ours.

should wish us to buy, and yet be so industrious to put it out of our power to pay. Such a system must cause loss of money to their merchants, and loss of reputation to I wish most sincerely that credit was at an end, and that we could purchase nothing abroad but for ready money. Our exportations would then be equally profitable, and as our importations would be diminished, we should have less to pay-domestic manufactures would then be more encouraged, and frugality and economy become more prevalent.

What impression the conduct of Captain Stanhope may make on the Minister, to me appears uncertaincertain, however, it is, that mutual civility and respect must, in the nature of things, precede mutual benevolence and kindness. The manner of your reception and treatment, indicates their attention to this consideration, and yet the detention of the posts, the strengthening their garrisons in our neighborhood, the encouragement said to be given to settlers in these parts, and various other circumstances, speak a language very different from that of kindness and good will.

They may hold the posts, but they will hold them as pledges of enmity; and the time must and will come, when the seeds of discontent, resentment and hatred, which such measures always sow, will produce very bitter fruit. I am well informed that some of the loyalists advise, and warmly press, the detention of posts. It is strange that men who, for ten years, have done nothing but deceive, should still retain any credit. I speak of them collectively. Among them there are men of merit; but to my knowledge some of the most violent, the most bitter and implacable, and yet most in credit,

are men who endeavored to play between both parties, and vibrated from side to side as the appearances of success attracted them. Nay, the very accounts of losses which many of them have presented, afford conclusive evidence of their inattention to truth and common decency. Such, however, has been the infatuation of British councils, that what was manifest to others was problematical if not entirely dark to them.

As to their present Minister, he has neither been long enough in administration, nor perhaps in the world, for a decided judgment to be formed either of his private or public character. He seems to possess firmness as well as abilities, and if to these be added information and comprehensive as well as patriotic views, he may be worthy of his father. England will probably be much the better or much the worse for him.

We are anxious to receive letters from you on the subject of the posts, that in either event we may be prepared. In the one case, I should think it very justifiable in Congress to take a certain step that would be longer and more sensibly felt by Britain than the independence of these States.

Mr. Arthur Lee has been elected to the vacant place at the Board of Treasury.

Governor Rutledge declines going to Holland.

The

affair of Longchamps is adjusted-he stays where he is.

With great respect and esteem, &c.

JOHN JAY.

Extract from the Secret Journal, August 17, 1785.

"The Delegates for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts having laid before Congress a letter of the 8th, from his Excellency the Governor of that State, together with a copy of letters from Captain Stanhope, commander of the British frigate Mercury, to his Excellency James Bowdoin, Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and his Excellency's answers to the two first of those letters-the same were referred to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who reported thereon. The letters and report are as follows:

"Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston, August 8, 1785.

"Gentlemen,

"Whatever concerns the honor of one of the United States, does in effect, in certain cases, concern the honor of all of them.

"This general observation applies to the conduct of Captain Stanhope, commander of his Britannic Majesty's frigate Mercury, who, apprehending himself insulted, applied by his letter to me for redress. In which letter, he 'recommends to me to adopt such measures, as may 'discover the ringleaders of the party that assassinated ' him.' See letter No 1. On receiving it, the Council being adjourned to a distant day, I sent for the only gentleman of that board in town, the honorable Mr. Adams, with whom I consulted on the affair. In consequence of the consultation, I sent Captain Stanhope an answer the same day. The answer points out to him the only way of redress, which our laws and constitution

admit, and which I myself, in a like case, if I took any, must have taken. See letter No. 2.

"This answer, however, did not comport with Captain Stanhope's high idea of himself, who seems to have thought, that some special mode of process was due to a person of his importance.

"In consequence of that idea, and after two days consideration of the matter, he sent me a letter, which you may probably think may be justly called a very insolent one; in which (but in his own mode of expression) he declares I gave him positive assurance of affording him and his officers protection; that my conduct contradicted that assurance and his expectations; that it does not satisfy him, nor does credit to myself; that he never received a letter so insulting to his senses, and that it was an evasion of his requisition; with a great deal more abuse, both expressed and implied. See letter No 3.

"The only part of the declaration it concerns me to notice is that in which my conduct is said to have contradicted the assurance I had given him of protection.

"This occasions a recurrence to two conversations I had with him, within a few days after his arrival here. From which time, until the first instant, I had been as I presumed in the good graces of Mr. Stanhope. In one of those conversations, which were principally relative to the recovery of a favorite servant, who he said, had deserted from him about a year before, he mentioned that he had been informed, he should probably meet with some insult before his departure, and said he should rely on my protection. I told him he might depend on every protection in my power to afford him; but that in

this country, as in England, the law is every man's protection, and that he would be as much entitled to it, during his stay here, as any man in the commonwealth; and in conformity to this idea, my letter to him was written.

I have here mentioned no more of the conversation than was needful to afford you some idea of the assurance, he says, I gave him of my protection. But in the course of it I told him further, that he must know from his own observation, that in large seaport towns, where there is a resort of all kinds of people and characters, quarrels and disturbances frequently happened; and that the seaport towns in England were remarkable for them. That he must be sensible that the new regulations of trade in England, which would finally operate to her own detriment, had disgusted the Americans in general, and had induced them to take measures to counteract those regulations; and, therefore, it was natural to expect he would hear sentiments thrown out, which might not be agreeable to him; but that I had no apprehension that any insult would be offered either to him or his officers. These observations, and many more, I thought proper to make, which a man of any discernment, and of the least goodness of disposition, might have applied to his own benefit; and to the exciting and promoting good humor in the people, among whom he happened to be.

As he says my conduct contradicted his expectations, it is probable he expected a proclamation should have been issued. This measure was thought of, but I did not think the occasion required it. His conduct for VOL. IV.-30