will result from it to both countries.

I have the honor to be, Sir, with the highest respect and esteem, &c.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

* * * * *

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON, SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Translation.

Philadelphia, October 25th, 1781.

Sir,

I have received the letter, with which you honored me on the 24th
instant, and it is with the most sincere satisfaction, that I see in
it your determination to accept the office, to which Congress have
appointed you. It will give me great pleasure to address myself to
you, in sending to Congress those communications, which I shall have
it in my power to make; and I shall be no less flattered to receive
through you every communication, which that body shall think proper to
make to me. I can assure you, Sir, that the choice now made by
Congress will give great satisfaction in Europe, where your
patriotism, your past services, and your wisdom have long been known.

I have the honor to be, &c.

LUZERNE.

* * * * *

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO M. DE LA LUZERNE.

Office of Foreign Affairs, November 2d, 1781.

Sir,

It is with peculiar pleasure that I obey the directions of Congress in
making communications, which show their sense of the exertions of
their ally, and of the merit of the officers he employs. The
confidence inspired by the first, and the esteem excited by the last,
form new bands of union between nations, whom reciprocal interests had
before connected. In this view I flatter myself the enclosed acts of
Congress will be agreeable to you, and that you will with pleasure
communicate to his Most Christian Majesty their desire, with his
permission, to present to the Count de Grasse two pieces of field
ordnance, taken from the enemy at York, with inscriptions calculated
to show that Congress were induced to present them from considerations
of the illustrious part, which he bore in effectuating the
surrender.[1]

I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect and esteem, &c.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _In Congress, October 28th, 1781._ "Resolved, That the thanks of
the United States in Congress assem