Then the treaties were signed, sealed, and delivered, and we all went out to Passy to dine with Dr. Franklin. Thus far has proceeded this great affair. The unravelling of the plot has been to me the most affecting and astonishing part of the whole piece.
As soon as I arrived in Paris, I waited on Mr Jay, and learned from him the rise and progress of the negotiations. Nothing, that has happened since the beginning of the controversy in 1761, has ever struck me more forcibly, or affected me more intimately, than that entire coincidence of principles and opinions between him and me. In about three days I went out to Passy, and spent the evening with Dr Franklin, and entered largely into conversation with him upon the course and present state of our foreign affairs. I told him, without reserve, my opinion of the policy of this Court, and of the principles, wisdom, and firmness, with which Mr Jay had conducted the negotiation in his sickness and my absence, and that I was determined to support Mr Jay to the utmost of my power in the pursuit of the same system. The Doctor heard me patiently, but said nothing.
The first conference we had afterwards with Mr Oswald, in considering one point and another, Dr Franklin turned to Mr Jay, and said, I am of your opinion, and will go on with these gentlemen in the business, without consulting this Court. He accordingly met with us in most of our conferences, and has gone with us, in entire harmony and unanimity throughout, and has been able and useful, both by his sagacity and his reputation in the whole negotiation.[15]
I was very happy, that Mr Laurens came in, although it was the last day of the conferences, and wish he could have been sooner. His apprehension, notwithstanding his deplorable affliction under the recent loss of so excellent a son, is as quick, his judgment as sound, and his heart as firm as ever. He had an opportunity of examining the whole, and judging and approving, and the article, which he caused to be inserted at the very last, that no property should be carried off, which would most probably in the multiplicity and hurry of affairs have escaped us, was worth a longer journey, if that had been all. But his name and weight is added, which is of much greater consequence. These miserable minutes may help me to recollect, but I have not found time, amidst the hurry of business and crowd of visits, to make a detail.
I should have before noted, that at our first conference about the fishery, I related the facts, as well as I understood them; but knowing nothing myself, but as a hearsay witness, I found it had not the weight of occular testimony; to supply which defect, I asked Dr Franklin, if Mr Williams of Nantes could not give us light. He said Mr Williams was on the road to Paris, and as soon as he arrived he would ask him. In a few days, Mr Williams called on me, and said Dr Franklin had, as I desired him, inquired of him about the fishery, but he was not able to speak particularly upon that subject; but there was at Nantes a gentleman of Marblehead, Mr Samuel White, son-in-law to Mr Hooper, who was master of the subject, and to him he would write.
Mr Jeremiah Allen, a merchant of Boston, called on me about the same time. I inquired of him. He was able only to give such a hearsay account as I could give myself. But I desired him to write to Mr White, at Nantes, which he undertook to do, and did. Mr White answered Mr Allen's letter by referring him to his answer to Mr Williams, which Mr Williams received and delivered to Dr Franklin, who communicated it to us, and it contained a good account.
I desired Mr Thaxter to write to Messrs Ingraham and Bromfield, and Mr Storer to write to Captain Coffin at Amsterdam. They delivered me the answers, both contained information, but Coffin's was the most particular, and of the most importance, as he spoke as a witness. We made the best use of these letters with the English gentlemen, and they appeared to have a good deal of weight with them.
From first to last, I ever insisted upon it with the English gentlemen, that the fisheries and the Mississippi, if America was not satisfied in those points, would be the sure and certain sources of a future war, showed them the indispensable necessity of both to our affairs, and that no treaty we could make, which should be unsatisfactory to our people upon those points, could be observed; that the population near the Mississippi would be so rapid, and the necessities of the people for its navigation so pressing, that nothing could restrain them from going down, and if the force of arms should be necessary, it would not be wanting; that the fishery entered into our distilleries, our coasting trade, our trade with the Southern States, with the West India Islands, with the coast of Africa, and with every part of Europe in such a manner, and especially with England, that it could not be taken from us, or granted us stingily, without tearing and rending; that the other States had staples, we had none but fish, no other means of remittances to London, or paying those very debts they had insisted upon so seriously; that if we were forced off, at three leagues distance, we should smuggle eternally, that their men-of-war might have the glory of sinking, now and then, a fishing schooner, but this would not prevent a repetition of the crime, it would only inflame, and irritate, and enkindle a new war, that in seven years we should break through all restraints, and conquer from them the island of Newfoundland itself, and Nova Scotia too.
Mr Fitzherbert always smiled, and said it was very extraordinary that the British Ministry and we should see it in so different a light. That they meant the restriction, in order to prevent disputes, and kill the seeds of war, and we should think it so certain a source of disputes, and so strong a seed of war; but that our reasons were such, that he thought the probability on our side.
I have not time to minute the conversation about the sea-cow fishery, the whale fishery, the Magdalen Islands, the Labrador coasts, and the coasts of Nova Scotia. It is sufficient to say, they were explained to the utmost of our knowledge, and finally conceded.