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Indies; that these transports will contain about two thousand five hundred Germans, who, it is supposed, in case of such an evacuation, will have the same destination; that Carleton told him, and desired him to mention it at large, that he was a real friend to America, and wished her to be powerful, rich, united, and happy, and secure against all her enemies; that he also intimated, in the course of conversation, that Canada would probably be given up as a fourteenth member of the Confederacy. You will draw such conclusions from these particulars as you think fit. The gentlemen of South Carolina vouch for the veracity of Mr. Blake. It appears to me much more clear that the Ministry really mean to subscribe to our independence, than that they have renounced the hope of seducing us from the French connection.

The motion for revoking the power given to France has been made again, and pushed with the expected earnestness, but was parried, and will issue, I believe, in an adoption of your report with a representation thereupon to the Court of France.

Among other means of revenue, the back lands have on several late occasions been referred to, and at length recommended by a Grand Committee to the consideration of Congress. A motion for assigning a day to take up the report was negatived by a small majority. The report has been repeated by the committee, but a second experiment has not been made in Congress. Several of the Middle States seem to be facing about. Maryland, however, preserves its wonted jealousy and obstinacy.

In compiling the evidence of our title, I suppose you will, of course, be furnished with all Mr. Jeffer

son's lights. I have lately seen a fact stated by him, which shows clearly the ideas entertained by Virginia with respect to her territorial limits subsequent to the resumption of the charter. In a convention between commissioners on the part of the Commonwealth of England, and of the Grand Assembly of Virginia in 1651, by which the latter submit to the new government, it is stipulated that Virginia shall enjoy the ancient bounds and limits granted by the charters of the former Kings, and that a new charter shall be issued from the Parliament against any that shall have entrenched upon the rights thereof.*

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In my last I informed you that the motion to rescind the control given to France over the American Ministers had been parried, and would probably end in an adoption of your report. It was parried by a substitute so expressed as to give a committee sufficient latitude in reporting, without implying on the part of Congress a design to alter past instructions. The composition of the committee appointed according well with the object of the substitute, a report was made that the expository report should be referred to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, to be by him revised and transmitted to the Ministers in Europe, and that the latter should communicate so much thereof as they might judge fit to His Most Christian Majesty, representing to him, &c.

In this train the business was going on smoothly, each of the opposite parties seeming to concur from a fear of something more distant from their wishes, when

**

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, August 27, 1782.

DEAR SIR,

Your favor of the sixteenth came duly to hand yesterday. The hints which it gives with regard to merchandizes imported in returning flags, and the inintrusion of obnoxious aliens 'hrough other States, merit attention. The latter subject has, on several occasions, been mentioned in Congress, but, I believe, no committee has ever reported a remedy for the abuse. A uniform rule of naturalization ought certainly to be recommended to the States. Their individual authority seems, if properly exerted, to be competent to the case of their own citizens.

The report touching the unpopularity of 554. 308. was perfectly new to me. It may, nevertheless, be true. The letter received yesterday from the Governor is silent as to the appointment of Commissioners to treat with the Southern Indians.

We are still left without information concerning negotiations in Europe. So long a silence of our Ministers, at so interesting a crisis, grows equally distressing and inexplicable. The French fleet has gone into Boston harbour. The arrival of a British fleet on this coast is reported, but disbelieved by VOL. I.-11

many. The French army is on its way northward from Baltimore. It is to proceed in five divisions, the first of which is to be here about Friday next.

Congress received yesterday a letter from General Washington, enclosing one to him from Carleton, with the proceedings of the court-martial in the case of Lippencot. It appears that this culprit did not deny the fact charged upon him, but undertook to justify it as a necessary retaliation, and as war ranted by verbal orders from the Board of Refugees. The court decided this warrant to be insufficient, but acquitted him on the pretext that no malicious intention appeared. Carleton explicitly acknowledges and reprobates the crime, and promises to pursue it in other modes; complaining, at the same time, of irregularity in the step taken by General Washington of selecting and devoting to execution an innocent, and even capitulant, officer, before satisfaction had been formally demanded and refused. General Washington seems to lean to the side of compassion, but asks the direction of Congress. What that will be, may, perhaps, be communicated in my next.

The consideration of your territorial report has been resumed. The expedient which was meant to conciliate both sides proved, as often happens, a means of widening the breach. The jealousies announced on the side mentioned in my last were answered with reciprocal jealousies from the other, and the report between the two was falling to the ground, when a commitment, as a lesser evil, was proposed and agreed to.

Mr. Jones and his family arrived on Sunday at Germantown, without halting in this city. Himself,

his lady, and little son, were all extremely sick during the whole journey. Mrs. Jones is still very much indisposed, and Mr. Jones considerably so. They do not propose to come into the city till the salubrity of Germantown shall have enabled them to encounter its noise and polluted atmosphere.

I cannot, in any way, make you more sensible of the importance of your kind attention to pecuniary remittances for me, than by informing you that I have for some time past been a pensioner on the favor of Hayne Solomon, a Jew broker. Will not the agent of Mr. Morris give a draft, payable to me, for notes payable to the bearer? Or may not the notes be so endorsed as, in case of accident, to prevent payment to another? In either of those cases, a remittance of notes (if they can be procured for me) by the post will be safe. But my present situation renders such a conveyance preferable to delay, even if neither of the foregoing expedients be practicable. Show this paragraph to Mr. Ambler, if you please.

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, September 3, 1782.

You will again be disappointed at the opening of this, since it contains no European intelligence on the subject of peace. Among other reasons which render it astonishing that we should be long uninformed, a material one is, that neither the Court of France, nor our Ministers, can be insensible of the

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