Thursday, June 21.
Affairs with France.
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 loans, and therefore the negotiation may be considered 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.
The Message and documents were read.