11. Where this convention would interfere with treaties actually existing between any of the parties and of the said States of Barbary, the treaty shall prevail, and such party shall be allowed to withdraw from the operations against that State.
X.
To the Editor of the Journal de Paris.
Paris, August 29, 1787
Sir,—I am a citizen of the United States of America, and have passed in those States almost the whole of my life. When young, I was passionately fond of reading books of history and travels. Since the commencement of the late revolution which separated us from Great Britain, our country too, has been thought worthy to employ the pens of historians and travellers. I cannot paint to you, Sir, the agonies which these have cost me, in obliging me to renounce these favorite branches of reading, and in discovering to me at length, that my whole life has been employed in nourishing my mind with fables and falsehoods. For thus I reason. If the histories of d'Auberteuil and of Longchamps, and the travels of the Abbé Robin can be published in the face of the world, and can be read and believed by those who are cotemporary with the events they pretend to relate, how may we expect that future ages shall be better informed? Will those rise from their graves to bear witness to the truth, who would not, while living, lift their voices against falsehood? If cotemporary histories are thus false, what will future compilations be? And what are all those of preceding times? In your journal of this day, you announce and criticise a book under the title of "les ligues Acheenne, Suisse, & Hollandoise, et revolution des etats unis d'e l'Amerique par M. de Mayer." I was no part of the Achaean, Swiss or Dutch confederacies, and have therefore nothing to say against the facts related of them. And you cite only one fact from his account of the American revolution. It is in these words: "Monsieur Mayer assure qu'une seule voix, un seul homme, prononça l'independance des Etats unis. Ce fut, dit il, John Dickinson, un des Deputés de la Pensilvanie au Congrés. La veille, il avoit vôté pour la soumission. L'egalité des suffrages avoit suspendu la resolution; s'il eut persisté, le Congrés ne deliberoit point, il fut foible: il ceda aux instances de ceux qui avoient plus d'energie, plus d'eloquence, et plus de lumieres; il donna sa voix: l'Amerique lui doit une reconnaissance eternelle; c'est Dickinson qui l'a affranchie." The modesty and candor of Mr. Dickinson himself, Sir, would disavow every word of this paragraph, except these—"il avoit voté pour la soumission." These are true, every other tittle false. I was on the spot, and can relate to you this transaction with precision. On the 7th of June, 1776, the delegates from Virginia moved, in obedience to instructions from their constituents, that Congress should declare the thirteen united colonies to be independent of Great Britain, that a confederation should be formed to bind them together, and measures be taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers. The House ordered a punctual attendance of all their members the next day at ten o'clock, and then resolved themselves into a committee of the whole and entered on the discussion. It appeared in the course of the debates that seven States: viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, were decided for a separation; but that six others still hesitated, to wit: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina. Congress, desirous of unanimity, and seeing that the public mind was advancing rapidly to it, referred the further discussion to the first of July, appointing, in the mean time, a committee to prepare a declaration of independence, a second to form articles for the confederation of the States, and a third to propose measures for obtaining foreign aid. On the 28th of June, the Declaration of Independence was reported to the House, and was laid on the table for the consideration of the members. On the first day of July, they resolved themselves into a committee of the whole, and resumed the consideration of the motion of June 7th. It was debated through the day, and at length was decided in the affirmative by the vote of nine States: viz., New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against it. Delaware, having but two members present, was divided. The delegates from New York declared they were for it, and their constituents also; but that the instructions against it which had been given them a twelvemonth before, were still unrepealed; that their convention was to meet in a few days, and they asked leave to suspend their vote till they could obtain a repeal of their instructions. Observe that all this was in a committee of the whole Congress, and that according to the mode of their proceedings, the resolution of that committee to declare themselves independent, was to be put to the same persons re-assuming their form as a Congress. It was now evening, the members exhausted by a debate of nine hours, during which all the powers of the soul had been distended with the magnitude of the object—without refreshment, without a pause—and the delegates of South Carolina desired that the final decision might be put off to the next morning, that they might still weigh in their own minds their ultimate vote. It was put off, and in the morning of the second of July they joined the other nine States in voting for it. The members of the Pennsylvania delegation too, who had been absent the day before, came in and turned the vote of their State in favor of independence; and a third member of the State of Delaware, who, hearing of the division in the sentiments of his two colleagues, had travelled post to arrive in time, now came in and decided the vote of that State also for the resolution. Thus twelve States voted for it at the time of its passage, and the delegates of New York, the thirteenth State, received instructions within a few days to add theirs to the general vote: so that, instead of the "egalité des suffrages" spoken of by M. Mayer, there was not a dissenting voice. Congress proceeded immediately to consider the Declaration of Independence which had been reported by their committee on the 28th of June. The several paragraphs of that were debated for three days: viz., the second, third, and fourth of July. In the evening of the fourth they were finally closed, and the instrument approved by an unanimous vote and signed by every member, except Mr. Dickinson. Look into the Journal of Congress of that day, Sir, and you will see the instrument and the names of the signers, and that Mr. Dickinson's name is not among them. Then read again those words of your paper: "il (M. Mayer) assure qu'une seule voix, un seul homme, prononça l'independance des etats unis, ce fut John Dickinson—l'Amerique lui doit une reconnoissance eternel; c'est Dickinson qui l'a affranchie." With my regrets, and my adieus to history, to travels, to Mayer, and to you, Sir, permit me to mingle assurances of the great respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.
XI.
Memoranda taken on a journey from Paris into the southern parts of France, and northern of Italy, in the year 1787.
Champagne. March 3. Sens to Vermanton. The face of the country is in large hills, not too steep for the plough, somewhat resembling the Elk hill, and Beaver-dam hills of Virginia. The soil is generally a rich mulatto loam, with a mixture of coarse sand and some loose stone. The plains of the Yonne are of the same color. The plains are in corn, the hills in vineyard, but the wine not good. There are a few apple trees, but none of any other kind, and no inclosures. No cattle, sheep, or swine; fine mules.
Few châteaux; no farm-houses, all the people being gathered in villages. Are they thus collected by that dogma of their religion, which makes them believe, that to keep the Creator in good humor with his own works, they must mumble a mass every day? Certain it is, that they are less happy and less virtuous in villages, than they would be insulated with their families on the grounds they cultivate. The people are illy clothed. Perhaps they have put on their worst clothes at this moment, as it is raining. But I observe women and children carrying heavy burthens, and laboring with the hoe. This is an unequivocal indication of extreme poverty. Men, in a civilized country, never expose their wives and children to labor above their force and sex, as long as their own labor can protect them from it. I see few beggars. Probably this is the effect of a police.
Burgundy. March 4. Lucy le bois. Cussy les forges. Rouvray. Maison-neuve. Vitteaux. La Chaleure. Pont de Panis. Dijon. The hills are higher and more abrupt. The soil, a good red loam and sand, mixed with more or less grit, small stone, and sometimes rock. All in corn. Some forest wood here and there, broom, whins and holly, and a few inclosures of quick hedge. Now and then a flock of sheep.
The people are well clothed, but it is Sunday. They have the appearance of being well fed. The Château de Sevigny, near Cussy les forges, is a charming situation. Between Maisonneuve and Vitteaux the road leads through an avenue of trees, eight American miles long, in a right line. It is impossible to paint the ennui of this avenue. On the summits of the hills which border the valley in which Vitteaux is, there is a parapet of rock, twenty, thirty, or forty feet perpendicular, which crowns the hills. The tops are nearly level, and appear to be covered with earth. Very singular. Great masses of rock in the hills between la Chaleure and Pont de Panis, and a conical hill in the approach to the last place.
Dijon. The tavern price of a bottle of the best wine (e. g. of Vaune) is four livres. The best round potatoes here I ever saw. They have begun a canal thirty feet wide, which is to lead into the Saone at ——. It is fed by springs. They are not allowed to take any water out of the riviere d'Ouche, which runs through this place, on account of the mills on that river. They talk of making a canal to the Seine, the nearest navigable part of which at present is fifteen leagues from hence. They have very light wagons here for the transportation of their wine. They are long and narrow; the fore wheels as high as the hind. Two pieces of wine are drawn by one horse in one of these wagons. The road in this part of the country is divided into portions of forty or fifty feet by stones, numbered, which mark the task of the laborers.