"Your good friend and ally,
LOUIS."
The Minister being announced, he addressed Congress in the following speech.
Translation.
"Gentlemen,
"The wisdom and courage, which have founded your Republic, the prudence which presides over your deliberations, your firmness in execution, the skill and valor displayed by your Generals and soldiers during the course of the war, have attracted the admiration and regard of the whole world.
"The King, my master, was the first to acknowledge a liberty acquired amidst so many perils and with so much glory. Since treaties dictated by moderation have fixed upon a permanent basis the union of France with the American Republic, his Majesty's whole conduct must have demonstrated how dearly he cherishes your prosperity, and his firm resolution to maintain your independence by every means in his power. The events, which have successively unfolded themselves, show the wisdom of those measures. A powerful ally has acknowledged the justice of those motives, which had compelled the King to take arms, and we may reasonably hope for the most solid success from the operations of the united fleets. The naval force of the enemy has been diverted from your continent, compelled to flee to the defence of their own possessions. All their efforts have been too feeble to prevent our troops from conquering a considerable part. Other British Islands feared the same lot, when the French General stopped the current of his success to seek new dangers here. In conforming to his Majesty's intentions, he has acceded to his own inclinations, to the desires of the French, and to the request of the Americans, who invited him to join his arms to those of your Republic. Events have not completely answered his courage and his efforts, but his blood and that of my countrymen, shed in a cause so dear to us, has cemented the basis on which the alliance is founded, and impressed on it a character as indelible as are all those by which it is already consecrated.
"That alliance, Gentlemen, becomes daily more indissoluble, and the benefits, which the two nations derive from it, have given it the most perfect consistency.
"The relations of commerce between the subjects of the King, my master, and the inhabitants of the Thirteen United States, continually multiply, and we may already perceive, in spite of those obstacles, which embarrass the reciprocal communication, how natural it is, how advantageous it will be to the two nations, and all who participate in it, and how much the monopolising spirit, the jealous attention and prohibitory edicts of the enemy to your freedom, have been prejudicial to your happiness. It is under these circumstances, Gentlemen, that the King has been pleased to appoint me his Minister Plenipotentiary to your Republic. You have seen in the letter, which I had just now the honor to deliver from him, fresh assurances of his friendship. I consider as the happiest circumstance of my life a mission, in the course of which I am certain of fulfilling my duty, when I labor for your prosperity, and I felicitate myself upon being sent to a nation, whose interests are so intimately blended with our own, that I can be useful neither to France nor the American Republic, without rendering myself agreeable both to the one and the other.
"It was certainly desirable that the affairs with which I am charged had remained in the hands of that enlightened Minister, whom I succeed, and whose health compels him to return to France. I have not his abilities; but like him, I have an unbounded zeal for the welfare and success of the common cause. Like him, I am directed to concur in everything, which can be useful or agreeable to your Republic. I have the same attachment to the people whom you, Gentlemen, represent, and the same admiration of their conduct. I have the most fervent wish to give you the proof of it; and I hope by these different titles to merit your confidence and your esteem.