Friday, June 7th. Major Ross called upon me, to thank me for the favorable intentions I had expressed in my letter to Mr Oswald, respecting Lord Cornwallis, and to assure me, that his Lordship would forever remember it with gratitude, &c. I told him it was our duty to alleviate, as much as we could, the calamities of war; that I expected letters from Mr Laurens, relating to the affair, after the receipt of which I would immediately complete it. Or if I did not hear from Mr Laurens, I would speak to the Marquis de Lafayette, get his approbation, and finish it without further delay.
Saturday, June 8th. I received some newspapers from England, in one of which is the following paragraph.
From the London Evening Post, of May 30th, 1782.
"If report on the spot speak truth, Mr Grenville, in his first visit to Dr Franklin, gained a considerable point of information, as to the powers America had retained for treating separately with Great Britain, in case her claims, or demands, were granted.
"The treaty of February 6th, 1778, was made the basis of this conversation; and by the spirit and meaning of this treaty, there is no obligation on America not to treat separately for peace, after she is assured England will grant her independence, and a free commerce with all the world.
"The first article of that treaty engages America and France to be bound to each other, as long as circumstances may require; therefore, the granting America all she asks of England is breaking the bond, by which the circumstances may bind America to France.
"The second article says, the meaning and direct end of the alliance is to insure the freedom and independence of America. Surely then, when freedom and independence are allowed by Britain, America may, or may not, as she chooses, put an end to the present war between England and America, and leave France to war on through all her mad projects of reducing the power and greatness of England, while America feels herself possessed of what she wishes.
"By the 8th article of the treaty, neither France nor America can conclude peace without the assent of the other; and they engage not to lay down their arms, until the independence of America is acknowledged, but this article does not exclude America from entering into a separate treaty for peace with England, and evinces more strongly than the former articles, that America may enter into a separate treaty with England, when she is convinced that England has insured to her all that she can reasonably ask."
I conjecture that this must be an extract from a letter of Mr Grenville's; but it carries an appearance as if he and I had agreed in these imaginary discourses, of America's being at liberty to make peace without France, and whereas my whole discourse, in the strongest terms, declared our determinations to the contrary, and the impossibility of our acting, not only contrary to the treaty, but the duties of gratitude and honor, of which nothing is mentioned. This young negotiator seems to value himself on having obtained from me a copy of the treaty. I gave it him freely, at his request, it being not so much a secret as he imagined, having been printed, first in all the American papers soon after it was made, then at London in Almon's Remembrancer, which I wonder he did not know; and afterwards in a collection of the American Constitutions, published by order of Congress. As such imperfect accounts of our conversations find their way into the English papers, I must speak to this gentleman of its impropriety.