Thursday, June 21.
Relations with France.
In the course of the sitting, the following Message was received from the President of the United States:
Gentlemen of the Senate, and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
While I congratulate you on the arrival of General Marshall, one of our late Envoys Extraordinary to the French Republic, at a place of safety, where he is justly held in honor, I think it my duty to communicate to you a letter received by him from Mr. Gerry, the only one of the three who has not received his congé. This letter, together with another from the Minister of Foreign Relations to him, of the third of April, and his answer of the fourth, will show the situation in which he remains, his intentions and prospects.
I presume that, before this time, he has received fresh instructions, (a copy of which accompanies this message,) to consent to no loan, and therefore the negotiation may be considered as at an end.
I will never send another Minister to France, without assurances that he will be received, respected, and honored, as the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation.
JOHN ADAMS.
United States, June 21, 1798.
Paris, April 16, 1798.
My dear Sir: This, I expect, you will receive by my colleague, General Marshall, who carries with him the last letter of Mr. Talleyrand to the American Envoys, and their answer. On the day when we sent the answer, I received a letter from the Minister, a copy of which and my answer is enclosed. I have not sent these to the Secretary of State, because I have not time to prepare a letter to accompany them. Indeed, I expected my passport with my colleagues, but am informed the Directory will not consent to my leaving France; and to bring on an immediate rupture, by adopting this measure contrary to their wishes, would be, in my mind, unwarrantable.
The object of Mr. Talleyrand, you will perceive, was to resume our reciprocal communications, and again to discuss the subject of a loan. I thought it best, in my answer, not merely to object to this, but to every measure, that could have a tendency to draw me into a negotiation. I accepted of this mission, my dear sir, to support your Administration, and have brought myself into a predicament,[36] which you must assist me to extricate myself from, by appointing some others to supply the places of myself and colleagues, if a further progress in this business should be found practicable.
I have only a moment to add my best respects to your lady, and my assurance of the most sincere and respectful attachment. My dear sir, yours, sincerely,
E. GERRY.
The President of the United States.
[TRANSLATION.]
Paris, the 4th Germinal, 6th year of the French Republic, one and indivisible, April 3, 1798.
The Minister of Foreign Relations to Mr. Gerry, Envoy Extraordinary of the United States of America to the French Republic.
I suppose, sir, that Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall have thought it useful and proper, in consequence of the intimations given in the end of my note of the 28th Ventose last, and the obstacles which their known opinions have interposed to the desired reconciliation, to quit the territory of the Republic; on this supposition, I have the honor to point out to you the 5th or the 7th of this decade, to resume our reciprocal communications upon the interests of the French Republic and the United States of America.
Receive, I pray you, the assurances of my perfect consideration.
CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND.