and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

The communication relative to our affairs with France alluded to in my
address to both Houses at the opening of the session is contained in
the sheets which accompany this. A report of the Secretary of State,
containing some observations on them, will be sent to Congress on
Monday.

JOHN ADAMS.

JANUARY 28, 1799.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

An edict of the Executive Directory of the French Republic of the 29th
of October, 1798, inclosed in a letter from our minister plenipotentiary
in London of the 16th of November, is of so much importance that it can
not be too soon communicated to you and the public.

JOHN ADAMS.

FEBRUARY 6, 1799.

_Gentlemen of the Senate_:

In consequence of intimations from the Court of Russia to our minister
plenipotentiary at the Court of Great Britain of the desire of that
power to have a treaty of amity and commerce with the United States,
and that the negotiation might be conducted in London, I nominate Rufus
King, our minister plenipotentiary at the Court of Great Britain, to be
a minister plenipotentiary for the special purpose of negotiating with
any minister of equal rank and powers a treaty of amity and commerce
between the United States and the Emperor of all the Russias.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, _February 15, 1799_.

_Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

In pursuance of the request in your resolve of yesterday, I lay before
you such information as I have received touching a suspension of the
arret of the French Republic, communicated to your House by my message
of the 28th of January last. But if the execution of that arret be
suspended, or even if it were repealed, it should be remembered that the
arret of the Executive Directory of the 2d of March, 1797, remains in
force, the third article of which subjects, explicitly and exclusively,
American seamen to be treated as pirates if found on board ships of the
enemies of France.

JOHN ADAMS.

FEBRUARY 18, 1799.

_Gentlemen of the Senate_:

I transmit to you a document which seems to be intended to be a
compliance with a condition mentioned at the conclusion of my message
to Congress of the 21st of June last.

Always disposed and ready to embrace every plausible appearance of
probability of preserving or restoring tranquillity, I nominate William
Vans Murray, our minister resident at The Hag