TO THE SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
London, September 11th, 1783.
Sir,
Permit me to refer to copies of my letter to yourself, and to the American Ministers at Paris, both of the 9th ult. which will accompany this. I was on the point of agreeing for the cabin of the packet, alluded to in my last letter, when I received a letter from my sister Laurens in the south of France, informing me that my brother, who has been long in a declining state, feeling himself approaching fast to dissolution, earnestly wished to see me before I should leave Europe. I cannot refuse to comply with the request of a dying friend, and besides this, humanity and gratitude forbid my leaving a widowed sister, who has been the foster mother of my daughters, at such a distance from her home, and unacquainted with the language of the country, without a friend and protector. I intend, therefore, to proceed immediately, trusting in the goodness of Congress for an exemption from censure in this singular case. When it is considered how exceedingly detrimental to my own interest the delay will be, it must appear that I submit to it from necessity. The journey, going and coming, will probably take up two, perhaps three months, allowing a reasonable time for detention at Vigan; hence I have no prospect of embarking before the next Spring. I should have been already advanced on my journey, but I wait the arrival of Mr Jay and Mr Hartley, who are daily expected from Paris.
Yesterday I received from Dr Franklin a copy of a letter written the 31st of August to Congress, which shows that the definitive treaty amounts to nothing more than a re-confirmation of the Provisional Articles, which I much regret. As it is possible this may arrive before the advices from France, I think it proper to enclose the copy abovementioned.
A Mr Edmund Jennings has been long hovering over, and as often as he could find opportunity, penetrating into American councils on this side of the water, and there is good reason for believing, notwithstanding all his pretensions to friendship, that his chief business has been to create dissensions, and also that he has been the principal contriver and manager of anonymous letters, calculated for that purpose. As I had detected Mr Jennings in some very improper conduct of this sort, and therefore refused him my countenance any longer, he, knowing no medium between familiarity and enmity, pricked by his own conscience, and enraged by my silence, took an opportunity in my absence of printing about forty pages of misrepresentation and falsehood, which he circulated in a private way, with a view, I suppose, of injuring me, and I am informed he has sent a large quantity of his paper to America, under the patronage, as I have reason to believe, of Dr Bancroft. Congress, and my fellow citizens in general, are too wise to condemn before they hear; therefore, I have taken the liberty to send you for their information, forty two copies of “a true state of the case,” packed in a box put under the care of Captain Josiah, the bearer of this. I write this “state of the case” in very great haste, and might have said much more to Mr Jennings’s disgrace, but there is enough to show, that he is not worthy of public trust, and that he is a dangerous confidant to a Minister of State.
Readers of Mr Jennings’s paper, from the profusion of his charges against me of animosity, enmity, uncalmness of temper, &c. &c. would suppose there had been much altercation between us, either by letter or verbally. On the contrary, I have neither corresponded with, or seen him but twice passing in the streets, since the sixth of January last, and nothing is more evident than my carefully avoiding to relate to those whom he alludes to as his particular friends, the discovery of his folly in asserting a lie upon his honor, unless he means to include Mr Adams as one of them; a sense of duty to my country, and a sincere regard for Mr Adams, led me to attempt to open his eyes, and I judged it equally necessary to inform Dr Franklin and Mr Jay. But I shall trouble you no longer on this subject. Congress will be possessed of the two papers, and I shall submit to their judgment. I do not esteem it a trifling affair, to remove a wicked and mischievous favorite from his influence in our councils.
I have the honor to be, &c.
HENRY LAURENS.
P. S. You will receive with this two of the latest Gazettes, and divers other newspapers to this day inclusive.