To George Washington from Edmund Randolph, 24 February 1794
From Edmund Randolph
[Philadelphia] Feby 24. 1794.
E. Randolph has the honor of informing the President, that he last night received several bundles from Mr G. Morris; all of them duplicates, except one No. 35 of his letters. This number incloses so lengthy a correspondence between him and the Minister, in French, that it will be almost impossible to have it translated and copied to-day. The President will therefore determine, whether the papers prepared, shall wait for those last mentioned; or whether they shall go in, with an intimation of the others being in hand, to be forwarded, as soon as finished.1
La Foret and Le Blanc are arrived.2
Fauchet has delivered to Genet his letters of recal; and it is probable that Genet will this morning surrender all the official documents. He is calm and composed, and means to return to France to enter into the army.3
AL, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.
1. In accordance with a letter from the U.S. Senate to GW of 24 Jan., Randolph was preparing copies of the official correspondence of Gouverneur Morris, including that with François-Louis-Michel Chemin Deforgues, the new French minister of foreign affairs. Letter “No. 35” was that from Morris to Thomas Jefferson of 13 Aug. 1793. For this letter and its enclosures, see , 1:368–72. GW sent copies of this letter and the other requested correspondence with his letter to the U.S. Senate of 26 February.
2. La Forest was the recently appointed French consul-general, and Georges-Pierre Le Blanc, a former chief of the Paris police department, was currently serving as secretary of the French legation. Together with Fauchet, the new French minister plenipotentiary, and Petry, the new consul at Philadelphia, these men formed a commission assigned to carry out the duties previously entrusted to Edmond Genet, the former minister to the United States.
3. Genet never returned to France but instead settled in New York State, where he married Cornelia Tappen Clinton (1774–1810), daughter of New York governor George Clinton, on 6 Nov. 1794.