A month after the Battle of Philadelphia, Charles finally returned to Pittsburgh.
This trip was originally just to attend a wedding in Philadelphia, but the events that followed were completely unexpected for Charles. Fortunately, the Battle of Philadelphia ultimately resulted in victory. Although he did not assume a higher, specific position, the chairmanship of the Military and Ordnance Committee he obtained before the war was confirmed and solidified through this battle.
Stepping back onto the land of Pittsburgh, Charles clearly felt that it was no longer appropriate to call Pittsburgh a town. Although only a little over half a year had passed, at least tens of thousands of people had retreated to Pittsburgh with the Continental Congress. After the victory in Philadelphia this time, a large majority of people still favored Pittsburgh and chose to stay. Coupled with the original population and development scale, it now truly had the appearance of a city.
Moreover, because New York and Philadelphia had both experienced the ravages of war and lost most of their populations, Pittsburgh was now no less bustling than those two cities.
However, as soon as Charles arrived at his renovated trading center, he saw Mayor Patrick, who had visibly lost a lot of weight.
This fellow, who had been glowing with health and getting fatter since Pittsburgh was established as a town, not only hadn't gained weight this time but was even thinner than when Charles last left.
"Oh, my esteemed Representative, you've finally returned! If you hadn't come back, I would have gone to Philadelphia to ask for your help!" Patrick complained to Charles as soon as they met.
"Oh! Mayor Patrick, I was just about to congratulate you on soon becoming the Mayor of Pittsburgh instead of the Mayor of Pittsburgh. Why do you still look so worried?" Charles asked with a smile.
Hearing Charles' meaning, Patrick's worried expression eased slightly, but he still complained:
"How can I be a mayor? I'm purely preparing to be a captain of nannies! I don't know why you thought of bringing all those people from the Continental Congress to Pittsburgh, along with so many refugees. Suddenly, there are so many mouths to feed, so many people. How can I manage them all? My town hall has over a month's worth of accumulated files. These days, I've been busy trying to borrow food from all over to solve the food supply problem for these tens of thousands of people."
"The food problem used to be more troublesome, but now that we have a connection with Louisiana, we should be able to buy some from them. Anyway, the buyers are still the ordinary people. I don't see many unemployed people in town now, and you don't have to pay for it, so what's there to worry about?"
"That was only resolved a few days ago. All those original steamboats were taken by you for transporting military supplies to Philadelphia. Later, they were even requisitioned by those 'noble' Continental Congress Representatives to transport them back to Philadelphia, along with a large amount of their personal belongings. This left us with no ships to buy food from Louisiana." Patrick was still full of grievances.
Charles now understood that the former Mayor Patrick was not complaining about the current size of the city, but rather grumbling that Charles should not have moved the Continental Congress to Pittsburgh in the first place.
"Haha! Haven't many of them left now? There won't be such problems in the future." Charles could only respond to Patrick with a dry laugh.
This fellow had done a good job of developing his base while Charles was away from Pittsburgh. No matter what, it was still very necessary to comfort his old subordinate at this time.
Patrick was also a very shrewd individual. He knew that Charles was no longer the same, and his status was much higher than before. Now that Charles was speaking kindly to him in a humble manner, he naturally knew when to stop, only adding:
"It's still uncertain whether there will be problems in the future. They still have an office here. Who knows when Philadelphia might be attacked by the British army again, and they'll all come back."
"Hahahaha..." Charles burst out laughing.
It seemed that the Continental Congress' time in Philadelphia had really put Patrick through a lot, to the point where he was full of grievances just by worrying about their return. However, now that Charles was back, those remnants left by the Continental Congress could be completely cleared out.
Through their conversation, Charles soon learned that the Continental Congress in Pittsburgh had indeed caused a lot of trouble for the local area. It could be said that Charles' entire background was almost thoroughly investigated by those idle Continental Congress Representatives who couldn't handle affairs properly.
Fortunately, Charles' strength in Pittsburgh was such that even with the addition of tens of thousands of refugees, his position remained unshakable. After witnessing Charles' power in Pittsburgh, those Continental Congress Representatives became even more respectful of him and dared not infringe upon his interests.
However, Patrick, a mere town mayor, though a local bigwig in Pittsburgh, was far from being noticed by these important figures. Lacking clothes and food, people basically asked him, the mayor, for everything. During the few months the Continental Congress was in Philadelphia, Mayor Patrick was practically a nanny for several months.
As soon as Charles returned to Pittsburgh, he immediately began new planning and leadership for the city. Upgrading from a town to a city required more than just a few minor changes.
Now, it's time to talk about Franklin in France again.
Because it was originally impossible to reach an American-British peace agreement, there was a slight twist. Although the British king was not prepared for reconciliation, the British cabinet, in order to prevent the Franco-American Alliance, employed many tactics, attempting to disrupt the Franco-American Alliance under the premise of reconciliation. However, ultimately, no peace was reached between America and Britain, which instead promoted the rapid conclusion of the Franco-American Alliance.
The story begins after Franklin and his colleagues arrived in France. The three envoys, led by Franklin, had just arrived in Paris when they met French Foreign Minister Vergennes. Vergennes highly praised Franklin's reputation, knowledge, and wisdom, but due to Washington's defeat in New York, he lacked confidence in America. He opposed confronting Britain when America's future was uncertain. This stance was within Franklin's expectations, and the talks yielded no substantive results.
After nearly three months in Paris, the Franklin delegation left the bustling city and settled in Passy Village, half a mile from Paris. The delegation's office in Passy was on the ground floor of the Hôtel de Valentinois, occupied by the owner, Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont. Chaumont enthusiastically supported the American cause and refused to accept rent at the time.
Since Franklin's arrival in Paris, Britain had also intensified its diplomatic activities. The British Ambassador to France, Stormont, closely monitored every action taken by the French and protested every hint of goodwill shown towards America. Vergennes was very friendly with the British personally, but politically, he bluffed to appease the British, for example, by prohibiting ships bound for America from carrying military supplies.
Though he often let them escape.
Beaumarchais was busy dealing with Deane. Franklin had entrusted this matter to Deane. Lee, however, was angry and frustrated; he was ostracized by Deane, and Franklin overshadowed him. Deane's confidant, and later a close friend of the entire delegation, Edward Bancroft, was actually a spy. It was because Bancroft infiltrated the American delegation that Stormont was able to accurately protest to France, accusing France of violating the principles of neutrality, and that British cruisers were fully aware of the movements of cargo and mail ships bound for America. America paid a heavy price for this.
Britain knew from the outset that Franklin had arrived in France. His enemies in London spread rumors that he had shamelessly fled from a hopeless rebellion he had instigated. But Rockingham, who was Prime Minister when the Stamp Act was repealed and now the leader of the opposition in the House of lords, viewed Franklin's mission differently. Rockingham assumed that British ministers would try to minimize the danger of Franklin leaning towards France, but in their hearts, they would tremble at the thought.
Indeed. Even if the French government did not intend to immediately ally with America, American diplomacy was effective. Just days after the American envoys met Vergennes, they received a secret subsidy of two million francs. At the same time, Franklin resumed his interactions with French scholars. On January 15th, he attended a meeting of the French royal Academy of Sciences. On January 26th, he dined with the young Duc de La Rochefoucauld d'Anville. Afterward, d'Anville immediately began translating the constitutions of the thirteen American Atlantic coastal states. Through Lafayette's introduction, Franklin met members of the powerful Noailles family, one of whose daughters was Lafayette's wife.
After Franklin moved to Passy, he was almost overwhelmed by letters and visitors due to his fame and work. Anyone who thought of topics related to America, or knew something about it, wrote to Franklin; merchants endlessly applied to do business in America; the most numerous requests came from officers in France and other European countries who wanted to be recommended to the American army. Generally, he refused all of them. But there were exceptions, namely Lafayette and Steuben.
The young Lafayette was eager to avenge his father, who had died fighting the British army, and also to support the cause of the American people. Although Franklin had never met Lafayette before his trip to America, he wrote a letter to Washington recommending him and asking Washington to look after him, lest his "extremely generous character" be exploited by others. He told Washington that Lafayette had some friends who could help him prepare military equipment. After Lafayette arrived in America, he was highly valued by Washington and became a brave officer in the American army.
Another exception was baron von Steuben. Steuben had served in the Prussian General Staff as an aide-de-camp to king Frederick of Prussia, thus possessing military officer qualities that were considered first-rate at the time. In 1777, Steuben, impoverished, came to Paris seeking employment. He visited Franklin in Passy and expressed his desire to serve in the American army. From his self-described experiences, Franklin saw that he would surely become a useful talent in the American army, which lacked training and had poor combat quality. So, he discussed it with Deane and decided to strongly recommend him to join the American army.
By the time baron von Steuben arrived in America, it was just after the great victory in Philadelphia, during the reorganization of the entire army. Charles assigned him to Washington's headquarters in New York. captain Steuben was indeed a military genius; within a few weeks, he had completely transformed the army's training. From then on, this army's discipline and morale were comparable to those of the British army. On his training grounds, American militiamen became soldiers, and Steuben rendered outstanding service to America's cause of independence.
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Compared to these daily foreign affairs activities, the central part of the American diplomatic mission to France, which was to win France and Spain as allies through maneuvering with France, Britain, and Spain, made very little progress.
In June 1777, news of the great American victory in Philadelphia arrived, causing a sharp fall in the London stock market and a turning point in the almost stalled diplomatic process between America and France.
At this time, the American Continental Congress had just decided on its relationship with Britain. Envoy Jefferson had not yet been dispatched, but through channels within Britain, both the French and the American delegation learned of the great victory in Philadelphia.
On the day they received the news, the American delegation immediately sent an urgent official document to Vergennes. Arthur Lee also wrote to inform the Spanish Ambassador. Two days later, Conrad Alexandre Gerard, an official from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visited Passy, bringing Vergennes' congratulations and inviting the American envoys to redraft their proposals for an alliance.
Franklin drafted the proposals, which were presented to the French Foreign Ministry by Temple the next day. On the third day, the American envoys secretly went to the agreed location to meet Vergennes. Upon arrival, Vergennes and Gerard were already waiting. After exchanging pleasantries, Franklin, Deane, and Arthur Lee quietly waited for Vergennes to speak. Due to the significant changes in the American war situation, they hoped to reach an alliance as soon as possible to clarify the relationship between the two countries and accelerate the victory of the war of Independence.
However, Vergennes slowly said, "Since Spain has not yet clearly stated its position, the French government cannot act at the moment." He said that his messenger had already gone to Madrid and would return within a week. Franklin and the other two were somewhat disappointed to hear this. After listening to Vergennes praise the American army and encourage the American envoys to wait patiently, they said little, only coolly bade farewell, and returned.
Just a few days later, Gerard came to Passy again and told the members of the delegation that His Majesty the French king and his Council had already decided to form an alliance, but out of respect for Spain, they were technically unable to conclude the treaty for the time being. Once the messenger returned from Madrid, there would definitely be an explanation.
Seeing that the French Foreign Ministry was so eager to appease them, the American envoys, especially Franklin, were not surprised, as they had already learned that the British secret envoy Wentworth was already in Paris, having arrived on the very day of their secret meeting with Vergennes.
The British cabinet, concerned that France would take advantage of its defeat in Philadelphia, decided to adopt a strategy of external appeasement towards France.
Securing the Franco-American Alliance, even with the great victory in Philadelphia, was a very challenging diplomatic endeavor.