to-day or to-morrow, this province will take the decisive resolution of admitting me to my audience. Perhaps some of the other provinces may delay it for three or four weeks. But the prince has declared, that he has no hopes of resisting the torrent, and therefore, that he shall not attempt it. The duc de la Vauguion has acted a very friendly and honorable part in this business, without, however, doing any ministerial act in it. With great respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, SIR, To Robert R. Livingston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs. J. ADAMS. Passy, March 30, 1782. THE newspapers which I send you, by this conveyance, will acquaint you, with what has since my last passed in parliament. You will there see a copy of the bill brought in by the attorney general, for empowering the king to make peace with the colonies. They still seem to flatter themselves with the idea of dividing us; and rather than name the congress, they empower him generally to treat with any body or bodies, of men, or any person or persons, &c. They are here likewise endeavoring to get us to treat separately from France, at the same time they are tempting France to treat separately from us, equally without the least chance of success. I have been drawn into a correspondence on this subject, which you shall have with my next. I send you a letter of Mr. Adams's just received, which shows also that they are weary of the war, and would get out of it if they knew how. They had not then received certain news of the loss of St. Christopher's, which will probably render them still more disposed to peace. I see that a bill is also passing through the house of commons for the exchange of the American prisoners, the purport of which I do not yet know. In my last I promised to be more particular with respect to the points you mentioned as proper to be insisted on in the treaty of peace. My ideas on those points I assure you are full as strong as yours. I did intend to have given you my reasons for some addition, and if the treaty were to be held on your side the water, I would do it: otherwise it seems on second thoughts to be unnecessary, and if my letters should be intercepted may be inconvenient. Be assured I shall not willingly give up any important right or interest of our country; and unless this campaign should afford our enemies some considerable advantage, I hope more may be obtained than is yet expected. Our affairs generally go on well in Europe. Holland has been slow, Spain slower, but time will I hope smooth away all difficulties. Let us keep up, not only our courage, but our vigilance; and not be laid asleep by the pretended half peace the English make with us without asking our consent. We cannot be safe while they keep armies in our country. With great esteem I have the the honor to be, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. To J. Adams, Esq. Passy, March 31, 1782. SIR, I RECEIVED yours of the 10th instant, and am of opinion with you, that the English will evacuate New York and Charleston, as the troops there, after the late resolutions of parliament, must be useless, and are necessary to defend their remaining islands, where they have not at present more than three thousand men. The prudence of this operation is so obvious, that I think they can hardly miss it; otherwise, I own, that considering their conduct for several years past, it is not reasoning consequentially to conclude they will do a thing, because the doing it is required by common sense. Yours of the 26th is just come to hand: I thank you for the communication of Digges's message. He has also sent me a long letter, with two from Mr. Hartley. I shall see M. de Vergennes to-morrow, and will acquaint you with every thing material that passes on the subject. But the ministry by whom Digges pretends to be sent being changed, we shall, by waiting a little, see what tone will be taken by their successors. You shall have a copy of the instructions by the next courier. I congratulate you cordially on the progress you have made among those slow people. Slow however as they are, Mr. Jay finds his much slower. By an American, who goes in about ten days to Holland, I shall send you a packet of correspondence with Mr. Hartley, though it amounts to little. With great esteem, I have the honor to be your excellency's most obedient and most humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. DEAR SIR, To David Hartley, Esq., M. P. Passy, March 31, 1782. I HAVE just received your favors of March 11 and 12, forwarded to me by Mr. Digges, and another of the 21st per post. I congratulate you on the returning good disposition of your nation towards America, which appears in the resolutions of parliament, that you have sent me; and I hope the change of your ministry will be attended with salutary effects. I continue in the same sentiments expressed in my former letters; but as I am but one of five in the commission, and have no knowlege of the sentiments of the others, what has passed between us is to be considered merely as private conversation. The five persons are Messrs. Adams, Jay, Laurens, Jefferson, and myself; and in case of the death or ab sence of any, the remainder have power to act or conclude. I have not written to Mr. Laurens, having constantly expected him here, but shall write to him next post; when I shall also write more fully to you, having now only time to add, that I am ever with great esteem and affection, dear sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. To David Hartley, Esq., M. P. MY DEAR FRIEND, Passy, April 5, 1782. I WROTE a few lines to you the 31st past, and promised to write more fully. On perusing again your letters of the 11th, 12th, and 21st, I do not find any notice taken of one from me, dated February 16. I therefore now send you a copy made from it in the press. The uncertainty of free transmission discourages a free communication of sentiments on these important affairs; but the inutility of discussion between persons, one of whom is not authorised, but in conjunction with others, and the other not authorised at all, as well as the obvious inconveniences that may attend such previous handling of points, that are to be considered, when w come to treat regularly, are with me a still more effectual discouragement, and determine me to waive that part of the correspondence. As to Digges, I have no confidence in him, nor in any thing he says, or may say, of his being sent by ministers. Nor will I have any communication with him, except in receiving and considering the justification of himself, which he' pretends he shall be able and intends to make, for his excessive drafts on me, on account of the relief I have ordered to the prisoners, and his embezzlement of the money. You justly observe in yours of the 12th, that the first object is to procure a "meeting of qualified and authorised persons," and that you understand ministry will be ready to proceed towards opening a negotiation as soon as the bill shall pass, VOL. VI. SN and therefore it is necessary to consult time and place, and manner, and persons, on each side." This you wrote while the old ministry existed. If the new have the same intentions, and desire a general peace, they may easily discharge Mr. Laurens from those engagements, which make his acting in the commission improper, and except Mr. Jefferson, who remains in America and is not expected here, we the commissioners of congress can easily be got together ready to meet yours, at such place as shall be agreed to by the powers at war, in order to form the treaty. God grant that there may be wisdom enough assembled to make, if possible, a peace that shall be perpetual, and that the idea of any nations being natural enemies to each other, may be abolished for the honor of human nature. With regard to those who may be commissioned from your government, whatever personal preferences I may conceive in my own mind, it cannot become me to express them. I only wish for wise and honest men. With such, a peace may be speedily concluded. With contentious wranglers the negotiation may be drawn into length, and finally frustrated. I am pleased to see in the votes and parliamentary speech ́es, and in your public papers, that in mentioning America, the word reconciliation is often used. It certainly means more than a mere peace. It is a sweet expression. Revolve in your mind, my dear friend, the means of bringing about this reconciliation. When you consider the injustice of your war with us, and the barbarous manner in which it has been carried on, the many suffering families among us from your burning of towns, scalping by savages, &c. &c., will it not appear to you, that though a cessation of the war may be a peace, it may not be a reconciliation? Will not some voluntary acts of justice, and even of kindness on your part, have excellent effects towards producing such a reconciliation? Can you not find means of repairing in some degree those injuries? You have in England and Ireland, twelve hundred of our people prisoners, who have for years bravely suffered all the hardships of that confinement, rather than enter into your service, |