University of Virginia Library

TO JOHN GRAHAM.

Dear Sir I have recd. your favor of the 26th.
I cannot recollect off-hand, very much about the
letter from Turreau to R. Smith, of which a translation
is printed at Georgetown.[72] My general impression

is that it was considered at the time as
highly exceptionable in several passages; that it was
noticed that T. by a ruse diplomatique, which distinguished
between the existing & preceding administrations,
and assumed the air of a private
instead of an Official paper, had attempted to cover
& pass off here a rudeness which might be recd. as a
proof of his energetic zeal, by his own Govt. and
that unless T. preferred taking back the paper, a
proper notice of its offensiveness ought to be taken;
it being of course left to R. S. to manage the business
with T. A further appeal to my memory, may give
more precision to these circumstances, and may
recover others from the oblivion into which they
have fallen. The case will probably be the same
with you. If you can pronounce with certainty
from your own knowledge, or the information of Mr.
Smith that the letter was taken back by T. (a thing
not very unusual in such cases, and of which there
have been examples with other foreign Ministers,
British,[73] if I mistake not, as well as French[74] ) it
may be well perhaps that the fact shd. be noticed in
the Newspaper. An antidote in some form, to the
mischievous intent of the publication seems due to
the crisis chosen for it. If no answer were given to
the letter, which the records will test, that alone
would be animadversion, in one of its modes, of no
inconsiderable force. It is unfortunate that the
individual possessing the fullest knowledge of all
circumstances, cannot be resorted to. If he has
himself conveyed the paper to the printer, as you
conjecture, it is another evidence of the folly which
has marked his career; since the position which he
occupied and the address of the paper to him as "une
lettre simple," Wd. assign to him more particularly
any reproach of want of sensibility to its offensive
contents; For he will hardly pretend that he was
controuled in the expression of it. The time for
doing that was the time when he mustered the whole
of that & every other species of denunciation agst.
the object of his tormenting passions. If the original
of the French letter was returned to T. without a
copy having been taken, as may be inferred from the
sending of a translation to the Printer, and your
translation is not found in the Office, the translation
sent must have been yours; and the public will decide
between the Clerks in the Departt. and the then head
of it. It is sufficiently known that he carryd with
him out of it, copies of other papers which he wished
to possess, with a view to eventual publicity.

If the date of the translated letter be correctly
published, the letter must have been recd. before the
rejection of Erskine's arrangement was known, and
at a period when a reconciliation with England was
considered as certain. This consideration might
properly have had weight, in disposing the Cabinet
to bear with less impatience an exceptionable tone
from a French Minister, whose feelings on such an
event, wd. naturally mingle themselves with his
complaints on other subjects, some of which, particularly

the apathy of the Amn. Govt. with respect
to the French ship burnt near the shore of N. C., it
was not very easy to meet in a satisfactory manner.

I am very sorry to hear of the indisposition of Col.
Monroe. I hope it will be found to justify the term
slight which you apply to it. My own health has
greatly improved since my arrival here; but I have
not been without several slight returns of fever
which are chargeable rather on the remnant of the
influenza than the cause from which I suffered in
Washington. I am now pretty well recovered from
the last return which took place a few days ago.
Accept with my respects my best wishes for your
health & welfare.