by
M.
Richard Maxson
Thomas Paine could be considered America’s first whistle-blower. His charges of skimming funds by the representative of the Continental Congress was the first of it’s kind in the new nation. His target was Silas Deane was a rising star on the American political scene. He was destroyed in a political scandal that reshaped American politics and altered the course of American diplomacy. The Deane scandal marked the first open breach among supporters of American independence and led these political leaders to turn to public opinion to secure support.
The scandal of 1778–1779 destroyed Deane’s political career and left him broke. It also led to the downfall of the reputation of his accuser. The Deane scandal developed at the same time as other political disputes, involving many different issues which include the proper nature of the new nation’s relationship with France. Prior to the Franco-American alliance of 1778, and while France was technically neutral, American commissioner Silas Deane profited greatly by skimming money from a clandestine system that transferred arms from France to the American patriots. He claimed he should be reimbursed for his efforts yet no one but Deane had made that conclusion. Deane had betrayed the public trust. On the other hand, Deane’s defenders did not see why public servants such as he should go broke in serving their country.
Trying to save his reputation, Deane demanded a quick investigation, but Congress did nothing in the fall of 1778. With his reputation tainted he decided to stoke the fire by accusing Arthur Lee, envoy to Spain and Prussia and one of America’s first spies, of being a British agent. In October, Deane published a series of anonymous queries in the Pennsylvania Packet, charging Arthur Lee with close, traitorous communications with a Britian, and in December, Deane publicly blasted Lee in a newspaper essay “To the Free and Virtuous Citizens of America.” This was the first open political dispute among the Patriots, and it caught the Lee off guard. John Adams said that the publication of Deane’s defense “appeared... like a dissolution of the Constitution.” Lee moved to have Congress censure Deane for his public breach, but they failed. Henry Laurens, president of Congress and a Lee ally, resigned to protest Congress’s failure to censure Deane.
Lee then turned to Thomas Paine, secretary to Congress’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, to come to their aid. Paine rightly lambasted Deane in his own writings, and accused him of spearheading a corrupt financial scheme. Paine wrote a vigorous series of essays attacking Deane for profiteering.
Though he told the truth about Deane, Paine’s musings subjected him to ridicule, and his reputation suffered. This was because, as a secret program, the arms transfer program was an embarrassment to France, which had only recently allied with the fledgling states. Paine revealed too much about French diplomacy, publicly acknowledging that France had supported the American colonies as early as 1776, when France insisted she was neutral. The French envoy to America forced Congress to fire Paine for publishing this information.
Despite having support of radicals in Congress, the conservatives within the body succeeded in forcing him to resign as secretary to Foreign Affairs committee of Congress, which he had been appointed to. From that point onward, many people detested Paine, even though he revealed anti-republican corruption and sought to uphold public virtue.
After returning to France in July 1780, Deane’s career continued to spiral downward. Months and months passed with no word from Congress, leaving Deane increasingly frustrated and despondent. In 1781, with the British in control of South Carolina and New York, Deane despaired of American victory, and wrote to American friends urging reconciliation. His reputation among fellow patriots further plunged, reaching a new low with the publication in 1782 of several letters that convinced his remaining supporters that Deane had become a defeatist, or worse. “I find that an independent democratical government is not equal to the securing the peace, liberty and safety of a continent like America.” When the British intercepted these letters, and the Loyalist New York press published them, what little was left of Deane’s public reputation was destroyed. He now seemed not only a profiteer but also a traitor. A visitor to Deane in November 1781, later told Benjamin Franklin, who was once Deane’s ally, he now viewed Deane as “an enemy alike to France and America.”
Deane moved to London in March 1783. Among his first visitors was his former Connecticut friend, now a disgraced traitor, Benedict Arnold. Reports of their meeting caused Deane’s remaining political friends in America to renounce any connection to him. Deane’s health continued to decline; his remaining hope of recouping any money from Congress and regaining his financial footing all but evaporated. In 1789, at the urging of his brother Barnabas, he decided to return to Connecticut. He embarked for America on September 23, 1789, but died just four hours out to sea. The vessel returned to port and Deane was buried in England.
