really
blamable, yet we suppose the principal object of the arrest was to
remove him off the ground. As the prosecution of him to judgment might
give room to misrepresentation of the motives, perhaps you may think it
not amiss to discontinue the proceedings. You will receive herewith a
packet of papers, among which are several projects and estimates which
have been given in by different persons, and which are handed on to you,
not as by any means carrying with them any degree of approbation, but
merely, that if you find any thing good in them, you may convert it to
some account. Some of these contain the views of L'Enfant.

I have the honor to be, with the most perfect esteem and respect,
Gentlemen, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER XCVIII.--TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS,

TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

Philadelphia, March 10, 1792.

Dear Sir,

My letter of January the 23rd, put under cover to Mr. Johnson in London,
and sent by a passenger in the British packet of February, will have
conveyed to you your appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary of the
United States, at the court of France. By the Pennsylvania, Captain
Harding, bound to Havre de Grace, and plying pretty regularly between
this place and that, you will receive the present letter, with the laws
of the United States, journals of Congress, and gazettes to this day,
addressed to the care of M. de la Motte. You will also receive a letter
from the President to the King of France, in answer to his announcing
the acceptance of the constitution, which came to hand only a week ago.
A copy of this letter is sent for your own use. You will be pleased
to deliver the sealed one (to the minister I presume, according to the
ancient etiquette of the court), accompanying it with the assurances of
friendship, which the occasion may permit you to express, and which are
cordially felt by the President and the great body of our nation. We
wish no occasion to be omitted of impressing the National Assembly
with this truth. We had expected, ere this, that in consequence of the
recommendation of their predecessors, some overtures would have been
made to us on the subject of a treaty of commerce. An authentic copy
of the recommendation was delivered, but nothing said about carrying it
into effect. Perhaps they expect that we should declare our readiness to
meet them on the ground of treaty. If they do, we have no hesitation to
declare it. In the mean