Excerpt from The National Loans of the United States, From July 4, 1776 to June 30, 1880 The opening of the Revolutionary War excited deep interest in Europe, and especially in France, which power, once the possessor of two-thirds of North America, had been humbled by the seven years' warfare that closed with the treaty of Fontainebleau, under which France had been forced to surrender to Great Britain all her American possessions except a few unimportant islands. The French watched with interest the course of events that threatened in turn to strip their hereditary enemy of both her old and new possessions in America, and to build up on this side of the Atlantic a new power. The contest claimed the particular attention of the Comte de Vergennes, the French minister of exterior relations, who, though unwilling at first to conclude an armed alliance with the colonies, determined to assist them with money and munitions of war. The treaty followed, but the military supplies and money furnished early in the contest-were of the utmost importance. These supplies were not furnished openly, because France was not in a position to commence war with Great Britain. Accordingly the celebrated Caron de Beaumarchais was employed as a secret agent. He was a brilliant French writer and courtier, a man of great vivacity and energy, but apparently with limited knowledge of mercantile afi'airs. As much sympathy has been expended on the memory of Beaumarchais, and his fate has been referred to as an illustration of the ingratitude of republics, an attempt will be made to bring to light, from the documents on record and from the works of his biographer and contemporary authorities, the facts in the case, with a view of showing the justice or injustice of the settlements between Beaumarchais and the United States. This question once divided Congress, and was the cause of much bitter feeling. It can now, however, be discussed, by the aid of documents then inaccessible, without prejudice. The charge made against the United States was a serious one, and involved the receiving of millions of dollars worth of supplies under a regular contract during the darkest hours of the Revolution, and then allowing the person furnishing these supplies to pass his last days in prison for the non-payment of the debt thus incurred. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.