In Committee for foreign Affairs, York Town, May 14th 1778
Sir
Your several Favours of Octr. 6th, Novr. 27th & Decr. 8th1 were delivered to us on the 2d Instant, the Dispatches by Mr. Deane and those by Capt. Young arriving on the same Day. We had before received your short Letter of the 11th of June, but are yet without that of the 29th of July, in which you had informed us "at large of your Proceedings in Prussia."2 Its Contents would have proved highly agreable to us in those Months when we were quite uninformed of the Proceedings & Prospects of your Colleagues, at Paris. Impressed with a Sense of the Value of the King of Prussia’s "warmest Wishes for our Success" we give assurances of equal Wishes in Congress for that Monarch’s prosperity. We have little Doubt of open Testimonies of his majesty’s Friendship in Consequence of the late Decision of the King of France.
Your Information in Regard to our Connection with the fictitious House of Hortales & Co. is more explicit than any we had before received, but we further expect that all Mystery should be removed: Surely there cannot now be occasion for any, if there ever was for Half of the past.3
Our Commercial Transactions will very speedily be put under the Direction of a Board consisting of Persons not Members of Congress, it being impracticable for the same Men to conduct the deliberative and executive Business of the Continent now in its great Increase.
It has been next to impossible to make Remittances for many months from the Staple Colonies the Coasts of which have been constantly infested by numerous and strong Cruisers of the Enemy. We hope the Alliance of maritime Powers with us will remove our Embarrassments and give us Opportunity to carry into Effect our hearty Wishes to maintain the fairest commercial Reputation.
There will be great Impropriety in our making a different Settlement for the Supplies received from Spain from that which we make in Regard to those received from France. We are greatly obliged to the Friends who have exerted themselves for our Relief, and wish you to signify our Gratitude upon every proper Opportunity. But, having promised to make Remittances to Hortales for the prime Cost, Charges, Interest & usual mercantile Commission upon whatever is justly due to that House, we must keep the same Line with Gardoqui. On the one Hand, we would not willingly give Disgust by slighting princely Generosity, nor on the other submit to unnecessary Obligations.
The Unanimity with which Congress has ratified the Treaties with France and the general glad acceptance of the Alliance by the People of these States must shock Great Britain who seems to have thought no Cruelty from her would destroy our great Partiality in her Favor. What plan she will adopt in Consequence of her Disappointment Time only can discover. But, we shall aim to be in a posture either to negociate honorable Peace or continue this just War.
We stand in Need of the Advice and Assistance of all our Friends in the matter of Finance; as the Quantity of our Paper Currency necessarily emitted has produced a Depreciation which will be ruinous if not very quickly checked. We have encouraging Accounts of the Temper of the Hollanders of late and expect we may find Relief from that Quarter among others.
A few Weeks if not a few Days must produce fruitful Subject for another Letter when we shall in our Line of Duty renew our Assurances of being, with great Regard, Sir, Your affectionate humble Servants,Richard Henry Lee
James Lovell
Robt Morris
Receiver’s copy, New York Public Library. Written by Lovell and signed by Lovell, Lee, and Morris.
1 These letters are in Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, 2:401 - 3, 429 - 31, 445 47.
2 For Lee’s 29 July 1777, letter, see ibid., pp. 369 - 72. Congress did not receive a copy of it until at least 23 July 1778, when a copy arrived with Lee’s 8 April 1778, letter to the committee. PCC, item 83, fols. 193 - 98.
3 In his October 6, 1777, letter to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, Arthur Lee recalled his meetings with Caron de Beaumarchais in London in the spring of 1776 and stated that the military supplies shipped by Roderique Hortalez & Co. had been "gratuitous." However, in this account Lee distorted what had already been reported to Congress, for in letters of December 1776 and January 1777 he had previously conceded that the explicit arrangements with Beaumarchais had been made by Silas Deane, and the commissioners’ 5 January 1777, letter to Vergennes, signed by Deane, Franklin, and Lee, refers to transactions made previously by Deane as a "purchase." notwithstanding the discrepancy in Lee’s 6 October explanation that no American returns were expected for Beaumarchais’ shipments, the letter struck a responsive chord in Congress and reinforced its increasingly cautious approach to negotiations with Beaumarchais and his agent Theveneau de Francy. See Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, 2:242, 244 - 45, 401 - 3.