THE

DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE

OF THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

FROM THE SIGNING OF THE

DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE,

10TH SEPTEMBER, 1783,

TO THE

ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION, MARCH 4, 1789.

BEING

THE LETTERS OF THE PRESIDENTS OF CONGRESS, THE SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN
AFFAIRS-AMERICAN MINISTERS AT FOREIGN COURTS, FOREIGN MINISTERS
NEAR CONGRESS-REPORTS OF COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS, AND REPORTS
OF THE SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS ON VARIOUS LETTERS
AND COMMUNICATIONS;

TOGETHER WITH

LETTERS FROM INDIVIDUALS ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

Published under the direction of the Secretary of State, from the original Manuscripts in the
Department of State, conformably to an Act of Congress, approved May 5, 1832.

VOL. I.

UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA
ATLOS ANGELES LIBRARY

CITY OF WASHINGTON:

PRINTED BY BLAIR & RIVES.

1837.

93780

Extract from an Act of Congress, approved May 5, 1832, entitled "An Act making appropriation for the support of Government for the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two."

"To enable the Secretary of State to cause to be printed, under his direction, a 'selection from the Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, between the 'peace of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three and the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, remaining unpublished in the Depart'ment of State, twelve thousand dollars."

V. I

INTRODUCTION.

ANY remarks on the propriety of publishing a Diplomatic Correspondence, which from its very nature is supposed to be confidential, would seem to be unwarranted in one exercising the ministerial duty of editing it, if the law imposing the duty had not also prescribed that of selecting those parts which ought to be published. The only instruction given to the officer to whom this duty was assigned, was in the act making appropriations for the support of Government for the year 1832, in these words: "To enable the Secretary of State 'to cause to be printed a selection from the Diplomatic Correspond'ence between the peace of 1783, and the 4th March, 1789, 'remaining unpublished in the Department of State, 12,000 'dollars."

No rule being given to the Secretary for his guide in making this selection, it would seem to have been trusted entirely to his discretion, if a previous resolution of Congress for a similar purpose, and the publication made under it had not given good reason to believe that nothing more was intended than a continuation of the work heretofore published. On the 27th March, 1818, Congress passed a resolution directing, among other things, that the foreign correspondence of the Congress of the United States from the first meeting thereof, down to the date of the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, in the year 1783, be published under the direction of the President of the United States, except such parts as he may deem it improper at this time to publish. The publication under this resolution was entrusted by the President to Mr. Jared Sparks, a gentleman every way qualified for the task, and the public are now in possession of twelve volumes, containing the