Nov 23, 2018 3 min read

Suppose you were planning to declare independence from, and therefore go to war with, the greatest military power in the world, one with an empire, of which you are a part, stretching across the globe. In contrast, your nation is 3 million people in 13 disparate and squabbling colonies along the Atlantic seaboard and has no army or navy to speak of. In that case, you might consider attracting allies to your cause – allies that can lend you money, supply you with military equipment and perhaps even fight alongside you.

Fortunately, the leaders of those 13 American colonies, gathered in the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775, did entertain that thought and this week (Nov. 29) in 1775 they established the Committee of Secret Correspondence, whose goal was to secretly persuade the many European powers of the worthiness of their quest for independence from Great Britain.

While most of those targeted European powers would have loved to see Great Britain taken down a peg, France, Britain’s longstanding enemy, especially rejoiced at the prospect of Britain losing its most prized colony. So, this Committee of Secret Correspondence, comprising Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Harrison, John Dickinson, John Hay and Robert Morris, sent American envoy Silas Deane to France to negotiate with French Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, the Count de Vergennes. In their negotiations, Vergennes pledged to provide America with unofficial, clandestine assistance, mostly military equipment and military advisers, but neither he nor France’s king, Louis XVI, were convinced that America’s chances of winning the war merited a full-time commitment.

However, in December of 1776, Ben Franklin, whom the French practically worshipped, joined the American negotiating team, and in October of 1777 the Americans decisively defeated a British army under Gen. John Burgoyne in the battle of Saratoga, which convinced the French that Americans had the staying power to win the war.

Thus in February of 1778, America and France signed the Treaties of Amity and Commerce, becoming allies. French aid would prove indispensable in the American war effort, culminating at the Battle of Yorktown in which French soldiers fought alongside George Washington’s army, and a French fleet under Admiral de Grasse defeated a British fleet, preventing the British from aiding the trapped British army under Lord Cornwallis. The British surrender at Yorktown in October 1781 marked the end of the war.

All through that war the Committee of Secret Correspondence, whose staff eventually grew to some 7,500 people, continued to operate, helping to enforce boycotts on British goods and strengthening ties with other European nations. A few years after America gained independence, the committee became a department, Foreign Affairs, and is the precursor to today’s State Department.

Bruce G. Kauffmann’s email address is bruce@historylessons.net.