The important communications made by your Majesty's Plenipotentiary have been considered by us with the greatest attention. The result of our deliberations will be made known to your Majesty by our Minister Plenipotentiary at your Court, and will evince the entire confidence we have in your Majesty's friendship and perseverance in the principles, which have directed your conduct in maintaining the interest of the United States to this time.

We pray God, that he will keep your Majesty, our great, faithful, and beloved friend and ally, in his holy protection.

Done at Philadelphia, the 13th day of June, in the year ́of our Lord, 1781, and in the fifth year of our independence.

By the United States in Congress assembled.

Your Faithful Friends and Allies.

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, President.

CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Translation.

Philadelphia, June 1st, 1781.

Sir,

I have received the letter, which your Excellency did me the honor to write on the 23d of the past month, and that of the Count de Rochambeau, with which it was. accompanied.

I wait with extreme impatience the news of the arrival of the French division before New York, and no one can

mediate command. I hoped that you would have been this spring in the command of a more considerable body of auxiliaries. The causes, which have hindered the execution of that plan, have been so urgent and so decisive, that I am sure you will approve them, after I shall have had the honor of making you acquainted with them. I have nevertheless been much pained, that I could not explain to you this change of measures, and my attachment to the cause, which you defend, has made me feel as sensibly as any citizen of America all the delays, that could happen to the assistance, which we wish to give to the Thirteen States.

I am impressed with the necessity of maintaining a perfect confidence with your Excellency upon these different points, and I shall seize the first occasion which presents itself to visit your army.

In the meantime I shall transmit to the Count de Grasse what your Excellency did me the honor to communicate. Be persuaded that I shall use the most pressing motives to determine him, and I shall do it with so much the more zeal, as I feel the necessity of it. I shall transmit to that General an extract of your letter, and I know nothing more likely to give weight to the demand, which I shall make of him.

The King has charged me, Sir, to inform Congress, that he grants them a gratuitous subsidy to enable them to make the greatest efforts in the course of this campaign. This subsidy, amounting to six millions of livres tournois, is to be employed in the purchase of arms, ammunition, and clothing, and it is the intention of the King, that the surplus shall be at the disposal of Congress. I have not

this surplus, but it is determined, that one million and a half shall be employed by the Superintendent of Finance, according to the directions, which you shall give him, after the arrangements you shall make with him in the visit, which he intends paying you.

I have informed Congress, and I intrust it to your Excellency, that the Emperor of Austria, and the Empress of Russia, have offered their mediation to the Court of London, who has accepted it. The same has also been offered to the Court of Versailles, and that of Madrid. But they have given for answer, that time must be left for Congress to determine, if it suits them to put the interests of the Thirteen United States into the hands of the mediators. In any event, it is of the greatest importance, that the allies make all their efforts to drive the enemy from this continent, and nothing will be more likely, than the success of the confederate arms, to make a successful negotiation.

I have the honor to be, &c.

LUZERNE.

GEORGE WASHINGTON TO M. DE LA LUZERNE.

Sir,

Head Quarters, New Windsor,
June 13th, 1781. }

His Excellency the Count de Rochambeau having requested me to forward the despatches herewith transmitted, by the safest possible conveyance, I now do myself the honor to send them by a gentleman of the Quarter Master General's department.

Having been made acquainted by the Count de Ro

come to this coast with his fleet, I cannot forbear expressing to your Excellency my ardent wishes, that a body of land forces might also attend this naval armament; as I am apprehensive such a decided superiority of men may not be drawn together by us, by the time the Count de Grasse will be here, as to insure our success against the enemy's most important posts; as his continuance in these seas may be limited to a short period, and as the addition of a respectable corps of troops from the West Indies would, in all human probability, terminate the matter very soon in our favor. If these should likewise be your sentiments, and if this plan should not interfere with the inteutions and interests of his Most Christian Majesty elsewhere, I entreat your Excellency, by the first good conveyance, to represent the propriety and necessity of the measure to the commanders in the West Indies; that by one great decisive stroke the enemy may be expelled from the continent, and the independence of America established at the approaching negotiation.

I have the honor to be, &c.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

REPORT OF A CONFERENCE WITH THE FRENCH MINISTER.

In Congress, June 18th, 1781.

The committee appointed to confer with the Minister Plenipotentiary of France, report,

That on the second conference with the Minister of France, he communicated some parts of a despatch, dated the 7th of August, 1780, the first part relating to losses

houses in America, or engaged in transactions of commerce for Congress, or the several States. He informed the committee that several papers, which should have accompanied this despatch, were not come to hand, so that he could not state what kind of compensation the merchants might expect. The Minister, however, mentioned in the conference, that without waiting the arrival of those papers, which may have been lost, or may be delayed for a long time, some recommendation might be thought proper to be sent from Congress to the several States, in order to prevent forever the effect of the tender laws operating against foreign merchants; that this would be an encouragement to commerce, and remove the fears of foreign traders in their transactions with the citizens of the United States. The Minister communicated that part of the Count de Vergennes' letter relating to the discussion between him and Mr John Adams, with respect to the depreciation of the paper money, and the effect this had produced on the French trade; however, he did not enter fully into the matter, not being furnished with the proper papers.

The other objects of the communications of the Minister of France were the measures taken by the Court of Russia, and the northern powers, on account of the rights of neutrality, and the conduct to be observed by the belligerent powers towards subjects of neutral powers; and he informed the committee, that those northern Courts had made formal declarations to the powers at war respecting the principles of neutrality; and that they had concluded a convention for the security of their navigation and of their fair trade. That this convention was particularly obnoxious to the Court of London, as it was now obliged