friendship to his Prussian Majesty, and our desire to promote commercial
intercourse with his subjects; and of this, we hope, he will be fully
assured.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, Sir, your most obedient and
most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXVII.--TO THE PRESIDENT, August 19, 1792

TO THE PRESIDENT.

Monticello, August 19, 1792.

Sir,

I was yesterday honored with yours of the 13th instant, covering the
Governor of Vermont's of July the 16th. I presume it can not now be long
before I shall receive his answer to the two letters I wrote him from
Philadelphia on the same subject. I now enclose letters received by
yesterday's post from Mr. Hammond, Mr. William Knox, and Mr. Paleske,
with answers to the two latter. Should these meet your approbation, you
will be so good as to seal and let them go on under the cover to Mr.
Taylor, who will have them conveyed according to their address. Should
you wish any alteration of them, it shall be made on their being
returned. The Prussian treaty is, I believe, within four years of its
expiration. I suspect that personal motives alone induce Mr. Paleske to
press for a convention, which could hardly be formed and ratified before
it would expire; and that his court cannot lay much stress on it. Mr.
Hammond's former explanations of his notification of the 12th of
April having been laid before Congress, may perhaps make it proper to
communicate to them also his sovereign's approbation of them.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect respect and
attachment, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXVIII.--TO M. DE TERNANT, September 27,1792

TO M. DE TERNANT.

Philadelphia, September 27,1792.

Sir,

Your letter of the 2d instant, informing me that the legislative body,
on the proposition of the King of the French, had declared war against
the King of Hungary and Bohemia, has been duly received, and laid before
the President of the United States: and I am authorized to convey to
you the expression of the sincere concern we feel, on learning that the
French nation, to whose friendship and interests we have the strongest
attachments, are now to encounter the evils of war. We offer our prayers
to Heaven that its duration may be short, and its course marked with as
few as may be of those calamities which render the condition of war so
afflicting to humanity; and we add assurance