From Thomas Jefferson to Mézières, 27 December 1786
To Mézières
Paris 27me Xbre 1786.
Monsieur Jefferson a l’honneur de faire passer à Monsieur le Chevalier de Mezieres la reponse qu’il vient de recevoir de Messieurs les delegués de Georgie au Congrès à la lettre qu’il leur avoit ecrit, les priant de s’interresser auprès de l’Assemblée de Georgie pour M. le Chevalier de Mezieres. Il a l’honneur de lui presenter ses compliments.
PrC (ViWC); endorsed. Enclosure: Georgia Delegates in Congress to TJ, 21 Aug. 1786.
TJ had not just received the letter from the Georgia Delegates, as he states, but had had it since 6 Dec. 1786. Moreover, thanks to the efficiency of the French intelligence service, Vergennes had obtained a copy of the letter and sent a translation of it to Mézières several days before TJ did. “J’aurois desiré, M[onsieur],” Vergennes had written Mézières on 23 Dec. 1786, “qu’ils eussent été plus consonnes à votre attente et à vos espérances.” Mézières replied to Vergennes on 30 Dec. 1786, enclosing a memorandum of his consultation with an advisor, that the Georgia Delegates were entirely mistaken and that there had never been any question of confiscation of the Oglethorpe estate in Georgia (Arch. Aff. Etr., Corr. Pol., E.-U., xxxii; Tr in DLC).