RALPH IZARD.
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY LAURENS,
COMMISSIONER FOR NEGOTIATING A TREATY
OF AMITY AND COMMERCE WITH HOLLAND.
Henry Laurens was a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and born in the year 1724. He was among the foremost in embracing the cause of the Revolution, which he maintained to the end with extraordinary integrity, zeal, and firmness. As President of the first provincial Congress of Carolina, which assembled in 1775, he showed a determined spirit, that never forsook him afterwards, even in times of severe trial and suffering. He was a prominent member of the Continental Congress, and chosen President of that body on the resignation of Hancock. In the year 1779, the finances of the United States became so low, that it was found necessary to use every effort to procure foreign loans, and Mr Laurens was appointed a Commissioner to negotiate a loan in Holland. On the first of November following, there was joined to this commission another, which authorised him to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce with the United Provinces.
Various reasons prevented his leaving the country, till the last of August, 1780. Meantime the Commission for a loan had been assigned to John Adams, and Mr Laurens was exclusively charged with the negotiation of a treaty. A few days after he sailed, the vessel was taken by a British man of war, and carried into St John’s, Newfoundland. From this place Mr Laurens wrote to Congress, but he was immediately sent to England, where he was closely imprisoned in the Tower for nearly fifteen months. He was at length released, in exchange for Lord Cornwallis. His papers were thrown overboard when the vessel was taken, but they did not sink before they were secured by the enemy. Being forwarded to London, their contents became the chief cause of a war between England and Holland.
After his release from the Tower, Mr Laurens went over to Holland, where he met Mr Adams, and proposed to engage in the business of his mission, but did not find by Mr Adams’s instructions, that he was authorised to proceed in such a measure. In reply to his request for a recall, Congress informed him, that his services were still needed in Europe, and directed him to join Messrs Franklin, Adams, and Jay at Paris, to assist in the negotiations for a general peace. This duty he performed, as far as the precarious state of his health would admit. Between the signing of the preliminary and definitive articles he spent much time in London, and rendered essential service by the intelligence he communicated to the British Ministry, and leading men of the government party, respecting the feelings of the people in the United States, particularly in regard to matters of trade, and a commercial treaty, which were then agitated in the British councils. He had several interviews on American affairs with Mr Fox, to whom he expressed his mind freely, as he had formerly done to Lord Shelburne.
Mr Laurens returned to the United States in the summer of 1784, and retired to his native State. No solicitations could induce him afterwards to accept any public office. He died on the 8th of December, 1792, at the age of sixtynine.