would have saved their own honor-and would not have endangered the objects for which they were negotiating.

Mr. HIGGINSON contended, that the facts stated by our Ministers justified the part they had taken.

Mr. MADISON expressed his surprise at the attempts made to fix the blame of all our embarrassments on the instruction of June the fifteenth, 1781, when it appeared that no use had been made of the power given by it to the Court of France; that our Ministers had construed it in such a way as to leave them at full liberty; and that no one in Congress pretended to blame them on that account. For himself, he was persuaded that their construction was just; the advice of France having been made a guide to them only in cases where the question respected the concessions of the United States to Great Britain necessary and proper for obtaining peace and an acknowledgment of independence; not where it respected concessions to other powers, and for other purposes. He reminded Congress of the change which had taken place in our affairs since that instruction was passed; and remarked the probability that many who were now, perhaps, the loudest in disclaiming, would, under the circumstances of that period, have been the foremost to adopt it. * He admitted, that the change of circumstances had rendered it inapplicable, but thought an express repeal of it might, at this crisis, at least, have a bad effect. The instructions, he observed, for dis

*The Committee who reported the instruction were, Mr. CARROLL, Mr. JONES, Mr. WITHERSPOON, Mr. SULLIVAN and Mr. MATTHEWS. Mr. WITHERSPOON was particularly prominent throughout.

regarding which our Ministers had been blamed, and which, if obeyed, would have prevented the dilemma now felt, were those which required them to act in concert and in confidence with our Ally; and these instructions, he said, had been repeatedly confirmed

in

every stage of the Revolution, by unanimous votes of Congress; several of the gentlemen present,* who now justified our Ministers, having concurred in them, and one of them† having penned two of the acts, in one of which Congress went further than they had done in any preceding act; by declaring that they would not make peace until the interests of our allies and friends, as well as of the United States, should be provided for.

As to the propriety of communicating to our Ally the separate article, he thought it resulted clearly from considerations both of national honor and national security. He said, that Congress, having repeatedly assured their Ally that they would take no step in a negotiation but in concert and in confidence with him, and having even published to the world solemn declarations to the same effect, would, if they abetted this concealment of their Ministers, be considered by all nations as devoid of all constancy and good faith; unless a breach of these assurances and declarations could be justified by an absolute necessity, or some perfidy on the part of France; that it was manifest no such necessity could be pleaded; and as to perfidy on the part of France, nothing but

* Messrs. BLAND, LEE and Rutledge.

+ Mr. RUTLEDGE, who framed, in the Committee, the first draft of the declaration made in September last, and the instruction about the same time. This was considerably altered, but not in that respect.

suspicions and equivocal circumstances had been quoted in evidence of it, and even in these it appeared that our Ministers were divided; that the embarrassment in which France was placed by the interfering claims of Spain with the United States must have been foreseen by our Ministers, and that the impartial public would expect that, instead of co-operating with Great Britain in taking advantage of this embarrassment, they ought to have made every allowance and given every facility to it, consistent with a regard to the rights of their constituents; that, admitting every fact alleged by our Ministers to be true, it could by no means be inferred that the opposition made by France to our claims was the effect of any hostile or ambitious designs against them, or of any other design than that of reconciling them with those of Spain; that the hostile aspect which the separate article, as well as the concealment of it, bore to Spain, would be regarded by the impartial world as a dishonorable alliance with our enemies against the interests of our friends; but notwithstanding the disappointments and even indignities which the United States had received from Spain, it could neither be denied nor concealed that the former had derived many substantial advantages from her taking part in the war, and had even obtained some pecuniary aids; that the United States had made professions corresponding with those obligations; that they had testified the important light in which they considered the support resulting to their cause from the arms of Spain by the importunity with which they had courted her alliance, by the concessions with which they had

offered to purchase it, and by the anxiety which they expressed at every appearance of her separate negotiations for a peace with the common enemy.

That our national safety would be endangered by Congress making themselves a party to the concealment of the separate article, he thought could be questioned by no one. No definitive treaty of peace, he observed, had as yet taken place; the important articles between some of the belligerent parties had not even been adjusted; our insidious enemy was evidently laboring to sow dissensions among them; the incaution of our Ministers had but too much facilitated them between the United States and France; a renewal of the war, therefore, in some form or other, was still to be apprehended; and what would be our situation if France and Spain had no confidence in us, and what confidence could they have, if we did not disclaim the policy which had been followed by our Ministers?

He took notice of the intimation given by the British Minister to Mr. Adams, of an intended expedition from New York against West Florida, as a proof of the illicit confidence into which our Ministers had been drawn, and urged the indispensable duty of Congress to communicate it to those concerned in it. He hoped that if a committee should be appointed-for which, however, he saw no necessity-that this would be included in their report, and that their report would be made with as little delay as possible.

In the event, the letter from the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, with all the despatches, and the VOL. I.-26

several propositions which had been made, were committed to Mr. WILSON, Mr. GORHAM, Mr. RUTLedge, Mr. CLARK, and Mr. HAMILTON.

THURSDAY, MARCH 20TH.

An instruction from the Legislature of Virginia to their Delegates, against admitting into the Treaty of Peace any stipulation for restoring confiscated property, was laid before Congress.

Also resolutions of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania, requesting the Delegates of that State to endeavour to obtain at least a reasonable term for making the payment of British debts stipulated in the preliminary articles lately received.

These papers were committed to Mr. OSGOOD, Mr. MERCER, and Mr. FITZSIMMONS.

Mr. DYER, whose vote on the tenth day of March frustrated the commutation of the half-pay, made a proposition substantially the same, which was committed. This seemed to be extorted from him by the critical state of our affairs, himself personally, and his State, being opposed to it.

The motion of Mr. HAMILTON, on the Journals, was meant as a testimony on his part of the insufficiency of the Report of the Committee as to the establishment of revenues, and as a final trial of the sense of Congress with respect to the practicability and necessity of a general revenue equal to the public wants. The debates on it were chiefly a repetition of those used on former questions relative to that subject.