Resolved, that this Congress will make provision to defray all such expenses as may arise by carrying on such correspondence, and for the payments of such agents as they may send on this service.

The members chosen: Mr. Harrison, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jay."

Franklin was the chairman and guiding spirit. The committee at once opened correspondence with several residents of Europe, chief among whom were Arthur Lee, who was instructed to communicate with Count Vergennes, in Paris, and Charles W. F. Dumas, a Swiss gentleman, then residing at the Hague, a friend of Franklin's and a student of international law. The first representative sent by the committee abroad was Silas Deane, of Connecticut. His instructions, dated March 3, 1776, are to appear in France "in the character of a merchant," as the "Court of France may not like it should be known publicly than any agent from the Colonies is in that country," but to confide to Count Vergennes that he has come "upon business of the American Congress." He is to endeavor to obtain arms and ammunition for the defense of the colonies, and to ascertain whether, in the event of their being "forced to form themselves into an independent state," France would feel disposed to enter into a treaty of friendship and alliance with them.

September 26, 1776, the mission to France was made a commission, with Deane, Franklin, and Jefferson as the members. They were elected by Congress, and a committee composed of Robert Morris, Richard Henry Lee, George Wythe, and John Adams was chosen "to prepare a draft of letters of credence to the commissioners" and their instructions." Jefferson declining to serve, Arthur Lee was elected in his place.10 The secret committee was composed at this time of Benjamin Harrison, Richard Henry Lee, John Witherspoon, and William Hooper, but the two last did not act continuously."

It was decided later to send commissioners to other European states, • Secret Journals of Congress, ii, 5.

'Parton's Franklin, ii, 3. Dumas afterwards acted with John Adams when the latter was on his mission to the Hague, and held office after the adoption of the Constitution.

Diplomatic Correspondence, i, 8.

'Secret Journals of Congress, ii, 31.

10 Ibid., ii, 35.

11 Reports of Committees relating to Department of Foreign Affairs, Library of Congress MSS.

and Franklin and Arthur Lee were selected for Spain, Ralph Izard for Tuscany, and William Lee for Vienna and Berlin.12

The functions of the committee of secret correspondence, after its first action, were unimportant, all the instructions to the commissioners abroad being drawn up by Congress upon reports of special committees. Arthur Lee and Thomas Morris, who acted as the commercial agents of the colonies while the committee was still in existence, did not correspond with it, but were under the jurisdiction of the secret committee of Congress, a separate committee from the committee of secret correspondence.

"As all affairs relative to the conduct of commerce and remittance," wrote the latter to the commissioners at Paris, "pass through another department, we beg leave to refer you to the secret committee, and Mr. Thomas Morris, their agent in France, for every information on these subjects."

On April 17, 1777, the title of the committee was changed, and it became the "committee for foreign affairs." The first members were Benjamin Harrison, Robert Morris, Thomas Hayward, Jr., and James Lovell. Hayward did not act after August, and in October John Witherspoon went on the committee, and later Richard Henry Lee. The first secretary of the committee was Thomas Paine, appointed at a salary of $70 per month.13 He severed his connection with it in January, 1779." The chief function of the committee was to furnish the agents of the government abroad with full accounts of the course of events in America. Beyond that it acted simply as an agent to execute the orders of Congress, and was intrusted with few of the duties that subsequently pertained to it. The members of the committee were being constantly changed, and the communications reflected the opinions of those who happened to be serving at the time they were sent.

Communications relative to foreign affairs were usually referred by Congress to special committees; and May 1, 1777, less than a month

12 Secret Journals of Congress, ii, 45. They did not perform diplomatic functions at these courts, however.

13 Letters of William Lee, i, 195.

14 Reports of Committees relating to Department of Foreign Affairs, Library of Congress MSS. Paine was dismissed by Congress for making an official matter public. An explanation and a defense of his conduct may be found in Conway's Life of Paine, i, 90, et seq.

after the foreign affairs committee had been instituted, John Wilson, John Adams, and Richard Henry Lee were selected a committee to inquire into the laws and customs of nations respecting neutrality, and to report their opinion, whether the conduct of the King of Portugal, in forbidding the vessels of the United States to enter his ports, and ordering those already there to depart at a short day is not a breach of the lews of neutrality.

Inquiries of this character, it might reasonably be expected, would fall within the functions of the foreign affairs committee, but rarely did so.

The communications of the committee were usually signed by several of the members; but James Lovell signed them-often "for the committee"-continuously up to the time the committee was superseded by the department of foreign affairs. He was the most active member of the committee and its business was carried on chiefly by him. He was a Boston school-teacher, born in that town October 31, 1737, and graduated from Harvard in 1756. After Bunker Hill battle he was imprisoned by the British, but was exchanged and entered Congress in December, 1776, serving till 1782. In 1779, he was one of the committee that drew up a design for the arms of the United States, but it was rejected. He espoused General Gates's cause against Washington. He is represented as having been a man of unusual learning, but of such eccentricities of manners and speech as to lead at times to a doubt of his sanity.15

The first public recognition of the independence of the United States by a foreign power was recorded in the treaty of amity and commerce and of alliance eventual and defensive between the United States and France, signed at Paris, February 6, 1778, by Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, on the part of the United States and by C. A. Gérard, on the part of France; and following this treaty, in July, 1778, came Gérard, the first representative of a foreign state to the United States. He was styled minister plenipotentiary,1o and bore a commission also as consul-general."

Soon after his arrival, he transmitted to the president of Congress a copy of the speech he intended to deliver at his first audience, and it was referred, with the question of the ceremonies to be observed in

15 See Austin's Life of Elbridge Gerry, i, 336.

18 Secret Journals of Congress, ii, 44.

17 Secret Journals of Congress, ii, 92.

receiving him, to R. H. Lee, Robert Morris, and Witherspoon.18 They prefaced their report with the following "observations:"

That Ministers being of three different classes, viz: 1. Ambassadors; 2. Ministers Plenipotentiary and Envoys; and 3. Residents, it will be necessary to establish a ceremonial for each according to their respective Dignity. That your Committee report for an Ambassador the following ceremonial, viz:

When he shall arrive within any of the United States he shall receive from any Battery, Fort or Castle the same salute or other Honors which are paid to the Flag of the Prince or State which he shall represent, and when he shall arrive at the Place which the Congress shall be, he shall wait upon the President and deliver his credentials or copies thereof. Three members of Congress shall then be deputed to wait upon him."

For a resident minister the committee proposed to omit the honor of escort by three members of Congress and to substitute a master of ceremonies. The other ceremonies were modified in the same proportion.

The consideration of so much of this report as related to ambassadors and resident ministers was postponed as unnecessary at the time. The ceremonies in the case of ministers plenipotentiary were prescribed in the following resolutions which were adopted:

At the time he is to receive his audience, the two members [who are to act as his escort] shall again wait upon him in a coach belonging to the States; and the person first named of the two shall return with the minister plenipotentiary or envoy in the coach, giving the minister the right hand and placing himself on his left, with the other member on the front seat.

When the minister plenipotentiary or envoy is arrived at the door of the Congress hall, he shall be introduced to his chair by the two members, who shall stand at his left hand. Then the member first named shall present and announce him to the President and the house; whereupon he shall bow to the President and the Congress, and they to him. He and the President shall again bow unto each other, and be seated, after which the house shall sit down.

Having spoken and been answered, the minister and President shall bow to each other, at which time the house shall bow, and then he shall be conducted home in the manner in which he was brought to the house.

18 Reports of Committees relating to Department of Foreign Affairs, Library of Congress MSS.

19

“Also at all Places where there are guards Centries and the like he shall receive the same military Honors and Respect which are paid to a General officer in the service of the United States of the highest Rank." (Note in original MS.)

Those who shall wait upon the Minister, shall inform him, that, if in any audience he shall choose to speak on matters of business, it will be necessary previously to deliver in writing to the President, what he intends to say at the audience; and if he shall not incline thereto, it will, from the Constitution of Congress, be impracticable for him to receive an immediate answer.

The style of address to Congress shall be "Gentlemen of the Congress." All speeches or communications in writing may, if the public minister choose it, be in the language of their respective countries. And all replies, or answers, shall be in the language of the United States.

After the audience, the members of Congress shall be first visited by the Minister Plenipotentiary or Envoy.

These ceremonies were followed when the French minister had his first audience, August 6, 1778. The committee of foreign affairs did not participate in the ceremonies as a committee.20 The communications of the French minister were sent direct to the president of Congress, and were considered by the whole Congress after having been reported upon by some special committee. Upon occasion, in the event of some communication of importance, the president of Congress would declare that, in his opinion, it was expedient that the Congress and the minister should confer. The latter would then meet the Congress in committee of the whole, and the result of the interview would be reported to the Congress itself. The minister held the right to be present, however, when foreign affairs were being discussed, and thus became a potent factor in the conclusions reached. His dispatches to his government are in themselves a record of the proceedings of the Congress.

The discussion of negotiating a treaty of peace with Great Britain began in Congress early in the summer of 1779, and August 4, a committee of five was selected "to prepare instructions for the minister plenipotentiary of these United States to be appointed for negotiating a treaty of peace." August 13, Robert Morris, Henry Laurens, Samuel Huntington, John Dickinson, and Thomas McKean, the members chosen, submitted a draft, which was debated paragraph by paragraph and adopted the next day." This was the method usually

After the department of foreign

20 Secret Journals of Congress, ii, 94, et seq. affairs had been organized a few unimportant changes were made in these ceremonies. Reports of Committees relating to Department of Foreign Affairs, Library of Congress MSS.)

21 Secret Journals, ii, 275.