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Noble, High, Mighty, Most Honorable Lords: Since by the preliminary articles of peace lately between the high belligerent Powers concluded, the illustrious United States of North America have been acknowledged free, sovereign, and independent, and now, since European Powers are courting in rivalry the friendship of your High Mightinesses,

"We, impressed with the most lively sensations on the illustrious event, the wonder of this, and the most remote future ages, and desirous fully to testify the part which we take therein, do hereby offer your High Mightinesses our service and attachment to the cause.

“And in the most sincere disposition of the heart, we take the honor to wish, so far as from Omnipotent Providence we do pray, that the most illustrious Republic of the United States of America may, during the remotest centuries, enjoy all imaginable advantages to be derived from that sovereignty which they gained by prudence and courage. That by the wisdom and active patriotism of your illustrious Congress it may forever flourish and increase, and that the High Mighty Regents of these free United States may with ease and in abundance enjoy all manner of temporal happiness, and at the same time we most obsequiously recommend our city to a perpetual friendly intelligence, and her trade and navigation in matters reciprocally advantageous, to your favor and countenance.

"In order to show that such mutual commerce with the merchant houses of this place may undoubtedly be of common benefit, your High Mightinesses will be pleased to give us leave to mark out some advantages of this trading city."

Then they proceed to show the advantages of a connection with their city where, they say, there prevails "a free, unrestrained republican commerce, charged with few duties;" they set forth its favorable location, the attractions of its market, and inclose with the letter a long list of merchandise which can be most profitably bought there, "imitating the French, but one-third cheaper," or "near like the English, but twenty-nine per cent. cheaper." They inform Congress that "in testimony of our most attentive obsequiousness and sincere attachment," they have deputed a citizen (named) of good report and solidity to present "this our most obsequious missive." The text of the original letter is not preserved, and it has evidently suffered somewhat at the hands of the translator.

Neither the anticipations of the continental countries nor the fears of the British were realized, as from that day forward the bulk of our trade has steadily flowed to and from England. Independence did not change the stream of commerce.

But commercial.subjects were not the only ones to which the attention of the ministers of the United States was directed at the conclusion of the war. The independence of the colonies made it necessary to reorganize the religious denominations, especially those which depended upon European control. The Apostolic Nuncio in Paris accordingly addressed himself to Dr. Franklin in July, 1783, and asked him to forward to Congress a note explaining the necessity of a change in the Apostolic Vicar for the United States, and in which Congress was asked to give its assent to the appoint

ment.1 The latter body after due deliberation directed Franklin to reply to the Nuncio that "the subject of his application being purely spiritual, it is without the jurisdiction and power of Congress, who have no authority to permit or refuse it." 2

The independence of the Colonies found the Episcopal or English Church without a bishop in America, and no one could be admitted to holy orders without a resort to the Episcopate of England, and without taking the oath of allegiance and acknowledging the king as the head of the church. A young divinity student from Maryland, Mason Weems, having completed his course in England, applied first to the Bishop of London and then to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who replied that if he could not take the oath nothing could be done till Parliament changed the law. He thereupon applied to Dr. Franklin in Paris, and to Mr. Adams at the Hague, to ascertain if there might not be found on the continent some Protestant bishop willing to ordain him. Mr. Adams conferred with the Danish minister, who submitted the question to his government, which obtained the opinion of the theological faculty of the Danish church that ordination could be there administered, and that to obviate the difficulty of the candidate's want of knowledge of the Danish language the Latin would be used in the rites. Mr. Adams communicated the correspondence to Congress, and that body adopted a resolution expressing its "high sense of the liberal decision of his majesty," and directed that copies of the correspondence be sent to the governors of all the States. A 2 3 Secret Journals, 493. * 1 Dip. Cor. 1783–1789, p. 453; 3 Secret Journals, 549.

1 6 Dip. Cor. Rev. 614.

resort to this method was, however, soon made unnecessary by the modification of the English test oath law.'

The next diplomatic event calling for notice was the treaty made with Prussia in 1785. Reference has already been made to the efforts, soon after the proclamation of independence, to secure some recognition on the part of the king, Frederick the Great, under whose reign that kingdom was assuming an importance which made its friendship highly desirable to the revolted Colonies. Frederick was not friendly to England, and encouraged Louis XVI. to enter into alliance with them, with an indication on his part that such a step would be followed by his recognition of the new state; but such action did not occur, and he manifested great indifference to the cause of the Colonies. The chief event of the unrecognized American representative was to have his room in the hotel at Berlin broken open and his dispatches carried away by the servant of the British minister, by whom they were returned, as Bancroft says, after he had read them. The king was aware of the unseemly conduct of the British representative, but he took no notice of it.

The year following the peace with England, John Adams, Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson were appointed commissioners to negotiate treaties of commerce with various European governments, and the convention

1 Additional interest attaches to this incident from the fact that the clergyman Weems afterwards returned to Virginia, was attached to a church near Mount Vernon, and was the author of the panegyric entitled "The Life of George Washington, with Curious Anecdotes," etc., in which appears the now discredited story of the cherry-tree and the hatchet.

with Prussia of 1785 was the outcome of this appointment. It was mainly the work of Dr. Franklin, and in it were inserted the principles for which he had so long contended as to neutrality, privateering, and the exemption of private property on the sea from confiscation in war. It was called "a beautiful abstraction;" a dream of the philosopher who vainly sought to mitigate the cruelties of war; and when the treaty came to be renewed in 1799 these provisions were omitted. Franklin's efforts, however, have not been entirely in vain. In the Declaration of Paris of 1856, adopted by the great powers of Europe, privateering was abolished; and when the adhesion of the United States to the declaration was asked, Secretary Marcy proposed as an amendment that private property of belligerents at sea be exempt from capture; and because of the refusal of the powers to admit that principle, the adhesion of the United States was withheld. Our country, through the recent action of President McKinley in asking its adoption by the Hague conference, is on record as still advocating Franklin's liberal principle. The treaty with Prussia has the unique feature of having been signed by the four signatory parties thereto at four different dates and at three different places; the instrument being signed by Mr. Adams in London, by the Prussian minister at the Hague, by Dr. Franklin in Paris, July 9, and by Mr. Jefferson, July 28, he having arrived in the interim in that city from America.

Other treaties of the ante-Constitutional period were those with Morocco in 1787 and the consular convention of 1788 with France. It is of interest to note the