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1776-1783: Diplomacy of the |
Categories:Benjamin Franklin in Paris
Benjamin Franklin: First American Diplomat
Benjamin Franklin, the most distinguished scientific and literary American of his age, was the first American diplomat.
He served from 1776 to 1778 on a three-man commission to France charged with the critical task of gaining French support for American independence. French aristocrats and intellectuals embraced Franklin as the personification of the New World Enlightenment. His likeness appeared on medallions, rings, watches, and snuffboxes, while fashionable ladies adopted the coiffure a la Franklin in imitation of the fur cap he wore instead of a wig. His popularity and diplomatic skill--along with the first American battlefield success at Saratoga--convinced France to recognize American independence and conclude an alliance with the thirteen states in 1778. Franklin presented his credentials to the French court in 1779, becoming the first American Minister (the 18th American century equivalent of ambassador) to be received by a foreign government. Franklin’s home in Passy, just outside Paris, became the center of American diplomacy in Europe. When Thomas Jefferson succeeded Franklin in 1785, the French Foreign Minister, Vergennes asked: "It is you who replace Dr. Franklin? " Jefferson replied, "No one can replace him, Sir; I am only his successor."
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Elected President of the Continental Congress at age 32, John Jay was a bright and capablelawyer from a well-to-do New York merchant family. On September 27, 1779, Jay was appointed Minister to the Spanish Court and entrusted with the task of obtaining support for the American cause and recognition of American independence. There were reasons to hope that Jay might succeed. The monarchies of Spain and France were linked together by the Bourbon Family Compact. Spain had long-standing colonial grievances against Great Britain, especially British control of the strategic Mediterranean fortress of Gibraltar. On April 12, 1779, Spain secretly agreed to join France in waging war on the British, but unlike the French, the Spanish declaration of war on June 21, 1779, did not include recognition of American independence or agreement to fight Britain until America was independent. Still Jay seemed the ideal candidate to win over the court at Madrid to the American cause. Tall, slender, well spoken, and with a streak of stubborn determination, Jay spent over 2 frustrating years in Madrid. He was effectively cut off from the court, existing in good part upon occasional, grudging donations from the principal Spanish minister, the Conde de Floridablanca. Although no friend to Britain, Floridablanca worried about American claims to lands west of the Appalachians and navigation rights on the Mississippi River and feared that the flames of the American revolution might spread to Spanish colonies in the Americas. Although Jay failed with Spain, he became a Peace Commissioner in Paris. He helped to negotiate the peace with Great Britain ending the War for Independence. After the war, Jay declined the post of Minister to Great Britain, but accepted the draft of the Continental Congress to become its Secretary of Foreign Affairs responsible for the foreign relations of the new American nation.
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John Adams, who represented the United States in France 1778-1779, returned to Paris in 1780 as a Peace Commissioner charged by the Continental Congress with negotiating a peace treaty with Great Britain. Unable to get the British to begin peace negotiations, in January 1781 Adams moved to Holland as Minister to the Netherlands.Ironically, Britain declared war on Holland in December 1780 on the pretext that the Dutch were contemplating a treaty with the rebellious Americans. Adams hoped to use British belligerence and the republican traditions of the United Provinces for the patriot cause, but he soon found that Dutch commercial interests outweighed support for American independence. The Dutch carried on a profitable contraband trade with the thirteen states from their holdings in the West Indies. An alliance with America would imperil that trade since British sea power could easily disrupt it. Furthermore, Willem V, the Stadholder of the United Province, was an Anglophile and close relative of George III. It took Adams many months of frustration, but he managed to negotiate a loan from Dutch bankers for the virtually bankrupt United States, and in April 1782, he finally won Dutch recognition of American independence.
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Francis Dana in St. Petersburg
American diplomacy during the War for Independence was short on financial and military assets and long on optimism. This was particularly true of Francis Dana’s mission to Russia. In 1781 the Continental Congress sent Francis Dana, John Adams private secretary in Paris, to the Court of Catherine II at St. Petersburg to convince Russia to recognize American independence, sign a commercial treaty, and allow the United States to join the League of Armed Neutrality. Catherine II was the moving force behind the League, which was formed in 1780 to protect the rights of neutrals to trade with belligerents in the war pitting the United States, the Netherlands, Spain, and France against Great Britain. The British were determined to use their naval power to prevent neutrals from trading with Americans or their other enemies. It is a measure of the naiveté of the Congress that it hoped that Catherine would sponsor American membership in her league of neutrals, given that America was one of the principal belligerents. The belief that Russia, which wished to act as a mediator between Britain and the thirteen states, would recognize American independence proved equally unfounded. Dana, lonely and unable to speak French or Russian, spent almost 2 years in St. Petersburg, accomplishing little.
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French Assistance to the American Cause
The single most important success of American diplomacy during the War for Independence was the critical link forged with France. The first and only alliance established by America until the 20th century, this partnership was built in good part by the efforts of the French ForeignMinister, Comte de Vergennes, and Benjamin Franklin. Vergennes saw the American War for Independence as a way to restore the balance of power in Europe and to avenge the humiliation suffered at British hands during the Seven Years War (1754-1763). Franklin pointed out the compatibility of French and American interests in denying the British control of North America east of the Mississippi River. After the signing of treaties of alliance and commerce between America and France on February 6, 1778, King Louis XVI opened his considerable coffers in support of the American cause. Between 1778 and 1782 the French provided supplies, arms and ammunition, uniforms, and most importantly, French troops and naval support to the beleaguered Continental Army. In 1781 the 29-vessel strong French fleet of Admiral de Grass protected the daring French-American military gamble against British forces in Virginia. The French navy transported reinforcements to the southern American army under the Marquis de Lafayette, fought off a British fleet, and protected Generals Washington and Rochambeau’s march to Virginia. With an almost evenly divided American-French Army of 16,000, Washington laid seige to 8,000 British forces at Yorktown and forced their surrender on October 19, 1781, for all practical purposes successfully ending the War for American Independence.
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In April 1782 Benjamin Franklin rejected informal peace feelers from Great Britain for a settlement that would provide the thirteen states with some measure of autonomy within the British empire. Franklin insisted on British recognition of American independence and refused to consider a peace separate from France,America’s staunch ally. Franklin did agree to negotiations with the British for an end to the war. Joined by peace commissioners John Adams and John Jay, Franklin engaged the British in formal negotiations beginning on September 27, 1782. Although Franklin demanded the cessation of Canada to an independent America, he knew that the British Government of Lord Shelburne, opposed to American independence, was unprepared to accept that offer. Two months of hard bargaining resulted in a preliminary articles of peace in which the British accepted American independence and boundaries--a bitter pill to George III--resolved the difficult issues of fishing rights on the Newfoundland banks and prewar debts owed British creditors, promised restitution of property lost during the war by Americans loyal to the British cause, and provided for the evacuation of British forces from the thirteen states. The preliminary articles signed in Paris on November 30, 1782, were only effective when a similar treaty was signed by Britain and France, which French Foreign Minister Vergennes quickly negotiated. France signed preliminary articles of peace with Great Britain on January 20, 1783, which were followed by a formal peace of Paris signed on September 3, 1783. The illustration above, a copy of a sketch by the studio of Benjamin West, shows the American negotiators of the Peace of Paris. The sketch remains incomplete because British negotiators chose not to sit for their half of the portrait; it has served as a powerful symbol of the division between Great Britain and its former American colonies.
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Robert Livingston, First Secretary of Foreign Affairs
The first constitution of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, permitted Congress toselect "such committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States." Shortly after the congressional resolution of January 10, 1781, Congress selected Robert R. Livingston, a delegate from New York, as the first Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He took office on October 20, 1781, and served until June 4, 1783. Livingston experienced considerable frustration in office. One historian notes that his duties were not "clearly defined and he was never given a free hand." Later he served as Minister to France and in 1803 negotiated the Louisiana Purchase.
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