University of Virginia Library

TO JOSEPH JONES.[1]

Dear Sir,—I had yours of the twenty-fifth ultimo,
by yesterday's post. I congratulate you on the deliverance
of our country from the distresses of actual
invasion. If any unusual forbearance has been shown
by the British commanders, it has proceeded rather I
presume, from a possibility that they may some time
or other in the course of the war repossess what they
have now abandoned, than from a real disposition to
spare. The procedings of the enemy to the southward
prove that no general change of system has
taken place in their military policy.

We had letters yesterday from Mr. Jay and Mr.
Carmichael as late as the fourth and ninth of September.
Mr. Jay informs us that it is absolutely

necessary to cease drawing bills on him; that 150,000
dollars, to be repaid in three years, with some aid in
clothing, &c., is all that the Court will advance for
us. The general tenor of the letters is, that our
affairs there make little progress, that the court is
rather backward, that the navigation of the Mississippi
is likely to prove a very serious difficulty; that
Spain has herself been endeavouring to borrow a large
sum in France on which she meant to issue a paper
currency, that the terms and means used by her displeased
Mr. Neckar, who in consequence threw such
discouragements on it, as in turn were not very
pleasing to the Spanish Minister; that Mr. Cumberland
is still at Madrid laboring in concert with other
secret emissaries of Britain to give unfavorable impressions
of our affairs, that he is permitted to keep
up a correspondence by his couriers with London,
that if negotiations for peace should be instituted this
winter, as Spain has not yet taken a decided part
with regard to America, England will probably
choose to make Madrid rather than Versailles the
seat of it. However unfavorable many of these particulars
may appear, it is the concurrent representation
of the above ministers that our disappointment
of pecuniary succor at Madrid is to be imputed to
the want of ability and not of inclination to supply
us, that the steadiness of His Catholic Majesty is
entirely confided in by the French Ambassador, and
that the mysterious conduct of Mr. Cumberland and
of the Court of Spain towards him, seems to excite
no uneasiness in the Ambassador. The letters add,
that, on the pressing remonstrances of France and
Spain, Portugal had agreed to shut her ports against
English prizes, but that she persisted in her refusal
to accede to the armed neutrality.

The receipt of the foregoing intelligence has
awakened the attention of the Georgia delegates to
their motion, of which I informed you particularly
by Col. Grayson. It has lain, ever since it was made,
undisturbed on the table. This morning is assigned
for the consideration of it, and I expect it will without
fail be taken up. I do not believe Congress will
adopt it without the express concurrence of all the
States immediately interested. Both my principles
and my instructions will determine me to oppose it.
Virginia, and the United States in general, are too
deeply interested in the subject of controversy to
give it up, as long as there is a possibility of retaining
it. And I have ever considered the mysterious
and reserved behaviour of Spain, particularly her
backwardness in the article of money, as intended
to alarm us into concessions, rather than as the effect
of a real indifference to our fate or to any alliance
with us. I am very anxious, notwithstanding, to have
an answer to my letter by Grayson.