me feel most sensibly what I suffer by not being
permitted to be heard before Congress, which I still solicit for.

S. D.

* * * * *

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Philadelphia, 30th November, 1778.

Sir,

I am still so unhappy, as to be without the honor of any reply to the
several letters I have written through you to Congress, praying that
honorable body to favor me with an audience, and that they would give
the necessary orders to their ministers or commissioners at the Court
of Versailles to examine, adjust, and settle my accounts immediately
on my return to France. I take the liberty now to add to what I have
already written, that the hopes of being favored with an audience have
already occasioned my losing several very agreeable and safe
opportunities of returning, until the season has become as pressing as
the business which calls me back, and obliges me most earnestly to
entreat the attention of Congress to my situation and requests.

I have the honor to remain, &c.

SILAS DEANE.

* * * * *

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Friday, 4th December, 1778.

Sir,

I have now to acknowledge your favors of 10 o'clock last evening, and
to thank you for the attention paid to my last letter to you. Previous
to receiving the intimation you have given me, "that Congress had
resolved to take into consideration their foreign affairs, and that
such branches as I had been particularly concerned in, would in due
course become subjects of deliberation," I had prepared to leave this
city, and had made my arrangements accordingly, which it will not be
in my power to dispense with for any time. I take the liberty of
mentioning this, as I do not find in the intimation you have given me
of the resolution of Congress any time fixed for my attendance, and I
take the liberty of repeating what I have before had the honor of
writing to you, that my detention is extremely prejudicial to my
private affairs, and, so far as I am able to judge, in some degree so
to those of the public, which I have had the honor of being intrusted
with, some of which require my presence at the settlement of them, as
well on account of my own rep