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imported that he did not decline the proposition, but suggested, that, as General Gray was expected with final orders, it might be best to postpone the conference, adding that he should be attended by Lieutenant-Governor Elliott and Chief-Justice Smith."

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Philadelphia, May 6, 1783.

DEAR SIR,

Congress have received a long letter from Mr. Adams, dated in February, addressed to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. He animadverts on the revocation of his commission for a Treaty of Commerce with Great Britain; presses the appointment of a Minister to that Court with such a commission, &c., &c.

Letters from the Marquis de la Fayette and Mr. Carmichael show that the Court of Spain has become pretty tractable since the acknowledgment of our Independence by Great Britain. The latter has been treated with due respect, and the Court has agreed to accede to the territorial line it fixed for West Florida in the provisional articles. The navigation of the Mississippi remains to be settled.

My absence from Congress the past week disables me from giving you exact information of their latest proceedings. I am told that, in consequence of Mr. Adams's letter, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs has been instructed to project a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, which will probably bring the attention of Congress to the general department of foreign affairs.

DEAR SIR,

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Philadelphia, May 13, 1783.

Marbois lately took occasion in our family to complain of ungenerous proceedings of the British against individuals, as well as against their enemies at large, and finally signified that he was no stranger to the letter transmitted to Congress, which he roundly averred to be spurious. His information came from Boston, where the incident is said to be no secret ; but whether it be the echo of letters from Philadelphia, or has transpired from the correspondence of Mr. Adams to his private friends, is uncertain. This conversation passed during my absence in New Jersey, but was related to me by Mr. Carroll.

A project for a treaty of commerce with Great Britain has been reported by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and is now in the hands of a committee. The objects most at heart are; first, a direct trade between this country and the West Indies; secondly, a right of carrying between the latter and other parts of the British Empire; thirdly, a right of carrying from the West Indies to all other parts of the world. As the price of these advantages, it is proposed that we shall admit British subjects to equal privileges with our own citizens. As to the first object, it may be observed, that the bill lately brought into the British Parliament renders it probable that it may be obtained without such a cession; as to the second, that it concerns the Eastern States chiefly; and, as to the third, that it concerns them alone-whilst the privilege to be conceded will chiefly, if not alone, affect the Southern

States. The interest of these seems to require that they should retain at least the faculty of giving any encouragement to their own merchants' ships or mariners, which may be necessary to prevent a relapse under Scotch monopoly, or to acquire a maritime importance. The Eastern States need no such precaution.

General Washington and General Carleton have had an interview on the subject of arrangements for executing the provisional treaty. It was interrupted by the sudden indisposition of the latter. In the conversation which took place, he professed intentions of evacuating New York and all the posts in the United States held by British garrisons, as soon as possible, but did not authorize any determinate or speedy expectations. He confessed that a number of negroes had gone off with the refugees since the arrival of the treaty, and undertook to justify the permission by a palpable and scandalous misconstruction of the treaty, and by the necessity of adhering to the proclamations under the faith of which the negroes had eloped into their service. He said that if the treaty should be otherwise explained, compensation would be made to the owners; and, to make this the more easy, a register had been, and would be, kept of all negroes leaving New York before the surrender of it by the British garrison. This information has been referred by Congress to a committee. But the progress already made in the discharge of the prisoners-the only convenient pledge by which fair dealing, on the other side, could be enforced-makes it probable that no remedy will be applied to the evil."

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, May, 1783.

Your favor of the ninth instant was duly brought by yesterday's mail. My impatience is great to know the reception given to the propositions of Congress by the Assembly. I foresaw some of the topics which are employed against them, and I dread their effect from the eloquent mouths which will probably enforce them; but I do not despair. Until those who oppose the plan can substitute some other equally consistent with public justice and honor, and more conformable to the doctrines of the Confederation, all those who love justice, and aim at the public good, will be advocates for the plan. The greatest danger is to be apprehended from the difficulty of making the latter class sensible of the impracticability or incompetency of any plan short of the one recommended, the arguments necessary for that purpose being drawn from a general survey of the federal system, and not from the interior polity of the States singly.

The letter from the Delegation, by the last post, to the Governor, apprised the Legislature, through him, that negotiations for a treaty of commerce with Great Britain might be expected soon to take place; and that, if any instructions should be deemed proper, no time ought to be lost in giving the subject a legislative discussion. For my own part, I wish sincerely that the commercial interests of Virginia were thoroughly investigated, and the final sense of the State expressed to its representatives in Congress.

The power of forming treaties of commerce with foreign nations is among the most delicate with which Congress is entrusted, and ought to be exercised with all possible circumspection. Whilst an influence might be expected from them on the event or duration of the war, the public interest required that they should be courted with all the respectable nations of Europe, and that nice calculations of their tendency should be dismissed. The attainment of the object of the war has happily reversed our situation, and we ought no longer to enslave ourselves to the policy of the moment. The state of this country in relation to the countries of Europe, it ought to be observed, will be continually changing, and regulations adapted to its commercial and general interests at present may hereafter be directly opposed to them. The general policy of America is at present pointed at the encouragement of agriculture, and the importation of the objects of consumption. The wider, therefore, our ports are opened, and the more extensive the privileges of all competitors in our commerce, the more likely we shall be to buy at cheap, and sell at profitable, rates. But in proportion as our lands become settled, and spare hands for manufactures and navigation multiply, it may become our policy to favor those objects by peculiar privileges bestowed on our citizens; or at least to introduce regulations not inconsistent with foreign engagements, suited to the present state of things.

The relative situation of the different States, in this respect, is another motive to circumspection. The variance of their policy and interests, in the article of commerce, strikes the first view; and it

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