TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.[1]
Philadelphia, August 20, 1782.
Dear Sir,—In my last I informed you that the
motion to rescind the control given to France over
the American Ministers had been parried, and would
probably end in an adoption of your report. It was
parried by a substitute so expressed as to give a committee
sufficient latitude in reporting, without implying
on the part of Congress a design to alter past
instructions. The composition of the committee appointed
according well with the object of the substitute,
a report was made that the expository report
should be referred to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
to be by him revised and transmitted to the Ministers
in Europe, and that the latter should communicate
so much thereof as they might judge fit to His Most
Christian Majesty. * * *
