and May 1, 1777, less than a month after the Foreign Affairs Committee had been instituted, James Wilson, John Adams, and Richard Henry Lee were selected a committee to

inquire into the laws and customs of nations respecting neutrality, and to report their opinion, whether the conduct of the King of Portugal, in forbidding the vessels of the United States to enter his ports, and ordering those already there to depart at a short day is not a breach of the laws of neutrality.1

Inquiries of this character, it might reasonably be expected, should have fallen within the functions of the Foreign Affairs Committee, but rarely did so.

The communications of the committee were usually signed by several of the members; but James Lovell signed them-often "for the committee"-continuously up to the time the committee was superseded by the department of foreign affairs. He was the most active member of the committee and its business was carried on chiefly by him. He was a Boston school teacher, born in that town October 31, 1737, and graduated from Harvard in 1756. After Bunker Hill battle he was imprisoned by the British, but was exchanged and entered Congress in December, 1776, serving till 1782. In 1779, he was one of the committee that drew up a design for the arms of the United States, but it was rejected. He espoused General Gates's cause against Washington. He is represented as having been a man of unusual learning, but 1 Journals of Cong., VII, 318.

of such eccentricities of manners and speech as to lead at times to a doubt of his sanity. Other members of the committee were: William Henry Drayton of South Carolina, William Duer of New York, and Jonathan Bayard Smith of Pennsylvania, who were elected June 1, 1778; Eliphalet Dyer of Connecticut, elected February 24, 1779, in place of Oliver Ellsworth, whose election on the committee is not recorded; William Churchill Houston of New Jersey, and Robert R. Livingston of New York, who were elected November 24, 1779.2 It appears that John Witherspoon also served as a member of the committee in October, 1779.3

The first public recognition of the independence of the United States by a foreign power was recorded in the treaty of amity and commerce and of alliance eventual and defensive between the United States and France, signed at Paris, February 6, 1778, by Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee, on the part of the United States, and by Conrad Alexander Gérard, on the part of France; and following this treaty, in July, 1778, came Gérard, the first representative of a foreign state to the United States. He was styled minister plenipotentiary, and bore a commission also as consul-general.*

Soon after his arrival, he transmitted to the President of Congress a copy of the speech he intended to

1 Austin, Life of Elbridge Gerry, I, 336.

2 Journals of Cong., XV, 1445.

3 Ibid., XV, 1168.

▲ Dip. Cor. Amer. Rev., II, 522.

deliver at his first audience, and it was referred on July 14, with the question of the time and manner of his public reception, to Richard Henry Lee, Samuel Adams, and Gouverneur Morris. The report drafted by Morris was presented July 17. It said:

That Ministers being of three different classes, viz: 1. Ambassadors; 2. Ministers Plenipotentiary and Envoys; and 3. Residents, it will be necessary to establish a ceremonial for each according to their respective Dignity. That your Committee report for an Ambassador the following ceremonial, viz:

When he shall arrive within any of the United States he shall receive from any Battery, Fort or Castle the same salute or other Honors which are paid to the Flag of the Prince or State which he shall represent and also at all places where there are guards, centries and the like he shall receive the same military honors and respect which are paid to a general officer in the service of the United States of the highest rank. When he shall arrive at the Place which the Congress shall be, he shall wait upon the President and deliver his credentials or copies thereof. Three members of Congress shall then be deputed to wait upon him, and inform him when and where he shall receive audience of Congress.

For a resident minister the committee proposed to omit the honor of escort by three members of Congress and to substitute a master of ceremonies. The other ceremonies were modified in proportion.

The consideration of so much of this report as related to ambassadors and resident ministers was postponed as unnecessary at the time. The ceremonies in the case of ministers plenipotentiary were

1 Journals of Cong., XI, 698, et seq.

prescribed in the following resolutions which were adopted July 20:

At the time he is to receive his audience, the two members [who are to act as his escort] shall again wait upon him in a coach belonging to the States; and the person first named of the two shall return with the minister plenipotentiary or envoy in the coach, giving the minister the right hand and placing himself on his left, with the other member on the front seat.

When the minister plenipotentiary or envoy is arrived at the door of the Congress hall, he shall be introduced to his chair by the two members, who shall stand at his left hand. Then the member first named shall present and announce him to the President and the house; whereupon he shall bow to the President and the Congress, and they to him. He and the President shall again bow unto each other, and be seated; after which the house shall sit down.

Having spoken and been answered, the minister and President shall bow to each other, at which time the house shall bow, and then he shall be conducted home in the manner in which he was brought to the house.

Those who shall wait upon the Minister, shall inform him, that, if in any audience he shall choose to speak on matters of business, it will be necessary previously to deliver in writing to the President, what he intends to say at the audience; and if he shall not incline thereto, it will, from the Constitution of Congress, be impracticable for him to receive an immediate answer.

The style of address to Congress shall be "Gentlemen of the Congress."

All speeches or communications in writing may, if the public minister choose it, be in the language of their respective countries. And all replies, or answers, shall be in the language of the United States.

After the audience, the members of Congress shall be first visited by the Minister Plenipotentiary or Envoy.1

1 These ceremonies were followed when the French

minister had his first audience, August 6, 1778. The committee of foreign affairs did not participate in the ceremonies as a committee. The communications of the French minister were sent direct to the President of Congress, and were considered by the whole Congress after having been reported upon by some special committee. Upon occasion, in the event of some communication of importance, the President of Congress would declare that, in his opinion, it was expedient that the Congress and the minister should confer. The latter would then meet the Congress in committee of the whole, and the result of the interview would be reported to the Congress itself. The minister held the right to be present, however, when foreign affairs were being discussed, and thus became a factor in the conclusions reached. His dispatches to his government are in themselves a record of the proceedings of the Congress.

The discussion of negotiating a treaty of peace with Great Britain began in Congress early in 1779, and . August 4, a committee of five was selected "to prepare instructions for the minister plenipotentiary of these United States to be appointed for negotiating a treaty of peace." August 13, Gouverneur Morris, Henry Laurens, Samuel Huntington, John Dickinson, and Thomas McKean, the members chosen, submitted a 1 Journals of Cong., XI, 707.