After the commissioner had finished, the promoteur of the assembly rose and spoke in sympathy with his audience about how decreased revenues and the immense debt already incurred caused hardships and advised moderation of the king’s liberalities. He then expressed his interest in seeing France fight for the common cause and his confidence that the king would find means to continue the aid.
The mention of the “common cause” alluded to King Louis’s July 28, 1778, innovation in maritime law, concerning the navigation of neutral vessels in time of war. This laid the foundation for the famous League of Neutrals in 1780, proclaimed by Catherine II of Russia and acceded to by all the nations of Europe except England. The assembly voted unanimously in favor of meeting the king’s demand.
Colonel Laurens still had plenty to do. First, he had to impress upon the king’s ministers the dire straits in which America found herself at that moment and, at the same time, to strengthen their conviction that America would become a great nation able to defend herself and repay her generous benefactor, once free from British domination. Colonel Laurens acquired the confidence of some of the ministers who bolstered his vigorous initiative. Together, they collected supplies valued at two million livres and put them aboard ships. These supplies came from the “free gift” of the king.
Colonel Laurens also received 2.5 million livres in specie to be taken onboard the Résolu, on which he would also sail. He was also permitted to ship 1.5 million livres in specie on an American vessel loaded with supplies at Amsterdam. Benjamin Franklin had been able to induce France to guarantee both the principal and interest of the “Holland loan” that was designated to pay for those supplies.
John Adams is sometimes credited for the Holland loan because he went to Holland to secure such a loan. The Dutch were unwilling to risk their money in such an uncertain cause as that of the United States at that time. However, when Colonel Laurens arrived in Paris, his influence and the confidence that his ability and business integrity inspired persuaded France to borrow the money herself and guarantee the interest. Holland had no objection to loaning the money under these circumstances.
Laurens was in a hurry to rejoin Washington’s army with the money and supplies and could not to tend to the details of completing the business, so John Adams arranged for the loan. See US Continental Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1985), no. 165, folios 116 et seq. and 146 et seq., May 15, 1781. (John Adams later negotiated a subsequent loan of a much smaller amount.)
5. Nathanael Greene to Washington, January 13, 1781; Nathanael Greene to Giles, January 25, 1781; Thomas Bee to William Jackson, February 5, 1781, and February 9, 1781, in Nathanael Greene, The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, ed. Richard K. Showman, Margaret Cobb, Robert E. McCarthy, Joyce Boulind, Noel P. Conlon, and Nathaniel N. Shipton (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, for the Rhode Island Historical Society, 1976); Paul H. Smith, Gerard W. Gawalt, and Ronald M. Gephart, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, vol. 16, September 1, 1780–February 28, 1781 (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1989), 692; US Continental Congress et al., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1904), 18:676.
6. George Washington, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799: Prepared under the Direction of the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission and Published by Authority of Congress, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1931), 21:217–18. Washington wrote to the Comte de Rochambeau, now at Newport, Rhode Island, a few days earlier to introduce Lieutenant Colonel Gouvion and another French officer, Colonel Gimat. They both had permission to go to Rhode Island to pay their respects to the Comte and to see their countrymen. Washington noted they were “officers who have served with distinction in our army, and who, by their personal qualities as well as their military merit, have acquired my particular esteem.”
7. Washington, Writings, 21:265–66.
8. Washington, Writings, 21:325. Admiral Destouches assumed command of the French fleet after Admiral Ternay’s death, so Washington made a sudden visit to Newport to arrange dispatching the fleet to Virginia. Lafayette had already been sent there to offset the depredations of Benedict Arnold, who had defected to the British. Arnold intended to establish a post at Portsmouth at the mouth of the Elizabeth River and use it as a command post to do as much damage as possible to the region west of the Chesapeake. The French fleet would support immensely Lafayette’s efforts to deter Arnold. See James Brown Scott, De Grasse à Yorktown (Paris: Institut Français de Washington, 1931), 63. See also Howard Lee Landers, The Virginia Campaign and the Blockade and Siege of Yorktown, 1781: Including a Brief Narrative of the French Participation in the Revolution Prior to the Southern Campaign, Senate document 273 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1931), 38, last paragraph.
9. Elizabeth S. Kite, Brigadier-General Louis Lebègue Duportail, Commandant of Engineers in the Continental Army, 1777–1783 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1933), 192.
10. Paul K. Walker, Engineers of Independence: A Documentary History of the Army Engineers in the American Revolution, 1775–1783 (Washington, DC: Historical Division, Office of Administrative Services, Office of the Chief of Engineers, 1981), 294–96.
11. Walker, Engineers of Independence, 296.
12. Washington, Writings, 21:433.
13. Washington, Writings, 21:427.
14. Jared Sparks, The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original
