TO JOHN JAY.
Sir,
Paris, January 2,1786
Several conferences and letters having passed between the Count de Vergennes and myself, on the subject of the commerce of this country with the United States, I think them sufficiently interesting to be communicated to Congress. They are stated in the form of a report, and are herein enclosed. The length of this despatch, perhaps, needs apology. Yet I have not been able to abridge it, without omitting circumstances which I thought Congress would rather choose to know. Some of the objects of these conferences present but small hopes for the present, but they seem to admit a possibility of success at some future moment.
I am, Sir, your most obedient
and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
[The following is an extract from the report referred to in
the preceding letter, embracing every thing interesting
therein, not communicated to the reader in the previous
correspondence.]