I am informed that it is insinuated, that interested and private views influenced me to write as I did,[10] and that the fixing Mr Williams at Nantes was the object I had in view. I am very sorry you should be so imposed upon; the consequences must ultimately be more prejudicial to yourself than to any other person. In the meantime, as a man of honor, I assure you I have neither interest or connexion in Mr Williams' business, nor have I engaged in the smallest private concern, except what you have been acquainted with, and which you know was in consequence of your letters in June, 1776.
Mr Williams came to France to visit Dr Franklin; he was in a good way of business in London, where he was entering into business with a capital house in the sugar business. England was disagreeable to him, solely on account of the animosities, which prevailed among individuals on account of the public quarrel. The stores which I had engaged, and which were sent out in the Mercury and Therese, were at Nantes, where matters had been so conducted that you must suppose I had no confidence in the managers. On this occasion I applied to Mr Williams, as a friend, to make a journey to Nantes, to examine the goods and see them shipped. He left Paris without intending to tarry longer than to perform this business. But his conduct at Nantes was so much the reverse of what had preceded, that every one who wished well to our affairs desired that he might be continued there. I needed no solicitations; the interest of my country was my sole motive; I knew he served it faithfully, and I knew him to be generous and disinterested in the service. Yes sir, disinterested; and you will acknowledge it when you are informed, that what he exacted of us was barely a sufficiency to support him, not amounting to one fourth of one per cent on the business. He has, if I am to have the credit of fixing him there, done me great honor; he has, at the same time, obtained the good opinion and friendship of the capital persons at Nantes. I am thus particular on this subject, as I am well convinced it has been represented to you very differently. How it has been represented I know not, nor am I likely to be informed but from second hand, from your brother's showing your letter directed to me to Mr Ross, and telling some others what were its contents, and that you not only justified his conduct, but had obtained for him more ample appointments, with severe reprimands to me, and even oblique censure on Dr Franklin, who happens to be Mr Williams' uncle.
It is hard for me, acting as I have done, from the most disinterested motives, and from those principles of friendship which shall be ever sacred with me, to be thus censured by you unheard.
Mr Ross does justice to the character you gave of him. I expect to see him in Paris in a few days, when I shall show him what I now write you.
I have not the least desire of intermeddling in the commercial concerns of the Congress in Europe, nor of going out of my own department, whatever it may be, on any occasion; but I have been obliged to take much upon my hands in procuring supplies of clothing, &c. as have also my colleagues, on account of the unhappy situation of our affairs here as to commerce. I will not add to a letter already long, only that if I have been mistaken in any thing, you will reflect that I write in reply to a part of one of yours, which I am unable to procure a sight of, and assure you that no private concern affects me more, than having drawn on myself your resentment by my desire of serving you. Be assured that I retain the highest esteem and respect for you in your public as well as private character, and am your sincere friend, &c.
SILAS DEANE.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Allusion is here made to certain charges or complaints against Mr Thomas Morris, brother of Mr Robert Morris. He had been a merchant in Nantes, and was an agent for transacting in that port the mercantile affairs of the United States.
COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO SILAS DEANE.
York, in Pennsylvania, 4th December, 1777.