What’s the story?
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress declared the United States an independent nation. Five months later, this letter carried that declaration to a European court for the first time.Silas Deane of Connecticut was the first secret envoy dispatched by Congress to Europe. He arrived in Paris in July 1776, charged with securing arms, financing, and the groundwork for a formal alliance—before the new nation had announced itself to the world. The copy of the Declaration sent to him never arrived: the vessel carrying it was intercepted by British naval forces. Deane learned of its contents through English newspapers. A replacement finally reached him in November 1776.
This letter is his formal response to that congressional instruction. Writing to the Comte de Vergennes, France’s Foreign Minister, Deane presented the Declaration as legal proof that the United States had ceased to be colonies in revolt and had become a sovereign nation with the standing to negotiate. He also acknowledged Spain’s quiet goodwill in sheltering American vessels in its ports—a small but consequential act of unofficial support.
The letter is one page, written in Deane’s hand in brown ink on laid paper, and signed “Silas Deane, Agent for the United States in North America.” Its brevity belies its significance. In a single page, Deane was doing the essential work of alliance-building: establishing reciprocity before formal negotiation could begin.
The United States ultimately secured the alliances it needed—from France in 1778, and from Spain through proxy support even earlier. Today, as debates continue about America’s role in international partnerships and the value of multilateral cooperation, this modest document offers a reminder that the United States was born into the world not in isolation, but through the patient, deliberate cultivation of allies.
The Rosenbach holds several related items from this period of early American diplomacy, including correspondence connected to the negotiations that would eventually produce the French Alliance of 1778.
This interpretation was written by Hyung Wook Choi, as part of Rosenbach Museum & Library’s spring 2026 course, “The Curator’s Toolkit.”
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theme: Unfinished Revolutionssubjects: Declaration of Independence; Revolution, 1775-1783; Foreign relations
contributing repository: Rosenbach Museum & Library
submitted by: Hyung Wook Choi
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