Several of the American ships, with stores for the Congress, are now about sailing under the convoy of a French squadron. England is in great consternation, and the minister, on the iyth instant confessing that all his measures had been wrong and that peace was necessary, proposed two bills for quieting America ; but they are full of artifice and deceit, and will, I am confident, be treated accordingly by our country.
I think you must have much satisfaction in so valuable a son, whom I wish safe back to you, and am, with great esteem, etc.,
B. Franklin.
P. S. — The treaties were signed by the plenipotentiaries on both sides February 6th, but are still for some reasons kept secret, though soon to be published. It is understood that Spain will soon accede to the same. The treaties are forwarded to Congress by this conveyance.
Benjamin Franklin, Complete Works (edited by John Bigelow, New York, etc.,), vi, 131-134.
200. A Dashing Young Officer in the Field (1778)
BY COLONEL JOHN TRUMBULL (1841)
Trumbull, the son of the governor of Connecticut, became an artist, and painted some of the pictures now in the Capitol at Washington. — Bibliography of the Rhode Island campaigns: Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, 592-603; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 138. — On the army, see ch. xxviii above.
IN the year 1778, a plan was formed for the recovery of Rhode Island from the hands of the British, by the cooperation of a French fleet of twelve sail of the line, commanded by the Count D'Estaing, and a body of American troops, commanded by General Sullivan. The fleet arrived off New York early in July, and in August sailed for Rhode Island. I seized this occasion to gratify my slumbering love of military life, and offered my services to General Sullivan, as a volunteer aid-du-camp. My offer was accepted, and I attended him during the enterprise.
The French fleet, which had passed Newport, and lay at anchor above the town, were drawn off from their well selected station by a clever manoeuvre of Lord Howe, the very day after the American army had landed on the island. The two fleets came to a partial action off the capes of the Chesapeake, in which they were separated by a severe gale
