bout returning to my family and private
concerns, which had suffered much by my absence, I was applied to, by
the committee of Congress, to go to France, to negotiate the political
as well as commercial affairs of America in that kingdom. The
advantages proposed to me in the latter were considerable, and without
any probability of difficulty, embarrassment, or risk, further than
the dangers of the voyage, which were indeed great at that time. In
the former it was very different, but the difficulties which
presented, great as they were, had no consideration with me, in the
situation in which our affairs then were. My subsequent conduct, from
my arrival in France, until I left that kingdom, fully demonstrates
that private interest and personal safety never had any weight with
me, when the service of my country called upon me. In my narrative I
have been so particular on the situation I found myself in, on my
arrival in Europe, the embarrassments and difficulties I constantly
labored under, and had to encounter, and in the many letters I have
written to Congress since my return, requesting my conduct might be
examined, in the strictest and most public manner, I have so often
represented to them what my situation and line of conduct had ever
been, that I am under no necessity of saying anything on the subject
at present.

On the fourth of March, 1778, after having succeeded in procuring
supplies for these States, which fell almost solely on me, and having,
jointly with my colleagues, concluded the treaty of the sixth of
February, which secured and guarantied the independence of these
States, when I found myself, for the first time after my leaving
America, free from those distressing embarrassments and difficulties I
had been constantly under, and at liberty to pursue openly the great
objects in view, and which I had for some time contemplated for the
service of these States, I received the resolution of Congress of the
8th of December, ordering me to return immediately to America, to
inform Congress of the _state of foreign affairs in Europe_. I did not
hesitate a moment as to the part I should take, but immediately set
myself on improving this circumstance and others, which then
fortunately coincided, to the greatest possible advantage of these
States,--the publication of the treaty, until that time ordered to be
kept a profound secret, and the sending out the Toulon fleet, in which
I embarked early in April.

I submit