Note 14 — PART VI. MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, January 2d, 1786.

Sir,—Several conferences and letters having passed between the Count de Vergennes and myself, on the subject of the commerce of this country with the United States, I think them sufficiently interesting to be communicated to Congress. They are stated in the form of a report, and are herein enclosed. The length of this despatch, perhaps, needs apology. Yet I have not been able to abridge it, without omitting circumstances which I thought Congress would rather choose to know. Some of the objects of these conferences present but small hopes for the present, but they seem to admit a possibility of success at some future moment.

I am Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.

[The above extract from the report referred to in the preceding letter embraces everything interesting therein, not communicated to the reader in the previous correspondence.]