keep their meeting off to the beginng. of October, if affairs will permit it. The invasion of the creeks is what will most likely occasion it's convocation. You will see Mrs. House's death mentioned in the papers. She extinguished almost like a candle. I have not seen Mrs. Trist since, but I am told she means to give up the house immediately, & that she has suffered great loss in her own fortune by exertions hitherto to support it. Browne is not returned, nor has been heard of for some time. Bartram is extremely anxious to get a large supply of seeds of the Kentucky coffee tree. I told him I would use all my interest with you to obtain it, as I think I heard you say that some neighbor of yours had a large number of trees. Be so good as to take measures for bringing a good quantity if possible to Bartram when you come to Congress. Adieu. Yours affectionately.

TO THE U. S. MINISTER TO GREAT BRITAIN.
(THOMAS PINCKNEY.)

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J. MSS.

PHILADELPHIA, June 2d, 1793. DEAR SIR,Your information that we are not likely to obtain any protection for our seamen in British ports or against British officers on the high seas, is of a serious nature indeed. It contrasts remarkably with the multiplied applications we are receiving from the British minister here for protection to their seamen, vessels, & property within our ports & bays, which we are complying with with the most exact justice. However I shall hazard no further reflection on the subject thro' the present channel of consequences. You will be pleased to bear in mind what I wrote you on the subject of M. de la Fayette, to consider it as an object of interest in this country, & to let me know what may be expected in the case.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
(ALEXANDER HAMILTON.)

J. MSS.

June 3. 1793.

SIR,-The question of admitting modifications of the debt of the U. S. to France having been the subject of & consultation with the heads of the departments & the Attorney general, & an unanimous opinion given thereon which involves the inclosed propositions from the French minister, you will be pleased, under the form of a report to me, to prepare what may serve as an answer, making it conformable to the opinion already given. If however the instalments of the present year can be made a matter of accommodation & it be mutual, their near approach may perhaps admit it within the spirit of the opinion given.

TO JAMES MONROE.

J. MSS.

PHILADELPHIA, June 4. 1793.

With

DEAR SIR,-I am to acknolege your favour of May 8. & 23. & to express my perfect satisfaction with what you have done in the case of Barrett. respect to the interest from the date of the judgment it is a thing of course, & always as just as the judgment itself. If he swears that the account is unpaid, I shall be satisfied he believes it to be so, and in that case would always have paid it had he applied to me, because I do not possess equal evidence to the contrary.

The original sum having been about 50 or 59 £ with interest from Apr 19. 1783, the order I gave you on Mr Pope will be more than sufficient to cover it, and will render a delay until the fall unnecessary, as I may hope. The money too, coming to the hands of Mr. Pope, his own lawyer, will abridge the busi

ness.

I will certainly do justice to Mr Gamble's competition for the French purchases of flour. I have written to him on that subject. I mean shortly to take a trip to Brandywine & endeavor to engage a tenant for my mill, so as to produce some competition for the purchase of our flour. I shall go on also to Elkton to take arrangements of time with the tenants engaged for me there. On these may depend the time I see you in Albermarle, as I must precede them. You should look to the possibility of being called to Philadelphia early in October, if matters with the Creek Indians continue to near their present serious aspect. The times too are otherwise so pregnent of events that every moment may produce cause for calling you. France has explained herself generously. She does not mean to interrupt our prosperity by calling for our guarantee. On the contrary she wishes to promote it by giving us in all her possessions all the rights of her native citizens & to receive our vessels as her vessels. This is the language of her new minister. G. Britain holds back with the most sullen silence and reserve. She has never intimated to our Minister a wish that we would remain neutral. Our correspondence with her consists in demands where she is interested, & delays where we are.

Spain too is mysterious-nothing promising at Madrid, and contrary symptoms on the Mississippi. Were the combination of kings to have a very successful campaign I should doubt their moderation.Parties seem to have taken a very well defined form in this quarter. The old tories, joined by our merchants

who trade on British capital, paper dealers, and the idle rich of the great commercial towns, are with the kings. All other descriptions with the French. The war has kindled & brought forward the two parties with an ardour which our own interests merely, could never excite. I pray that the events of the summer may not damp the spirit of our approaching Congress to whom we look forward to give the last direction to the government in which we are embarked. Give my best affections to Mrs Monroe, & accept them sincerely for yourself. Adieu.

TO THE FRENCH MINISTER.
(EDMOND CHARLES GENET.)

J. MSS.

PHILADELPHIA June 5, 1793

SIR,-In my letter of May 15th, to M. de Ternant, your predecessor, after stating the answers which had been given to the several memorials of the British Minister of May 8th, it was observed that a part remained still unanswered: of that which respected the fitting out of armed vessels in Charleston to cruise against nations with whom we were at peace.

In a conversation which I had afterwards the honor of holding with you, I observed that one of those armed vessels, the Citizen Genet, had come into this Port with a prize; that the President had thereupon, taken the case into further consideration, and after mature consultation and deliberation was of opinion that the arming and equipping vessels in the Ports of the United States to cruise against nations with whom they are at peace, was incompatible with the territorial sovereignty of the United States; that it made them instrumental to the annoyance of those nations, and thereby tended to compromit their peace, and that he thought it necessary as an evidence of good faith to them, as well as a proper reparation to the Sovereignty of the country, that the armed vessels of this description should depart from the ports of the United States.

The letter of the 27th instant, with which you have honored me, has been laid before the President, and that part of it which contains your observations on this subject has been particularly attended to. The respect due to whatever comes from you, friendship for the french nation, and justice to all have induced him to reexamine the subject, and particularly to give to your representations thereon, the consideration they deservedly claim. After fully weighing again however all the principles and circumstances of the case, the result appears still to be that it is the right of every nation to prohibit acts of sovereignty from being exercised by any other within its limits; and the duty of a neutral nation to prohibit such as would injure one of the warring powers that the granting military commissions within the United States by any other authority than their own is an infringement on their Sovereignty, and particularly so when granted to their own citizens, to lead them to commit acts contrary to the duties they owe their own country; that the departure of vessels thus illegally equipped, from the Ports of the United States, will be but an acknowledgment of respect analogous to the breach of it, while it is necessary on their part, as an evidence of their faithful neutrality. On these considerations Sir, the President thinks that the United States owe it to themselves, and to the nations in their friendship, to expect this act of reparation, on the part of vessels marked in their very equipment with offence to the laws of the land, of which the law of nations makes an integral part.

The expressions of friendly sentiment, which we have already had the satisfaction of receiving from you leave no room to doubt that the conclusion of the President, being thus made known to you these vessels will be permitted to give no further umbrage by their presence in the Ports of United States.

OPINION ON NEW LOAN.1

June 5, 1793.

Instructions having been given to borrow two millions of florins in Holland, and the Secretary of the Treasury proposing to open a further loan of three millions of florins, which he says, a com1 See under June 17th, 1793. From Hamilton's Works of Hamilton.

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