s fell on me, and if jointly with my
colleagues I brought them to a happy and honorable issue, and
individually acquired the confidence and esteem of His Most Christian
Majesty and his ministers, as well as of the nation in general; and
if, at my private solicitations (in part) after my recall, a strong
fleet and armament were sent out to the relief of these States; if
these are facts, which they certainly are, and the greater part of
them long since fully ascertained, and the others ascertainable by the
settlement of the commissioners' accounts, (which I have from the
first requested) I flatter myself justice will be done by Congress,
and that the artifices of interested and wicked men will not prevail
to delay it, and thereby injure the public and their servant more
essentially, than injustice itself would do.

I, therefore, with the sensibility of an innocent yet injured man, and
with the firmness of a free independent citizen, ask for justice,
fully confident that Congress will not refuse or delay it. I owe too
much to those great personages, who generously patronized and
protected me in Europe, to my countrymen and to myself, to suffer my
character and conduct to remain longer under any uncertainty. When the
part I acted abroad in the service of these States, my recall, the
circumstances of my return, my reception, and the delays I have since
met with, are reviewed, I think my case will be found peculiar.

Permit me then to repeat, that my services have been in two
departments, political and commercial; every thing respecting the
first is already well known, the closing of the accounts will
demonstrate what the latter has been; on the first, Congress is now
able to judge; justice to the public, as well as to myself, calls for
their determination. If there are charges against me in either of the
characters I have supported, I must consider myself entitled to know
what they are, and to be permitted to answer.

I cannot close this letter without complaining to Congress of the
abuse I have met with in the public papers from a writer, who was
lately their confidential servant, and who has abused their confidence
to deceive and impose on the free citizens of these States, and to
injure me in the public opinion; also of the partial and injurious
manner in which I have been treated by others who, deeply interested
by family and other connexions to support my enemies, represent my
conduct and the letters written by the c