1. For the origins of Jefferson’s joint effort with the Marquis de Lafayette to persuade the French ministry to reduce duties on American whale oil, see his 10 Dec. 1785 letter, and note 1, above.

The enclosure has not been found, but it was a copy of Charles Alexandre de Calonne’s 22 Oct. 1786 letter to Jefferson. In fact, the letter was a memorandum detailing and confirming French regulatory measures specific to trade with the United States dating back to Calonne’s 9 Jan. 1784 letter to Lafayette granting four free ports rather than the two required by the 1778 Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce. It was a nearly verbatim rendition of the draft prepared by Lafayette, with significant input by Jefferson, for Calonne to sign and present as a summation of the work of the American Committee. Among the points dealt with were the reduction or elimination of duties on brandy, potash, fur, and naval stores, and the status of contracts for the purchase of American tobacco and whale oil. There was, however, no explicit mention of trade with the West Indies. For Jefferson’s detailed commentary on Calonne’s letter and its importance for Franco-American trade, see his 23 Oct. 1786 letter to John Jay (vol. 16:76, 77; Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, Princeton, N.J., 1950– . description ends , 10:474–478, 484–486; Louis Gottschalk, Lafayette: Between the American and the French Revolution, 1783–1789, Chicago, 1950, p. 249, 255–256).