Benjamin Franklin Papers
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Lafayette to Franklin and John Jay, 16 June 1783

Lafayette to Franklin and John Jay2

AL: Columbia University Library

Paris June the 16th 1783

Mquis. de Lafayette’s Compliments waït upon Mr. Franklin and Mr. Jay, and Has the Honour to Acquaint them He Had letters from America down to the first of May— On Many points He is Referred to the letters those Gentlemen Must Have Received— The Mquis. de Lafayette Intends paying them His Respects to Morrow at Breakfast time, and will Communicate what Intelligence is Come to His knowledge.3

Count de Vergennes was yesterday Expressing a Desire to know if Mr. Hartley’s last Dispatches were as Satisfactory as they are Said to be by the Duke of Manchester.

Endorsed by John Jay: Marqs. Fayette 16 June 1783 ansd. same morng4

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

2At BF’s suggestion, the Jays left Paris in early June and came to live with him in the country, where the air was more wholesome. John and his daughter had been ill, and Sarah was seven months pregnant. The family was installed by June 10, the day Jay wrote his first letter from Passy. He left for England on Oct. 9; his family stayed until the beginning of November, when they moved to the neighboring village of Chaillot: Morris, Jay: Peace, pp. 607–9, 619, 636n; John Jay to Robert R. Livingston, June 10, 1783 (N.-Y. Hist. Soc.); Sarah Jay to Catharine Livingston, June 11, 1783, and to Lady Juliana Penn, Oct. 8, 1783 (both at the Columbia University Library).

3On June 21 Lafayette wrote a one-sentence note to BF and Jay, sending American newspapers. APS.

4Jay answered in BF’s absence: neither he nor BF had received any recent letters from America, though JA had received one mentioning that Congress had ratified the preliminary articles and released British prisoners. Lafayette was welcome to breakfast with them the next morning: Jay to Lafayette, June 16, 1783, Columbia University Library. The letter JA received (an April 14 dispatch from Livingston) had arrived the previous day: JA to Livingston, June 16, 1783, in Adams Papers, XV, 34.

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