I send you enclosed the copies you desired of the papers I read to you yesterday.[17] I should be happy if I could see, before I die, the proposed improvement of the law of nations established. The miseries of mankind would be diminished by it, and the happiness of millions secured and promoted. If the practice of privateering could be profitable to any civilized nation, it might be so to us Americans, since we are so situated on the globe, as that the rich commerce of Europe with the West Indies, consisting of manufactures, sugars, &c. is obliged to pass before our doors, which enables us to make short and cheap cruises, while our own commerce is in such bulky, low priced articles as that ten of our ships taken by you are not equal in value to one of yours, and you must come far from home at a great expense to look for them. I hope therefore that this proposition, if made by us, will appear in its true light, as having humanity only for its motive. I do not wish to see a new Barbary rising in America, and our long extended coast occupied by piratical States. I fear lest our privateering success in the two last wars, should already have given our people too strong a relish for that most mischievous kind of gaming, mixed blood; and if a stop is not now put to the practice, mankind may hereafter be more plagued with American corsairs, than they have been and are with the Turkish. Try, my friend, what you can do, in procuring for your nation the glory of being, though the greatest naval power, the first who voluntarily relinquished the advantage that power seems to give them, of plundering others, and thereby impeding the mutual communications among men of the gifts of God, and rendering miserable multitudes of merchants and their families, artizans, and cultivators of the earth, the most peaceable and innocent part of the human species. With great esteem and affection, I am ever, my dear friend, yours most sincerely, B. FRANKLIN. FOOTNOTE: [17] See the Proposition about privateering, p. 67 of this volume. * * * * * ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO B. FRANKLIN. Philadelphia, May 9th, 1783. Dear Sir, We have yet had no information from you subsequent to the signature of preliminary articles by France, Spain, and Great Britain; though we have seen a declaration for the cessation of hostilities signed by you, Mr Adams, and Mr Jay.