Permit me humbly to say it was I, though in close confinement, who first urged the propriety and utility of passing an act of Parliament for exchanging American prisoners. After my enlargement I further urged that business to its completion, visited those prisoners at a considerable expense to myself, administered to some of them relief from my own impoverished pocket, and obtained much greater for them from other persons. I first proposed to Lord Shelburne, and obtained his Lordship’s promise to send those prisoners in cartel ships to America, and I had the good fortune to prevail on his Lordship to surmount the difficulty of doing this without the formality of pardons. I had declared that not the meanest of all the American prisoners at Portsmouth or Plymouth should accept pardon, and in my zeal for the honor of my country I presumed to add, “If they are discharged under that condition, not a British prisoner in America shall be enlarged without a pardon.” I delivered my sentiments freely on the bill, which had been so very long in agitation for empowering the King to make a truce or peace with America, and declared it would not only prove inadequate, but offensive. The bill was frequently brought to me by members of Parliament, to receive hints for amendment. The only amendment, which I could propose, was annihilation, and I left it under various scratches and scars, in a languishing condition. My advice was, “If you mean to do the business of peace, it is vain to continue nibbling; do it fully and gracefully by an act to authorise the King to recognise or to acknowledge the independence of America; the fears which you affect to labor under, that America will become dependent upon any other power, will thereby be effectually removed.” I was told, a new bill, which would be tantamount to my ideas, would be introduced into Parliament; but since I left England, intimations to me from private friends speak of their continuing to hack at the old. I think, however, the temper of the present House of Commons will not give it passage without very great reform. This will probably be known before my letter enters upon its voyage.[76]
I shall conclude this head with the words of a friend, received since my arrival on this side of the water. “They (meaning the British ministry) think your absence good company”. I believe this may be applicable to that part of the Ministry, who still hear with reluctance the doctrine of the total independence of America; a doctrine which I asserted in the Tower of London, and out of it, and always in the presence of their Lordships, as freely and as strenuously as ever I had done in Philadelphia, and to which I am assured I have made many converts amongst people of the first importance in England, and perhaps it would be no exaggeration instead of many, to say thousands. Even Lord Shelburne, in the last conversation I had the honor of holding with his Lordship, discovered his determination, if not to be reconciled, to submit to it. “I shall part with America, Mr Laurens, with great regret, because I think a total separation will not be for her good.” As far as I am able to judge, the people of England, and I have lately been very much among them, are sincerely disposed to peace with America, and to accede to her absolute independence; and I have some grounds for hoping, that the day is not far distant when those, who have it more immediately in their power to breathe peace or war, will perceive it to be for the interest of their country to enter heartily into the same disposition. The terms and conditions they know, and they now know the terms and conditions must be complied with.
Mr Moses Young, whom I had engaged at my first appointment by Congress to attend me as a Secretary and assistant, has made a claim for five hundred and sixtyseven pounds, fourteen shillings and two pence, sterling, as due to him for salary to the 15th of February, 1782, when he entered the public service under Dr Franklin. I shall recommend the payment of the said sum to the Doctor. Mr Young’s loss of time, loss of effects, and suffering in imprisonment, as well as his zeal and attachment in the cause of America, will be considered by Congress, and I hope, when he shall make a proper representation of his case, a further sum will be granted to him. While I remain in Europe, the honor and interests of the United States shall be always in my view, and though in a private character, I do not despair of being serviceable to my country.
I have the honor to be, &c.
HENRY LAURENS.
P. S. May 31st. The success of the British fleet in the West Indies may, and probably will, inflate the heart of his Britannic Majesty, and turn it from an immediate disposition to peace.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Nantes, September 5th, 1782.
Sir,