Sir,
I have received the letter, which your Excellency did me the honor to write on the 23d of the past month, and that of the Count de Rochambeau, with which it was accompanied.
I wait with extreme impatience the news of the arrival of the French division before New York, and no one can desire more earnestly than I do to see it under your immediate command. I hoped that you would have been this spring in the command of a more considerable body of auxiliaries. The causes, which have hindered the execution of that plan, have been so urgent and so decisive, that I am sure you will approve them, after I shall have had the honor of making you acquainted with them. I have nevertheless been much pained, that I could not explain to you this change of measures, and my attachment to the cause, which you defend, has made me feel as sensibly as any citizen of America all the delays, that could happen to the assistance, which we wish to give to the Thirteen States.
I am impressed with the necessity of maintaining a perfect confidence with your Excellency upon these different points, and I shall seize the first occasion which presents itself to visit your army.
In the meantime I shall transmit to the Count de Grasse what your Excellency did me the honor to communicate. Be persuaded that I shall use the most pressing motives to determine him, and I shall do it with so much the more zeal, as I feel the necessity of it. I shall transmit to that General an extract of your letter, and I know nothing more likely to give weight to the demand, which I shall make of him.
The King has charged me, Sir, to inform Congress, that he grants them a gratuitous subsidy to enable them to make the greatest efforts in the course of this campaign. This subsidy, amounting to six millions of livres tournois, is to be employed in the purchase of arms, ammunition, and clothing, and it is the intention of the King, that the surplus shall be at the disposal of Congress. I have not been instructed as to what will be the exact amount of this surplus, but it is determined, that one million and a half shall be employed by the Superintendent of Finance, according to the directions, which you shall give him, after the arrangements you shall make with him in the visit, which he intends paying you.
I have informed Congress, and I intrust it to your Excellency, that the Emperor of Austria, and the Empress of Russia, have offered their mediation to the Court of London, who has accepted it. The same has also been offered to the Court of Versailles, and that of Madrid. But they have given for answer, that time must be left for Congress to determine, if it suits them to put the interests of the Thirteen United States into the hands of the mediators. In any event, it is of the greatest importance, that the allies make all their efforts to drive the enemy from this continent, and nothing will be more likely, than the success of the confederate arms, to make a successful negotiation.
I have the honor to be, &c.
LUZERNE.