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Notes and Documents NOTES AND DOCUMENTS T>r. ISerkenhout's Journaly 1778 When the British ministry decided to send another peace mission to America in 1778, it planned also to reinforce the offers to be made by sending along with the commissioners a number of "unofficial" propa- ganda agents. These agents were to be Americans then in England or Englishmen with American friends, who were known to favor recon- ciliation with the mother country. On arrival in this country they were to scatter through the colonies, advertise the purposes of the peace commission and openly or deviously urge congressional acceptance of the new terms.1 Some received pay and free passage; others ap- parently only passage money and promises of rewards if successful.2 The peace commissioners consisted of the Earl of Carlisle, William Eden and George Johnstone. The Howe brothers were also named, but did not serve. Johnstone was obliged to withdraw from the com- mission because of a political blunder he committed, and Sir Henry Clinton, the military commander-in-chief, was substituted for Gen- eral Howe. They are better known in history books as the Carlisle commission. The first three sailed from England on April 16. One of the propaganda agents selected to assist in the work of the commission was Dr. John Berkenhout (1730?-!791). Of Dutch parentage, he had been educated in England and Germany. In 1760 he entered the University of Edinburgh to study medicine, but took his degree at Leyden in 1765. At Edinburgh, however, he made the acquaintance of Arthur Lee of Virginia, who obtained his medical degree there in 1764. For the next dozen years, Berkenhout ostensibly practiced medicine in England, but he spent most of his time writing on medical topics and natural history.3 He also published a fBiografhia J^iteraria in 1777, of which Horace Walpole complained 1 B. F. Stevens, Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773-I7%3 (London, 1889), 824. 2 Ibid,, 424, 434. 3 Dictionary of National Biography, IV. 369. 79 80 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS January that Berkenhout's method was to get others to write the biographical sketches for him.4 Berkenhout appears to have been employed by the government in 1777 to correspond with Arthur Lee in Paris on possible terms of accommodation with England.5 Lee communicated the contents of this exchange to Franklin and Vergennes.6 Nothing came of it, of course. It was Berkenhout's acquaintance with Arthur Lee, by which he planned to meet Richard Henry Lee, that caused his inclusion in the peace delegation. On 18 April 1778, Lord George Germain, the colonial secretary, directed the lords of the admiralty to receive Mr. and Mrs. John Temple and Dr. Berkenhout and suite on board the J^ioness.1 Evidently it was first planned to send them in the same ship with the commissioners, but the idea was abandoned either for lack of room, or, more probably, because of its obviousness.8 The J^ioness sailed from Portsmouth on May 25 and arrived in New York early in August.9 The reception of the Carlisle commission, meanwhile, had not been up to the expectations of those gentlemen. They were somewhat peeved in the first place that they had been directed to land in Phila- delphia after Lord Germain had instructed Sir Henry Clinton to evacuate the city and return the army to New York.10 This oversight seemed to indicate that the ministry was not hopeful of results from the commission. Then the Continental Congress passed a resolution, consequent to Johnstone's inept attempt at bribery, refusing to deal with this member. Negotiations thus approached a standstill, and His Majesty's "Right Trusty and Right Wellbeloved Cousins" twiddled their thumbs in New York. There was little to do but try the effect of their propaganda agents on public opinion and hope for a favorable discussion of the peace offers. 4 Mrs. Paget Toynbee, ed., The Letters of Horace Walpole . (Oxford, 1904), VIII. 285, 313. 5 J. C. Ballagh, ed., Letters of Richard Henry Lee (New York, 1911), II. 135; Francis Wharton, The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (Washington, 1889), II. 443. 6 Lee's Narrative, in Papers in Relation to the Case of Silas Deane (Philadelphia, 1885), 157. 7 Stevens, Facsimiles, 453. Mrs. John Temple was the daughter of James Bowdoin of Boston. 8 Stevens, Facsimiles, 419, 1077. 9 London Chronicle, May 26-28, 1778; Gaines' New York Gazette, August 10, 1778. 10 Stevens, Facsimiles, 74, 496, 509. 1941 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS 8l Under these circumstances, Carlisle determined to get Berkenhout into Philadelphia to reach the ear of his friend's brother, Richard Henry Lee, one of the most influential members of Congress. Carlisle asked Eden his opinion of the move. Eden was against it: As to Dr. B, neither knowing him, nor the manner in which it is proposed to use his services, I speak much in the dark. If he came to this country from a fair zeal for the public service, and has incurred expenses, I should be happy to find some mode of rewarding him, or of obtaining a due reward for him, whether we use his services or not. But I am by no means prepared to give my vote for sending a person of whom I have so little knowledge to Philadelphia in the present moment; for I do not know any possible good to result from such a measure that can in any degree balance the possible mischief.11 Nevertheless, Carlisle persisted in the notion, as appears from this note among his papers: That Dr. B s[houl]d be sent to phi that 300 or 250 s[houl]d be given him, & that the journey w[oul]d consume about 16 days That the good proposed was to issue from the friendship between him & Batt.12 Next a pass was secured from Sir Henry Clinton to go through the lines into New Jersey. As Clinton was privy to the purpose of Berken- hout's journey, it may be questioned whether he was following the usages of warfare in granting a flag of truce to cover what was es- sentially a spying operation. It will be recalled that Sir Henry blundered on this very point of military law two years later, when he tried to shield Major John Andre's penetration of the American lines as a spy with a flag of truce. Berkenhout was doomed to failure in his mission, not merely be- cause of the attitude of Congress, but because of an incident that occurred before he even left England. A London newspaper under date of April 21 had published the fact that Dr. Berkenhout and John Temple were about to embark for America, "supposed to be sent on a private embassy to the Congress." The Tennsylvania Tacket had duly copied this item in its issue of July 16 for every congressman to see. Likewise, notice of Berkenhout's arrival in New York, which was mentioned in a New York paper, was reprinted in the Tacket of 11 Historical Manuscripts Commission, 15th Report, part 6, 360. 12 Ibid., 363; Stevens, Facsimiles, 85. The reference to Batt is probably a confusion in Carlisle's mind of Dr. Arthur Lee with Dr. William Batt (1744-1812), who had also studied at Leyden and doubtless was another friend of Berkenhout's. I am indebted for this very probable explanation to Carl Van Doren. 82 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS January August 13. The only wonder is that Berkenhout could obtain a pass to enter Philadelphia, or could have remained at large in the city a day after making his name known. He embarked on his journey August 24 and on reaching the American lines applied to Brigadier General William Maxwell for a pass. He represented to Maxwell that he had "intelligence of much import for Congress."13 Later, when Richard Henry Lee confronted him with this statement, Berkenhout denied having said such a thing to Maxwell and suggested that the general must have misunderstood him.14 On his arrival in Philadelphia on August 27, Berkenhout im- mediately applied to Richard Henry Lee and reported in his journal that he had conversations with him and with other members of Congress. Maxwell sent along a letter to Lee, inquiring whether he had acted correctly in permitting Berkenhout to proceed. Lee replied on the twenty-ninth that Congress suggested only that he use his discretion in such cases. He also said that he remembered hearing his brother refer to Dr. Berkenhout sometimes as a physician; beyond that he knew nothing about the man.15 The representation Berken- hout made to Lee was that he intended to move his family to America and wanted advice on a good location in which to settle and practice medicine.16 For a week Berkenhout roamed the city unmolested, enlarging his acquaintance. Whose information finally brought his arrest is difficult to determine. Silas Deane was then in Philadelphia, and in addition to bearing no love for the Lees he knew from Arthur Lee's corres- pondence Berkenhout's official connections. Perhaps he informed the state officials of the man's presence. Perhaps it was the "anonymous correspondent" (was it Deane?) who inserted in the "Pennsylvania Tacket on September 3 an item pointing out the earlier references to Berkenhout in the Tacket and expressing the hope that Congress would disappoint him of his intention. Lee, who was surprised by this information, understood that it caused Berkenhout's arrest.17 Possibly someone else who met Berkenhout remembered those earlier news- 13 E.
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