Passy, April 7th, 1781.
Sir,
I received the letter you yesterday did me the honor of writing to me, requesting my opinion, in writing, relative to the conference you had with his Excellency, the Count de Vergennes last Wednesday, I being present; and also as to the expediency of your proceeding to St Petersburg; which request I willingly comply with as follows.
Question 1. "Whether, on the whole, I conceived the Count to have any objections to the mission itself?"
Answer. He did not make any such objections, nor did he drop any expression, by which it might be supposed he had any such in his mind.
Question 2. "Whether I considered his reflections upon the subject to be rather intended as cautions and advice to you, respecting the conduct he wished you to hold in the business?"
Answer. His Excellency expressed his apprehensions, that if you went thither under a public character before the disposition of the Court was known, and its consent obtained, it might be thought improper, and be attended with inconvenience; and, if I remember right, he intimated the propriety of your consulting the Ambassador at the Hague.
Question 3. "Whether I supposed him finally to make any real objections to your going to St Petersburg, in the character only of a private American gentleman, and there waiting the favorable moment of opening your eventual character?"
Answer. His objections were, that though you should not avow your public character, yet if known to be an American, who had been in public employ, it would be suspected, that you had such a character, and the British Minister there might exert himself to procure you "quelques désagréments," i. e. chagrins or mortifications. And that unless you appeared to have some other object in visiting St Petersburg, your being an American, would alone give strong grounds for such suspicions. But when you mentioned, that you might appear to have views of commerce, as a merchant, or of curiosity as a traveller, &c. that there was a gentleman at St Petersburg with whom some in America had a correspondence, and who had given hints of the utility there might be in having an American in Russia, who could give true intelligence of the state of our affairs, and prevent or refute misrepresentations, &c. and that you could, perhaps, by means of that gentleman, make acquaintance, and thence procure useful information of the state of commerce, the country, the Court, &c. he seemed less to disapprove of your going directly.
As to my own opinion, which you require, though I have long imagined that we let ourselves down, in offering our alliance before it is desired, and that it would have been better if we had never issued commissions for Ministers to the Courts of Spain, Vienna, Prussia, Tuscany, or Holland, till we had first privately learnt, whether they would be received, since a refusal from one is an actual slight, that lessens our reputation, and makes others less willing to form a connexion with us; yet since your commission is given, and the Congress seem to expect, though I think they do not absolutely require that you should proceed to St Petersburg immediately, I conceive (that assuming only a private character for the present, as you propose) it will be right for you to go, unless on consulting Mr Adams, you should find reason to judge, that under the present circumstances of the proposed mediation, &c. a delay for some time would be more advisable.