Dear Sir,
Since my last of the 22d instant, I have been honored with yours of the 30th of March, together with the letter from Mr Adams to you enclosed, and the papers, for which I am extremely obliged to you.
I am not at all disappointed at the manner in which the British administration have declared their wish for peace, or at the reluctance they show in parting with this country. To a proud nation the loss of 3,000,000 subjects is mortifying. Every journeyman weaver in every petty village in England conceived himself a sovereign, even while working for the slaves of his supposed subjects. It requires a degree of magnanimity, of which they are incapable, to surrender with dignity what they are no longer able to hold. But they must suppose the politics of the rest of the world to move upon weaker principles than their own, if they imagine the offers they propose to hold out to the belligerent powers will detach them from their alliance with each other, till all the objects of it are attained. Of what avail would the cessions they made in the West Indies be to France, if we were again connected with England. What security would she have for those cessions, or even for the rest of her islands? What she has offered to Spain I know not. To us she has offered nothing, as I have yet heard, but her friendship and the blessings of her government. A seven years' enmity has taught us to put very little value on the former; and the present happiness of the people of England and Ireland has enabled us to form a just estimate of the latter.
I have told you, that we have nothing to apprehend here from the offers of Britain. I have had no reason since to change that opinion. The way, however, to put it out of doubt is to enable us to expel the enemy from this continent. The task is not difficult, and the object is sufficiently important not to let it depend upon other operations.
I am instructed to prepare a memorial to the Court of Versailles, on the subject of the prize money due to Paul Jones, and the officers and men that sailed under his command. Continual complaints are made on that subject. Surely M. de Chaumont has had sufficient time to settle this business. I must beg the favor of you to press it, and to draw and present a memorial to the Court, if it cannot otherwise be accomplished. Mr Barclay will have orders to receive the money for them. I enclose an exstract of a letter from Captain Jones on the subject, together with the list of the ships and their force, agreeable to which the division should be made.
I also send his account of the detention of the brigantine Berkenbosch, together with a copy of De Nief's certificate, that the property belonged to British owners. This I think at first view is a sufficient justification of his conduct, and I hope will be deemed satisfactory, especially when it is considered that our courts are open for a further prosecution of the inquiry, if any injury has been unjustly sustained. I shall take the earliest opportunity to inquire into the other cases you mention. If I am rightly informed, the insult to the Court of Norway is already avenged, the vessels, which are said to have committed it, having been lost at sea. This puts a stop to any further inquiry about it. I shall however endeavor to get this fact more fully ascertained, and write to you again. I should be glad to know on what principle these applications are made to the Court of France. If the powers, who suppose themselves injured, consider us as the subjects of Great Britain, they should carry their complaints to the Court of St James's. If they consider us as independent of them, they should address themselves to us or to you directly.
I am very happy to find you have not lost sight of the prizes detained by the Danish Court, and that you so happily availed yourself of the opportunity they afforded you, to renew your application. This object ought to be pushed, not so much on account of the value of the vessels, as to show that we know what is due to ourselves.
Enclosed is a resolution of Congress on the subject of accounts, which you will be pleased to take the earliest opportunity to carry into execution.
You draw an agreeable picture of the French Court, and their favorable dispositions. They stand very high in the esteem of this country; and though we sometimes entertain the hope of repaying by our commerce and alliance the friendship they have shown us, we are not on that account the less sensible of our obligation to them. The distrust and jealousies, which secret enemies have endeavored to excite, have died away. One successful exertion in our favor will secure to them forever the affections of this country. I take an interest in the happiness of the Marquis de Lafayette, which makes me learn with great pleasure the reception he has met with. No man is more worthy of the esteem he enjoys, both at home and here. I have forborne to write to him for some time, in expectation that he was on his way. The same reasons restrain me now. Should any extraordinary event have detained him, you will be so obliging as to mention this as my apology. I am charmed with your idea of a medal to perpetuate the memory of York and Saratoga. The thought is simple, elegant, and strikingly expressive of the subject. I cannot however but flatter myself, that before it can be executed, your Hercules will have tasked your invention for a new emblem.
I enclose a number of letters, that have passed between Generals Washington, Clinton, Robinson, and Sir Guy, chiefly on the subject of Captain Huddy, who, having been taken prisoner and confined some time at New York, was carried by a Captain Lippincott and a party of soldiers to the Jersey shore, and there hanged without the least pretence. You will see an account of the whole transaction in some of the papers I sent. The General, in pursuance of his determination, has ordered the lot to be cast among the British Captains. It has fallen upon the Honorable Captain Asgill of the Guards, who is now on his way to camp. A friend of his, Captain Ludlow, is gone to New York to see if anything can be done to save him. It is really a melancholy case, but the repeated cruelties of this kind, that have been practised, have rendered it absolutely necessary to execute the resolution to retaliate, which we have so often taken, and so frequently been prevented, by our feelings, from carrying into execution.