His policy was to reconcile Britain and the United States; never, if he could help it, would Spain go to war on the American side. The French support NATO modernization efforts and are leading contributors to the NATO Response Force. Conyngham hastily sailed back to his berth and unloaded the powder. The Battle of Saratoga was an extensive and punishing conflict and a key victory for the Americans in the Revolutionary War. In their eyes she was still colonial, an outlying province of Europe. The French loan was a godsend. Monticello Guide Olivia Brown looks at Jefferson's reaction to this momentous event and the small but significant role he played in it. Strengthen unity in the event of war with France in the west. From 1790 to 1794, the revolutionaries grew increasingly radical. Revolutionaries were inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment including individual freedom. (We must remember that all this was happening before Lexington.). 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 order to make the war effective he reminded Vergennes of things Vergennes could do. Copyright 1949-2022 American Heritage Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. Since the previous summer he had had the invaluable help of an unpaid deputy, William Carmichael. The glorious news of General Gatess victory at Saratoga reached Passy about the first of December, 1777, by a Charleston ship, and on the fourth it was confirmed by Jonathan Loring Austin, secretary of the Massachusetts Board of War, who had rushed to France in a specially chartered vessel. Part 2 focuses on the French land and naval forces that assisted the U.S. in combating the British military. Franklin knew what he had won for his beloved country. All that was needed was to add up the amount of money the mission had received, and then tell the Adams-Lee bloc in Congress that Franklin and Deane had stolen it. A growing fleet of American privateers had already brought prizes into the various French ports, and a system had been perfected for their disposal. Inequality of Rights. She had stolen Hollands priority on the seas and had swept France from the American continent and the best part of her fisheries. How did the French Alliance contribute to the American Revolution? Franklin and Deane were at the top of that long list. The greater part of the American seaboard was tightly blockaded, and the whole Atlantic was so unsafe that Dutch shipments to Statia now went out under heavy convoy. After France entered on February 6th, 1778 in the American Revolutionary War, the British naval force - master of the seas - and French fleet confronted each other from the beginning. It meant only the familiar rite of changing the property on paper. He already knew Deane, and wished not to know Arthur Lee, but he was consumed with curiosity about Franklin. The Virginia delegates differed upon his appointment. 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. (One factor, the actual fighting on land, would make up the bulk of future histories. Every step in preparing the lugger for a cruise was watched by the British in Dunkirk. Soon the old names were changed to the Committee of Foreign Affairs and the Commercial Committee to make this distinction clear. And the French people, cheering in the streets and squares, were as proud of Saratoga, he wrote home, as if it had been a Victory of their own Troops over their own Enemies.. These reports were written in invisible ink between the lines of love letters addressed to Mr. 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. Focusing on the British government and the problems it faced in 1764, explained why its ministers considered introducing a stamp tax in colonial America. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce recognized the U.S. as an independent nation and promoted trade between France and America. One of his parts was acting as confidential agent for the King, for his circumspection was as profound as Franklins. French ships engaged British vessels almost immediately after Britain declared war on France in March of 1778. After the scheme had been put into effect they explained the mechanism to their committee: For though the fitting out [of an American vessel in a French port] may be covered and concealed by various pretenses, so at least to be winked at by the Government here yet the bringing in of prizes by a vessel so fitted out is so notorious an act, and so contrary to treaties, that if suffered must cause an immediate war.. This theft was not discovered until the pouch was opened in America and proved to contain nothing but the blank paper substituted by Hynson. 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. Congress demanded impossibilities of him: a huge loan which France could not afford, French battleships and seamen, and the prompt entrance of the Bourbons into the war. Here we are too near the sun, and the business is dangerous; with you it may be done more easily.. But Beaumarchais was on a crusade for American independence, and he would not drop it until independence was won. By 1763, France had suffered a crushing defeat in the Seven Years' War (more commonly called the "French and Indian War" in the U.S.), losing all its claims to mainland Canada and the Louisiana Territory. 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 Passy household was complete when the wise and enchanting Edward Bancroft arrived to act as general secretary of the mission. The Stamp Act riots were noisy on the land, but the seas were quiet and busy. On the land, if Washington finally got enough men and guns, he might wear down British troops far from their home base. As the French Revolution was inspired by the American Revolution, it is easy to determine that the two must have similarities. The American Revolution and the French Alliance. Sixty years after his death the incredible truth came out. Similar to MORE Wentworth, he wrote North, is an avowed stock jobber and I never let that go out of my mind. France Allied with American Colonies. Athur Lees mission to Spain had done nothing to warm her heart to America. Now she was acknowledged as a nation in her own right, a nation whose treaties protected her commerce on the seas and her growing space on land, a rising people for whose friendship Britain and France must compete. The celebrated dramatist Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais now cast himself in his own best role, which he played without applause. On January 6 Wentworth was closeted for two hours with Franklin and Deane, having stipulated that Arthur Lee was to be excluded. 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. Due to the fantastic time lag in communications with Congress, Alderman Lee was about to take up his assignment as joint commercial agent for France ten months after Congress had canceled that assignment and appointed him envoy to Prussia and Austria. Shipping was at a premium; in the last year the price of vessels had tripled. The story of his amazing accomplishments, of his diplomatic feats, of his wizardry in supplying the Continental armies, of his struggles with envious fellow commissioners, scheming enemies, and vacillating friendsthis is the burden of Helen Augurs new book, The Secret War of Independence (Duell, Sloan and PearceLittle, Brown). Following hard on the American Revolution (1776-83), the sweeping aside of the French feudal order demonstrated the irresistible rise of freedom and enlightenment.

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