With orders and powers more precise on the part of Congress, I should have been able to contract long since, with merchants of this country, for useful expeditions, and to defeat divers adventurers and intriguers, who, falsely boasting of full powers and of credentials which they have not, have abused and much deceived the people and compromised the dignity and credit of the United States. The little I have been able to do in this respect, has been done with a pure zeal, and a disinterestedness and discretion, which I dare propose as an example to others, who may be called to a similar service. I can boldly defy all the world to accuse me of having in any case preferred my own interest to that of the American people.
My request, at the commencement of this letter, has for its object the service of the United States of America, as much at least as the proper care of my fortune, of my family, my honor and credit, my character and safety. The earliest of your agents and correspondents, Gentlemen, in Europe, out of Great Britain, has risked all these things from the time he received and accepted this honor, with a confidence equal to that with which it was offered.
I have the honor to be, &c.
DUMAS.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
The Hague, April 29th, 1779.
Gentlemen,
In all this month nothing has passed remarkable here, unless it be the Memorial presented by the English Ambassador. But in this interval I have taken part in a secret operation, which has confided the credit and secrets of America to a House at Amsterdam, truly patriotic, and not suspected of collusion with the enemy. Dr Franklin is fully apprized of it all.
Here is an extract from a letter to him.