Paris, till you receive his orders to return, of which you will acquaint Doctor Franklin and Monsr. Le Comte de Vergennes."[1]
He wrote also to General Carleton and Admiral Digby, the heads of the army and the fleet in America, as follows:—
"His Majesty has been induced to give a striking proof of his royal magnanimity and disinterested wish for the restoration of peace, by commanding His Majesty's Ministers to direct Mr. Grenville, 'that the independence of America should be proposed by him in the first instance, instead of making it the condition of a general peace.'
"I have given a confidential information to you of these particulars, that you may take such measures as shall appear to you most advisable for making a direct communication of the substance of the same, either immediately to Congress, or through the medium of General Washington, or in any other manner which you may think most likely to impress the well-disposed parts of America with the fairness and liberality of His Majesty's proceedings in such great and spontaneous concessions.
"The advantages which we may expect from such concessions are, that America, once apprized of the King's disposition to acknowledge the independence of the Thirteen States, and of the disinclination in the French Court to terminate the war, must see that it is from this moment to be carried on with a view of negotiating points, in which she can have no concern, whether they regard France, or Spain and Holland at the desire of France; but some of which, on the contrary, may be in future manifestly injurious to the interests of America herself; that if the negotiation is broken off, it will undoubtedly be for the sake of those Powers, and not America, whose object is accomplished the instant she accepts of an independence, which is not merely held out to her in the way of negotiation by the executive power, but a distinct unconditional offer, arising out of the
- ↑ Shelburne to Oswald, May 25th, 1782.
