in France; they have been
long since laid before Congress, and I cannot but conceive, that if I
have merited the calumnies which have for some months past been
publicly thrown out against me, and industriously spread through these
States, justice to those great personages, who condescended to
interest themselves so warmly in my favor, requires that my demerits
should be publicly known and made to appear, that they may no longer
be deceived, or in a state of uncertainty, respecting my real
character and merits.

A writer, who has been busily employed for three months past in
inventing and publishing the most scandalous falsehoods, in order to
injure me in the opinion of my countrymen, has produced in Dunlap's
paper of the 27th inst. two charges against me, the one for
"_negotiating an intended present into a loan_," or, in other words,
of defrauding my honorable constituents of a large sum of money; the
other of intercepting and destroying the public despatches in order to
cover the fraud. This writer has not long since been in the employ of
Congress as a secretary or clerk, of which circumstance he avails
himself to give force to his calumnies, and has had the confidence to
appeal to Congress for the truth of his assertions, though he knew at
the time that Congress had unanimously contradicted the first, and
that the latter was but the creature of his own forming. From the
moment that I was ordered by Congress to lay before them in writing, a
narration of my public transactions, I have considered myself as being
before that tribunal and no other, and under their immediate
protection, and consequently not at liberty to take that notice of the
publications of this writer, or of his prompters, which, as an
individual, otherways circumstanced, I should have took long since.
This consideration, and the full reliance I have ever placed on the
justice of Congress, have prevented my making any reply to the many
base and false insinuations thrown out by this writer, and others,
against me, and I have been encouraged to wait with patience for the
decision of Congress, by repeated promises, that a speedy issue should
be made of those affairs.

I now submit it to that honorable body, whether, if my patience is
exhausted, I ought to be deemed culpable; and have further to entreat,
that if Congress, or any of its members, entertain any apprehensions,
that I am guilty of the two charges brought against me, (to which I
have referre