permanent seat of Congress. The former was a few days ago put in a form which I hope will meet the ultimatum of Virginia. The first Monday in next month is fixed for a decision of the latter; after which it may still be necessary to choose a temporary residence until the permanent one can be made ready. I am utterly unable to foretell how either of these points will be determined. It is not impossible that an effective vote may be found attainable on neither; in which case the winter must be spent in this village, where the public business can neither be conveniently done, the members of Congress be decently provided for, nor those connected with Congress provided for at all. I shall lose no time in looking out for quarters for you, and entering into provisional engagements in your favor.

Our last information from Europe is dated the twenty-seventh of July. France and Spain were then ready for the definitive signing of the peace. Holland was on the point of being so. The American Plenipotentiaries had done nothing on the subject, and in case of emergency could only sign the provisional treaty as final. Their negotiations had been spent chiefly on commercial stipulations, from which Great Britain, after very different professions and appearances, altogether drew back. The ready admission she found into our commerce, without paying any price for it, has suggested the policy of aiming at the entire benefit of it, and at the same time securing the carriage of the West India trade, the price she at first bid for it. The supposed contra

riety of interests among the

States, and the impo

tence of the Federal Government, are urged by the

ministerial pamphleteers as a safeguard against retaliation. The other nations of Europe seem to have more honorable views towards our commerce, sundry advances having been made to our Ministers on that subject.

Congress have come to no decision even as yet on any of the great branches of the peace establishment. The military branch is supported and quickened by the presence of the Commander-in-Chief, but without any prospect of a hasty issue. The Department of Foreign Affairs, both internal and external, remains as it has long done. The election of a Secretary has been an order of the day for many months without a vote being taken. The importance of the Marine Department has been diminished by the sale of almost all the vessels belonging to the United States. The Department of Finance is an object of almost daily attack, and will be reduced to its crisis on the final resignation of Mr. Morris, which will take place in a few months. The War Office is connected with the military establishment, and will be regulated, I suppose, in conformity to what that may be. Among other subjects which divide Congress, their constitutional authority, touching such an establishment in time of peace, is one. Another still more puzzling is the precise jurisdiction proper for Congress within the limits of their permanent seat. As these points may possibly remain undecided till mention them particularly that your aid may be prepared. The investigation of the mutiny ended in the condemnation of several sergeants, who were stimulated to the measure, without being apprized

November, I

of the object, by the two officers who escaped. They have all received a pardon from Congress. The real plan and object of the mutiny lies in profound darkness. I have written this in hopes that it may get to Monticello before you leave it. It might have been made more interesting if I had brought the cypher from Philadelphia, though my present situation required a great effort to accomplish as much as I have. I am obliged to write in a position that scarcely admits the use of any of my limbs, Mr. Jones and myself being lodged in a room not ten feet square, and without a single accommodation for writing.

124

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Princeton, September 20, 1783.

I have nothing to add to my last, on the subject of foreign affairs, further than that the Court of France has fixed on L'Orient as a free port for the United States. The Virginia cession underwent a decision of Congress a day or two after my last. The form which they have given it may be seen in the hands of the Executive. I sincerely hope it may meet the ultimatum of Virginia.

125

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, September 30, 1783.

DEAR SIR,

Your favor introducing Mr. Corbin, and that by the last week's post, have both been received. The

former did not get to Princeton before Mr. Corbin had left it, nor did I get to this place till he was so near leaving it, that I had no opportunity of manifesting my respect for your recommendations otherwise than by verbal civilities to him. Yesterday's post brought me no letter from you. In answer to your comment in the preceding one on the reception of a Minister from the economical republic to which we are allied, it will suffice to inform you, that, in pursuance of a commission from him, six elegant horses are provided for his coach, as was to have been one of the best houses in the most fashionable part of the city. Wherever commerce prevails there will be an inequality of wealth; and wherever the latter does, a simplicity of manners must decline.

Our foreign intelligence remains as at the date of my last. I forget whether I mentioned to you that our Ministers unanimously express surprise at the doubt started in America as to the epoch which terminated hostilities on our coast. They affirm, that one month from the date of the instrument was meant, and suppose that that exposition will not be contested. Pray can your researches inform me, first, whether prizes made by and from parties not subject to the power before whose maritime courts they are carried, are provisionally or finally tried?-secondly, how far the rules established by the Sovereign of the captor, and those by the Sovereign of the courts, prevail in such trials?— thirdly, what difference is made in cases where both the parties concerned in the capture are subject to the same power, and where they are subject to different powers?

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, October 13, 1783.

The past week has been spent by Congress in deliberating on-first, their permanent seat; secondly, their temporary one. The competition for the former lay between the falls of the Potomac and those of the Delaware. We hoped, at first, from the apparent views of the Eastern Delegates, that they would have given a preference to Potomac. In the event they joined with Pennsylvania and the intermediate States in favor of the Delaware. The consequence of which is, the vicinity of its falls is to become the future seat of the Federal Government, unless a conversion of some of the Eastern States can be effected. The next point was the abode of Congress until the permanent seat could receive them. The expediency of removing from Princeton, in order to the more convenient transaction of the affairs of the United States, and accommodation of Congress, was first determined on; Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island alone being opposed to it. Trenton was next proposed, on which question the votes were divided by the river Delaware. Philadelphia came next in order. Besides its convenient position in relation to the permanent seat, and superior temporary accommodations for the public business and for Congress, arguments in its favor were drawn from the tendency of passing by these accommodations to others inferior in themselves, and more distant from the permanent seat, to denote a resentment unworthy of a sovereign author