Instead, therefore, of declining every article which will be useless to us, we accede to every one which will not be inconvenient. Had this nation been alone concerned, our desire to gratify them might have tempted us to press still harder on the laws and opinions of our country. But your Excellency knows that we stand engaged in treaties with some nations which will give them occasion to claim whatever privileges we yield to any other. This renders circumspection more necessary. Permit me to add one other observation. The English allow to foreign Consuls scarcely any functions within their ports. This proceeds, in a great measure, from the character of their laws, which eye with peculiar jealousy every exemption from their control. Ours are the same in their general character, and rendered still more unpliant by our having thirteen parliaments to relax instead of one. Upon the whole, I hope your Excellency will delay which this Convention has met with, in the difficulties it presents, and our desire to surmount them, and will be sensible that the alterations proposed are dictated to us by the necessity of our circumstances, and by a caution which cannot be disapproved, to commit ourselves to no engagements which we foresee we might not be able to fulfil. see the cause of the These alterations, with some smaller ones which may be offered on the sole principle of joint convenience, shall be the subject of more particular explanation whenever your Excellency shall honor me with a conference thereon. I shall then, also, point out the verbal changes which appear to me necessary, to accommodate the instrument to the views before expressed. In the meantime, I have the honor of being, &c., Sir, TH: JEFFERSON. FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN JAY. Paris, July 29, 1788. Having received the enclosed letter* from Julien Laurent, claiming his wages as a volunteer on board the Bon Homme Richard, I have the honor of forwarding it to you, supposing it will of course be referred to the proper office to take order on. I have the honor to be, &c., *Sent to the Board of Treasury 11th June, 1789. TH: JEFFERSON. FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN JAY. Paris, August 3, 1788. Sir, My last letters to you were of the 4th and 23d of May, with a P. S. of the 27th. Since that I have been honored with yours of April 24th, May 16th, and June the 9th. The most remarkable internal occurrences since my last are these: The Noblesse of Bretagne, who had received with so much warmth the late innovation in the Government, assembled and drew up a memorial to the King, and chose twelve members of their body to come and present it. Among these was the Marquis de la Rouerie, (Colonel Armand.) The King, considering the Noblesse as having no legal right to assemble, declined receiving the memorial. The deputies, to give greater weight to it, called a meeting of the landed proprietors of Bretagne resident at Paris, and proposed to them to add their signatures. They did so to the number of about sixty, of whom the Marquis de la Fayette was one. The twelve deputies, for having called this meeting, were immediately sent to the Bastile, where they now are; and the Parisian signers were deprived of such favors as they held of the Court. There were only four of them, however, who held anything of that kind. The Marquis de la Fayette was one of these. They had given him a military command to be exercised in the south of France, during the months of August and September of the present year. This they took from him, so that he is disgraced in the ancient language of the Court, but, in truth, honorably marked in the eyes of the nation. The Ministers are so sensible of this, that they have had separately private conferences with him to endeavor, through him, to keep things quiet. From the character of the province of Bretagne, it has been much apprehended, for some days, that the imprisonment of their deputies would have produced an insurrection. But it took another turn. The cours intermediaires of the province, acknowledged to be a legal body, deputed eighteen members of their body to the King. To these he gave an audience, and the answer of which I send you a copy. This is hard enough. Yet I am in hopes the appeal to the sword will be avoided, and great modifications in the Government be obtained without bloodshed. As yet, none has been spilt, according to the best evidence I have been able to obtain, notwithstanding what the foreign newspapers have said to the contrary. The convocation of the States General is now become inevitable. Whenever the time shall be announced certainly, it will keep the nation quiet till they meet. According to the present probabilities, this must be in the course of the next summer. But to what movements their meeting and measures may give occasion, cannot be foreseen. Should a foreign war take place, still they must assemble the States General, because they cannot, but by their aid, obtain money to carry it on. Monsieur de Malesherbe will, I believe, retire from the King's Council. He has been much opposed to the late acts of authority. The Baron de Breteuil has resigned his Secretaryship of the domestic department. Certainly not for the same reason, as he is known to have been of opinion that the King had compromitted too much of his authority. The real reason has probably been an impatience of acting under a principal Minister. His successor is M. de Villedeuil, late Comptroller General. The Ambassadors of Tippoo Saib have arrived here. If their mission has any other object than that of pomp and ceremony, it is not yet made known. Though this Court has not avowed that they are in possession of Trincomali, yet the report is believed, and that possession was taken by General Conway, in consequence of orders given in the moment that they thought a war certain. The dispute with the States General of the United Netherlands, on account of the insult to M. de St. Priest, does not tend as yet towards a settlement. He has obtained leave to go to the waters, and, perhaps, from there he may come to Paris to await events. Sweden has commenced hostilities against Russia by the taking a little fortress by land. This having been their intention, it is wonderful that when their fleet lately met three Russian ships of one hundred guns each, they saluted, instead of taking them. The Empress has declared war against them in her turn. It is well understood that Sweden is set on by England, and paid by the Turks. The prospect of Russia has much brightened by some late successes. Their fleet of galleys and gun-boats, twenty-seven in number, having been attacked by fifty-seven Turkish vessels of the same kind, commanded by the Captain Pacha, these were repulsed with the loss of three vessels. In the action, which was on the 18th of June, Admiral Paul Jones commanded the right wing of the Russians, and the Prince of Nassau the left. On the 26th of the same month, the Turkish principal fleet, that is to say, their ships of the line, frigates, &c., having got themselves near to the swash, at the mouth of the Boristhenes, the Prince of Nassau took advantage of their position, attacked them while so engaged in the mud that they could not manœuvre, burnt six, among which were the Admiral's and Vice Admiral's, took two, and made between three or four thousand prisoners. The first report gave this success to Admiral Paul Jones, but it is now rendered rather probable that he was not there, as he commands the vessels of war, which are said not to have been there. It is supposed his presence in the affair of the 18th was accidental. But, if this success has been as complete as it is represented, the Black sea must be tolerably open to the Russians, in which case we may expect, from what we know of that officer, that he will improve to the greatest advantage the situation of things on that sea. The Captain Pacha's standard was taken in the last action, and himself obliged to make his escape in a small vessel. Prince Potemkin immediately got under march for Oczakow, to take advantage of the consternation into which that place was thrown. The Spanish squadron, after cruising off the Western Isle and Cape St. Vincent, is returned into port. A dispute has arisen between the Papal See and the King of Naples, which may, in its progress, enable us to estimate what degree of influence that See retains at the present day. The Kingdom of Naples, at an early period of its history, became feudatory to the See of Rome, and, in acknowledgment thereof, has annually paid a hackney to the Pope in Rome, to which place it has always been sent by a splendid embassy. The hackney has been refused by the King this year, and the Pope, giving him three months to return to obedience, threatens, if he does not, to proceed seriously against him. About three weeks ago a person called on me, and informed me that Silas Deane had taken him in for a sum of one hundred and twenty guineas; and that being unable to obtain any other satisfaction, he had laid hands on his account-book and letter-book, and had brought them off to Paris, to offer them first to the United States, if they would repay him his money, and, if not, that he should return to London, and offer them to the British Minister. I desired him to leave them with me four and twenty hours, that whether they were worth our notice. He did so. I might judge They were two volumes. One contained all his accounts with the United States, from his first coming to Europe to January 10, 1781. Presuming that the Treasury Board was in possession of this account till his arrival in Philadelphia, August, 1778, and that he had never given in the subsequent part, I had that subsequent part copied from the book, and now enclose it, as it may on some occasion or other, perhaps, be useful in the Treasury office. The other volume contained all his correspondencies from March 29th to August 23d, 1777. I had a list of the letters taken, by their dates and addresses, which will enable you to form a general idea of the collection on the perusal of many of them. I thought it desirable that they should not come to the hands of the British Minister; and from an expression dropped by the possessor of them, I believe he would have fallen fifty or sixty guineas. I did not think them important enough, however, to justify my purchasing them without authority, though with authority I should have done it. Indeed, I would have given that sum to cut out a single sentence, which contained evidence of a fact not proper to be committed to the hands of enemies. I told him I would state his proposition to you, and await orders. I gave him back the books, and he returned to London without making any promise that he would await the event of the orders you might think proper to give. News of the accession of nine States to the new form of Federal Government has been received here about a week. I have the honor to congratulate you sincerely on this event. Of its effect at home you are in the best situation to judge. On this side the Atlantic it is considered as a very wise reformation. In consequence of this, speculations are already begun here to purchase up our domestic liquidated debt. Indeed, I suspect that orders may have been previously lodged in America to do this as soon as the new Constitution was accepted effectually. If it is thought that this debt should be retained at home, there is not a moment to lose; and I know of no means of retaining it but those I suggested to the Treasury Board in my letter to them of March 29th. The transfer of these debts to Europe will excessively embarrass, and perhaps totally prevent, the borrowing any money in Europe till these shall be paid off. This is a momentous object, and in my opinion should receive instantaneous attention. The gazettes of France to the departure of my letter will accompany it, and those of Leyden to the 22d of VOL. II.-12 |