calendar, you will be so obliging as to add the dates of our own. Experience has shown that mistakes and delays have arisen in our office from the want of familiarity with the French calendar.

I have the honour to be, &c.

EDM. RANDOLPH.

No. 113.

Mr. Randolph, Secretary of State, to Mr. Adet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republick. Department of State, July 12, 1795.

SIR, It is with great reluctance that I trouble you so often upon the same subject. I cannot entertain a doubt, that, but for your indisposition, you would before now have answered my letter, on the new negotiation, as you were obliging enough to promise me in conversation several times. But the President intending to leave this city on Tuesday morning, and it being requisite, as I have had the honour of stating to you, that I should receive his instructions before his departure, I will thank you to enable me to present to him the subject of our negotiation as fully as your overtures will permit. If I discover some anxiety, I beg you to impute it to the hope that this business will result in our mutual honour, by proving that, while we each labour for the interest of our respective nations, we can promote the prosperity of both.

I have the honour to be, &c.

EDM. RANDOLPH.

No. 114.

TRANSLATION.

24th Messidor, 3d Republican year, July 12, 1795, O. S.

P. A. ADET presents his compliments to Mr. Randolph, and sends him the letter which he should have addressed to him some days ago, if the fever he is afflicted with had permitted him to attend to business. Mr. Randolph will find with that letter a part of P. A. Adet's instructions relative to the articles of the treaty which the French govern

ment has instructed him to stipulate positively-the other articles, founded on reciprocal advantages, are left to the course of the negotiation which is to establish them.

P. A. Adet will have the honour of seeing Mr. Randolph as soon as his health will permit.

No. 115.

TRANSLATION.

The Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republick, near the United States of America, to Mr. Randolph, Secretary of State of the United States. 20th Messidor, 3d year of the French Republick, one and indivisible, (8th July, 1795, O. S.)

SIR, I have received the letter you did me the honour to write to me dated the 1st July. I have never doubted the attachment of the United States for the French Republick, and the reply you made to my letter of the 30th June is a proof of it. You request of me, in that letter, some information, which I hasten to give you.

I neither know nor possess any other decree relative to the new negotiation to be opened between France and the United States than that of the *5th of February, 1793, communicated to you by citizen Genet; and as it must be in the office of your department, I conceive it will be useless for me to send it.

My instructions empower me to prepare the plans of a new consular convention, and of a new commercial treaty. After my government and that of the United States shall have approved of the plans, the sending of full powers for the signature is but a formality which is easily fulfilled. This step appeared proper, to avoid a number of inconveniences at the time of the ratification of the treaty.

I will fulfil the desire expressed in the last paragraph of your letter, and shall take care to add in all my despatches the date of your calendar to that of the French. Accept, sir, &c.

P. A. ADET.

This should have been 19.

No. 116.

TRANSLATION.

Extract from the Instructions given by the French Government to Citizen Adet.

THE minister plenipotentiary shall stipulate positively and without reserve the reciprocal exemption from the tonnage duty so necessary to our mercantile marine. This exemption, implicitly assured in the ports of the United States by the 4th and 5th articles of our commercial treaty, has never been executed therein, and since the organization of their customs a very burdensome tonnage duty has been rigorously exacted on our merchant vessels: even in 1793, a severity and an injustice were used, which the American government should not have suffered. But the respective naturalization of the French and American citizens, proposed by Mr. Jefferson, and desired by the French nation, will facilitate this stipulation of a reciprocal exemption from tonnage, and render it less offensive to the powers who, in virtue of treaties, might claim a participation in the same advantages: As the casus federis would by this stipulation be changed in this respect.

No. 117.

From the Secretary of State, to Mr. Adet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republick. Department of State, July 13, 1795.

66

SIR, I understand by the letter which I had the honour of receiving from you in the evening of yesterday, that your instructions give you power only to prepare the draught of a new consular convention, and a new treaty of commerce." Notwithstanding the formality of this procedure, the President of the United States has directed me to meet you.

But I am prevented, sir, from proposing to you a time, place, and arrangement for our conversations, by a fear of incommoding you in your present indisposition. Permit me therefore to expect, that as soon as your health will suffer you to attend to this subject, you will be so good as to inform me. I have the honour to be, &c.

EDM. RANDOLPH.

No. 118.

Mr. Randolph, Secretary of State, to Mr. Adet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republick. Department of State, July 16, 1795.

SIR, After acknowledging your letter of the 14th inst.* which I had the honour of receiving yesterday, I take the liberty of proposing the following plan of procedure in the discussions now commencing between us.

As you are not clothed with any very formal authority upon this subject, the President of the United States has thought it proper to place me upon the same and no other footing. Hence we are both to be considered as committees, delivering our own sentiments to each other, and after comparing them, reporting our opinions to our respective governments; which by these means will remain mutually uncompromitted, until the system is modified so as to meet their approbation.

So various and weighty is the business which now presses upon my attention, that I could not rely upon my own memory, nor upon my own accuracy, were not the interchange of our thoughts to be made on paper. I beg leave, therefore, to suggest, that we conduct the discussion in this way, except when it shall appear to either of us more expedient to have an interview on some particular difficulty. Our letters shall constitute no part of a formal report to our governments; and shall be liable to be recalled, or changed, as each party pleases; unless on the close of the transaction we shall agree to annex them to any draught which may be prepared.

Assuring you, then, that no unnecessary procrastination shall be found in me, I submit to your consideration this arrangement: 1st. That you state the parts of the subsisting treaty which you wish to be abolished: 2d. Those parts which you wish to be corrected: and 3d. any additions which seem to you desirable. These may be examined either separately or conjointly, as shall be most agreeable to you; and if you prefer stating one class at a time, I shall

This letter of the 14th, has no relation to the proposed negotiation.

not object. Indeed if any other arrangement shall strike you more favourably, I have too little predilection for my own, to hesitate at the adoption of a better.

This transaction is so momentous, that too much time cannot be well spent upon it; and it will facilitate my other duties could I enter into it so early as to afford full opportunity for reflection.

I have the honour to be, &c.

EDMUND RANDOLPH.

No. 119.

TRANSLATION.

The Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republick, near the United States, to Mr. Randolph, Secretary of State of the United States. Philadelphia, 2d Messidor, 3d year of the French Republick, one and indivisible, 20th June, 1795.

SIR, On the 6th, I received the letter of that date which you addressed to me, in answer to the observations I made to you on the treaty proposed between the United States and Great Britain. I should have replied to you sooner, had not my health, which has always been unsta-. ble since my arrival in this country, obliged me to abstain from business for upwards of fifteen days-I shall transmit it to the French government together with my observations and the treaty. In such important circumstances, it is exclusively the province of my government to judge, and I cannot permit myself to decide at all.

In a few days I shall have the honour of seeing you, and of taking the necessary measures in order to commence the business relative to the digesting of the new treaty, and new consular convention.

Accept, sir, &c.

P. A. ADET.