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Fernay
the 29th November 1781
Dear Sir,
I wrote to you on the 11th of last month to thank you
for your communication on the subject of the Judgement obtained against
Alexander. I have not since had the pleasure of hearing from you. I
conclude that Mr. Thomas Walpole is gone to England, that he had carried
his father’s Proposals to the Bank along with him. As he has not written
to me, and I am consequently uninformed, I beg the favour of your
acquainting me at your leisure;
Whether the Proposals are made in his own name, or in
that of the former partnership;
Whether he takes any notice in the Proposals of the
Dissolution of the Partnership; &
What are the outlines of the Proposals; especially in
regard to the Bank acceptances;
As I hope & trust, that he will have consulted you in
the making of the proposals, I flatter myself that in a matter which
concerns me so much, you will give me the information which I desire.
I shall be very glad to hear of Mr. Winter’s arrival in
the West Indies. Has Mr. Walpole taken any steps in the Tobago business
since the publication of the terms of Capitulation granted to that
Island? Or have the annuitants in England made any application to Acton,
or proceeded otherwise, since the receipt of his letter to them?
It seems to me very advisable, that Mr. Walpole should
exert all his Endeavours to come to an accommodation with the Several
Parties, while the Islands of Grenada & Tobago continue under the
Government of France. If they were to be restored at the Peace, he might
possibly find those with whom he will have to do, less disposed to
equitable settlement than he may do, while the Property continues under
a foreign jurisdiction. If this notion strikes you as forcibly as it
does me, you will not fail, I am sure, occasionally to incubate it, in
order that he may not lose the fairest opportunity he can expect to have
for settling dependences which, for his own sake, & that of all who
belong to him, he should be so desirous of liquidating.
A few days ago we received the
Intelligence, which for some time before there had been reason to
expect, of the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis’s Army. Such an event cannot
but give great satisfaction to every well wisher to the American Cause;
whether the British Ministry determines to proceed; or to desist at last
from a Contest, in which there seems so little prospect of success &
which in every aspect appears to have so little to recommend it. You
will believe that I am not a little impatient to know what effect this
calamity will have on the minds of People, & especially of those in
office, in England. If any thing can, it should teach them to submit to
Circumstances, & to desire peace on such terms as the Situation of
things entitles them to expect. Yet I am far from concluding, that they
will think in the same way.
The State of Affairs in Geneva continue to be as
distracted as ever; and every day it grows more likely that
French
troops will put an end to them.
The death of Monsieur de Maurepas is an event which
probably will produce great changes in the Councils of that nation – The
Duke d”Aiguillon, de Nivernais, & de
Choiseuil, are all named as his
Successors in the Ministry.
Mr. De Necker, I hear, has bought a
Chateau at Coppet
on the lake of Geneva & proposes to retire there in the Spring.
I am Dear Sir,
Your Most obedient humble Servant
R.E.
My address is Chez Messrs. Plantamour, Rillict & Compe @ Geneva
I shall be glad to hear that the Ladies of Mr. Walpole’s family are
well.
My compliments at Passy – Does your friend there propose to continue in
office?
[Note: Passy was the home of the American Delegation outside Paris.]
The
letter likely refers to the revolt of Chenaux against the rulers of the
canton of Fribourg in 1781, quite near to Geneva. By 1782 a troop of
11,000 soldiers from France, Berne and Piedmont had enforced a
restoration of the aristocracy to Geneva. |
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Historical Note
Dr. Edward Bancroft (1744 – 1820) was an American physician and
double agent in the American Revolution. Born in Westfield,
Massachusetts, he worked as a spy for Benjamin Franklin when he was
secretary to the American Commission in Paris. He was also a spy for the
British. His spying was not discovered until 1891 when British papers
were disclosed to the public. Edward Bancroft was a highly regarded
scientist and writer who was hired by Ben Franklin to spy on the British
just before the Revolutionary War. Nearly 70 years after Bancroft's
death, the British government released papers showing he had also been
paid by the British to spy on the colonists. After the United States
became independent, Bancroft spied for the French in 1789, then turned
his attention to making money in the development and marketing of dyes.
Bancroft wrote several articles on politics, as well as a novel and two
non-fiction works, Natural History of Guiana (1769) and Experimental
Researches Concerning Permanent Colors (1794). For a much more complete
biography and history of Bancroft from the National Counter Intelligence
Agency click here.
Richard E. Oswald, a Scot by birth, was an army contractor in
America during the French and Indian War. A successful merchant, he
continued living in the colonies for a number of years. He married Mary
Ramsay, only daughter and heiress of Alexander Ramsay of Jamaica, a
cadet of Balmain. Through her he had acquired large estates in America
(which he lost, however, as a loyalist) and in the West Indies. Through
his American and mercantile interests, Oswald acquired a circle of
international friends including Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, the
comte de Vergennes, Adam Smith, and the earl of Shelburne. During the
Revolutionary War he was frequently consulted by the ministry on
American matters. Shelburne used Oswald as his emissary to Franklin in
Paris during the first informal inquiries on American peace terms and,
when Shelburne became prime minister, he appointed Oswald commissioner
to treat with America. Oswald had become intimate in particular with
Lord Shelburne, to whom he had been introduced by Adam Smith, a friend
of his old Glasgow days. Lord Shelburne formed the highest opinion of
his ability and energy, good sense and tact, simplicity and
straightforwardness. He knew that he was also well acquainted with
America (where he had large property) and with Franklin. And when
England had at last made up her mind to treat with the revolted
Colonies, Lord Shelburne sent Mr. Oswald to Paris to negotiate with
Franklin and the American Commissioners. Mr. Oswald acquitted himself
well of this delicate task, and signed at Paris on 30th November 1782
the preliminary treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United
States. He left office with Shelburne when the peace treaty was defeated
in the House of Commons. Franklin gave him his portrait, which is now at
the family estate of Auchincruive which he had bought in 1759, the
ancient seat of the Cathcarts. Mr. Oswald died 7th November 1784. This
letter may have been one of the forerunners to Oswald's appointment as
he was so familiar with all the players on both sides of the equation.
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (1738 – 1805) was an
English military commander and colonial governor. In America, he is most
remembered for his role in the American Revolutionary War, and in India,
for promulgating the Permanent Settlement. He was the eldest son of
Charles Cornwallis, 5th Baron Cornwallis (later 1st Earl Cornwallis) and
was born at Grosvenor Square, London, even though his family's estates
were in Kent. He was elevated to Marquess in 1792.With the outbreak of
the American Revolutionary War, Cornwallis volunteered for military
service and on January 1, 1776, he was given a commission. In March, he
set sail for New York with 2,500 troops with the assignment to serve
under Major General Henry Clinton.
Between January 2 and January 4, 1777, Cornwallis fought the American
Continental Army at Princeton, New Jersey, led by General George
Washington. The Americans surprised a detachment of Cornwallis's troops
and pressed the attack until encountering the main body of Cornwallis'
force. After this first engagement, the American army slipped away in
the night before Cornwallis could counter-attack. The Battle of
Princeton was commonly seen as an American victory, although it was
composed of a confused series of skirmishes without a decisive defeat
for either force.
In 1780, Cornwallis led British forces in the Carolinas against
Nathanael Greene. Cornwallis' forces were severely damaged as he moved
through the region. British forces suffered from a utilization of
various guerrilla ambush tactics led by Francis Marion throughout South
Carolina. General Nathanael Greene took advantage of Marion's weakening
of the British forces. Cornwallis's army suffered heavy losses at the
Battle of King's Mountain and Battle of Cowpens. Cornwallis and Greene
engaged each other shortly thereafter in 1781 at the Battle of Guilford
Courthouse. British forces won the battle but once again suffered heavy
losses. Cornwallis then abandoned plans to assert control of the
Carolinas. He retreated to wait for reinforcements. After the siege of
Yorktown by American and French forces, Cornwallis surrendered to the
allied forces on October 19, 1781, thus virtually ending the war.
Despite Cornwallis's personal responsibility for the surrender and the
subsequent and inevitable loss of the war, Henry Clinton, Cornwallis's
superior commander in America (secure in fortified New York City),
received from the British public most of the blame for the defeat.
The Comte de Jean Frédéric Phélippeaux Maurepas,(1701–81) was
a French statesman. He succeeded his father as minister of state at 14,
the post being administered for him in his minority. He was later made
minister of marine and attempted to apply scientific methods to naval
affairs. A satirical epigram against the king's mistress, Mme de
Pompadour, caused his dismissal and exile (1749). After King Louis XVI's
accession (1774) Maurepas returned, became minister of state, and
covered his mediocre abilities by a judicious selection of his council,
which included the comte de Vergennes, A. R. J. Turgot, and Lamoignon de
Malesherbes. He supported the alliance with the American colonies and
the war against Great Britain. Jealous of his personal ascendancy over
Louis XVI, Maurepas intrigued against Turgot, whose disgrace in 1776 was
followed after six months of disorder by the appointment of Jacques
Necker. In 1781 Maurepas deserted Necker as he had done Turgot, and he
died at Versailles on November 21, 1781. His failure to give full
support to the ministers helped to bring about the downfall of both
Turgot (1776) and his successor, Jacques Necker (1781) and paved the way
for the French Revolution.
Jacques Necker, (1732–1804) was a French financier and statesman,
born in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1750 he went to Paris and entered
banking. He rose rapidly to importance, established a bank of his own,
and became a director of the French East India Company. As a writer,
Necker opposed the then fashionable physiocrats and free traders; his
eulogy on Jean Baptiste Colbert was lauded (1773) by the French Academy,
and his Essai sur la législation et le commerce des grains (1775)
criticized the free trade in grains advocated by A. R. J. Turgot. In
1776, Necker, who had previously aided the government with loans, was
made director of the treasury; in 1777 he was made director-general of
finances. He did not have the title controller general, because he was a
foreigner and a Protestant. The salon of his wife, Suzanne Necker,
exerted considerable influence. By measures of reform and retrenchment
and by borrowing at high interest to finance the colonial cause in the
American Revolution, he sought to restore the nation's financial
position and gain popular confidence. In 1781 he published his Compte
rendu, which stated that the government was in a sound financial
position. He then demanded greater reform powers and was opposed by the
comte de Maurepas, who resented his increased influence. He resigned and
retired to St. Ouen. There he wrote the Traité de l'administration des
finances de la France (1784). Returning to Paris in 1787, Necker was
soon exiled from the city for having engaged in public controversy over
financial policy with Charles Alexandre de Calonne. In 1788, Louis XVI
recalled Necker as director-general of finances and minister of state.
The populace acclaimed him, and he concurred with the recommendation
that the States-General be summoned and reforms introduced. When his
enemies at court again secured his dismissal in 1789, the populace, on
July 14, stormed the Bastille in the first outbreak of violence of the
French Revolution; Necker was once more recalled. His final resignation
came in 1790. His last years were spent at “Coppet,” his Swiss estate.
Emmanuel Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, Duc d'Aiguillon
(1720 - 1782) was a French statesman and a nephew of the marechal de
Richelieu. He entered the army at the age of seventeen, and at the age
of nineteen was made colonel of the regiment of Brie. He served in the
campaigns in Italy during the War of the Austrian Succession, was
seriously wounded at the siege of Château-Dauphin (1744), was taken
prisoner (1746) and was made maréchal de camp in 1748. His
marriage in 1740 with Louise Félicité de Brehan, coupled with his
connection with the Richelieu family, gave him an important place at
court. He was a member of the so-called parti devot, the faction
opposed to Madame de Pompadour, to the Jansenists and to the
parlement, and his hostility to the new ideas drew upon him the
anger of the pamphleteers.
When Louis XV, acting on the advice of Madame Dubarry, reorganized the
government with a view to suppressing the resistance of the parlements,
d'Aiguillon was made minister of foreign affairs, Maupeou and the Abbé
Terray (1715-1778) also obtaining places in the ministry. The new
ministry, albeit one of reform, was very unpopular, and was styled the
"triumvirate." All the failures of the government were attributed to the
mistakes of the ministers. Thus d'Aiguillon was blamed for having
provoked the coup d'état of Gustavus III, king of Sweden, in 1772,
although the instructions of the comte de Vergennes, the French
ambassador in Sweden, had been written by the minister, the duc de la
Vrillere. After the death of Louis XV he quarreled with Maupeou and with
the young queen, Marie Antoinette, who demanded his dismissal from the
ministry (1774). He died, forgotten, in 1782. In no circumstances had he
shown any special ability. He was more fitted for intrigue than for
government, and his attempts to restore the status of French diplomacy
met with scant success.
Etienne François, Duc de Choiseul (1719-85), the celebrated first
minister of Louis XV between 1758 and 1770. He directed French foreign
policy during the Seven Years' War.
Louis-Jules Mancini-Mazarini, Duc de Nivernais (1716 – 1798),
French diplomat and writer, was born in Paris, son of
Philippe-Jules-François, duc de Nevers, and Maria Anne Spinola, and
great-nephew of Cardinal Mazarin. He was educated at the Collège Louis
le Grand, and married at the age of fourteen. He served in the campaigns
in Italy (1733) and Bohemia (1740), but had to give up soldiering on
account of his weak health. He was subsequently ambassador at Rome
(1748-1752), Berlin (1755-1756) and London, where he negotiated the
treaty of Paris (February 10, 1763). From 1787 to 1789 he was a member
of the Council of State. He did not emigrate during the Revolution, but
lost all his money and was imprisoned in 1793. He recovered his liberty
after the fall of Robespierre, and died in Paris on the 25th of February
1798.
As an interesting sidebar: The first and most popular of all the French
reflections of Benjamin Franklin was the Nini medallion of "B. FRANKLIN,
AMERICAIN.," created by Jean Baptiste Nini, an Italian sculptor working
in Paris. Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, a well-known businessman
who held various official posts in Chaumont, France, was a friend of
Franklin's and had given him the use of his chateau there. Nini had
previously commissioned a medallion of Chaumont in 1771, and Chaumont
now sent Nini a profile drawing of Franklin that had been given to him.
The history of the Nini medallions originates in pro-American, Parisian
society.
Chaumont was occupied with contracting for supplies, shipping
gunpowder and other things to America. Many other business dealings
between Paris and major seaports were occurring as well. Some of the
people Franklin surrounded himself with were
Dr. Bancroft, a physician
and naturalist (also Franklin's secretary in Paris),
Jonathan Williams, William Alexander,
and
English banker Thomas Walpole and his 22-year-old
son.
On December 11, 1777, Franklin sent a letter to Thomas Walpole,
saying, "From a sketch Dr.
B[ancroft] had which was drawn by your
ingenious and valuable Son, they have made Medallions in terre-cuit."
This letter acknowledged that a drawing of Franklin done by the younger
Walpole had been sent to the Chaumont factory to make the famous terra
cotta medallion.
Additional sidebar: In 1769 a company was formed in London, consisting
of
Thomas Walpole, an eminent banker
(brother of Horatio, Lord Walpole).
Samuel Wharton,
Benjamin Franklin,
John Sargent, Governor Thomas Pownall,—and other gentlemen both in
England and America,—for the purpose of buying from the Crown a portion
of the vast country on the Ohio ceded to the King by the Six Nations the
preceding year at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and also to form a New
Province or Government west of Virginia. The five persons above named
were appointed a committee to manage the business. Mr. Wharton went to
London to attend to it. Lord Hillsborough, President [242] of the Board
of Trade, reported against the application for the grant. Dr. Franklin
replied in an elaborate and able pamphlet, which was read, at a
subsequent meeting of the Council, July 1, 1772; at the same time, as we
learn from a letter to Sir William Johnson, written by an intelligent
American (Letter of Rev. Wm. Hanna to Sir. Wm. Johnson.) who was
present, "Mr. Walpole made some pertinent observations on the subject in
general. Mr. Wharton spoke next for several hours and replied distinctly
to each particular objection, and through the whole of the proceedings
he so fully removed all Lord Hillsborough's objections and introduced
his proofs with so much regularity and made his observations on them
with so much propriety, deliberation and presence of mind, that fully
convinced every Lord present, and gave satisfaction to the gentlemen
concerned; and I must say it gave me a particular pleasure to hear an
American and a countryman act his part so well before such a number of
great Lords and such an august Board; and now I have the great pleasure
to inform you that their Lordships have overruled Lord Hillsborough's
Report and have reported to His Majesty in favor of Mr. Wharton and his
Associates.—This is looked upon here as a most extraordinary matter, and
what no American ever accomplished before. Indeed no one from America
had so much interest and was so attended to by the great Lords as Mr.
Wharton." On the same day the Lords of the Committee of Council reported
in favor of making the grant to the Honorable Thomas Walpole, Samuel
Wharton and their associates.
The Tract granted, comprised within its boundaries all that part of the
present State of Kentucky, east of a line drawn [243] south from a point
on the Ohio River opposite the mouth of the Scioto, and the western half
of the present State of West Virginia. The price to be paid into the
Royal Treasury was £10,460. 7. 6, and two shillings quit rent for every
hundred acres sold or leased by the Grantees, payable yearly forever; to
commence twenty years after the date of each sale or lease. The tract
was usually known by the name of the Walpole Grant. It embraced within
its limits the Traders' Grant, or Indiana, which was reserved to them.
It also included the tract of five hundred thousand acres granted to the
Ohio Company of Virginia, in 1749. The members of the Ohio Company were
admitted into the new association, which was named the Grand Ohio
Company. In compliance with the King's orders, the Council, on the 6th
of May 1773, reported to His Majesty a constitution or form of
Government for the New Colony, which they named Vandalia. It contained
within its limits all of the Walpole Grant, with the addition of all the
country westward to the Kentucky River. On the 28th of October
following, the Lords of Council for Plantation Affairs, ordered "that
His Majesty's Attorney General do prepare and lay before this Committee,
the draught of a proper instrument to be passed under the Great Seal of
Great Britain containing a Grant to the Honorable Thomas Walpole, Samuel
Wharton, Benjamin Franklin and John Sargent Esqrs. and their heirs and
assigns all the Lands prayed for by their Memorial." It was not,
however, until the spring of the year 1775 that the draught of the Grant
was finally prepared and ready for execution. The breaking out of the
war of the Revolution occasioned a suspension of the business.
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