bis interests from those of America, and to support the cause of the United States, as if it were his own personal cause. His Majesty thinks, while fulfilling the duties of the alliance by this confidential communication, that he ought to invite and urge Congress to furnish immediately with the necessary powers and instructions the person or persons whom they shall think proper to authorise to assist in the deliberations, and in the conclusion and signing of the treaty. His Majesty trusts that Congress will perceive the inestimable value of time in a juncture so critical and so important; and that the injuries caused by any delay would be irreparable both to the alliance and the allies. In complying with the invitations of the King, the United States would regard equally their dignity and their interests. The place of the negotiation is fixed at Madrid. His Majesty, while engaging in everything that can hasten the happy moment in which America can enjoy, peaceably, internal and external prosperity, which is the object of the revolution and the limit of his Majesty's wishes, has instructed the undersigned to suggest to Congress, that at a time in which they are employed in fixing their political existence, it seems to belong to their foresight to consider the sentiments of the States as to the peace in relation to Spain, and they will perhaps think, that the means of preventing ali future discontents merits their attention, and ought to be one of the subjects of the positive and definite instructions, which the States will give for the conclusion of the peace. GERARD. February 13th. The President was directed to inform the Minister, that Congress will take the subject of his memorials of the 9th into immediate consideration, and that if he wishes to communicate anything farther to them, Congress will receive the saine from him in a private audience. And it was at the same time resolved, that all private audiences given to foreign Ministers be held in a committee of the whole. February 15th. The President acquainted the House, that pursuant to their order, he had informed the Minister of France, that Congress will take his memorials of the 9th into immediate consideration, and that if he wishes to communicate anything farther to them, Congress will receive the same in a private audience; that the Minister wished to make further communications to Congress, and would attend the House at twelve o'clock this day. The Minister, agreeably to his appointment, was introduced, and bad a free conference with Congress, in which he represented the present state of affairs in Europe, the dispositions of the Spanish Court, and the measures it was about to take in order to restore peace; from thence he took occasion to press upon Congress the necessity of having a Minister in Europe properly empowered and instructed. He further signified, that it was the desire of his Most Christian Majesty, that the United States would speedily put themselves in a condition to take that part in the negotiation for peace apparently about to take place, which their dignity and interest required; and that they should lay a solid foundation for obtaining a speedy peace agreeably to the terms of the treaty, by giving their Plenipotentiary the most ample instructions and full powers. This he enforced by sundry arguments, and pressed the utmost despatch. Sir, TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Translation. Philadelphia, March 14th, 1779. The Minister Plenipotentiary of France, undersigned, does not doubt that the committee, charged on the part of Congress to persuade the undersigned to keep the rate of exchange at nine hundred per cent, in order to stop the farther depreciation which circumstances threatened, has reported the answer which the said Minister gave on this subject; but as the undersigned is still ignorant of the manner in which Congress has received this answer, he is the more desirous of being informed of it, as he must give an account to his Court of the success of the course which he has adopted, and as the agent of the royal navy has, till this time, confined himself to the rule proposed on the part of Congress, without any return to the interests of his Majesty. GERARD. TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS." Translation. Philadelphia, March 16th, 1779. Sir, The Minister Plenipotentiary of France, being about to send M. de Maulcon to New York to effect the exchange of the French prisoners, who are detained there, takes the liberty to request the Congress of the United States of America to have the goodness to allow them the same facilities as heretofore, by charging their Commissioners to receive them on their landing at Elizabethtown and New London, and from thence as far as Philadelphia or Boston, and to give them, at the expense of his Most Christian Majesty, the same treatment which American prisoners receive. GERARD. TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Translation. Philadelphia, March 17th, 1779. Sir, The Minister Plenipotentiary of France has the honor to remind the Congress of the United States of North America, that in executing for five months the instructions with which he has been charged by the King, his master, in relation to the present state of affairs, the undersigned has expressed his Majesty's desire, that the United States should quickly put themselves in a situation to take, in the negotiation for peace which seems on the point of taking place, the part which their dignity and their interests require, and that they should lay firm foundations for obtaining a speedy pacification conformable to the terms of the alliance, by giving to their Plenipotentiary instructions the most ample, and powers the most extensive. It is, in fact, impossible to be too economical of time, when a correspondence is carried on at so great a distance, upon a business so important and so liable to be changed by many incidents impossible to be foreseen. These observations have still greater force, when the opening of the campaign is approaching, and when the greatest celerity alone can anticipate the moment of it. Every day's delay increases the obstacles to the success of the advantageous plans, which the King has communicated to the United States. To prolong the deliberation upon peace may be to reject it. His Majesty, who thinks that he has deserved the confidence of the United States, believes, moreover, that he has a right, after the assurances which Congress have so often repeated with regard to the uniformity of sentiments on the subject of his alliance with the United States, to hope that this subject will be treated with the promptness which the juncture requires. The indulgence with which Congress has received the reflections of the undersigned authorises him to submit these to their wisdom and prudence. He adds, that there may be reason to fear that longer delays may give rise to suspicions, and authorise the assertions which have been made in Europe, respecting a division of opinions and sentiments prevailing in Congress, and strengthen the hope which the enemy continues to entertain of fomenting this domestic discord, and at the same time of exciting distrust between the allies by pretending to treat with each of the States singly, in order to take them separately in the snare of their credulity, and to deprive them of the mutual support which they derive from their union. It is, moreover, well known, that the preliminary condition of the Court of London to the United States would be to renounce the alliance formed with France, to form an offensive coalition, and to restrain the commerce of America. The undersigned is very |