Though I am extremely sensible of the favorable reception with which I have been distinguished at this Court, and am particularly flattered by the polite attention with which you have honored me at every conference, yet I have remarked with great concern that you have never led the conversation to the object of my mission here. A man of your liberal sentiments will not, therefore, be surprised or offended at my plain dealing when I repeat that I impatiently expect a prompt and categorical answer in writing from this Court to the act of Congress of the 25th of October last. Both my duty and the circumstances of my situation constrain me to make this demand in the name of my sovereign, the United States. But I beseech you to believe that though I am extremely tenacious of the honor of the American flag, yet my personal interest in the decision I now ask would never have induced me to present myself at this Court. You are too just, sir, to delay my business here, which would put me under the necessity to break the promise I have made to her Imperial Majesty, conformable to your advice. I have the honor to be, &c., PAUL JONES. FROM JOHN PAUL JONES TO THE COUNT DE BERNSTORFF. Copenhagen, April 5, 1788. Sir, I pray your Excellency to inform me when I can have the honor to wait on you, to receive the letter you have been kind enough to promise to write to me in answer to the act of Congress of 25th October last. As you have told me that my want of Plenipotentiary powers to terminate ultimately the business now on the carpet between this Court and the United States, has determined you to authorize the Baron de Blome to negotiate and settle the same with Mr. Jefferson at Paris, and to conclude at the same time an advantageous treaty of commerce between Denmark and the United States, my business here will, of course, be at an end when I shall have received your letter, and paid you my thanks in person for the very polite attentions with which you have honored me. I have the honor to be, &c., PAUL JONES. N. B. After the above letter had been delivered to the Minister, the subsequent answer was received from his Excellency. FROM THE COUNT DE BERNSTORFF TO JOHN PAUL JONES. Translation. Sir, You have requested me to answer the letter which you did me the honor to deliver on the part of Mr. Jefferson, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to his most Christian Majesty. I do this with so much the more pleasure, inasmuch as you have inspired me with confidence and an equal regard for your interest, and as this opportunity appears very fortunate and favorable to deliver the sentiments of the King, my master, concerning certain points which we consider as very important. Nothing can be more distant from the plan and wishes of his Majesty than the intentions of abandoning a negotiation, which has only been suspended by a train of circumstances naturally brought on through the necessity of allowing a new situation to be matured, of obtaining information concerning reciprocal interests, and of avoiding the inconveniences of a precipitate and imperfect arrangement. I am authorized, sir, to give you and through you to Mr. Jefferson, the King's word that his Majesty will renew the negotiation for a treaty of amity and commerce, and that in the forms already agreed on, as soon as the new Constitution (that admirable plan so becoming the wisdom of the most enlightened men) shall be adopted by a State which requires nothing but that to secure it perfect respect. If it has not been possible, sir, to discuss with you definitively, neither the principal nor secondary objects, the idea of eluding the question or delaying the decision was the last reason. I have already had the honor of informing you in our conversation, that a want of full powers from Congress themselves occasion a natural and invincible objection. It would, moreover, be improper and contrary to all received usages to change the place of a negotiation which, without being broken, has only been suspended, and to transfer it from Paris to Copenhagen. I have but one request to make you, sir, which is that you will be pleased to become the interpreter of our sentiments respecting the United States of America. It would be very agreeable to me to hope that which I have said to you on this subject has carried with it that conviction which the truth of what I have advanced merits. We ardently desire to form with them a solid and useful connexion ; we wish to establish it on a natural and a certain basis. The momentary clouds, the uncertainty which the misfortune of the times brought with them no longer exist. They are no more to be recollected; but as they may serve to show more sensibly the blessings of a more happy epoch, and to testify an eagerness of evincing the most proper dispositions to reunite and procure reciprocally those advantages which a sincere alliance may afford, and of which the two countries are susceptible. These are the dispositions which I can promise you, sir, on our part; we flatter ourselves to find them the same in America, when nothing shall retard the conclusion of an arrangement which I wish to consider as already far advanced. Allow me to repeat again the assurances of the perfect and distinguished respect with which I have the honor to be, &c., BERNSTORFF. FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN JAY. Paris, May 23, 1788. Sir, When I wrote my letter of the 4th instant, I had no reason to doubt that a packet would have sailed on the 10th, according to the established order. The passengers had all, except one, gone down to Havre in this expectation. None, however, has sailed, and perhaps none will sail, as I think the suppression of the packets is one of the economies in contemplation. An American merchant, corcerned in the commerce of whale oil, proposes to Government to despatch his ships from Havre and Boston, at stated periods, and to take on board the French courier and mail; and the proposition has been well enough received. I avail myself of a merchant vessel going from Havre to write the present. In my letter of the 4th, I stated to you the symptoms which indicated that Government had some great stroke of authority in contemplation. That night they sent guards to seize M. d'Epremesnil and M. Goislard, two members of Parliament, in their houses. They escaped, and took refuge in the Palais, (or Parliament House,) the Parliament assembled itself extraordinarily, summoned the Dukes and Peers especially, and came to the resolution of the 5th, which they sent to Versailles by deputies, determined not to leave the palace until they received an answer. In the course of that night, a battalion of guards surrounded the house, the two members were taken by the officer from among their fellows, and sent off to prison, the one to Lyons, the other, (d'Epremesnil,) the most obnoxious, to an island in the Mediterranean. The Parliament then separated. On the 8th, a bed of justice was held at Versailles, wherein were enregistered the six ordinances which had been passed in council on the 1st of May, and which I now send you. They were, in like manner, registered in beds of justice, on the same day, nearly in all the Parliaments of the Kingdom. By these ordinances, 1st, the criminal law is reformed, by abolishing examination on the sellette, which, like our holding up the hand at the bar, remained a stigma on the party, though innocent; by substituting an oath instead of torture, on the question prealable, which is used after condemnation, to make the prisoner discover his accomplices; (the torture abolished in 1780 was on the question preparatoire, previous to judgment, in order to make the prisoner accuse himself;) by allowing counsel to the prisoner for his defence, obliging the judges to specify, in their judgments, the offence for which they are condemned, and respiting execution a month, except in the case of sedition. This reformation is unquestionably good, and within the ordinary legislative powers of the Crown. That it should remain to be made at this day, proves that the Monarch is the last person in his Kingdom who yields to the progress of philanthropy and civilization. 2d. The organization of the whole judiciary department is changed by the institution of subordinate jurisdiction, the taking from the Parliaments the cognizance of all causes of less value than twenty thousand livres, reducing the numbers to about a fourth, and suppressing a number of special courts. Even this would be a great improvement, if it did not imply that the King is the only person in the nation who has any rights or any power. 3d. The right of registering the laws is taken from the Parliament and transferred to a plenary court created by the King. This last is the measure most obnoxious to all persons. Though the members are to be for life, yet the great proportion of them are from descriptions of men always candidates for the royal favor in other lines. As yet the general consternation is not yet sufficiently passed over to say whether the matter will end here. I send you some papers, which indicate symptoms of resistance. These are the resolution of the Noblesse of Britanny, the declaration of the Advocate General of Provence, which is said to express the spirit of that province, and the arrêt of the Chatelet, which is the hustings court of the city of Paris. Their refusal to act under the new character assigned them, and the suspension of their principal functions, is very embarrassing. The clamors this will excite, and the disorders it may admit, will be loud and near to the royal ear and person. The parliamentary fragments permitted to remain have already, some of them, refused, and probably all will refuse, to act under that form. The Assembly of the Clergy, which happens to be sitting, have addressed the King to call the States General immediately. Of the Dukes and Peers, (thirty-eight in number,) nearly half are either minors or superanuated; two thirds of the acting half seem disposed to avoid taking a part; the rest, about eight or nine, have refused, by letters to the King, to act in the new Courts. A proposition, executed among the Dukes and Peers, to assemble and address the King for a modification of the plenary court, seems to show that the Government would be willing to compromise on that head. It has been prevented by the Dukes and Peers in opposition, because they suppose that no modification to be made by the Government will give to that body the form they desire, which is that of a representa tion of the nation. They will aim, therefore, at an immediate call of the States General. They foresee that if the Government is forced to this, they will call them as nearly as they can, in the ancient forms, in which case less good will be expected from them. But they hope they may be got to concur in a declaration of rights, at least; so that the nation may be acknowledged to have some fundamental rights not alterable by their ordinary Legislature, and that this may form a ground-work for future improvements. These seem to be the views of the most enlightened and disinterested characters of the opposition. But they may be frustrated by the nations making no say at all, or by a hasty and premature appeal to arms. There is neither head nor body in the nation to promise a successful opposition to two hundred thousand regular troops. Some think the army could not be depended on by the Government; but the breaking men to military discipline is breaking their spirits to principles of passive obedience. A firm but quiet opposition will be most likely to succeed. Whatever turn this crisis takes, a revolution in their Constitution seems inevitable, unless foreign war supervene to suspend the present contest; and a foreign war they will avoid if possible, from an inability to get money. The loan of one hundred |