TO M. ROSENCRONE. Proposed Treaty with Denmark. - Asks Reparation for Vessels seized at Bergen. SIR, Passy, 13 April, 1783. M. de Walterstorf has communicated to me a letter from your Excellency, which affords me great pleasure, as it expresses in clear and strong terms the good disposition of your court to form connexions of friendship and commerce with the United States of America. I am confident, that the same good disposition will be found in the Congress; and, having acquainted that respectable body with the purport of your letter, I expect a commission will soon be sent, appointing some person in Europe to enter into a treaty with his Majesty the King of Denmark, for the purpose desired. In the mean time, to prepare and forward the business as much as may be, I send, for your Excellency's 6. Medal engraved at Philadelphia, by the direction of Joseph Sansom. Obverse. Bust of Franklin. - Legend.―LIGHtning averted, TYRANNY REPelled. Reverse. An American Beaver gnawing down an oak tree; symbolical of the condition of America at the declaration of Independence. 7. Another of Sansom's Medals. Obverse. -Busts of Washington and Franklin, side by side. Reverse. The American Eagle with an olive-branch in its beak, and lightning in its claws, descending upon the United States; symbolical of the event of peace at the close of the war. Reverse. Legend, in parallel lines; NATUS BOSTONIE IN AMERICA FEDERATA AN. M. DCC. VI. OBIIT AN. M. DCC. XC. SERIES NUMIS- Exergue. -M. DCCC. XIX. DURAND EDIDIT. The court of Denmark. See the letter referred to, p. 487. consideration, such a sketch as you mention, formed on the basis of our treaty with Holland, on which I shall be glad to receive your Excellency's sentiments. And I hope that this transaction, when completed, may be the means of producing and securing a long and happy friendship between our two nations. To smooth the way for obtaining this desirable end, as well as to comply with my duty, it becomes necessary for me on this occasion to mention to your Excellency the affair of our three prizes, which, having during the war entered Bergen as a neutral and friendly port, where they might repair the damages they had suffered, and procure provisions, were, by an order of your predecessor in the office you so honorably fill, violently seized and delivered to our enemies. I am inclined to think it was a hasty act, procured by the importunities and misrepresentations of the British minister, and that your government could not, on reflection, approve of it. But the injury was done, and I flatter myself your Excellency will think with me, that it ought to be repaired. The means and manner I beg leave to recommend to your consideration, and am, with great respect, Sir, &c. B. FRANKLIN. Denmark. TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. Definitive Treaty delayed. British Com merce. Medal. People desiring to emigrate to America.- French Finances. SIR, Passy, 15 April, 1783. You complain sometimes of not hearing from us. It is now near three months since any of us have heard from America. I think our last letters came with General de Rochambeau. There is now a project under consideration for establishing monthly packet boats between France and New York, which I hope will be carried into execution; our correspondence then may be more regular and frequent. I send herewith another copy of the treaty concluded with Sweden. I hope, however, that you will have received the former, and that the ratification is forwarded. The King, as the ambassador informs me, is now employed in examining the duties payable in his ports, with a view of lowering them in favor of America, and thereby encouraging and facilitating our mutual commerce. M. de Walterstorf, chamberlain of the King of Denmark, formerly chief justice of the Danish West India Islands, was last year at Paris, where I had some acquaintance with him, and he is now returned hither. The newspapers have mentioned him as intended to be sent minister from his court to Congress; but he tells me no such appointment has yet been made. He assures me, however, that the King has a strong desire to have a treaty of friendship and commerce with the United States; and he has communicated to me a letter, which he received from M. Rosencrone, the minister for foreign affairs, expressing that disposition. I enclose a copy of the letter; and, if Congress shall approve of entering into such a treaty with the King of Denmark, of which I told M. de Walterstorf I made no doubt, they will send to me, or whom else they shall think proper, the necessary instructions and powers for that purpose. In the mean time, to keep the business in train, I have sent to that minister, for his consideration, a translation of the plan, mutatis mutandis, which I received from Congress for a treaty with Sweden, accompanied by a letter, of which likewise I enclose a copy. I think it would be well to make it one of the instructions to whoever is commissioned for the treaty, that he previously procure satisfaction for the prizes mentioned in my letter. The definitive treaties have met with great delays, partly by the tardiness of the Dutch, but principally from the distractions in the court of England, where, for six or seven weeks, there was properly no ministry, nor any business effected. They have at last settled a ministry, but of such a composition as does not promise to be lasting. The papers will inform you who they are. It is now said, that Mr. Oswald, who signed the preliminaries, is not to return here, but that Mr. David Hartley comes in his stead to settle the definitive. A Congress is also talked of, and that some use is to be made therein of the mediation formerly proposed of the Imperial courts. Mr. Hartley is an old friend of mine, and a strong lover of peace, so that I hope we shall not have much difficult discussion with him; but I could have been content to have finished with Mr. Oswald, whom we always found very reasonable. Mr. Laurens, having left Bath, mended in his health, is daily expected at Paris, where Messieurs Jay and Adams still continue. Mr. Jefferson has not yet arrived, nor the Romulus, in which ship I am told he was to have taken his passage. I have been the more impatient of this delay, from the expectation given me of full letters by him. It is extraordinary, that we should be so long without any arrivals from America in any part of Europe. We have as yet heard nothing of the reception of the preliminary articles in America, though it is now nearly five months since they were signed. Barney, indeed, did not get away from hence before the middle of January, but copies went by other ships long before him; he waited some time for the money he carried, and afterwards was detained by violent contrary winds. He had a passport from England, and I hope arrived safe; though we have been in some pain for him, on account of a storm soon after he sailed. The English merchants have shown great eagerness to reassume their commerce with America; but apprehending that our laws, prohibiting that commerce, would not be repealed till England had set the example by repealing theirs, a number of vessels they had loaded with goods have been detained in port, while the Parliament have been debating on the repealing bill, which has been altered two or three times, and is not agreed upon yet. It was at first proposed to give us equal privileges in trade with their own subjects, repealing thereby, with respect to us, so much of their navigation act, as regards foreign nations. But that plan seems to be laid aside, and what will finally be done in the affair is uncertain. There is not a port in France, and few in Europe, from which I have not received several applications of persons desiring to be appointed consuls for America. They generally offer to execute the office for the honor of it, without salary. I suppose the Congress will wait to see what course commerce will take, and in what places it will fix itself, in order to find where consuls will be necessary, before any appointments are made, and perhaps it will then be thought best to send some of our own people. If they are not allowed to trade, there must be a great expense for salaries. If they may trade, and are Americans, the fortunes they make will mostly settle in our own country at last. The agreement I was to make here respecting consuls, has not yet been concluded. The article of trading is impor I think it would be well to reconsider it. tant. |
