Silas Deane Silas Deane ( December 24 , 1737 – September 23 , 1789 ) was an American merchant , politician and diplomat . Originally a supporter of American independence Deane served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and then as the United States ' first foreign diplomat when he travelled to France to lobby the French government for aid . Deane was drawn into a major political row over his actions in Paris , and subsequently endorsed Loyalist criticisms of American independence and lived on a modest charity provided him in London . Deane later lived in the Dutch Republic and Great Britain . Upon attending a naval voyage back to America , Deane died under suspicious circumstances . Early life . Deane was born in Groton , Connecticut , the son of a blacksmith . He graduated from Yale in 1758 and in 1761 was admitted to the bar , he practiced law for a short time outside of Hartford before he became a merchant in Wethersfield , Connecticut . In Connecticut he taught the future double - spy Edward Bancroft . Continental Congress . He took an active part in the movements in Connecticut preceding the War of Independence , was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1772 , and from 1774 to 1776 was a delegate from Connecticut to the Continental Congress . France . Early in 1776 , he was sent to France by Congress in a semi - official capacity , as a secret agent to induce the French government to lend its financial aid to the colonies . Subsequently he became , with Benjamin Franklin and Arthur Lee , one of the regularly accredited commissioners to France from Congress . On arriving in Paris , Deane at once opened negotiations with the Comte de Vergennes who was the French Foreign Minister . With the assistance of the playwright and outspoken support of American independence , Beaumarchais , Deane organised shipment of many shiploads of arms and munitions of war to America helping finance the Battle of Saratoga . " He also enlisted the services of a number of Continental soldiers of fortune , among whom were Lafayette , Baron Johann de Kalb , Thomas Conway , Casimir Pulaski , and Baron von Steuben . Many of these officers soon made themselves unpopular once they reached America for a variety of reasons . As Deane had signed the contracts hiring them , he was given the blame by politicians in Philadelphia . His carelessness in keeping account of his receipts and expenditures , and the differences between himself and Arthur Lee regarding the contracts with Beaumarchais , eventually led to his recall and replacement by John Adams as ambassador to France on November 21 , 1777 and was expected to face charges based on Lee ' s complaints and on his having promised the foreign officers commissions outranking American officers . Before returning to America , however , he signed on February 6 , 1778 the treaties of amity and commerce and of alliance with France , which he and the other commissioners had successfully negotiated . It was also in Paris that Deane formally approved of Scotsman James Aitken ' s ( John the Painter ) plot to destroy Royal Navy stores in Portsmouth , England on behalf of the Continental cause . As a mark of approval for Deane ' s conduct in Paris , the French government agreed that he should travel back to the United States aboard a warship carrying out the first French ambassador to the United States . Louis XVI presented Deane with a portrait framed with diamonds and both Vergennes and Franklin wrote letters commending Deane . Spy Accusations . Deane reached Philadelphia on July 14 , 1778 . In America , Deane was defended by John Jay and John Adams in 1778 in a long and bitter dispute before Congress , whose requests for copies of his receipts and disbursements were refused by France ; since France had not officially made alliance with the Thirteen Colonies until February 6 , 1778 , they felt that any such evidence of their prior involvement would be a diplomatic embarrassment . Deane in turn then agitated for a diplomatic break with France and questioned the integrity of members of Congress who disagreed with him . He was finally allowed to return to Paris in 1781 to settle his affairs and attempt to find copies of the disputed records , but his differences with various French officials , coupled with the publication in " Rivington ' s Royal Gazette " in New York of private letters to his brother in which he repudiated the Revolution as hopeless and suggested a rapprochement with Britain , led to his being barred from entry and branded a traitor at home . Later life . Deane eventually settled in the Netherlands until after the treaty of peace had been signed , after which he lived in England in a state of poverty . He published his defence in " An Address to the Free and Independent Citizens of the United States of North America " ( Hartford , Conn . , and London , 1784 ) . Deane married twice , both wealthy widows from Wethersfield ; Mehitable Webb in 1763 ( who died in 1767 ) , and Elizabeth Saltonstall Evards in 1770 . His second wife was a granddaughter of Connecticut Governor Gurdon Saltonstall of the Massachusetts Saltonstall family . His stepson was Continental Army Officer Colonel Samuel Blachley Webb of the 9th Connecticut Regiment - later consolidated into the 2nd Connecticut Regiment which became part of the 3rd Connecticut Regiment which became the 1st Connecticut Regiment Death and Controversy . In 1789 Deane planned to set sail back to America to try to recoup his lost fortune . He mysteriously took ill and died on September 23 of that year , while his ship waited repairs . Some historians argue that he was poisoned by Edward Bancroft , an American double agent with the British who had been employed by both John Adams and Silas Deane for gathering intelligence during the Revolutionary War . Bancroft may have felt threatened by a potential testimony from Deane to the American Congress . As it turns out Silas Deane was never found guilty of Arthur Lee ' s accusations . His granddaughter Philura through her husband pressed his case before Congress , and his family was eventually paid $ 37 , 000 in 1841 on the ground that a former audit was " ex parte , erroneous , and a gross injustice to Silas Deane " . However , this event took place fifty years after his death . Legacy . The successful Revolutionary frigate USS " Deane " was named after him , as is the Silas Deane Middle School , the Webb Deane Stevens Museum , and the Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield . His grand mansion , completed in 1766 , was declared a National Historical Landmark and restored , and is open for public viewing as the Silas Deane House . There is a road in Ledyard , Connecticut named for Silas Deane . A dance , known as the Silas Waltz , became popular in the late 19th century , is speculated to be invented by Deane