Dear Sir,
I never made an offer to any body to have corn or flour brought here from America: no such idea ever entered my head. Mr. Necker desired me to give information in America, that there would be a want of flour. I did so in a letter to Mr. Jay, which he published with my name to it, for the encouragement of the merchants. Those here, who have named me on this subject, must have mistaken me for Mr. Parker. I have heard him say, he offered to Mr. Necker to bring a large supply, yet I do not think I ever repeated this: or if I did, it must have been in a company I relied on. I will thank you to satisfy Mr. Necker of the truth. It would be disagreeable, and perhaps mischievous, were he to have an idea that I encouraged censures on him. I will bring you the paper you desire to-morrow; and shall dine at the Dutchess Danville’s, where I shall be happy to meet you.
Adieu. Yours affectionately.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXI.—TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, July 7,1789
TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.
Paris, July 7,1789.
Dear Sir,
Your letter of yesterday gave me the first information that Monsieur de Mirabeau had suggested to the honorable the Assembly of the Nation, that I had made an offer to Mr. Necker to obtain from America a quantity of corn or flour, which had been refused. I know not how Monsieur de Mirabeau has been led into this error. I never in my life made any proposition to Mr. Necker on the subject: I never said I had made such a proposition. Some time last autumn, Mr. Necker did me the honor to desire I would have notified in the United States, that corn and flour would meet with a good sale in France. I conveyed this notice, in a letter to Mr. Jay, Secretary for Foreign Affairs, as you will see by the extract of my letter published by him in an American gazette, which I have the honor to send you. I must beg leave to avail myself of your friendship and of your position to have a communication of these facts made to the honorable Assembly of the Nation, of which you are a member, and to repeat to you those sentiments of respect and attachment, with which I have the honor to be, my dear Sir, your most obedient and most