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170 missioners named or to be named by the said Colonies or plantations, and any body or bodies corporate or politic, or any Assembly or Assemblies, or description of men, or any person or persons whatsoever, a peace or truce with the said Colonies or plantations, or any of them, or any part or parts thereof." Oswald went to Paris accompanied by Caleb Whitefoord as Secretary to the Commission. Whitefoord, who was of an old Scotch family, had known Franklin when living in Craven Street, and became intimate with him. Like Oswald he was in commerce, but had also acquired reputation as a wit and littérateur. Burke sneered at the appointments as those of a "mere merchant" and a diseur de bons mots.

Oswald received instructions from Shelburne, the fourth article of which said: "In case you find the American Commissioners are not at liberty to treat on any terms short of independence, you are to declare to them that you have our authority to make that concession, our earnest wish for peace disposing us to purchase it at the price of acceding to the complete independence of the Thirteen States." He was directed in his negotiations to claim as a matter of absolute justice all debts incurred to the subjects of Great Britain before 1775, and the interposition of Congress with the several provinces to procure an ample satisfaction upon this point; to demand the restitution of the confiscated property of the Loyalists, or an indemnification; to claim New York, which was still in possession of the English troops, and the ungranted domains in each province as a possible means of obtaining this indemnification; to do everything in his power to prevent the United States entering into any binding connection with any other Power; to propose an unreserved system of naturalization as the foundation of a future amicable connection; to act in perfect cordiality