“ The jealousy which reigns among the maritime powers of Europe, with their narrow, weak, and contemptible system of politics, prevents our being able to procure ships of war; to remedy which, you have with you timber, iron, and workmen, and we must send you over sailcloth and cordage, as fast as we can. The importance of having a considerable naval force, is too obvious, to need our saying more than, that we conceive no apparent difficulty or obstruction ought to deter us from pushing it forward to the utmost of our power. ”

“ If they join us generously in the day of our distress, without attempting undue advantages because we are so, they will find a grateful people to promote their future glory and interest with unabating zeal; and from my knowledge of the commerce of this country with Europe, I dare assert, that whatever European power possesses the preemption of it, must of consequence become the richest and most potent in Europe. But should time be lost in tedious negotiations, and succors be withheld, America must sue for peace from her oppressors. ”

“ And we have these advantages in their keeping out of the war, that they are better able to afford us private assistance, that by holding themselves in readiness to invade Britain, they keep more of her force at home, and that they leave to our armed vessels, the whole harvest of prizes made upon her commerce, and of course the whole encouragement to increase our force in privateers, which will breed seamen for our navy.
The desire that military officers here, of all ranks, have of going into the service of the United States, is so general, and so strong, as to be quite amazing. ”

“ It has even been attempted to circulate the report, that the famous resolution was adopted unanimously, and in conformity with the wishes of the great city.
You cannot imagine, Gentlemen, how eager are your enemies in the present situation of affairs, to propagate reports of dissensions and divisions between the Americans and French, and among the Americans themselves; their object is to animate their own party, and discourage their opponents. We may despise them and laugh at them; but your best friends are afflicted, that we receive no news from America by the way of France. ”

“ It is obvious to all Europe, that nothing less is at stake than the dominion of the sea, at least the superiority of naval power, and we cannot expect Great Britain will ever give it up, without some decisive effort on the part of France. With such an exertion as that of sending a superior fleet to America, we see nothing in the course of human affairs, that can possibly prevent France from obtaining such a naval superiority without delay. ”

“ My enemies represented me as a defaulter, grown rich out of the public monies in my hands, and prejudiced the minds of Congress so strongly against me, that all my efforts in America to obtain even a hearing were vain and ineffectual. My present situation, as well as the state of my accounts, give the lie to every assertion or insinuation of the kind, yet I am still left to suffer under the calumny in America, and to be obliged to strangers for money for my support in Europe. ”

“ The political part are sensible of the importance of enlarging their own naval concerns and force, and of checking that of Great Britain. The good and wise part, the lovers of liberty and human happiness, look forward to the establishment of American freedom and independence as an event, which will secure to them and their descendants an asylum from the effects and violence of despotic power, daily gaining ground in every part of Europe. ”

“ The want of intelligence affects the cause of the United States in every department; such accounts of our affairs, as arrive in Europe at all, come through the hands of our enemies, and whether defeated or victorious we are the last, who are acquainted with events, which ought first to be announced by us. We are really unable to account for this silence, and, while we are affected with the unhappy consequences of it, we must entreat the honorable Congress to devise some method for giving us the earliest and most certain intelligence of what passes in America. ”

“ We advise you to be constantly holding up the great advantages, which the crown and commerce would receive by their possessing themselves of the West Indies, and we trust to your wisdom in making all the use possible of the English newspapers, as a channel through which to counteract the tide of folly and falsehood, of which you complain, and rest assured that every material circumstance, either for or against, will be despatched to you, with the utmost expedition. ”

“ The providing for the redemption of our money, and the establishment of a marine, are objects, which in my view, far exceed in the magnitude and extent of their importance, any that are at present under public consideration; they greatly depend on each other, and permit me to say, all our future operations in a great degree depend on them. We cannot pay the interest of any considerable loan without commerce, which cannot be revived effectually without a marine force of our own, which may I am confident be formed on the enclosed plan, and be ready in a short space of time to act with vigor. ”

“ Mr Izard, I presume, knew that I had a very extensive correspondence with gentlemen of the mercantile and monied interest and character in Europe, but particularly in Holland, where I had long before been preparing the minds of such men in favor of a loan. He knew that there was not merely a correspondence, but a strict personal friendship subsisting between certain gentlemen in Amsterdam and at the Hague and myself, and that I had proposed to go there on the subject of the loan, as well as for other purposes. ”

“ You are known here, our ports are open, and free for your commerce, and your ships are protected in them, and greater indulgencies allowed than to any other nations. If France should be obliged to make war on England, it will be much more just and honorable in the eyes of the world to make it on some other account; and if made at all, it is the same thing to the United States of America, and in one important view better for them, to have it originate from any other cause, as America will be under the less immediate obligation. ”

“ If the great land and sea force, with which we have been attacked, be compared with the feeble state, in which the commencement of this war found us with respect to military stores of all kinds, soldiers' clothing, navy and regular force; and if the infinite art be considered, with which Great Britain has endeavored to prevent our getting these necessaries from foreign parts, which has in part prevailed, the wonder will rather be, that our enemies have made so little progress, than that they have made so much. ”

“ The respectful esteem that I bear towards that brave people, who so well defend their liberty under your conduct, has induced me to form a plan concurring in this great work, by establishing an extensive commercial house, solely for the purpose of serving you in Europe, there to supply you with necessaries of every sort, to furnish you expeditiously and certainly with all articles, clothes, linens, powder, ammunition, muskets, cannon, or even gold for the payment of your troops, and in general every thing that can be useful for the honorable war in which you are engaged. ”

“ Whatever may be the clamor excited by discontent, we think that a candid consideration of our circumstances, and what Congress have really done, will fully justify them in the eyes of reasonable men. We will observe, in the first place, that of all those who have returned, not one came here at the request of Congress; that they have cost the States a very large sum of money, and that the circumstances of affairs would not permit any benefit to be drawn from them here. ”

“ For although we are fully persuaded, that our enemies are wearied, beaten, and in despair, yet we shall not presume too much on that persuasion, and the [Pg 389] rather, because it is our fixed determination to admit no terms of peace, but such as are fully in character with the dignity of independent States, and consistent with the spirit and intention of our alliances on the continent of Europe. We believe, and with great reason too, that the honor and fortitude of America have been rendered suspicious in Europe, by the arts, intrigue, and specious misrepresentations of our enemies there. ”

“ Holland is at present the centre of money and credit for Europe, and every nation is more or less indebted to her collectively to such an amount, that could the nations in Europe at once pay the whole of their debts to this Republic of Mammon, it would as effectually ruin it, as the breaking in of the sea through their dykes. ”

“ The pleasure I feel in seeing one of my countrymen is such, that I may be in as great danger from them as others, possibly much more. I should be unhappy if any suspicion should operate to the prejudice of this person without cause, but my friends here, who are kindly attentive to every thing that is said or done which respects America, think very strange of his conduct. ”

“ But now, that Commissioners vested with the authority of the nation have avowed such principles, and published such threats, the Congress have, by a resolution of the 30th of October, solemnly and unanimously declared that they will retaliate. Whatever may be the pretences of the enemy, it is the manifest drift of their policy to disgust the people of America with their new alliance, by attempting to convince them that instead of shielding them from distress, it has accumulated additional calamities upon them. ”

“ Reason, observation, and experience authorise me to say, there is not in the world any power so capable of it, and as the United States can never aim at foreign conquests, but simply to guard their own coasts, and to protect the commerce of their subjects, their superiority at sea can never give just cause of jealousy or offence to any other nation. ”