NECKER, Jacques (1732-1804). Letter signed ('Necker') to the British prime minister Frederick, Lord North [later 2nd Earl of Guilford], Paris, 1 December 1780, in French, autograph postscript, 4 pages, folio , bifolium.
NECKER, Jacques (1732-1804). Letter signed ('Necker') to the British prime minister Frederick, Lord North [later 2nd Earl of Guilford], Paris, 1 December 1780, in French, autograph postscript, 4 pages, folio , bifolium. NECKER'S REMARKABLE SECRET LETTER, PROPOSING A NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR. Responding to overtures by the English banker Thomas Walpole Necker expresses his love for peace ('Vous desirés la paix, je la desire aussi') and proposes that he and North should, if not write a peace treaty -- a task more suited to their political emissaries -- at least lay the groundwork ('Nous ne leur ravirions pas les honneurs d'un traité, mais nous pourrions preparer les premières voyes, ou connoitre, du moins, si le tems est venu'); the key to the treaty is to be 'une paix honnorable', on the basis of the belligerent parties each retaining their existing possessions; the negotiations must however remain secret, as any open negotiation would seriously damage the French financial position. An autograph postscript notes that the letter has been sent via an English-bound merchant who knows nothing of its contents, and in an envelope addressed for the sake of discretion to Lady North. 'Vous auriés surement plus de lumières et de facilités que moi pour indiquer les moyens qui peuvent concilier les pretentions des parties belligerentes, mais cette envie de voir venir, cet art de se tenir en arrière pour juger sans se compromettre, enfin toute cette science politique repugnant à mon caractère, et persuadé, d'ailleurs, que tant que c'est M. Necker uniquement qui parle à My Lord North, mes paroles ne seront point comptées, et que je les confie, d'ailleurs, à un homme fidèle, Je dirai franchement du premier abord qu'en reflechissant à part moi sur cette matière, je croirois qu'un Treve plus ou moins longue, pendant la quelle les parties belligerentes en Amerique, y conserveroient d'une manière indépendante ce qu'elles possedent, seroit un premier apperçu raisonable'. Jacques Necker had been French finance minister since October 1778 and his repeated several attempts in the course of 1780 to achieve a negotiated settlement of the American Revolutionary War reflected above all the increasingly desperate state to which the war effort had reduced the French national finances. His secret letter reached Lord North on 15 December, who forwarded it to George III on the 17th, commenting 'It will be rather difficult to draw a proper answer'; the King however simply dismissed it as a sign of French weakness, 'It shews France is certainly in greater difficulties than we imagined' (Sir J. Fortescue. Correspondence of King George III , 1928, vol.V, pp.162-3). Had George III been more receptive, there is no doubt that a separate Anglo-French peace at the end of 1780 would have been a severe blow to American hopes, and seems likely at the very least to have put back independence for many years. As it was, French land and naval forces continued to play a key role in the conduct of the war up until the crushing victory at Yorktown in the following September. Necker's letter was evidently returned to Lord North by the King, and was published by Lord Mahon ( History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles, 1713-1783 , 1858, vol.7, appendix, pp.xiii-xv) from among the North Papers (though with a number of significant variations and omissions).
NECKER, Jacques (1732-1804). Letter signed ('Necker') to the British prime minister Frederick, Lord North [later 2nd Earl of Guilford], Paris, 1 December 1780, in French, autograph postscript, 4 pages, folio , bifolium.
NECKER, Jacques (1732-1804). Letter signed ('Necker') to the British prime minister Frederick, Lord North [later 2nd Earl of Guilford], Paris, 1 December 1780, in French, autograph postscript, 4 pages, folio , bifolium. NECKER'S REMARKABLE SECRET LETTER, PROPOSING A NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT TO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR. Responding to overtures by the English banker Thomas Walpole Necker expresses his love for peace ('Vous desirés la paix, je la desire aussi') and proposes that he and North should, if not write a peace treaty -- a task more suited to their political emissaries -- at least lay the groundwork ('Nous ne leur ravirions pas les honneurs d'un traité, mais nous pourrions preparer les premières voyes, ou connoitre, du moins, si le tems est venu'); the key to the treaty is to be 'une paix honnorable', on the basis of the belligerent parties each retaining their existing possessions; the negotiations must however remain secret, as any open negotiation would seriously damage the French financial position. An autograph postscript notes that the letter has been sent via an English-bound merchant who knows nothing of its contents, and in an envelope addressed for the sake of discretion to Lady North. 'Vous auriés surement plus de lumières et de facilités que moi pour indiquer les moyens qui peuvent concilier les pretentions des parties belligerentes, mais cette envie de voir venir, cet art de se tenir en arrière pour juger sans se compromettre, enfin toute cette science politique repugnant à mon caractère, et persuadé, d'ailleurs, que tant que c'est M. Necker uniquement qui parle à My Lord North, mes paroles ne seront point comptées, et que je les confie, d'ailleurs, à un homme fidèle, Je dirai franchement du premier abord qu'en reflechissant à part moi sur cette matière, je croirois qu'un Treve plus ou moins longue, pendant la quelle les parties belligerentes en Amerique, y conserveroient d'une manière indépendante ce qu'elles possedent, seroit un premier apperçu raisonable'. Jacques Necker had been French finance minister since October 1778 and his repeated several attempts in the course of 1780 to achieve a negotiated settlement of the American Revolutionary War reflected above all the increasingly desperate state to which the war effort had reduced the French national finances. His secret letter reached Lord North on 15 December, who forwarded it to George III on the 17th, commenting 'It will be rather difficult to draw a proper answer'; the King however simply dismissed it as a sign of French weakness, 'It shews France is certainly in greater difficulties than we imagined' (Sir J. Fortescue. Correspondence of King George III , 1928, vol.V, pp.162-3). Had George III been more receptive, there is no doubt that a separate Anglo-French peace at the end of 1780 would have been a severe blow to American hopes, and seems likely at the very least to have put back independence for many years. As it was, French land and naval forces continued to play a key role in the conduct of the war up until the crushing victory at Yorktown in the following September. Necker's letter was evidently returned to Lord North by the King, and was published by Lord Mahon ( History of England, from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles, 1713-1783 , 1858, vol.7, appendix, pp.xiii-xv) from among the North Papers (though with a number of significant variations and omissions).
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