CHARLES WILLIAM FREDERICK DUMAS was a native of Switzerland, but he passed a large portion of his life in Holland, chiefly employed as a man of letters. He was a person of deep learning, versed in the ancient classics, and skilled in several modern languages, a warm friend of liberty, and an early defender of the American cause. About the year 1770, or a little later, he published an edition of Vattel, with a long preface and notes, which were marked with his liberal sentiments. When Dr. Franklin was in Holland on his way to France, a short time before his return to his own country, at the beginning of the Revolution, be became acquainted with M. Dumas. Having thus witnessed his ability, his love of freedom, and his zeal in favor of America, he considered him a suitable person to act as agent in promoting our affairs abroad. When the Committee of Secret Correspondence in Congress was formed, towards the close of the year 1775, of which Dr. Franklin was chairman, it was resolved to employ M. Dumas for executing the purposes of the Committee in Holland. A letter of general instructions were accordingly written to him by Dr. Franklin in the name of the Committee, and from that time M. Dumas commenced a correspondence with Congress, which continued without interruption during the Revolution, and occasionally to a much later period. He acted at first as a secret agent, and after John Adams went to Holland as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States, M. Dumas performed the office of Secretary and translator to the Minister. On the departure of Mr. Adams for Paris, to engage in the negociations for peace, M. Dumas remained in the character of Chargé d'Affaires from the United States. In this capacity he exchanged with the Dutch Government the ratification of the treaty, which had been previously negociated by Mr. Adams. It will be seen by M. Dumas's correspondence, that his services were unremitted, assiduous, and important, and performed with a singular devotedness to the interests of the United States, and with a warm and undeviating attachment to the rights and liberties for which they were contending. Congress seem not to have well understood the extent or merits of his labors. He was obliged often to complain of the meagre compensation he received, and of the extreme difficulty with which he and his small family contrived to subsist on it. Both Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin recommended him to Congress as worthy of better returns, but with little effect. This indifference to his worth and his services while living renders it the more just that his memory should be honored with the respect and gratitude of posterity. M. Dumas was still living in 1794, when Mr. John Quincy Adams went to Holland as Minister from this country, but he died soon afterwards at an advanced age. CORRESPONDENCE. B. FRANKLIN TO M. DUMAS. Dear Sir, Philadelphia, December 19th, 1775. I received your several favors of May 18th, June 30th, and July 8th, by Messrs. Vaillant & Pochard, whom if I could serve upon your recommendation, it would give me great pleasure. Their total want of English is at present an obstruction to their getting any employment among us; but I hope they will soon obtain some knowledge of it. This is a good country for artificers or farmers, but gentlemen of mere science in Les Belles Lettres cannot so easily subsist here, there being little demand for their assistance among an industrious people, who, as yet, have not much leisure for studies of that kind. I am much obliged by the kind present you have made us of your edition of Vattel. It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising State make it necessary frequently to consult the law of nations. Accordingly, that copy which I kept (after depositing one in our own public library here, and sending the other to the College of Massachusetts Bay, as you directed) has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress now sitting, who are much pleased with your notes and preface, and have entertained a high and just esteem for their author. Your manuscript " Idée sur le Gouvernement et la Royauté," is also well relished, and may, in time, have its effect. I thank you, likewise, for the other smaller pieces which accompanied Vattel. "Le court Exposé de ce qui est passé entre la Cour Britanique et les Colonies," &c., being a very concise and clear statement of facts, will be reprinted here for the use of our |