Paris, June 19, 1788.
I had the honor of addressing your Excellency, by Admiral Paul Jones, on the 21st of January, on the subject of the prizes taken under his command during the late war, and sent into Bergen. I communicated, at the same time, a copy of the powers which the Congress of the United States of America had been pleased to confide to me therein, having previously shown the original to the Baron Blome, envoy extraordinary of his Majesty, the King of Denmark, at this court; and I furnished, at the same time, to Admiral Paul Jones, such authority as I was empowered to delegate, for the arrangement of this affair. That officer has transmitted me a copy of your Excellency's letter to him, of the 4th of April, wherein you are pleased to observe, that the want of full powers on his part was an invincible obstacle to the definitive discussion of this claim with him, and to express your dispositions to institute a settlement at this place. Always assured of the justice and honor of the court of Denmark, and encouraged by the particular readiness of your Excellency to settle and remove this difficulty from between the two nations, I take the liberty of recalling your attention to it. The place of negotiation proposed by your Excellency, meets no objection from us, and it removes, at the same time, that which the want of full powers in Admiral Paul Jones, had produced in your mind. These full powers, Congress have been pleased to honor me with. The arrangement taken between the person to be charged with your full powers, and myself, will be final and conclusive. You are pleased to express a willingness to treat at the same time, on the subjects of amity and commerce. The powers formerly communicated on our part, were given to Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin and myself, for a limited term only. That term has expired, and the other two gentlemen returned to America: so that no person is commissioned at this moment, to renew those conferences. I may safely, however, assure your Excellency, that the same friendly dispositions still continue, and the same desire of facilitating and encouraging a commerce between the two nations, which produced the former appointment. But our nation is, at this time, proposing a change in the organization of its government. For this change to be agreed to by all the members of the Union, the new administration chosen and brought into activity, their domestic matters arranged, which will require their first attention, their foreign system afterwards decided on and carried into full execution, will require very considerable length of time. To place under the same delay, the private claims which I have the honor to present to your Excellency, would be hard on the persons interested; because these claims have no connection with the system of commercial connection, which may be established between the two nations, nor with the particular form of our administration. The justice due to them is complete, and the present administration as competent to final settlement as any future one will be, should a future change take place. These individuals have already lingered nine years, in expectation of their hard and perilous earnings. Time lessens their numbers continually, disperses their representatives, weakens the evidence of their right, and renders more and more impracticable, his majesty's dispositions to repair the private injury, to which public circumstances constrained him. These considerations, the just and honorable intentions of your Excellency, and the assurances you give us in your letter, that no delay is wished on your part, give me strong hopes that we may speedily obtain that final arrangement, which express instructions render it my duty to urge. I have the honor, therefore, of agreeing with your Excellency, that the settlement of this matter, formerly begun at Paris, shall be continued there: and to ask that you will be pleased to give powers and instructions for this purpose, to such persons as you shall think proper, and in such full form as may prevent those delays, to which the distance between Copenhagen and Paris might otherwise expose us.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most profound respect, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.
[TO MR. THOMAS DIGGES.]
Paris, June 19, 1788.
Sir,—I have duly received your favor of May 12, as well as that of the person who desires information on the state of cotton manufactures in America, and for his interest and safety I beg leave to address to you the answer to his queries.
In general, it is impossible that manufactures should succeed in America, from the high price of labor. This is occasioned by the great demand of labor for agriculture. A manufacturer going from Europe will turn to labor of other kinds if he finds more to be got by it, and he finds some employment so profitable, that he can soon lay up money enough to buy fifty acres of land, to the culture of which he is irresistibly tempted by the independence in which that places him, and the desire of having a wife and family around him. If any manufactures can succeed there, it will be that of cotton. I must observe for his information that this plant grows nowhere in the United States northward of the Potomac, and not in quantity till you get southward as far as York and James Rivers. I know nothing of the manufacture which is said to be set up at Richmond. It must have taken place since 1783, when I left Virginia. In that State (for it is the only one I am enabled to speak of with certainty) there is no manufacture of wire or of cotton cards; or if any, it is not worth notice. No manufacture of stocking-weaving, consequently none for making the machine; none of cotton clothing of any kind whatever for sale; though in almost every family some is manufactured for the use of the family, which is always good in quality, and often tolerably fine. In the same way they make excellent stockings of cotton, weaving it in like manner, carried on principally in the family way: among the poor, the wife weaves generally; and the rich either have a weaver among their servants or employ their poor neighbors. Cotton cost in Virginia from 12d. to 18d. sterling the pound before the war, probably it is a little raised since. Richmond is as good a place for a manufactory as any in that State, and perhaps the best as to its resources for this business. Cotton clothing is very much the taste of the country. A manufacturer, on his landing, should apply to the well-informed farmers and gentlemen of the country. Their information will be more disinterested than that of merchants, and they can better put him into the way of disposing of his workmen in the cheapest manner till he has time to look about him and decide how and where he will establish himself. Such is the hospitality in that country, and their disposition to assist strangers, that he may boldly go to any good house he sees, and make the inquiry he needs. He will be sure to be kindly received, honestly informed, and accommodated in an hospitable way, without any other introduction than an information who he is and what are his views. It is not the policy of the government in that country to give any aid to works of any kind. They let things take their natural course without help or impediment, which is generally the best policy. More particularly as to myself, I must say that I have not the authority nor the means of assisting any persons in their passage to that country. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of perfect esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.