I have the honor to be, &c.
ARTHUR LEE.
TO COUNT DE VERGENNES.
Chaillot, June 14th, 1778.
It was with great pleasure I heard the explanation, which your Excellency did me the honor to give me yesterday relative to the 12th article of the Commercial Treaty; that it was meant to comprehend only provisions, and not the whole of our exports to his Majesty’s Islands, and that denrées, the word employed, signifies eatables, not merchandise. It relieved the apprehensions I had entertained, that the having set in that article the whole of our produce against one of your productions would seem unequal, would therefore give uneasiness in Congress, and prevent that unanimity in their approbation of the treaty, which the wise and liberal principles on which it is planned deserve; and which I most sincerely wished it might receive.
Upon referring, however, to the words of the treaty, I find they are denrées et marchandise, so that the words appear, by I know not what accident, to have been different from, and to mean more than you intended. I lament extremely that nothing of this explanation passed in our conference and correspondence with M. Gerard on this and the preceding article. Yet I am not without hope, that Congress will rather trust to the equity of your Court for reducing the article to its intended equality, than gratify our enemies by an appearance of dissension in ratifying the treaties.
Reciprocity and equality being the principles of the treaties, and duration the object, your Excellency will, in my judgment, have an opportunity of strengthening the confidence and ties between us, by offering to remove words of a latitude not intended, and of an inequality, which must be seen and create dissatisfaction.
I have the honor to be, &c.