University of Virginia Library

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.[1]

Dear Sir,—By the vessel spoken of in my last,
Congress have received a letter from Mr. Adams,
dated Hague, August the eighteenth, which enclosed
a copy of the plenipotentiary commission issued to
Mr. Fitzherbert, the British Minister at Brussells.
The following skeleton of the commission will give
you an idea of its aspect towards America:

"Georgius tertius, etc., omnibus, etc., salutem.
Cum, belli incendio jam nimis diu diversis orbis terrarum
partibus flagrante, in id quam maxime incumbamus
ut tranquillitas publica, tot litibus, etc.,
rite compositis, reduci, etc., possit,—cumque eâ de
causa, virum quendam tanto negotio parem, ad bonum
fratrem nostrum, Regem Chrismum mittere decrevimus:
Sciatis igitur quod nos, fide, etc. Alleini
Fitzherbert, etc., confisi, eundem nominavimus, etc.,
nostrum Plenipotentiarum, dantes, etc., eidem omnem
potestatem, etc., nee non mandatum generale
pariter ac speciale, etc., in aula prædicti bon. frat.
Reg. Chrismi pro nobis et nostro nomine, una cum
Plenipotentiariis, tam Celsorum et Prœpotentium Dominorum,
ordinum Generalium Fœderati Belgii, quam
quorumcunque Principum et Statuum quorum interesse
poterit, sufficiente auctoritate instructis, tam singulatim
ac divisim quam aggregatim ac conjunctim, congrediendi,
etc., atque cum ipsis de pace, concordia,
etc., præsentibus, etc. etc. In palatio nostro, etc.,
24 Julii, 1782.

The only further circumstance contained in his
letter, relative to the business of a pacification, is
the appointment of a Plenipotentiary by the States
General, who was to set out for Paris in about three
weeks after the date of the letter.

The States of Holland and West Friesland had
determined upon the proposed treaty of commerce,
and Mr. Adams expected to have a speedy conference
with the States General, in order to bring it to
a conclusion.

The Secretary of War lately communicated to
Congress an extract of a letter from General Washington
of a very unwelcome tenor. It paints the
discontents of the army in very unusual colors, and
surmises some dangerous eruption, unless a payment
can be effected within the present year. The Secretary
is gone to head-quarters at the request of the
General. How far their joint precautions will calm
the rising billows, must be left to the result.

Congress have reduced the estimate for the ensuing
year to six millions of dollars, and the requisitions on
the States, for the present, to one-third of that sum.
A call for the residue is suspended till the result of
the applications for loans shall be known.

The combined fleets have certainly gone to support
the siege of Gibraltar. The Dutch has returned to
the Texel. According to the preconcerted plan, it
was to have proceeded North, after disposing of its
convoy, and have reinforced the combined fleet. The
disappointment is traced up to the machinations of
the Prince of Orange, whose attachment to the

enemies of the Republic seems to be fatal to all her exertions.
For other particulars taken from foreign
gazettes, I refer to those herewith enclosed, and those
enclosed to Mr. Ambler.