aid treaty, by means of the
Great Pensionary of Holland, to their High Mightinesses, together with
a letter of Dr Franklin to the Great Pensionary, inviting them to
treat on the same footing, _mutatis mutandis_, whenever they should
think fit; on which an answer was politely declined for the present.
Of this curious transaction, I sent at that time, an account to Paris,
as well as to the Committee of Foreign Affairs. One of the letters of
the First Pensionary of Amsterdam, our great and worthy friend, dated
July 31, 1778, has been translated, and printed in the Baltimore
Journal, with these words at the head of it, "_Letter of a steady
friend of America, at the Hague._" I have besides in my power the
proofs of all this in several letters of the honorable gentlemen at
Paris and at Amsterdam. Mr William Lee knew this too, when he
concerted with M. de Neufville, a merchant of Amsterdam, at Francfort
first, and then at Aix la Chapelle, unknown to me, to get a
Declaration from M. Van Berckel, the Pensionary, of the friendly
dispositions of the city of Amsterdam, which this good gentleman
delivered, thinking Mr William Lee was one of the Commissioners at
Paris. A like Declaration M. Van Berckel delivered to me on the 23d of
September, 1778,[36] with an explanatory letter of the expression,
_des que l'independence des Etats-Unis en Amerique sera reconnue par
les Anglais_, because I told him, such a condition would hurt the
honorable Congress, and make them pay no attention at all to a
Declaration, which would appear to them insignificant. Both the
Declaration and letter[37] will be found in the records of the
Committee aforesaid, to whom I sent copies of them towards the end of
1778. As to the sketching and proposing a treaty, his opinion and mine
also were, that it was premature at that time; and therefore we
postponed it till the last summer, when he delivered me some papers,
out of which, and of the French treaty, I have made the sketch,
reviewed afterwards and corrected by him and by Dr Franklin, of which
I have despatched on the 19th of this month three different copies to
the Committee aforesaid, and which I expect back again, with the
corrections of Congress, and with instructions and credentials for
proposing it on the first opportunity, which in the meantime I am
carefully watching.

It is with a very painful concern I mention to your Excellency this
attempt of Mr Lee to undermine me in this manner; when I thought he