Philadelphia July 6th. 1782
Dear Sir,
I did not receive your favor dated Amsterdam May 17th 1781. 'till June 29th 1782.
1 It is with very great pleasure that I accept your offer of a correspondance which cannot but be highly interesting to me. The independent spirit which markd your proceedings when you arrivd first at Petersburg, did not please some.2
Upon this subject I have but one observation to make, That a foreign minister, if he attempt any thing out of the hackneyd path, must do it at his peril. Success alone can silence the mongrel spirits which will otherwise raise a cry against him, from the effects of which, if unsuccessful, he will find no shield but in the goodness of his intentions. This consideration will not prevent a firm & virtuous mind from pursuing what he thinks really for the good of his Country, because even a failure cannot deprive him of that consolation which arises from conscious patriotism.
Our embarrassments for money are great, not that there is any real want of it, but because by the constitution of the Bank, & until lately a most prosperous Commerce, in this tory City, has accumulated all the money here & consequently disenabled the other States from paying taxes to support the war. The residence of Congress in the bosom of toryism & the encouragement given to them is as impolitic as it is unjust. It put such advantages into their hands, as in case the war shoud take a turn, may enable them to deliver us up tied & bound to the Enemy. It is extreme political weakness to suppose that because these men have changd their professions that they have therefore abandond their principles. These are what a tory never changes, & tho he may make them bend occasionally to his interest, yet whenever an opportunity offers you will be sure to find him the same enemy to public Liberty.
I am sorry that the attempts you mention have in any measure succeeded; tho' they have faild of the whole intent, wch. was to place the negociation of peace in corrupt and servile hands only. The wickedness of that old Man
3 is beyond example, & his good fortune in escaping the punishment due to his crimes so well known, is as extraordinary. Horace says - raro antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede poena claudo.4
Dr Franklin is the rare exception to his rule.
It may be proper to inform you that the present Secretary for foreign Affairs is a decided partizan of Dr. F. & enemy to Mr. Adams. Like a number of other Parrots here, he praises the former by rote, & undertakes to tutor the other. Whatever you see or receive from him you may consider as dictated by the french Minister. He made him what he is, & policy, or gratitude keeps him from disobeying or renouncing his Maker.
I have little hope of your succeeding where you are. On the contrary I doubt much whether the Empress will continue neuter, shoud G. Britain be hard-pressd. Her policy as well as his partiality must, in my judgment, direct her to prevent the accomplishment of the aim of France, to give Law on the Ocean, & make her lean towards G. Britain.
5
Farewell
Receiver's copy, Dana Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. In Lee's hand, though not signed.
1 For Dana's May 17 letter, see Richard Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, LL.D., 2 vols. (Boston: Wells and Lilly, 1829), 2: 281 - 84.
2 For Congress' rebuke of Dana for demonstrating an "independent spirit," see James Madison to Edmund Randolph, April 23, 1782, note 6.
3 That is, Benjamin Franklin.
4 The quotation is from Horace Odes 3.2.31, and has been translated by C. E. Bennett: "rarely does Vengeance, albeit of halting gait, fail to o'ertake the guilty, though he gain the start." Horace: The Odes and Epodes (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1934), p. 177.
5 For Dana's October 15 response to this letter, see Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, LL.D., 2:284 - 87.