for their liberty, by giving us almost full and instantaneous enjoyment of it. I have full confidence in the perseverance of our countrymen. They will, I hope, act with more vigor in consequence of their misfortunes. I have received letters from America, dated in the end of April and the 1st of May, which speak of the loss of Charleston as certain, and which predict other successes of the enemy in the northern States, but which show no despondency.

I shall pay implicit obedience to the request you make me with respect to your family, and you may rely upon me when I tell you that as long as I have any influence, or any friends in the councils of America, they shall not want strenuous advocates; and this letter will always be a memento that would put me to the blush should I be deficient in a promise which I think myself, even in justice to my country, obliged to endeavor to fulfil in the best manner possible.

The Spanish, or rather allied fleet, has returned to Cadiz, except a few vessels which cruise near that part. The Count d'Estaing is expected at St. Ildefonso in about a week, the Count being now at that place. I go there this week.

I see that the Courier de l'Europe mentions that Mr. Jay has received his congé, &c., &c. Not a word of truth. The English papers sent our Commissioners from France frequently, yet a treaty was made by these same congéd Commissioners. I have received your cypher safe. Begin when you please your observations on men and things. I shall be much obliged to you to separate and seal up all the letters you have ever received from me, unless it be this, under a cover for me, which, in case of death-which Heaven forbid !-you will direct to me, delivered to my orders.

My best compliments to your family and Messrs. de Neufville; and believe me ever your friend and servant,

WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

The Hague, July 25th, 1780.

Sir,

The 21st of March last I had the honor to write your Excellency a long letter on my own concerns, of which I annex here an extract. I add here that when I received the first commission of the Committee

on the part of Congress dated in December, 1775, in which they honored me with their orders and credentials, I did not solicit to be employed; I did not even think of it. But chosen and named by this respectable body, in a manner as unexpected as it was definite and authentic, to serve essentially the United States, my ardent thoughts and life were consecrated with zeal to the cause of the United States. Persuaded that it was the cause of humanity, of liberty, and of virtue, I have sacrificed every thing to this noble service during nearly five years, with all possible zeal and fidelity. The Congress also testified to me soon after that they were well satisfied with my services. I have corresponded assiduously since that time with the Committee of Foreign Affairs, with the Plenipotentiaries of the United States at Paris, and with a number of other servants of America. I have raised up, cemented, and nourished in Holland a considerable party in their favor, whereby I have drawn upon myself the hatred of a party more powerful, which wishes to see me perish, and which has already done me all the wrong and all the mischief of which it was capable. I have participated in the adverse fortune of America, in the just confidence that the United States and their Congress will have my interest at heart, as I have constantly and successfully had theirs, and as their magnanimity, their dignity, and their honor require in the eyes of the European public.

I have yet fully this confidence; and it is this which caused me to solicit, more than a year since, in several of my letters to the Committee of Foreign Affairs, a formal confirmation of my agency on the part of Congress for my safety and quiet. I beg, sir, that you will second my request, and obtain for me a resolution as favorable as my demand is just.

I know that some Americans, whom I honor in other respects, have entertained and propagated the idea that a commission of the honorable Committee of Foreign Affairs was not so valid as one of Congress. One of them said so to me. I will not, sir, give myself up to an idea so injurious as to think that Congress would refuse to ratify what their Committee has done, and the engagements it has made; but this body is not always composed of the same persons; it has many other affairs; it may forget me, and I may be cruelly supplanted, abandoned, and consequently, at the age of sixty years, ruined with my family, without resource and without means. I put, then, my cause into the hands of your Excellency, to endeavor to

obtain for me, as promptly as possible, the satisfaction I desire, and to send me the commission I solicit. The service of the United States requires it, and this will not interfere with the powers of Minister Plenipotentiary who may be sent here; on the contrary, I shall be useful to him, if God spares my life.

One consideration, also, to which I pray Congress to give their attention, is that far from being recompensed for my past labors, the two hundred and twenty-five louis d'ors or guineas which I draw yearly for my subsistence and to defray the expenses of journeys, postages, &c., charges which, from prudence and considering circumstances I have never carried to the account, are not sufficient; and I have been obliged constantly to expend my own in addition. Besides my age, the privation not only of a copyist, which the service demanded, but even of a valet, which I have been obliged also to deny myself in order to be able to subsist, for about three years, makes my life extremely sad and painful.

In perfect trust that Congress will consent to give attention to my petition, and to my state, I commend myself with my wife and daughter to their protection.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

DUMAS.

JOHN PAUL JONES TO C. w. F. DUMAS.

Ariel, Road of Croix, September 8th, 1780.

I dare say, my dear friend, my silence for so long a time must have an extraordinary appearance to you, and have excited in your mind various conjectures not much to my advantage. I will now endeavor to make some atonement by confessing the truth. I have been ashamed to write to you on account of the strange variety of events that have taken place, and detained me in port from the 10th of February until this date.

I wish to pass over these events for the present in silence, choosing rather to suffer a little ill-natured misconstruction, than to attempt explanations before the matters are brought to a proper and final decision. I hope it will then appear that I have been not very fairly treated, and that my conduct has been blameless. M. D. C. pursued his resentment to such a length as obliged me in April to

pay a visit to the Minister greatly against my will at that moment, for I then thought myself neglected and not very well used by him; but I was most agreeably undeceived by the very friendly reception I met with. My every demand was granted respecting the prizes; it became me, therefore, to be very modest. I found that I had C. alone to thank for the altercations at the Texel. I had the happiness to be feasted and caressed by all the world at Paris and Versailles except himself. He, however, looked guilty; we did not speak together, not because I had any determined objection, for I love his family, but he could not look me in the face, and fled whenever chance brought us near each other.

Without studying it, I enjoyed over him a triumph as great as I could wish to experience over Jemmy Twitcher. His Majesty ordered a superb sword to be made for me, which I have since received, and it is called much more elegant than that presented to the Marquis de la Fayette. His Majesty has also written, by his Minister, the strongest letter that is possible in approbation of my conduct to the President of Congress, offering to invest me with the cross, an institution of military merit, which I carry with me for that purpose to the Chevalier de la Luzerne. The Minister of Marine has besides addressed a very kind letter to myself, and I have also had the like honor shown me by the other Ministers. I continue to receive constant marks of esteem and honorable attention from the Court, and the ship I now command was lent to the United States in consequence of my application. Nothing has detained me from sailing for this past month but that my officers and men are still without wages or prize money. There is a strange mystery, which, when explained, must surprise you. C., who pretends to exercise authority over these moneys, will, I fear, persist in withholding them till he obliges me to lay a second complaint before the Minister against him, and if I am reduced to the necessity of this step, he will not come off so well as he has hitherto done on the score of betraying secrets.

I will take care of your packets, and as I expect to remain but two or three days longer, I hope to hear from you through the hands of our friend R. M. of Philadelphia. Let me know how Mr. Round Face that went lately from Paris to the Hague is proceeding. I understand he has gone to Amsterdam. I wish he may be doing good. If he should inadvertently do evil as a stranger, I shall, as Is

his fellow-citizen, be very sorry for it, but you being a native will hear of it. I confess I am anxious about his situation. The man has a family, and in these troublesome times, I wish he were at home to mind his trade and his fireside, for I think he has travelled more than his fortune can well bare. Present my respects to madam and the virgin muse. I got many little pieces addressed to me while near the Court, but I made very little return.

I am, my dear philosopher, with unalterable regard, yours,

JOHN PAUL JONES.

Sir,

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

The Hague, September 12th, 1780.

There has been a great dearth of news for some time, which is happily interrupted by the capture of the English East and West India fleets, by the combined fleets of France and Spain, as your Excellency will see by the accompanying journals. Important as this event is in itself, we consider it here as the presage of what we are to hope in America; the capture of the twelve English vessels bound to Quebec, made by the Americans off Newfoundland, and the failure of General Kniphausen at Springfield, is an agreeable foretaste of what we may expect from the combined operations of the French and Continental forces. There is nothing going on here, the States of Holland having done nothing in their present session, except to deliberate on a petition of the merchants of Amsterdam for the free passage into France of naval stores and copper by the canals of Flanders and Brabant, until the navigation of the Republic is better protected. The inaction of the States-General is still greater; they are awaiting the letters from their Plenipotentiaries, who must have arrived at Petersburgh.

We learn from London that the King has dissolved the present Parliament, and will convoke a new one. In Ireland, although the majority of the Parliament are subservient to the Court, the associations of the disaffected increase. The Russian, Danish, and Swedish squadrons in concert, protect the commerce of their respective nations; and this Republic protects nothing. The combined fleet of Spain and France is at sea, and is expected to show itself in the