A Century of American Diplomacy. John W. Foster
that France would not support them. Third, the sudden departure for London of Rayneval, under an assumed name, to influence (as Jay supposed) the British cabinet on these points. Jay, being advised of Rayneval's departure, procured the dispatch of Vaughan, private secretary to Lord Shel- burne, to London, to counteract his representations to the British cabinet. This action was taken without consultation with Franklin. It was a bold step. Only Jay's success in the negotiations saved him from dis- grace.
Jay, in writing to Livingston, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Congress, said : 1 "It would have relieved me from much anxiety and uneasiness to have concerted all these steps with Dr. Franklin; but in conversing with him about M. Rayneval's journey, he did not con- cur with me in sentiment respecting the object of it, but appeared to me to have great confidence in this court and to be much embarrassed and constrained by our instructions. … Facts and future events must determine which of us is mistaken. Let us be honest and grateful to France, but let us think for ourselves."
1 Ib. 32.
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The impressions of Mr. Jay on the last two points, it is now known, were not entirely well founded. The letter of Marbois which was captured by the British was in cipher. The original was not shown to Jay, but only a copy deciphered by the British. In trans- mitting this copy to Congress Mr. Jay wrote : " The original in French I have not seen. … I am not at liberty to mention the manner in which this paper came to my hands." l It is well known that the British were in the habit both of making false translations or de- cipherings and of forging documents. Marbois denied the authenticity of the letter, and Vergennes protested that it did not correctly represent the views of the king. The archives of the French and British govern- ments show that Kayneval's visit to London had rela- tion to the negotiations of Fitzherbert, the British ambassador, with Vergennes as to the terms of peace between England, France, and Spain. Years after Mr. Vaughan wrote: "Mr. Jay gave me two busi- nesses, one to get a new commission for Mr. Oswald, which I obtained in an instant, and the other to counter- act Mr. de R., which I found utterly needless." When the conduct of the commissioners in these negotiations was being discussed in Congress, Hamilton, the per- sonal and political friend of Jay, said of him, "that although he was a man of profound sagacity and pure intentions, yet he was of a suspicious temper."
The result of the hasty visit of Kayneval and Vaughan to London was a new commission to Oswald in terms required by Jay, and instructions to hasten
1 5 Ib. 740. For a copy of the letter, see Ib. 238.
THE TREATY OF PEACE AND INDEPENDENCE. 63
independent negotiations with the American commis- sioners. We have here the strange spectacle of the Colonies joining with their enemy, the mother country, to circumvent the scheme of their own allies. That which was most influential in bringing about this curi- ous combination was the subject of the boundaries. France was favoring the possession by Spain of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and Vergennes expected that the Colonies would be confined to the Atlantic sea- board. Shelburne, on the other hand, preferred to have the Colonies as neighbors of Canada in the lake region rather than the Spaniard. To meet the wishes of the American negotiators by carrying the boundary to the Mississippi was in harmony with the policy which he recommended to the British negotiator, to so act as " to regain the affections of America." 1 When he gave authority to Oswald to yield to the demands of our commissioners as to the vast domain west of the Alleghany Mountains, he could well say to Oswald : " We have put the greatest confidence, I believe, ever placed in man in the American commissioners. It is now to be seen how far they or America are to be de- pended upon. … I hope the public will be the gainer, else our heads must answer for it, and deservedly."
In the midst of these suspicions and differences be- tween Jay and Franklin, Adams arrived fresh from his successful negotiation with Holland. Learning of the situation, he declared himself fully in accord with Jay. Adams had an interview with Franklin, in which he indorsed all Jay's acts and views, and records : " The
i 3 Life of Shelburne, 285.
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doctor heard me patiently, but said nothing." In the next conference with Oswald, Franklin turned to Mr. Jay and said : " I am of your opinion, and will go on with these gentlemen in the business without consult- ing this court." l The following is an anecdote of the period. Dr. Franklin, one day sitting, during the dis- cussion of the question of instructions, in Mr. Jay's room, said : " Will you break your instructions ? " " Yes," replied Mr. Jay, who was smoking a pipe, " as I break this pipe," and he threw the fragments into the fire. Adams, after the negotiations were concluded, wrote : " He (Franklin) has gone on with us in entire harmony and unanimity throughout, and has been able and useful, both by his sagacity and his reputation, in the whole negotiation." 2 It is greatly to Franklin's credit that he did not allow a matter which he regarded as of secondary importance to interfere with the cor- diality of his cooperation with his colleagues.
While these negotiations were going on with Oswald, the British ambassador, Fitzherbert, was conducting negotiations with Vergennes and the Spanish ambas- sador, and between the two sets of negotiators there seems to have been no consultation or concert of action. Of the Anglo-French negotiations, Adams writes, they " are kept secret not only from us, but from the Dutch ministers, and we hear nothing about Spain." 3
In the negotiations with Oswald, on the American
side, three points were of supreme importance, (1) the
boundary to the Mississippi, (2) the free navigation of
the Mississippi, and (3) the right to the fisheries off
1 3 J. Adams's Works, 336. 3 Ib. 5 Dip. Cor. Rev. 857.
THE TREATY OF PEACE AND INDEPENDENCE. 65
the northeast Atlantic coast. On the side of the Brit- ish two points were held to be essential, (1) American independence must be complete and free from France, and (2) British debts must be secured and the loyalists restored to their rights.
On the northeast boundary the British at first de- manded the whole of Maine, then to the Penobscot River; but the St. Croix River was finally decided upon. As to the northern boundary, two lines were proposed the one through the Great Lakes to the source of the Mississippi; and the other, an alternate line offered by the Americans along the 45 of latitude. The former was ultimately accepted.
The Mississippi, the source of which was then sup- posed to be in British territory, it was agreed should be forever open to both countries. This provision subse- quently became abrogated by the acquisition of Louisi- ana from France.
The fishery discussion was long and difficult, but re- sulted successfully for the United States, as the Ameri- can fishermen were admitted on equal terms to Canadian waters. The debts due British subjects were to be paid, and Congress was to recommend the States to restore confiscated estates of loyalists, but it was given to be understood that the recommendation could not be carried out.
The treaty was signed on November 30, 1782, Henry Laurens, who arrived from London only two days be- fore, joining with Adams, Franklin, and Jay in its exe- cution. It is said that on this occasion Franklin, for the second time in France, donned the " spotted velvet
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Manchester suit" worn at the session of the British privy council, but there is some question about this. The treaty was merely preliminary, and it was pro- vided that the final treaty, which was to embrace its stipulations, should not be concluded until a treaty between Great Britain and France was ready to be signed.
Strachey, secretary to the Minister of the Colonies, who had been sent over to assist Oswald, after the negotiations were practically concluded, wrote : " Are we to be hanged or applauded ? … If this is not as good a peace as was expected, I am confident it is the best that could be made." 1
On signing the treaty, Adams wrote : " Thus far has proceeded this great affair. The unraveling of the plot has been to me the most affecting and astonishing part of the whole piece." 2
It has been well said that it would be difficult to find a parallel in modern diplomacy to the complica- tions and perplexities by which at the outset the Ameri- can commissioners