ence. Early in the next year, Silas Deane was sent
to France by the Committee, with instructions to act as a commercial
or political agent for the American Colonies, as circumstances might
dictate. This Committee was denominated the _Committee of Secret
Correspondence_, and continued in operation till April 17th, 1777,
when the name was changed to that of the _Committee of Foreign
Affairs_. The duties and objects of the Committee appear to have
remained as before, notwithstanding the change of name.

In the first years of the war, it was customary for the Commissioners
and Ministers abroad to address their letters to the Committee, or to
the President of Congress. In either case the letters were read in
Congress, and answered only by the Committee, this body being the
organ of all communications from Congress on foreign affairs. The
proceedings of Congress in relation to these topics were recorded in a
journal, kept separately from that in which the records of other
transactions were entered, and called the _Secret Journal_. This
Journal has recently been published, in conformity with the same
resolution of Congress, which directed the publication of the foreign
correspondence.

Robert R. Livingston was chosen Secretary of Foreign Affairs on the
10th of August, 1781, when the Committee was dissolved, and the
foreign correspondence from that time went through the hands of the
Secretary. As the responsibility thus devolved on a single individual,
instead of being divided among several, the business of the department
was afterwards executed with much more promptness and efficiency.

The plan adopted, in arranging the papers for publication, has been to
bring together those of each Commissioner, or Minister, in strict
chronological order. As there is much looseness, and sometimes
confusion in their arrangement as preserved in the Department of
State, this plan has not always been easy to execute. The advantage of
such a method, however, is so great, the facility it affords for a
ready reference and consultation is so desirable, and the chain of
events is thereby exhibited in a manner so much more connected and
satisfactory, that no pains have been spared to bring every letter and
document into its place in the exact order of its date. Thus, the
correspondence of each Commissioner, or Minister, presents a
continuous history of the acts in which he was concerned, and of the
events to which he alludes.

It will be seen, t