From Silas Deane
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Philadelphia 21st Octo: 1778
Dear Sir
The Marquiss De La Fayette tarrying one Day longer than
I expected when I finished my Letter to Docr. Bancroft, I have
spent it in looking over, and examining the Letters and dispatches
of Mr. Izard, who I think on the whole, is further gone
than Lee himself, and consequently it cannot be long, before
they must both of them have their Heads Shaved, at least. I
send you inclosed a Translation of Izards Letters, which I have
obtained by the assistance of one of Our Freinds, in Congress;
like other translations it is very short of the Original, especially
of those parts of them, seasoned with Epithets too abusive
for a modest translator to Venture upon; the sentences
underscored are nearly word for Word after the Original. I
need not add any thing to what I have said in my Letter to
Docr. Bancroft Except that the Congress have permitted these
Letters, tho’ evidently wrote only to a private Freind, (or at
least the cheif of them for private information) Not only to be
introduced, and read, but to lye on their Files. Mr. and Mrs.
Bache are well, and their little ones. I dined with them a few
Days since. I have spent so much Time on this Translation,
and Copying of it, that I have no Time to add. It is now
handed about, among the Members, and will I trust have a
good Effect. The Enemy are about making an Expedition of
some Consequence, but to what part is uncertain. I fear they
will not soon evacuate this Continent intirely. Accept my constant
Wishes for the continuance of Your health, and usefullness
and be assured I count it an honor to be numbered
among your Freinds, and to suffer persecution with You for
Righteousness sake; I am my Dear sir Your most sincere
Freind and Very humble Servant
p.s. I desire the inclosed may not go out of Your hands, unless
to Docr. Bancroft, or to Mr. Adams.
B Franklin Esqr
Mr. Lee has wrote, that Mr. Adams and he are agreed that they
cannot live in Paris for Less than Three Thousand pounds
Sterling each per Annum, and intimates as if his expences had
rather exceeded that Sum.
Endorsed: Mr Deane Oct. 21. 1778. Lee & Izard
A Liberal, and just Translation, of the Letters of R.I. Esqre.
To his Excellency H.L. Esqre. Done for the benefit of those
Americans, who are ignorant of the Language, in which they
were written.
Dear Sir
I write this to You, and desire you to communicate it to my
Countrymen in Congress, who I hope exert themselves in my favor.
If you and they are satisfied that my former Letters have made
the impressions I wish, you will then be so good as to lay this
before Congress; if on the contrary you think their Minds are
not properly prepared you will withold it, as I do not wish it
publicly known, ’till it is likely to produce the desired effect.
My situation here is very tormenting; I have received Two Thousand
Louis D’Orrs of the public money as I informed you in
my Letter of [blank in ms] and have done nothing in my proper
department: but my Letters will convince you I have not been
idle.
Upon my coming to This place I found the Commissioners at Variance,
I wished, to be on the side of Franklin and Deane but the
former was too wise to be my dupe, and treated Me with reserve,
the latter too haughty to be guided by me and treated
me with contempt, which you know was too mortifying for
me to bear. I had therefore nothing left, but either to cross the
Alps or fall in with a Man, whom from many years acquaintance I
knew was not accounted the mildest and best natured in the World.
I chose the latter, and how busily I have been engaged, the
present as well as former Letters with the inclosed papers will
sufficiently evince. I do not want to be troublesome to my
Freinds by solliciting their Interest in my Favor, as it would be
much more agreeable, they would take a hint, and without
forcing me to a direct Application, procure me a post, and
place most suited to my inclination and ambition. Favors unasked
confer a higher gratification. I thought I had spoken
plain enough before, and sufficiently explained my wishes,
when I told you I was willing to Act as Envoy or Minister Plenipo.
for Italy, in which case it would be Necessary to have as many Commissions
as there are Courts that so I might Travel in State from
Court to Court and reside where I pleased without being confined
to Florence or Leghorn; at the same Time I informed
You that it would be still more agreeable to be appointed for Versailles
untill the British Ministry return to their Senses and by Acknowledging
Our independance give an Opportunity of sending me to the
Court of London, which has ever been the heighth of my Ambition. I
could not entertain a doubt of being gratified in one or other
of these points, and that my first excuse for not crossing the
Alps namely that the Tuscan Minister had informed me “his
Master did not wish to see me, though he entertained a good
Will for America, untill France took a decided part in our favor
as by the conduct of France he meant to regulate his Own.”
That this Excuse I say would have served my Turn, untill I
should receive Your Answer. Unfortunately France has come
to a Determination, has signed a Treaty with Us, acknowledged
Our independance and sent a Fleet to Assist and a Minister
to reside in America, and still I am here without having
received a Line from you or the Commttee. for foreign Affairs,
or from Congress, and with only a simple Commission for the
Court of Tuscany. For this Reason I intimated my pleasure to
you that you should oppose the ratification of the Treaties,
and set matters again afloat, assigning the best Reasons I was
then able to devise, interspersing with a Liberal hand as much
personal Abuse on Franklin and Deane who had in spite of
my endeavors brought this matter to so speedy an issue, as I
thought was sufficient at least to convince You how much they
Thwarted my Views, and how much I hated them, and therefore
that they ought to be removed with disgrace, and infamy,
and untill I could know the Effect of this I cast about for another
reason for my not leaving this place. Luckily the Broils
in Germany furnished a very ostensible one. I got the Tuscan
Minister to say that his Master wished me not to appear at his Court
untill he knew what part the Court of Vienna would take, as by the
Conduct of that Court with which he is so intimately connected he must
regulate his own. Before that is done I hope for Your Answer,
and that Congress will gratify me so far as to disgrace Deane,
and remove Franklin to make room for me at Versailles, when
I assure them that they have acted very foolishly in the Appointment
of Mr. Deane who is every way unqualified for the Trust
reposed in him. It may be said Congress knew him well before
they trusted him, he having been for some considerable Time
a Member of that Body; but I say search the whole World through
and a more unfit person could not be found, And as I hope they will
allow Me to be a better judge of Men, Manners and Abilities, I
say again he is totally unqualified for the post he has filled, and not
to be trusted in future. This I hope is sufficient. But if not I do
assert nay I [can?] prove that he is a New England Man; and
though he has sent you supplies of Arms, Ammunition, and
Cloathing, fitted out Vessels &c. without deigning to consult
my worthy Friend A. Lee Esqr. Nay I may say has almost
without him brought about the Treaty and has procured a
Fleet and Minister to be sent you without the knowledge of A.
Lee Esqr. or my self, yet I affirm, nay I will swear if You require
it, that he has such a hauteur about him that no body can do
business with him. And as to Franklin he is a crafty old knave,
he would not let me have a Copy of the Treaty after it was
signed though he knew how Anxious I was to have it, and
how much advantage I could have made of it. In my Conscience
I beleive he has neither honor nor honesty; he has Abilities it is true but
so much the worse, when these are not under the restraint of Virtue
and Integrity, And I declare before God he is under the restraint of
neither. And if Congress still doubt it I can get Doctr. [blank] so
celebrated in the quinzaine D’Anglais who is as honest an
Irishman as ever attended a Court with a Straw in his Shoe
And Monsr. [blank] my two intimate Freinds together with
Thornton and twenty such like to confirm it by their Oaths
also. But it will be said perhaps, he has during a long Life of
upwards of Seventy Years supported a good Character, and
that his reputation is established, and high throughout Europe.
I deny the Fact, did not Mr. Wedderbourne abuse him?
But if it were even so does not that even prove what Fools
they are, to think well of a Man who has treated me with
Contempt? who refused to consult me on the Treaties or to let
me have a Copy of Them after they were finished and when I
called upon him to explain his conduct and wrote to him
again, again and again, and sent my Secretary John Julius
Pringle to catechise him in person at last sent Me word “have
patience and I will pay thee all.” But I have sent him a Roland for
his Oliver. I have shewn him that he did not understand the
Text, and desired him to read over the whole Chapter.
However if after all I have said Congress cannot be induced to
dismiss him wholly, there can be no Objection to his being sent to
Vienna, he will do well enough there notwithstanding what I
have said of him, but he is not to be trusted at Versailles, which
is the place I have fixed on for myself; and You may tell Congress
so.
I am my Dear Sir &c. &c.
Endorsed: Mr Deane’s Version of Mr Izard’s Letters
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