ment of his accounts, was inditing a letter, of which the following is an extract, to the President of Congress:

It is not enough to say that no man in France enjoys a better character for strict honor and probity, both at court and in the city, than M. Chaumont. Justice must add, there is no man enjoys it so universally through the kingdom, among the merchants, the farmers or husbandmen, and mechanics, in all which branches of business he is constantly speculating. This man is the friend of Dr. Franklin; I have the pleasure of knowing him to be mine, and, what is more, the friend of my country, on all and in the most trying occasions. I do not wonder that Mr. Lee should appear jealous of this gentleman, as well as of everybody else, a select few excepted; and very few, indeed are those who escape his jealous suspicions, either in Europe or America. It is a melancholy truth, but justice to the public requires my declaring it, that I never knew Mr. Lee, from his first coming to Paris, satisfied with any one person he did business with, whether of a public or private nature; and his dealings, whether for trifles or for things of importance, almost constantly ended in a dispute, sometimes in litigious quarrels.

Mr. Lee lived some time in M. Chaumont's house.

M. Chaumont knew him perfectly well, and was not reserved in speaking his opinion of him. I am sorry to be thus long on so disagreeable a subject, a subject which I cautiously waived entering on in my narrative to Congress, not choosing to trouble them with matters which they might deem of a personal nature. I am grieved to have been forced on it at all, and hope never to be obliged to resume it.

From the moment the French government began to take an active interest in the struggle of the colonists, the duties assigned to De Chaumont by the ministry were of the most confidential and responsible character. He sent one ship-load of powder to Boston with instructions to his agent, M. Holker, the French consul-general, to claim no pay unless the Americans were successful in achieving their independence. He also sent a consignment of clothing to the army under the command of Lafayette. He appears to have been charged with purchasing and equipping most if not all of the vessels fitted out by his Government to assist the colonists, and also with the distribution of the prizes which were made by them. This brought him into intimate and constant correspondence with M. de Sartine, the Minister of Marine, and he equipped and directed the operations of five of the vessels of war with which Paul Jones made his name a terror to the inhabitants of the English and Scottish coasts. From the large correspondence preserved by the De Chaumont family, a few extracts will best afford a correct impression of the nature and importance of his part in the complicated instrumentalities by which American independence was achieved.

One of the letters relates to a proposal, from a company of which De Chaumont was the agent or attorney, to supply the French navy twenty cargoes of masts, spars, yards,

with "

plank, and other material coming from the forests of North America."

In a letter dated November 8, 1779, De Sartine authorized De Chaumont "to make a simulated sale of the ships Pallas and Vengeance to neutrals, who will send them to our ports with merchandise not contraband."

With Paul Jones, M. de Chaumont held the most intimate and responsible relations from the commencement to the close of the Revolutionary War. It is scarcely necessary to add that they were not always entirely harmonious. The infirmities of Captain Jones's temper and disposition were such that he was rarely, if ever, so fortunate as to be brought frequently in contact with anyone without such person becoming, sooner or later, the victim of his jealousies and suspicions. The duty devolved by the Government upon M. de Chaumont of purchasing and equipping the vessels committed to Jones's command, of directing to a greater or less extent the sphere of his operations, and of superintending the distribution of the prize money, furnished occasions for antagonisms which no one having to deal with such a nature as Jones's could have been prudent or crafty enough to avoid. Their corre spondence shows that De Chaumont was not always able to meet Jones's expectations nor to escape his reproaches. Jones had many of the rare qualities of a hero, but he wholly lacked discretion and judgment. He was only great in conflict. He never was fit to be trusted with an important command, and for that reason he never received the promotion which would otherwise have naturally and promptly rewarded his professional achievements Though the disputes of Jones with De Chaumont have long ceased to have any interest or importance, it is but justice to the latter to state that Jones recognized the unfairness of his complaints and reproaches in a manner equally creditable to himself and to the best friend he appears to have ever had.

The thoroughly confidential relations which subsisted between M. de Chaumont and his own government on the one hand and with the American commissioners on the other exposed him to perils from which no person holding a position of critical importance can hope to escape entirely. The British minister at Paris came to regard De Chaumont as the holder of the key of the position which his gov ernment sought to carry, and sent an emissary to him to find, if possible, the price of his loyalty. Instead of dismissing the emissary rudely, as a more impulsive or a less scrupu lous person might have done, he laid the foundation for a second interview, and meantime took M. de Sartine, the Minister of Ma rine, into his confidence. All that we know

arther of this incident is related in the followg letters from the Minister of Foreign Affairs M. de Chaumont :

VERSAILLES, 18 December, 1777I thank you, sir, for communicating to me this letter M. B. Mayne, and can assure you that your confince shall not compromise your friend. M. de Sare informed me at the time of the overtures made you. One might treat them as the scheme of a loyal bject rather than as emanating from the ministry. ow, however, when circumstances extremely critical spel illusions, it is highly probable that this second proach may have an exalted origin, and on this supsition I think it might be well not to decline it, but explain that you had never contemplated such a stinguished role; that you had not much heeded his st suggestions, which might have been dictated by humanity and by his personal confidence in you; t, if he persists in regarding you as a proper instruent for so important an enterprise, it would be necsary for you to know the dispositions of those who one can dictate the conditions, in order that you ight have a sure guide for your own language and nduct. You will know how to embroider your canvass as not to bind yourself farther than you wish. I nk also, sir, that it is proper to answer through the annel indicated by M. Fullerton. This precaution ly increase confidence. Possibly, too, we shall thus rn of the purposes of the British government. It rigues in so many ways to penetrate our secrets at we are excusable for trying to penetrate theirs. I ve the honor to be perfectly, sir, your very humble d very obedient servant,

DE VERGENNES.

Another letter from the Comte de Vergennes M. de Chaumont, relating also to the seet service of the Government, shows that, en as early as 1778, it was understood in ris that the political sympathies of the great ederick were with the new republic which is germinating on this side of the Atlantic ther than with the government that was try

g to crush it out of existence. It further

ows that M. de Vergennes made lighter of e commercial rivalry of Prussia than any rent foreign minister of France has done, or y future one is likely to do.

I thank you for the information you give me of the ussian officer just from America. I do not doubt at he was an emissary from the king, his master, but am equally persuaded that the latter none the less ays for the independence of America. Be well as red that all that the English gazettes publish is not spel. It would be very well to entertain this officer th talk about the ulterior advantages to commerce ely to result from liberty in America. Such a comtition, if established, will never be very dangerous to yone. I have the honor to be, etc.,

VERSAILLES, 18 November, 1778.

DE VERGEnnes.

On the 11th of February, 1780, M. de Sarne acknowledges the receipt from M. de haumont of a letter dated the 26th of the receding month, and thanks him for the deils and observations he had furnished in retion to a proposition which a M. de Mauleon ad made to the minister for the establishment fa line of packets between France and North

America, and which the minister had referred to M. de Chaumont for a report. This was the first project for a transatlantic line of packets of which there is any record. M. de Chaumont discouraged the scheme, because at that time it was necessary to have fast sailers and armed for the proposed service, and he thought the Government could perform the service with its own ships better and with less expense. In consequence of the confusion in the financial relations of Beaumarchais with his government growing out of the very mixed character of his operations and the indefiniteness of the line which separated private from public functions, French from American liabilities, diplomatic from commercial services, public beneficence from personal ambition, it became necessary in 1784 to appoint a commission to examine his claims against the French government. M. de Calonne, the Minister of Finance, selected M. de Chaumont as one of the three commissioners to whom this delicate duty was assigned, as we learn from a commission found among De Chaumont's papers.

It appears, however, by a subsequent letter from M. de Calonne, that M. de Chaumont declined this appointment. The reasons are jecture. If there is any truth in the proverb not assigned, but they are not difficult to conthat two of a trade can never agree, it is not surprising that M. de Chaumont should have hesitated from motives of delicacy, if from no other, to accept the responsibility of passing upon the accounts of Beaumarchais.

It is manifest, from the voluminous correspondence that has survived him, that in organizing and conducting all the maritime operations of the French government in supde Chaumont was the active and most effiport of the insurgent American colonies M. cient agent. No vessel seems to have been equipped or commissioned for this service except with his knowledge and coöperation. A most flattering and gratifying success rewarded his efforts, and his influence near his government at the close of our war was only less than that of a cabinet minister. Unfortunately for him, in helping to lay the foundations of popular government in America he was unconsciously preparing the way for his own ruin. The French Revolution was among the first fruits of the revolution in America, and made swift havoc of the fortunes of all whose estates were at all dependent upon public and even private credit; of M. de Chaumont's among the rest. His troubles at home were aggravated by troubles of a different character in the United States.

Because of the different currencies of the sev

eral colonies, and the depreciation of the colo

nial paper, the accounts of M. de Chaumont with our Government could not be, or at least were not, adjusted. To stimulate Congress to a consideration of these claims, M. de Chaumont sent his son Le Ray to the United States, either with or immediately after the return of Dr. Franklin, in 1785, to look after them. Le Ray, as I shall call him by way of distinction from his father, was then only twenty-five years of age. He bore letters from Dr. Franklin, John Jay, Lafayette, Rochambeau, Count de Montmorin, and others. He was specially commissioned to claim from Congress the face of the depreciated paper money held in large quantities by French subjects. Barbé Marbois, the French chargé d'affaires, was instructed to second his efforts. The government of the Confederation, however, was so weak, and its credit so impaired, that it was finally deemed impolitic to press these claims, and they shared the fate of all other claims against the revolutionary government; not, however, until Le Ray had exhausted his influence with others and his personal resources. Among the letters to which these efforts gave rise there are two, though written nearly four years after Le Ray's arrival in the country, which may find a suitable place in this stage of our narrative. They were from Dr. Franklin, one to President Washington and the other to Le Ray himself, who appears to have applied to the doctor for a loan or an indorsement. Meantime, De Chaumont the father, yielding to his embarrassments, had made an assignment to his son.

FRANKLIN TO WASHINGTON.

PHILADELPHIA, 3 June, 1789. I have made a rule to myself that your Excellency should not be troubled with any solicitations from me for favors to any even of my nearest connections, but here is a matter of justice in which the honor of our country is concerned, and therefore I cannot refuse giving this line for your information. Mr. Le Ray de Chaumont, father of the young gentleman who will have the honor of waiting on you with this, was the first in France who gave us credit, and before the Court showed us any countenance trusted us with 2000 barrels of gunpowder, and from time to time afterwards exerted himself to furnish the Congress with supplies of various kinds, which, for want of due returns, they being of great amount, has finally much distressed him in circumstances. Young Mr. Chaumont has now been here near four years, soliciting a settlement of the accounts merely, and though the payment of the balance, to be sure, would be acceptable, yet proposing to refer that to the time when it shall better suit the convenience of our Government.

This settlement, if the father had it to show, would

home to his father the statement of them; and I the rather hope this likewise, that we may thereby be freed from the imputation of adding ingratitude to injustice.

PHILADELPHIA, October 31, 1789. day to write in answer to your affecting letter, but I DEAR FRIEND: I was too much indisposed yesterhave considered the case very attentively and will now give you the results. In the first place, what you demand of me is impracticable, the sum I have to draw upon in France being but little more than half of what you require; and upon that small sum, though my late extraordinary expenses have much straitened me in furnishing my ordinary expenses, I dare not draw, under the present circumstances of affairs in that country, lest through the lowness of the funds I should lose perhaps case of public bankruptcy, which I find is apprehended my property in selling out to pay the bills, or in by many as a possible case, my bill should be returned under a protest, which, besides the damages, would extremely embarrass me. By the last accounts I received, I suffered a loss of fifteen per cent. in the sale of my funds to produce money for the payment of a bill for ten thousand livres which I sold towards the end of the last year; and we now learn from the public prints that the new proposed loan of thirty millions does not fill, and that Mr. Neckar is discouraged and in bad health, which, together, has occasioned the funds to fall much lower. In the next place, it seems to me that in your present circumstances (excuse my freedom in presuming to give you my advice) it would be more advisable for you to remain here a few months longer, in order to finish your affair with the Congress.

They meet again in the beginning of January, and there is no doubt but the officers through whose hands counts having already been examined and passed, I am such affairs must pass will be present, and your ac of your opinion, that they will probably be some of the first paid. Money, I think, will not be wanting, as it is thought the immense importation of goods lately made impost expected from the whole of the United States. into this port must produce at least one-fourth of the

If you should be absent at the next meeting of Congress it may occasion a still further delay of payment, for want of somebody present to solicit the business, which would be a further prejudice to the creditors. If you should conclude to stay I would write a letter to your father, which he might show to them, express ing that your stay was by my counsel, with the reasons, and that as soon as the Congress should meet I would support your application for immediate payment with my strongest interest. This delay of two or three months, I should think, cannot make much difference in your father's affairs, the present disorders of that country being considered; or, if you apprehend, as you have mentioned, that the creditors may suspect your having an intention of assuming to your own use the property of your father, you may, to prevent such suspicion, offer the creditors to deliver up to them, or to any person they shall please to appoint, all the papers ascertaining your father's claim upon the Congress; thereby enabling them to solicit for and receive the same. I wish I could give you still better counsel; but this is what occurs (in my present inability of otherwise serving you) to your affectionate friend,

(Signed) B. FRANKLIN.

now,

on of M. Luzerne, but if there was at any ne a chance of his aspirations being crowned th success, it was swept away by the revoionary whirlwind which was already threating France.

Pending these operations Louis Chassanis, orother-in-law of Le Ray, acting for an asciation of gentlemen in Europe, purchased veral large tracts of land in the northern rt of the State of New York. The purchasformed themselves into a land company th a view of disposing of these lands to refuees. The scheme of colonization was perfectand put forth only a few days before Louis VI. was guillotined.* Five commissioners re charged with the management of this perty, two to reside on it and three in Paris. e two commissioners sent here, Simon Desdiniers and Peter Pharoux, arrived in New rk in September, 1793. At Albany they fell accidentally with a young exiled countryin whose address and accomplishments imessed them so favorably that they invited ́n to join them, and made him their captain. e became a shareholder in the company d ultimately the proprietor of five hundred fres of land. Later, he and Pharoux were emyed to survey a canal that should connect waters of the Hudson and of Lake Chamin, the first canal ever surveyed in this untry. This young man, then only twentyir years of age, who laid the foundations of fame as an engineer in the wilds of northern ew York, was Mark Isambard Brunel, since nous as the founder of the machine shops the Royal Navy Yard at Portsmouth in gland, the builder of some of the most magicent railway structures in the world, the gineer of the Thames tunnel, and the father Mr. I. K. Brunel, the builder of the steamer reat Eastern.

The venture not proving as successful as is expected, the stock of the company was vided into 680 shares, and Gouverneur Moron his return from the French mission, was pointed the agent of the company on the of January, 1800. A deed for half the ict, or 220,000 acres, was then executed to m, and the following day a deed was given r the other half to Le Ray. In 1809 Morris tired from the agency, taking with him a le to 26,840 acres to cover his expenses and commissions.

Le Ray, who had become proprietor of 126 ares of the stock in his own right, bought e company out on the 17th of September, 10, opened an office for the sale of lands, ilt roads, mills, docks, ship-yards, and manged to effect large sales of land, but, unfornately, not to the class of emigrants who ild up a new country. He sold 4480 acres VOL. XXXV.— 103.

to Lord Augustin de Caulaincourt, who afterward sold them to Count Réal, Chief of Police under Napoleon. He also sold to Count de Grouchy, to General Dufernaux, and, as appears by the following note from Gouverneur Morris, to Madame de Staël:

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS TO MADAME DE STAËL. MORRISANIA, August 23, 1807. I flatter myself then, Madame, that next spring you will sail for America. For this purpose, about the middle of April you can embark for New York. As soon as you arrive, you will come to Morrisania, partake what ning of July you shall set out to visit your lands and our dairy affords, and refresh yourself. In the beginthe interior country, and return by the middle to repose after your fatigues, to gather peaches, take walks, - in a word, to do whatever you make verses, romances— please.

Necker, the father of Madame de Staël, also became one of Le Ray's clients and a New York land-holder.†

But the most distinguished party to this speculation was Joseph Bonaparte (Count Survilliers), who seems to have fallen a victim to his good nature rather than to any desire of gain. How it was brought about is thus related by Hough in his "History of Lewis County":

raine in 1815, when he heard of Joseph Bonaparte's Mr. Le Ray de Chaumont was at his estate in Touarrival at Blois. He had known this prince before his great elevation and was his guest at Mortefontaine when the treaty of September 30, 1800, between the United States and France was signed there, but he that misfortune had assailed the prince, he remembered had ceased meeting him afterwards. Seeing, however, the man and hastened to Blois. The prince, having invited Mr. Chaumont to dinner, said suddenly to him: great possessions in the United States. If you have "Well, I remember you spoke to me formerly of your them still, I should like very much to have some in exchange for a part of that silver I have there in those wagons, and which may be pillaged any moment. Take four or five hundred thousand francs and give the equivalent in land." Mr. Le Ray objected that it was impossible to make a bargain where one party alone knew what he was about. 'Oh," said the prince, "I know you well, and I rely more on your word than my own judgment." Still Mr. Le Ray would not be satisfied by which was terminated by the following propositions, his flattering assurances, and a long discussion followed, immediately assented to by the prince: Mr. Le Ray Chaumont would receive four hundred thousand francs, and would give the prince a letter for Mr. Le Ray's tain designated tract, if, after having visited the country son, then on the lands, instructing him to convey a cer(whither he was then going), the prince confirmed the transaction; otherwise, the money to be refunded.

66

As Count Survilliers was an alien, and therefore could not hold a title to real estate

in New York, a deed for 150,260 acres of land was made out to the learned Peter Duponceau of Philadelphia, in trust, to secure the

* The original of this scheme is to be seen now in the State Library at Albany.

+ See "Life of Gouverneur Morris."

repayment of the $120,000 which Le Ray had taken.

It can hardly be necessary to say that the count was obliged to accept lands instead of money when the loan came due.

Le Ray had only postponed the disaster which was inevitable. He became land poor. The abundance of better land in less rigorous climates, and the completion of the Erie Canal, which opened the States on the Ohio River to emigration, operated disastrously upon all the large land proprietors in the East -providentially, no doubt, for the country. He was unable to make head against the sea of trouble on which he found himself embarked, and at last was compelled to apply for the benefit of the insolvent laws, and, like his father before him, surrender his estates in turn to his own son for the benefit of his creditors.*

His landed property in the State of New York at the time of making the assignment consisted of

30,759 acres in Franklin Co., valued at .$ 22,500 73,947 in St. Lawrence Co., valued at.. 106,000 143,500 in Jefferson Co., valued at 574,000 in Lewis Co., valued at........

100,000

66

348,206 acres

133,000

$835,500

The winding up of his affairs was so managed as to satisfy in full all the claims of his American creditors; but Count Survilliers (Joseph Bonaparte), as early as 1820, had consented to accept 26,840 acres of land, valued at that time at $40,260, in discharge of his claims. To hold this land, the New York legislature passed an enabling act in March, 1825. In June, 1835, the count sold his land to John La Farge of New York City for $80,000, and thus dropped the curtain upon the last act of this disastrous enterprise. It gave a chill to the spirit of emigration from France, from which it never recovered. Had Le Ray invested in lands on or near any of our great water-ways, or even in a more congenial climate, it might now be the descendants of the French, rather than of the English, who would be making the laws of the United States.

Le Ray seems to have been an amiable man, and a liberal and popular landlord. The towns of Raysville and Chaumont perpetuate the remembrance of his name, his rashness, and his misfortunes. He founded the Jefferson

County Agricultural Society, and was its first president. He was also one of the earliest presidents of the New York State Agricultural Society. He returned to France in 1832, and died at Paris on December 31, 1840, in the eightieth year of his age.

Le Ray's son, Vincent Le Ray de Chaumont, to whom in his troubles he assigned his property, and who at the age of eighty and upwards frequented the American colony in Paris as late as 1866, lost no time in winding up the estate, all of which has long since passed entirely out of the De Chaumont family. Charles Le Ray de Chaumont de St. Paul, great-grandson of Le Ray, and of course great-great-grandson of Franklin's host, if still alive is now the only representative of the family. As he has been many years married and is childless, with his death the name will probably become extinct.

If the De Chaumonts did not secure the Golden Fleece in America, they secured in the United States what was of far greater value — American wives. Le Ray married a Miss Coxe, and their son married a Miss Jahel, both of New York.

From a letter which appeared in the "New York Evening Post" on the 19th of November, 1885, dated from Royat, Puy de Dôme, and devoted to an account of "The Treasures of French Country Houses," I make the following extract, which fitly concludes this account of a family whom the people of the United States can do no less than hold in grateful and honored remembrance:

shops, whose attractions are almost a rival to those of It was in Blois that I first rummaged among these the castle, though this is certainly one of the most interesting in France. The traveler will remember the in the center of the town. Near the foot of this hill long flight of stone steps which climbs the steep hill there is a well-furnished book-shop; its windows dis play old editions and rich bindings, and tempt one to enter and inquire for antiquities. Here I founda quan tity of old notarial documents and diplomas of college or university, all more or less recently cleared out from some town hall, or unearthed from neighboring castles, and sold by a careless owner, as no longer valuable to him. This was the case with most of the parchments I found at Blois; they had been acquired within a few years from the castle of Madon, and from a former proprietor of the neighboring castle of Chaumont (the calvus mons of medieval time), and most of them per tained to the affairs of the seigneurie de Chaumont legal decisions, actes de vente, loans on mortgage, Contracts, executions, sales of vineyards and houses, marriage contract of a M. Lubin-these were chief documents that I found and purchased.

the

the

John Bigelow.