To John Jay from Grenville, 5 August 1794
From Grenville (private)
St. James’s Square August 5th. 1794
Since Lord Grenville had last the honour of seeing Mr Jay1 he has looked more particularly into the grounds on which Mr Jefferson in the Paper communicated to Lord Grenville by Mr Jay accuses great Britain of the first violation of treaty by her conduct respecting the Posts.2 He now sends Mr Jay a Note on that subject3 which he does not communicate to Him as an official Paper because He has the satisfaction to think that the course their negotiation is taking is such as to preclude the necessity of any ministerial discussion on the question of prior infraction. But as Mr Jay himself seemed not to be fully in possession of the facts, Lord G. wishes to state them to him, having no doubt of their effect on a mind as open & candid as he has found that of Mr Jay to be. Lord G. does not wish to trouble Mr Jay for any answer to this Note which is merely a private communication.
C, UkLPR: FO 95/512 (EJ: 04988). Marked: “Private”.
1. On the meeting of 31 July, see JJ to Grenville, 30 July 1794, above.
2. See TJ to Hammond, 29 May 1792, in which TJ had argued that the United States had complied in all essentials with the Treaty of 1783, and that violations of it should be counted from the time news of it had arrived in the United States in March 1783. , 23: 551–612. JJ had earlier argued that the United States had been the first to violate the treaty, and was, thus compelled to present the case as developed by TJ. See JJ’s Report to Congress, 13 Oct. 1786, , 4: 417–33.
3. See Grenville’s Notes Respecting the Posts, 5 Aug. 1794, below.