Unlikely Allies, page 33
66 Vergennes called d’Eon’s letter: Letter, Vergennes to Louis XVI, January 26, 1775, Correspondance secrète inédite, vol. 2, 444, quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 219.
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68 The delegates included John Adams: McCullough, John Adams, 24.
70 In his own words: Quoted in McCullough, John Adams, 119, from Charles Francis Adams, ed., The Works of John Adams, vol. 2, 514.
70 After their first meeting: August 15, 1774, in Butterfield, ed., The Adams Papers: Diary of John Adams, vol. 2, 98.
71 He marveled that: Ibid., 99.
71 In New Haven, Deane met: Clark, Silas Deane, 21-23; Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 2, 345; Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution , vol. 2, 533.
72 That evening the three delegates: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth Deane, August 26, 1774, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 6.
72 The cramped conditions: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, September 6, 1774, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 10.
72 Despite a lack of formal education: Collier, Roger Sherman’s Connecticut, 32- 37.
73 On Sunday evening: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, July 20, 1775, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 74.
73 Deane began to regret: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, August 29, 1774, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 7.
73 Though “Mr. Sherman is clever in private”: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, August 28, 1774, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 5-8.
74 Deane was exhilarated: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, September 6, 1774, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 15.
74 At the opening session: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, August 29, 1774, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 7.
74 He considered his fellow delegates: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, September 6, 1774, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 19-20.
74 Deane gushed that: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, September 8, 1774, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 20.
74 Though there was a large assortment: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, September 6, 1774, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 12-15.
76 The Connecticut Assembly again chose: November 3, 1774, Connecticut House of Representatives, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 2, 15.
76 On Thursday, April 20, 1775: Letter, Joseph Palmor to Deane, April 19, 1775, Knollenberg, Growth of the American Revolution, 234.
77 Unable to manufacture or import guns: Stephenson, “The Supply of Gunpowder in 1776,” 271-72.
77 “I beg leave to inform you” : Quoted in Jellison, Ethan Allen, 106.
78 The ditches surrounding: Ketchum, Saratoga, 28-30; Jellison, Ethan Allen, 104-7; Brands, The First American, 506-8; Srodes, Franklin, 276-77.
78 On the road, he encountered: Jellison, Ethan Allen, 108; Randall, Benedict Arnold, 84-85.
78 That afternoon Parsons met: Clark, Silas Deane, 28-29; Jellison, Ethan Allen, 109; Randall, Benedict Arnold, 87.
79 With this financial backing: Jellison, Ethan Allen, 103, 112.
79 Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold: Randall, Benedict Arnold, 91-92, 99; Jellison, Ethan Allen, 105-18.
80 As soon as the fort: Randall, Benedict Arnold, 96-97.
80 As they approached the city: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, May 12, 1775, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 47.
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82 After his meeting with Foreign Minister: Gudin, Beaumarchais, 163-64.
83 D’Eon had read Beaumarchais’s: Quoted in Lever, Beaumarchais, (trans. Emanuel), 107.
83 “Both of us probably felt drawn”: Quoted in Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 95.
83 More to the point: Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 170.
83 D’Eon arrived at Beaumarchais’s: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 83.
83 The chevalier’s poise: Letter, Beaumarchais to Louis XVI, April 27, 1775, Shewmake, For the Good of Mankind, 61; Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 223.
84 Deserted by the king: Quoted in Telfer, The Strange Career, 235; Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 94-95; Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 170-71.
85 Suddenly, he exclaimed: Letter, Beaumarchais to Louis XVI, April 27, 1775, Shewmake, For the Good of Mankind, 60-61; Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 223.
85 As d’Eon later explained in her Memoirs: Beaumont, The Maiden of Tonnerre, 3-4; Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 4.
86 From d’Eon’s early years: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 4-6; quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 71.
86 The only hint: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 3-5; Nixon, Royal Spy, 160-61.
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87 “I do assure you, Sire”: First Abstract for the King, Apr 27, 1775, in Donvez, La politique de Beaumarchais, 1599-1600; Gudin, Histoire de Beaumarchais, 168- 69, as translated in Kite, Beaumarchais and the War of Independence, vol. 2, 18-19.
88 In June, Beaumarchais returned to Versailles: Lander, “A Tale of Two Hoaxes,” 995, 1004.
88 Vergennes agreed that if d’Eon: Letter, Vergennes to Beaumarchais, June 21, 1775, Beaumarchais, Correspondance, vol. 2, 128.
88 “If M. d’Eon is willing to adopt”: Letter, Vergennes to Louis XVI, August 7, 1775, quoted in Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 169.
88 Vergennes worried that if d’Eon returned: Letter, Vergennes to Beaumarchais, August 26, 1775, quoted in Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 169.
88 “If Mr. D’Eon wanted to wear women’s clothes”: Letter, Vergennes to Beaumarchais, August 26, 1775, Shewmake, For the Good of Mankind, 66.
89 Years earlier, she had begun purchasing: Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, unpublished manuscript; also discussed in Lander, “A Tale of Two Hoaxes,” 1018.
89 And she may have started: Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 191-95.
89 By July, Beaumarchais reported to Vergennes: Letter, Beaumarchais to Vergennes, July 14, 1775, Beaumarchais, Correspondance, vol. 2, 130.
91 After assuming command: Letter, George Washington to Lund Washington, August 20, 1775, Washington, The Papers of George Washington, vol. 1, 335-36.
91 Though Washington had been promised: Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 493.
91 The colonists were undisciplined: A survey of 27 out of 133 staff officers showed that 48 percent were merchants, 11 percent artisans, and 7 percent manufacturers. Carp, To Starve the Army at Pleasure, Appendix Table A.4, 225.
91 Supply shortages combined: Risch, Supplying Washington’s Army, 282-83; W. J. Eccles, “The French Alliance and the American Victory,” in Ferling, The World Turned Upside Down, 154.
91 Colonists without guns: Ferguson and Nuxoll, “Investigation of Government Corruption,” 16-17; Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 509.
91 If the British attacked: Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 509.
91 Moreover, the colonies had no capacity: Ferguson and Nuxoll, “Investigation,” 16-17; Risch, Supplying Washington’s Army, 339-62.
92 He boasted to a friend: Letter, Beaumarchais to Sartine, November 17, 1774, quoted in Loménie, Beaumarchais in His Time, 211.
92 What she saw in her looking glass: Horace Walpole, quoted in Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 95.
92 She called him: Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 225; letter, d’Eon to Beaumarchais, December 1775, Beaumarchais, Correspondance, vol. 2, 157.
93 Beaumarchais was just three years: His first wife, Mme. Francquet, was thirty when he was twenty-four; his second wife, Mme. Lévêque, was in her early thirties.
93 If his wife were still alive: Letter, Beaumarchais to d’Eon, September 5, 1775, Brotherton Collection, Leeds University, quoted in Spinelli, “Beaumarchais and d’Eon,” 7.
93 Minerva, the goddess: Letter, Beaumarchais to d’Eon, August 18, 1775, Beaumarchais, Correspondance, vol. 2, 240.
93 For d’Eon, who all her life had: Gaillardet, Memoirs of Chevalier D’Eon (1866 ed.), 422.
93 She teased Beaumarchais: Ibid., 426.
93 She even quoted back: Quoted in Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 105-6.
93 Beaumarchais acknowledged to Vergennes: Letter, d’Eon to Beaumarchais, 1775, Beaumarchais, Correspondance, vol. 2, 158, note 1.
94 It stipulated that d’Eon: The text of “the Transaction” appears in Gaillardet, The Memoirs of Chevalier D’Eon, 252-58.
95 In a dramatic flourish: Quoted in Gaillardet, The Memoirs of Chevalier D’Eon, 254-58.
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97 His stout support for independence: Butterfield, ed., The Adams Papers: Diary of John Adam, vol. 2, 96; Alsop, Yankees at the Court, 42.
97 Among other assignments: October 5, 1775, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 3, 1775, 277, note 1; September 19, 1775, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 2, 255.
97 It soon became clear: Letter, John Adams to Abigail Adams, October 19, 1775, Smith, Letters of Delegates, vol. 2, 202.
97 Adams remarked: John Adams to John Trumbull, November 5, 1775, Smith, Letters of Delegates, vol. 2, 304.
97 On a typical day, Deane: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth Deane, June 3, 1775, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 54.
98 “People here, members of Congress”: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, July 20, 1775, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 74-75.
99 Sherman, in John Adams’s words: Quoted in McCullough, John Adams, 85.
99 Sanctimonious and often rude: Butterfield, ed., The Adams Papers: Diary of John Adams, vol. 2, September 15, 1775; Smith, Letters of Delegates, vol. 2, 13.
100 For Sherman to succeed: Collier, Roger Sherman’s Connecticut, 92.
100 A bitter division: Boardman, Roger Sherman, 133; Collier, Roger Sherman’s Connecticut, 112-113; Letter, Sherman to Wooster, June 23, 1775, as quoted in Fellows, The Veil Removed, 107; Freeman, George Washington, 474.
100 He wrote to Elizabeth: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth Deane, July 15, 1775, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 72-73.
100 But Sherman and Wooster were furious: Letter, Sherman to Wooster, June 23, 1775, as quoted in Fellows, The Veil Removed, 107; letter, Wooster to Sherman, July 7, 1775, quoted in Boutell, The Life of Roger Sherman, 88-89.
101 Deane was “confoundedly Chagrined”: Letter, Eliphalet Dyer to Joseph Trumbull, quoted in Collier, Roger Sherman’s Connecticut, 132.
101 Ezra Stiles, a Congregationalist minister: Stiles, The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, vol. 1, 654.
101 Sherman most likely played: Letter, John Trumbull to Silas Deane, October 20, 1775, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 86; Collier, Roger Sherman’s Connecticut, 131-132.
101 He wrote Elizabeth: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth Deane, November 26, 1775, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 93-94.
102 In private, Deane confided: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, January 21, 1776, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 100.
102 In Deane’s eyes, Sherman: Ibid., 98.
102 Once, Deane loaned Sherman his coach: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, July 23, 1775, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 73-77.
102 With characteristic magnanimity: Letter, Deane to Elizabeth, January 21, 1776, Deane Papers, vol. 1, 99.
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104 “Beaumarchais was joined: Gudin, Histoire de Beaumarchais, 175-76; Ruskin, Spy for Liberty, 93.
104 Once seated at the Lord Mayor’s: Gudin, Histoire de Beaumarchais, 175-76.
104 Some London newspapers: Williamson, Wilkes, 146; Kronenberger, The Extraordinary Mr. Wilkes, 114; Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 137-42; Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 186.
105 In fact, Wilkes was as unsure: Quoted in Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont ,139.
105 Unperturbed by this news: Wilkes Papers, British Library, Additional Manuscripts 30866.
105 He was a radical: Postgate, That Devil Wilkes, 18-49; Cash, John Wilkes, 33-35.
105 The king called him: Kronenberger, The Extraordinary Mr. Wilkes, 114.
105 When John Montagu: Quoted in Cash, John Wilkes, 1-2.
105 The son of a malt distributor: Quoted in Trench, Portrait of a Patriot, 266.
106 When d’Eon feared: Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 126.
106 In April 1763, Wilkes published: Postgate, That Devil Wilkes, 50-51, 111-31; Cash, John Wilkes, 68-72, 99-103.
107 There he inhabited a comfortable: Cash, John Wilkes, 218, 227-230; Telfer, The Strange Career of Chevalier D’Eon, 205.
107 Wilkes had begun his political career: Cash, John Wilkes, 49-50, 231-35.
107 Wilkes warned: The Speeches of Mr. Wilkes in the House of Commons, vol. 2 (1777), 12-31.
108 Wilkes declared that the American colonies: Wilkes, The Speeches of Mr. Wilkes in the House of Commons (1786), 296-315.
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109 At fifty-five, he looked: Price, Preserving the Monarchy, 18-19.
110 Six years before: Ibid., 8.
110 Vergennes questioned Choiseul’s: Murphy, Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, 97-101.
111 Privately, Louis XV: Van Tyne, “Influences Which Determined the French Government to Make the Treaty with America, 1778,” 528-41; Van Tyne, “French Aid Before the Alliance of 1778,” 20-30.
111 Choiseul’s tenure as foreign minister: Murphy, Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes , 212-13; Dull, A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution, 36.
111 The twenty-two-year-old monarch felt: Quoted in Cronin, Louis & Antoinette , 68.
112 Vergennes’s worldview: Dull, A Diplomatic History, 36; Murphy, Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, 211-20.
113 Weaker states were: Quoted in Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution , 14.
113 Vergennes knew that: Murphy, Charles Gravier, 222-29.
113 Vergennes wrote to the Spanish ambassador Aranda: Letter, Vergennes to Aranda, November 25, 1775, quoted in Murphy, Charles Gravier, 228.
114 Vergennes warned: Letter, Vergennes to Count de Guines, June 23, 1775, Shewmake, For the Good of Mankind, 64; Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution , 19.
114 Beaumarchais returned to Versailles: Morton and Spinelli, Beaumarchais and the American Revolution, 24.
115 Beaumarchais wrote: Letter, Beaumarchais to Louis XVI, September 21, 1775, Shewmake, For the Good of Mankind, 70-71.
115 Beaumarchais argued that France: Ibid., 69-72.
116 Beaumarchais cautioned: Ibid., 72.
116 At this point, Vergennes would not consider: Dull, A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution, 48-49; Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution, 35; Murphy, Charles Gravier, 233.
117 “All the sagacity”: Letter, Beaumarchais to Vergennes, September 21, 1775, Shewmake, For the Good of Mankind, 73.
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119 These delegates included: November 29, 1775, Journals of the Continental Congres, vol. 3, 392; Brands, The First American, 521; Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, 538-539; Srodes, Franklin, 271.
120 Just days before: Hamon, Le Chevalier de Bonvouloir, 11-12, 26-27; Alsop, Yankees at the Court, 28-30; Morgan, Benjamin Franklin, 229-230.
121 Vergennes thought Ambassador Guines: Alsop, Yankees at the Court, 24-26.
121 He instructed Bonvouloir: Murphy, Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, 232; Bendiner, The Virgin Diplomats, 50.
122 The four men were perplexed: Hamon, Le Chevalier de Bonvouloir, 28-29; Bonvouloir’s Report, December 28, 1775, Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, vol. 1, 334; Karsch, “The Unlikely Spy,” Carpenter’s Hall, at http://www.ushistory.org/carpentershall/history/french.htm.
123 The five delegates asked: Bonvouloir’s Report, December 28, 1775, Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, vol. 1, 334.
123 But then Bonvouloir: Ibid., 334-35.
123 With growing frustration: Ibid., 334.
124 He wrote to Vergennes: Ibid.
124 In fact, at the time Bonvouloir: Freeman, George Washington, vol. 4, 622.
125 In case the report: Alsop, Yankees at the Court, 31-32.
125 Though the would-be diplomat: Bonvouloir’s Report, December 28, 1775, Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, vol. 1, 334; Brands, The First American, 521; Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin, 321; Srodes, Franklin, 271-72; Morgan, “Ezra Stiles,” 229-30; Alsop, Yankees at the Court, 26-35.
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127 Washington’s army was in desperate: Risch, Supplying Washington’s Army, 339- 62; Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 509; Ferguson and Nuxoll, “Investigation of Government Corruption,” 16-17.
