Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy/Chapter One
King Louis's Private Messenger Makes a Discovery in London—Beaumarchais, America's First Friend, Writes a Letter—A Secret Conference of State in Philadelphia—Timothy Jones, Alias Silas Deane, the First American Diplomat—The Continental Army Saved by "Roderique Hortalez."—Some Revolutionary Correspondence Showing that All is Not Neutral that Protests. Clandestine Diplomacy.
Secret diplomacy is almost a lost art. The Hohenzollerns still affect a fondness for this most thrilling and romantic pastime. But the Hohenzollern ministers have not been able to achieve the dizzy heights of deception and the infinite finesse and delicate touch which were the characteristics of the fine game of intrigue and counter-plot as concocted in the mystic chambers of subtle cardinals and imaginative ministers of the Talleyrand period a hundred years ago. Then a government envoy had as many disguises as Stillman Hunt, the detective, and might be disclosed any time as his enemy's chief of staff, or his confidential secretary.
In 1775 a temporary peace prevailed in the world. The French Ambassador in London, entirely surrounded by spies, went his innocuous and pompous way. But meantime a singular individual was in London laying the train of the Bourbon revenge for the loss of Canada. In subtle and successful guise he was accomplishing precisely what the Prussian, Kühlmann, attempted in 1914. He spent his time singing duets with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and displaying an amazing talent in frivolity, in droll stories, in desperate and amusing nocturnal intrigues. He was a playwright of the first water by way of diversion; a plotter of inordinate devices and imagination, a master of dramatic language on all occasions, and absolutely without reputation.
His history as an agent of the French kings is more replete with masquerades, adventure, ridiculous and dangerous situations, clandestine assignations, deadly secrets, and complicated intrigue than any novel ever written. Single handed he had recovered the notorious libel "Memoirs of Madame du Barry" from a colossal scoundrel in London, after a brigade of French secret police had failed in the most humiliating manner. Bearing the king's commission in a gold box hung around his neck he had set out from Nuremburg on the trail of a Jew who held for sale scandalous secrets of Marie Antoinette—the living counterpart of those Gascon characters whose incredible adventures fill the pages of French fiction. He fell upon his prey at the entrance of the forest of Neustadt. He was in turn attacked by three assassins. He tottered into the court of Vienna and was held there in prison a year as a dangerous liar. But he saved the papers.
And now as our history opens he was once more in London, transacting the tortuous and lurid diplomacy of the Bourbon Court. He was there negotiating with another secret agent of the court for a box of letters of Louis XV, said to incriminate the French nation beyond recall. Recollect that this other agent was the Chevalier d'Eau, who had originally gone to the Russian Court disguised as a woman, and who at this time, to the scandal and astonishment of Christendom, was declaring that in fact he was a woman, and you will perceive what a funny, dreadful, and entertaining character this fellow was.
His name was Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. So much for one side of this actor—the ridiculous and entertaining side presented to Lord Rochfort and the American Committee on Secret Correspondence. The other side is painted thus by a great French historian:
"A man of ardent and daring mind, of restless and stormy renown, of questionable character and of prodigious activity. * * * The heir presumptive of Voltaire and the successful conqueror of the Maupeou Parliament."
Unknown to his own ambassador, totally without standing or presentable authority, liable to be repudiated by his master and to have "his throat cut like a sheep" for any mistake or discovery, this capable vagabond manipulated the strings of the machine which developed into the most powerful influence for fair practice among nations ever yet seen in the world—American diplomacy. He not only believed the world to be a stage, but wrote the piece himself, and acted it; performing both functions in the most intensely dramatic and interesting style.
So it inevitably happened that he crossed the trail of Arthur Lee, an agent of the Continentals in England in the early days of our Revolution. King Louis was shortly informed what action a really wise king should take. The French were at peace with England, to be sure. And there were certain prevailing ideas upon the subject of neutrality, then as now. But to a mind as versatile as Caron's such impediments are negligible. See how it is done.
(Translation of Undated Memorandum of Caron de Beaumarchais, Adventurer at Large)
To The King Only
Sire:
When considerations of State impel you to extend a helping hand to the Americans, policy requires that Your Majesty proceed with such caution, that aid secretly conveyed to America may not become in Europe a brand to kindle strife between France and England. Above all, it is the part of prudence to be certain that the money cannot possibly pass into other hands than those of your choice. Moreover, since the present state of the finances does not at once permit of as great an expenditure as events seem to require, it is my duty. Sire, to submit to your judgment the following plan, having for its principal object, under the semblance of a purely commercial affair, to remove all suspicion that Your Majesty or your Majesty's Council are at all interested in the matter.
This plan, in execution, unites with many other advantages the power of retarding or accelerating the course of these supplies as your prudence may dictate, and according as the situation of the Americans becomes more or less pressing, with the result that these aids, wisely administered, will serve not so much to terminate the war between America and England, as to sustain and keep it alive to the detriment of the English, our natural and pronounced enemies.
Let us consider the details of the scheme. The unvarying impression of this affair to the majority of the Congress, should be the delusion that Your Majesty has nothing to do with it but that a company is about to entrust a certain sum to the prudence of a trusted agent to furnish continuous aid to the Americans, by the promptest and surest methods * * * in exchange for returns in the shape of tobacco. Secrecy is the essence of all the rest.
.......
Your Majesty will begin by placing one million at the disposal of your agent, who will style himself Roderique Hortalez & Company, this being the signature and title of the firm under which I have agreed to conduct the entire business. One half of this sum, changed into moidores or Portuguese pieces, the only foreign money that passes in America, will be immediately forwarded thither.
Roderique Hortalez intends to use the remaining half million in procuring powder, and conveying it without delay to the Americans. Instead, however, of buying this powder in Holland, or even in France, at the current prices of 20 or 30 sols tournois a pound, the price at which the Dutch hold it, or even higher, when supplying the Americans, the real device of the operation consisting as Roderique Hortalez hopes, in secretly procuring, with the sanction of Your Majesty, all necessary powder and saltpetre of your Registrars, on a basis of from five to six sols a pound.
Before terminating this paper I wish to hazard an idea suggested during its composition, namely, that it would be a pretty thing to aid the Americans with English money. Neither is this difficult.
It would suffice should Your Majesty, adopting an English usage that exacts a tax of 75 per cent, ad valorem on all French vehicles entering England at Dover, decree that in future all foreign vehicles and horses landed at our ports shall pay a tax equal to that levied on ours when entering England.
.......
By putting in practice this conceit, Your Majesty would have the pleasure of using for the relief of the Americans the very money squeezed out of the English, and this seems to me to be quite an agreeable consideration, and, so to speak, like planting a few flowers amid the dry waste of explanations of the output, return, and profits of the commercial capital of the firm of Hortalez, of which Your Majesty is about to become the sole proprietor. * * *
From this document dates the dawn of American diplomacy and the tide of events leading to support, alliance, independence, and greatness. The next exhibit proves that the King and his counsel took the advice to heart—not forgetting the precautions of secrecy. On May 2, 1776, the Minister for Foreign Affairs sent this illuminating letter to His Majesty:
Sire:
I have the honour of submitting to your majesty the writing authorizing me to furnish a million of lives for the service of the English Colonies, if you should deign to ratify it with your signature. I add to this, Sire, the draft of the reply which I mean to make to M. de Beaumarchais. If your majesty should approve of it, I beg that it may be returned to me without delay. It shall not go forth in my handwriting, nor in that of any of my clerks or secretaries; I will employ that of my son, which cannot be known; and although he is only in his fifteenth year, I can answer positively for his discretion. As it is of consequence that this operation should not be detected, or at least imputed to the government, I propose, if your majesty consents, to call hither the Sieur Montaudoin.
And meantime it happened that a genial Frenchman of leisure quite casually turned up in Philadelphia calling upon his old friend Francis Daymon, librarian of the Philadelphia library. He came from England and was filled with curiosity and good will. What was more natural than that this visitor, M. Bonvouloir, should be introduced to the famous philosopher, Benjamin Franklin, who was a member of the American Secret Committee on Correspondence with Foreign Powers? He showed such an interest in the struggling Congress that the members of the Committee met him in a secluded place after dark, each arriving by a different road. He told them that he could promise, offer, and answer for nothing, and that he was merely acting as a well-disposed individual; but that he believed France wished them well and that he would give them the advantage of his large acquaintance in Paris, to insure any requests they might have to present at court.
Thereupon, our forefathers decided to send an agent into the nest of intrigue at Versailles to get what they could from the French. Our forefathers were the most straightforward men to be found in any capital in the world—at this or any other time. But they were rebellious subjects of the King, just the same, and not entirely lacking in knowledge of the ways of the world.
In consequence, Mr. Timothy Jones, a merchant from the Island of Bermuda, arrived in Bordeaux, France, on the 4th of May, 1776. He made no secret of the fact that he was bent upon purchasing certain gimcracks for the Indian trade. What he neglected to mention was that when last seen across the water he had been known as Silas Deane, representative in Congress from the State of Connecticut, and that hidden about his person were letters instructing him to purchase supplies for a rebellious army from the benevolent and neutral government of France. His letters, although scrupulously opened by neighbouring Englishmen of an inquisitive disposition, would hardly reveal the fact, the pith of them being invisible except to the eyes of John Jay, of New York, who had a special acid to display the writing.
Now he had been told to look up a Dr. Dubourg in Paris, one of the innumerable high-minded and capable men that were followers of Franklin in all parts of Europe, and to confide in him and in one Mr. Edward Bancroft. He was delighted to find that Bancroft had arrived before he had, and to discover both gentlemen awaiting his coming. He would probably have been less delighted if he could have seen the full and exhaustive report of his right name, his antecedents, his lodgings, and even the minutest details of his private instructions which the genial Mr. Bancroft placed at once in the hands of the infuriated ambassador of Great Britain. That gentleman, Lord Stormont, lost no time in warning Vergennes, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, against the pernicious rebel.
Now, in spite of the fact that Dubourg, who was a familiar of the court, told him that the ministers would not see him, and meant to keep secret any countenance they gave the United Colonies, Deane, like the intrepid Yankee he was, fared forth to the awesome palace of Versailles and presented his commission to Vergennes himself. There would probably have been less discussion had he known that the genial M. Bonvouloir had gone straight from the King's antechamber for no other purpose in the world than to bring Deane before the King.
Vergennes was a past master and post graduate of the game of diplomacy. He was familiar with the document—unique among state papers of the first order, in that it was both entertaining and witty as well as able and daring—already quoted as having been submitted to King Louis a short while before by the inimitable librettist. Consonant with this policy, the secretary told Deane that he was charmed with the United Colonies, but was a stickler for his duties toward Great Britain. However, he suggested casually that it was none of his business to interfere with private affairs, and that Roderique Hortalez & Company, a large Spanish mercantile house in Paris, might be of some service.
So let us repair to Hortalez & Co. by all means. It was an imposing concern, from outward view. It occupied the Hotel de Hollande in the Faubourg du Temple, a sumptuous edifice built by the Dutch to house the Netherlands embassy.
Who was M. Hortalez? Oh, he was a very great financier indeed. He was a Spanish nobleman of Castile, nothing less. He was a gentleman in private life, who in spite of his far-reaching feudal ties and princely relations had the most unaccountable benevolent tendencies toward budding Democracies. He was, moreover, by happy chance, a dealer in muskets, bombs, powder, cutlasses, brass cannon, bayonets. He had on hand enough uniforms, shoes, hats and such to equip an army, if any such should happen into his store. Could he be seen? Why, not just at the moment. He was at home in his château studying his illustrious family tree. But his confidential agent was right inside.
Of course it was the writer of the plot, none other than the versatile M. de Beaumarchais himself. Roderique Hortalez, the great Spanish godfather and providential angel of the rebellion must have fallen from a cliff into the sea. For nobody has ever seen him from that day to this.
Possibly he was quite content to have his business entirely run by so able a lieutenant and upon such classic lines, worthy of the best traditions of the Comédie Française.
The success of this neat little arrangement and its enormous importance to our Revolution can best be demonstrated by those dispatches of the day which managed to evade the British patrol, and come down into the records of the Department.
Silas Deane to Committee on Secret Correspondence.
* * * I hope that it will be considered that one hundred field pieces, and arms, clothing, and accoutrements, with military stores for twenty-five thousand men, is a large affair, and that, although I am promised any credit, yet as they must be paid for, the sooner the better, if to be done without too great a risk."
Considering that the Continental Army at no one time mustered half this many men—and considering that they had no supplies at all—the importance of this transaction becomes apparent. The source of this windfall was revealed in a letter the following 18th of August. Probably no more welcome news was ever conveyed in a letter from foreign parts.
To the Committee on Secret Correspondence, Philadelphia.
Gentlemen:
The respectful esteem that I bear toward that brave people who so well defend their liberty under your conduct has induced me to form a plan concurring in this great work, by establishing an extensive commercial house, solely for the purpose of serving you in Europe, there to supply you with necessaries of every sort, to furnish you expeditiously and certainly with all articles—clothes, linens, powder, ammunition, muskets, cannon, or even gold for the payment of your troops, and in general everything that can be useful for the honourable war in which you are engaged. Your deputies, gentlemen, will find in me a sure friend, an asylum in my house, money in my coffers, and every means of facilitating their operations, whether of a public or secret nature. I will, if possible, remove all obstacles that may oppose your wishes from the politics of Europe."
Undoubtedly neutrality of such benevolence has never been seen before or since. The Congress might view these literary protestations with the distrust the average man always has for fine phrases or signs of cleverness; but they could not help appreciating the next paragraph.
"At this very time, and without waiting for any answer from you, I have procured for you about two hundred pieces of brass cannon, four-pounders, which will be sent to you by the nearest way, two hundred thousand pounds of cannon powder, twenty thousand excellent fusils, some brass mortars, bombs, cannon balls, bayonets, platines, clothes, linens, etc., for the clothing of your troops, and lead for musket balls. An officer of the greatest merit for artillery and genius, accompanied by lieutenants, officers, artillerists, cannoniers, etc., whom we think necessary for the service, will go to Philadelphia, even before you have received my first dispatch. * * * R. Hortalez & Co."
In order to repay this debt in kind to-day, we should have to send to France approximately two hundred thousand six-inch guns and equipment for two million and a half troops.