Mr. Jay’s political importance increases every day. Congress appears to be directed only by his promptings, and it is as difficult to obtain anything without his cooperation as to have a measure he has proposed rejected. The indolence of most of the members of Congress and the ignorance of some others account for this Superiority. People find it far easier to ask the opinion of the Minister of foreign affairs about current business than to form themselves into a Committee; so that the biases and passions of Mr. Jay imperceptibly become those of Congress, and that without being aware of it this Assembly is nothing more than the instrument of the chief Minister. Happily, Mr. Jay is a patriot, and generally well disposed, but his grievances against France make him very stiff even to our most just requests. I have already had the honor to inform you that neither M. Marbois nor I have received any response to the different Memorials that we have sent for over a year. This Minister always tells me that Congress is too busy to take them into consideration, but I know that that Assembly has not had anything important to decide for a long time, and that these delays are due only to the ill will of Mr. Jay. I would not complain of this, Sir, if I did not have reason to fear that Congress’s long silence might be attributed to my inactivity, but I am pained to see that for the simplest affairs, those only requiring two hours’ discussion, this Minister postpones his response for many months. There is, among others, the Treaty proposed by M. le Baron d’Ogny.1 I still have not received any answer on that Subject and I cannot importune Mr. Jay since his reply is always ready; that is to say that he will seize the first opportunity to lay this business before the eyes of Congress. Furthermore, this Minister has the characteristic with which Quakers are reproached, of never answering directly any question that he is asked. As he never discloses his own opinion,2 it is impossible to correct it, and although it may be he who forms most of Congress’s resolutions, he always pretends to report to that body all the clarifications asked of him. It is very unfortunate for us, Sir, that for so important a post the choice of Congress should have happened to fall on a man who does not love us. He always has at heart the matter of the fisheries, and it is impossible to make him listen to reason on a subject where we have not really been detrimental to the United States.3 Nevertheless, whatever may be the faults of this minister in our regard, I cannot deny that there are few men in America better able to fill the place which he occupies. The veneration that he has inspired in almost all the members of Congress proves, more than anything else, that even the jealousy so inseparable from the American character has not prevailed against him, and that he is as circumspect in his conduct as he is firm and resolute in his political principles and in his coldness toward France.

I have observed, Sir, over the past two months that the Massachusetts delegates have begun to draw nearer to me and to give me signs of friendship of which it was impossible for me to see the cause. The new delegates recently arrived have gone one better than their predecessors and do not cease to tell me emphatically that the Sentiments of their State toward France were always the same, and that they feared our Court had not been given a favorable impression of them.

I thought I ought to explore the reasons for this change and seizing a moment when wine had warmed the head of Mr. Gerry, one of the principal members of that Delegation, who, after the Adamses, has always played the leading role. I had no trouble getting him to talk. He began by recalling to me the intercepted letters of M. de Marbois; “We know very well,” he said, “that his System with regard to the fisheries has never been that of your Court but this circumstance has considerably diminished the popularity of this chargé d’affaires. All the difficulties that he experienced afterwards were personal to him and did not proceed in any way from a coldness of Americans for France.4 We are not unaware, however, that we have been portrayed in France in a very unfavorable manner, and we sincerely desire that your Court be undeceived in that regard.” I did not take the trouble Sir, to recall in this conversation the malice of M. Marbois’s enemies in holding him responsible for all the negotiations that did not succeed; but what strikes me the most, is that it appears that the Massachusetts delegates have been informed about the complaints that this chargé d’affaires has leveled against them in his dispatches and that they are trying to reestablish good relations by charging everything to the account of my predecessor. I do not know how they have been able to be informed about his Sentiments about them, unless you have spoken to M. Jefferson about them and that minister has written about them to his constituents. For the rest, I am very happy to see confidence between this delegation and our Court restored. Massachusetts will play the principal role in the national Council for a long time; it is always represented by four or five delegates, all men of Merit and Hard-working, while the other States rarely have two. This State distinguishes itself besides by its inviolable attachment to certain principles that it never abandons, and by virtue of perseverance and firmness it is always sure of succeeding. It has the advantage of laying down the law, so to speak, to New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and those four States, almost always in accord, rarely fail to carry the vote. With regard to M. de Marbois, I can only repeat what I have already had the honor of conveying to you. All impartial persons have only one opinion on his Account. His great merit, his attachment to the United States, his assiduity, and above all, his equitable views and his distancing himself from all types of partisanship have earned him the respect and consideration of all Americans capable of judging freely. I am with profound respect, Sir, Your very humble and very obedient servant,