I have the honor to be, &c.
DUMAS.
SILAS DEANE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.
Paris, June 7th, 1777.
Sir,
I understand that the British Minister's emissaries are very busy in Holland propagating reports of an accommodation between the Congress and Great Britain. They are playing the same game here. I have long since been convinced that there is no action too atrocious for them to attempt, nor any report too ridiculous and improbable for them to propagate to serve their purposes. The last authentic intelligence from Congress, or from New York, was about the 10th of April, when there was not the least prospect of any accommodation. The sole overture that had been made was a hint, I may say, from General Lee, that Lord and General Howe wished to renew a conference with the Congress, and to open a treaty, to which the Congress replied they would neither confer nor treat till their independence should be acknowledged. You will therefore see at once how very little ground there is for such kind of assertions.
I have seen such strange and unexpected events, as well as been witness to such extraordinary conduct, that I am almost beyond being surprised at anything; yet should an accommodation take place between those contending nations, whilst the Congress have the least prospect of foreign succor and support, I confess I shall be greatly surprised. But if the British Ministry, as they roundly assert, are assured that no power in Europe will countenance the United States in their independence, and if they can bring the Congress to believe the same, who will be surprised if they make terms, and accommodate, rather than hazard longer a contest with the most formidable power in Europe, and its allies, without prospect on their part of aid or support? I say, who will be surprised, or rather who will not be surprised, should they still persist in continuing the war unsupported? However, I, who know my countrymen perfectly, and the principles by which they are actuated, do not believe they will ever accommodate on terms lower than independence; yet in the same situation, and with the same offers made them, I am certain any other people in the world would accommodate.
You are not to impute what I say to vanity. I am not raising my countrymen above every other nation in the world; far from it; but they are a new people, and have certain notions, that are either new in the world, or have been so long unpractised upon, and unheard of, except in the speculations of philosophers, that it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to compare them with any other nation. Unprejudiced reason, and plain common sense, will enable the few to judge; but the many, the ninetynine of one hundred at least, will determine as usual by the event. I am not fond of bold assertions or predictions, but I dare hazard my credit upon it, that either no accommodation on any terms will take place, or, if it does, a war in Europe will be the immediate consequence; and I submit it to the consideration of those Ministers and politicians, who are afraid to offend Great Britain now, whilst America alone employs more than her whole natural force, how they will be able to contend with her when at peace and on good terms, perhaps in alliance with America.
Universal monarchy has at many periods been feared from the House of Bourbon, and England has been exhausted to prevent it; she has engaged allies pretendedly to keep the balance of power in Europe, as it is ridiculously and unintelligibly termed by European politicians; but you will permit an American to give his sentiments; they may at least divert and make you smile. From the period when the feudal system prevailed over all Europe, when every lord was sovereign, to this hour, the number of kingdoms or distinct powers in Europe has been decreasing, and if we look three centuries back, and reckon up the distinct powers then existing and compare them with those of the present, and extend our view forward, the whole must at some not very distant period be brought into one; for not an age passes, and scarce a single war without annihilating or swallowing up several of them. But from what quarter is this universal empire in Europe to originate? I answer negatively; not from the House of Bourbon, though formidable for its connexions and alliances in the South; but I will venture to predict, that if Great Britain, by forming an accommodation of friendship and alliance with the United States, renders herself, as by that measure she easily can, mistress of that world, by taking the affairs of the East Indies into her own hands, she will be in possession of exhaustless treasure, and in 1780 the charter of the East India Company expires, when both the territory and commerce will be at her disposal. Add to all this her strict and close alliance with Russia. I say, that laying these circumstances together, it is easy to foresee, that Great Britain, America, and Russia united, will command not barely Europe, but the whole world united.
Russia like America is a new State, and rises with the most astonishing rapidity. Its demand for British manufactures, and its supplies of raw materials, increase nearly as fast as the American; and when both come to centre in Great Britain, the riches as well as power of that kingdom will be unparalleled in the annals of Europe, or perhaps of the world; like a Colossus with one foot on Russia and the East, and the other on America, it will bestride, as Shakspeare says, your poor European world, and the powers which now strut and look big, will creep about between its legs to find dishonorable graves.