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023 - Chapter 26 - Part 3 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty three of History the Rise, Progress and Termination
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  Speaker 1: of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. History of the Rise, Progress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six, Part three. It was difficult, even at
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  Speaker 1: this late period to convince many of the most intelligent
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  Speaker 1: gentlemen in England that independence was a gift that America
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  Speaker 1: did not now ask. The boom was their own, obtained
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  Speaker 1: by their own prowess and magnanimity in conjunction with the
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  Speaker 1: armies of their brave allies. It may be proper to
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  Speaker 1: observed that if England should in reality feel that the
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  Speaker 1: splendor of her solar rays are eclipsed by the dismemberment
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  Speaker 1: of such a branch of the Empire, the amputation might
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  Speaker 1: not yet be fatal to her prosperity and glory. They
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  Speaker 1: might yet prosper in a friendly alliance with the colonies.
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  Speaker 1: If the Parliament, the Nation, and their sovereign should be
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  Speaker 1: in future disposed to moderation and justice, and would shew
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  Speaker 1: themselves sincere in promoting friendship and harmony with an infant republic.
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  Speaker 1: It is true this republic has been forced into premature existence.
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  Speaker 1: Yet she held herself in all diplomatic concerns on a
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  Speaker 1: footing with any other nation, and was now ready to
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  Speaker 1: form alliances with them and all other foreign powers, without
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  Speaker 1: becoming dependent on or tributary to any affairs were now
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  Speaker 1: brought to a point there was no possibility of oscillating
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  Speaker 1: longer between peace and war. Coercion had been long enough
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  Speaker 1: unsuccessfully tried. Negotiation was not the only path to be triton.
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  Speaker 1: Howeverthlodny it might appear to the pride of royalty or
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  Speaker 1: to the omnipotence of a British Parliament. After repeated captures
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  Speaker 1: of the best appointed armies composed both the domestic and
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  Speaker 1: foreign troops, dispair of subjugating the United States had lowered
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  Speaker 1: down the spirit of the nation and of the King
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  Speaker 1: of England so far as to become willing to treat
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  Speaker 1: on terms with the restoration of amity, and to speak
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  Speaker 1: with some degree of temper of the total separation and
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  Speaker 1: independence of America. Lord Shelburne's opinions had been so diametrically
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  Speaker 1: opposite to those of the gentlemen who had seceded from
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  Speaker 1: the administration, that they thought themselves fully justified and withdrawing
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  Speaker 1: from public service, even while the important business was in
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  Speaker 1: agitation and everything ripening. For the negotiations replete with events
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  Speaker 1: beyond the calculations of the wisest statesmen of politicians. In
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  Speaker 1: their self approbation, they were confirmed when they thought they
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  Speaker 1: discovered a degree duplicity in the business. Notwithstanding, Lord shelburn
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  Speaker 1: had explicitly avowed that his own wishes were of a
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  Speaker 1: different nature. It appeared he had directed General Carleton and
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  Speaker 1: Admiral Digby to acquaint the Commander in chief of the
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  Speaker 1: American Army and to request him to inform Congress at
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  Speaker 1: the King of Great Britain, desirous of peace, had commanded
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  Speaker 1: his ministers about to negotiate to ensure the independence of
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  Speaker 1: the thirteen provinces instead of making a condition of a
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  Speaker 1: general treaty. Footnote. This sentiment had been communicated by order
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  Speaker 1: of the Minister, and a joint letter from General Carlton
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  Speaker 1: and Lord Digby to General Washington, dated New York August second,
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  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty two at the footnote. But when mister Oswald,
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  Speaker 1: who had been appointed to act as the Commissioner of
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  Speaker 1: Peace ap of Great Britain and to arrange the provisional
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  Speaker 1: articles for that purpose, arrived at Paris in the autumn
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  Speaker 1: of one thousand, seven hundred and eighty two, it appeared
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  Speaker 1: that his instructions were not sufficiently explicit. They did not
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  Speaker 1: satisfy the American agents deputed by Congress to negotiate the
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  Speaker 1: terms of reconciliation. Among the contempting powers, these were doctor Franklin,
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  Speaker 1: John Jay, and John Adams Esquires. Mister Adams was still
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  Speaker 1: at the Hague, but he had been directed by Congress
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  Speaker 1: to repair to France to assist his colleagues in their
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  Speaker 1: negotiations for peace. The ambiguility of mister Oswald's commission occasion
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  Speaker 1: much altercation between the counter for gens and mister Jay
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  Speaker 1: on the subject of the provisional articles. Their disputes were
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  Speaker 1: not easily adjusted, and the Spanish Minister the County of
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  Speaker 1: Ronda rather inclined to an acquiescence in the proposals of
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  Speaker 1: the British commission. Mister Jay, however, resisted with firmness, and
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  Speaker 1: was supported in his opinions by mister Adams, who soon
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  Speaker 1: after arrived in Paris. But before his arrival, mister Rayneveldt,
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  Speaker 1: the secretary and confidential friend of the French Minister, repaid
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  Speaker 1: rather privately to England. It was suspected, and not without
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  Speaker 1: sufficient grounds, that this visit was decidedly intended to procure
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  Speaker 1: a conference with Lord Chouburn. It was undoubtedly the wish
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  Speaker 1: of both France and England to exclude America from the
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  Speaker 1: right of fishing on the banks of Newfoundland, an advantage
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  Speaker 1: claimed by Americans as a right of nature from their
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  Speaker 1: contiguous situation, and as their right by prescription. The American
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  Speaker 1: commissioners insisted that their claims were equally just with any
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  Speaker 1: exclusive pretensions either of Great Britain or France. The navigation
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  Speaker 1: of the Mississippi, British debts, and the American loyalists. When
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  Speaker 1: matters of dissension debate and difficult, the American ministers were
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  Speaker 1: not disposed to relinquish any claims of honor, equity, or interest,
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  Speaker 1: either to the haughty demands of Great Britain, the intrigues
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  Speaker 1: of France, or even to the condescending instructions in some
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  Speaker 1: instances are their own National Congress. This body had in
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  Speaker 1: the enthusiasm of their gratitude, But the assistants, lent in
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  Speaker 1: their distress by France, instructed their agents to take no
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  Speaker 1: step of importance without the advice and counsel of the
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  Speaker 1: Marquis de Lafayette, which would have given great advantage to
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  Speaker 1: the French ministry. The limits of the eastern boundaries of
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  Speaker 1: the United States were the subject of dispute, thought by
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  Speaker 1: some of them of less consequence, But with regard to
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  Speaker 1: the Western territorial rights, the American commissioners were tenacious. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: the American territory has been parceled out and patented by
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  Speaker 1: the sovereigns of Europe from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oda,
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  Speaker 1: and by existing treaties, the United States have no inconsiderable
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  Speaker 1: claim in the distribution. Their claims were undoubtedly founded on
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  Speaker 1: an equitable a basis as those of Great Britain and France.
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  Speaker 1: The negotiating ministers of Congress were unwilling to relinquish any
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  Speaker 1: part of their claim. They supported their independent attitude with
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  Speaker 1: manly dignity, nor did they yield in the smallest degree
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  Speaker 1: to the encroaching spirit of Britain. The American claims to
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  Speaker 1: a vast, uncultivated tract of wilderness which neither Great Britain, France,
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  Speaker 1: or America had any right to invade, may ultimately prove
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  Speaker 1: a most unfortunate circumstance to the Atlantic States, unless the
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  Speaker 1: primary object of the American government should be to civilize
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  Speaker 1: and soften the habits of savage life. But if the
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  Speaker 1: lust of domination which takes hold of the ambitious and
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  Speaker 1: the powerful in all ages and nations, should be indulged
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  Speaker 1: by the authority of the United States, and those simple
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  Speaker 1: tribes of men contented with the gifts of nature that
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  Speaker 1: it filled their forests with games sufficient for their subsistence,
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  Speaker 1: should be invaded, it will probably be a source of
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  Speaker 1: most cruel warfare and bloodshed until the extermination of the
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  Speaker 1: original possessors. In such a result, the mountains and the
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  Speaker 1: plains will perhaps be filled with the fierce, independent race
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  Speaker 1: of European and American emigrants, too hostile to the borderers
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  Speaker 1: on the seas to submit willingly to their laws and government,
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps too distant, numerous, and powerful to subdue by arms. Footnote,
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  Speaker 1: the reader will observe that the author of this work
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  Speaker 1: has been in the habit of making appropriate observations on
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  Speaker 1: events as they passed, and has often hazarded conjectures or
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  Speaker 1: probable results. The work was written a number of years
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  Speaker 1: before publication, but she did not think properly either to
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  Speaker 1: erase them or all to the manner on revision. Some
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  Speaker 1: of those conjectures have already taken place, others probably may
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  Speaker 1: at some subsequent period. End a footnote. It was the
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  Speaker 1: opinion of some of the American commissioners for negotiating the
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  Speaker 1: Treaty of Peace that the counter of Pagens was opposed
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  Speaker 1: to the claims of the United States in every stage
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  Speaker 1: of the business, not because in equity he thought they
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  Speaker 1: had no right to the fisheries or the western lands,
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  Speaker 1: but from a general unfriendly disposition to America and a
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  Speaker 1: reluctance to her being declared by Great Britain an independent nation.
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  Speaker 1: But it was more probable that he called aquivocal demeanor
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  Speaker 1: arose not so much from any personal disaffection to the
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  Speaker 1: people or to individuals, as from a desire to hold
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  Speaker 1: the Americans forever dependent on France. It was suggested by
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  Speaker 1: some to be the policy of that nation, to endeavor
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  Speaker 1: to keep the United States It's as long as possible,
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  Speaker 1: depended on her aid and protection. The political creed of
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  Speaker 1: miss Yogi Virgenes is said to have been that it
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  Speaker 1: was absolutely necessary to hate the English, to cajole the
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  Speaker 1: Spaniards not to hurt the Emperor, to live on good
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  Speaker 1: terms with Prussia, to gain over the Dutch, to protect
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  Speaker 1: the Turks, to respect Rome, to support the infant Republic
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  Speaker 1: of America, to subsidize Switzerland, and to inspect the conduct
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  Speaker 1: of the colonies. The French were indeed generally sensible that
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  Speaker 1: most of the citizens of America spurned at all ideas
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  Speaker 1: of independence on any foreign power after her emancipation from Britain.
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  Speaker 1: Yet they were jealous that many others felt the warmly
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  Speaker 1: prejudiced in favor of a nation from whom they derived
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  Speaker 1: their origin, that they little doubted of a renewal of
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  Speaker 1: the connection with or even a dependence again on Written
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  Speaker 1: when the noise of war should cease, and the old
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  Speaker 1: habits of intercourse, so natural from consequinity, language and manners
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  Speaker 1: should be reassumed. This jealousy was disseminated, and these apprehensions
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  Speaker 1: were expressed by gentlemen of judgment and penetration throughout the
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  Speaker 1: Kingdom of France, both in public and in private circles. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: it was the general opinion there that a predilection in
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  Speaker 1: favor of England would supersede in the American mind a
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  Speaker 1: connection with any other European power, as soon as recent
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  Speaker 1: injuries were forgotten and the passions of men had subsided
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  Speaker 1: time and opportunity. Afterwards, events that the most liberal sentiments
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  Speaker 1: toward America governed the French nation in general. It appeared
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  Speaker 1: by their conduct in many subsequent transactions that there was
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  Speaker 1: very little to justify the opinion that the design of
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  Speaker 1: the nation was to hold the American colony depended on France,
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  Speaker 1: or even to continue the alliance, but on terms of
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  Speaker 1: reciprocity and mutual advantage. No national contracts ever yet bound
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  Speaker 1: mankind so firmly as not to be shaken when they
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  Speaker 1: validate with personal or national interest. Much less does the
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  Speaker 1: religious observance of treaties prevent their abandoning formal obligations when
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  Speaker 1: the balance of advantage is likely to be thrown into
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  Speaker 1: the hands of their flowers from the jealousy of the French,
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  Speaker 1: of the power and barbary of the English nation. They
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  Speaker 1: might rationally infer that if the old and natural connection
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  Speaker 1: with the parent states should again be revived, they would
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  Speaker 1: cut off the many advantages they had promised themselves from
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  Speaker 1: an irreverable breach between Great Britain and the colonies. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: some of the politicians in France judged as a reason
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  Speaker 1: sufficient for the most strenuous efforts in the ancient orreditary
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  Speaker 1: enemy of Great Britain to hold, and if possible, to
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  Speaker 1: bind the Barrack by treaties, the conditions that might, in
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  Speaker 1: some measure maker depended on themselves. At least, these are
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  Speaker 1: reasons of policy. Reasons of equity, when inconsistent with interest,
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  Speaker 1: are seldom to be found among statesmen and politicians deputed
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  Speaker 1: to transact national affairs. End of Section twenty three