To John Jay from Arthur Lee, 17 March 1780
From Arthur Lee
L’Orient March 17th. 1780
Sir.
I had not the honor of receiving your favor dated Cadis, the 26th. of Jany. ’till this day & at this place, where I am to embark as soon as the Alliance is ready. Your Letter had a double Seal upon it, the undermost seeming to be a head, & the one above a Coat of Arms, but what I cannot clearly make out. I mention this that you may judge whether these Seals were of your applying.
Give me leave, Sir, to take this opportunity of expressing my concern for the dangers & sufferings you & your Family experienced in your passage; & to congratulate you & my Country on your safe arrival in Europe.
I waited some time in Paris, after I receivd notice of your appointment, in expectation of your arrival, that I might have communicated many things to you in a personal interview which cannot be commited to Paper. It would have given me very great pleasure to have obtained for you those recommendations to the confidence of some of the first persons at the Court of Madrid, that were promised me, & which I coud have done by making you personally acquainted with those who were to give them.
The Copies of Memoires & the Letters which I wrote to Congress containd in general what you do me the honor of asking.1 I have reason to beleive that you will find a favorable disposition where you wish. There is no Court in Europe at which Secrecy will so much recommend a Negociator as that to which you are destind. Insomuch that as far as you can keep the capital parts of your Negotiation entirely to your own breast, you will have reason to think it prudent.2 You are to negotiate with a People of honor & a Ministry of wisdom. They will propose fairly & perform faithfully. You will not be embarrassd by intrigue, at least none of spanish origin, nor will it be advantageous to employ any.
These considerations together with the good sense & great abilities for which you are distinguishd make one hope, Sir, that you will accomplish with facility the important purposes of your mission to the advantage of our Country & to your own honor.
The House of Gardoqui has executed what was entrusted to them with diligence, & as far as I can judge with fidelity. They therefore deserve your confidence. There is due to them from the Public 12000 Livres which they advancd for the freight of goods sent to Congress; & which, as it was done without my knowledge, I had made no provision for, & therefore coud not repay it. The part of the prise money due to the Public for the prises sent into the ports of Spain by Capt. Conyngham3 was not remitted to me, nor have the Accounts been settled to my knowlege. Lagoanere a la Corogne,4 & a House at Cadis which, my Papers being packt up, I cannot recollect, had the sale of those Prises.
Accept my thanks, Sir, for your care of the Letters for me. As I shall certainly have quitted Europe, before they can reach me, I must beg the favor of you to enclose them to Mr. Lovell, with the first Dispatches that you send to Congress.
If an entire Stranger may be permitted to offer his homage to your Lady, permit me to request your making mine acceptable to Mrs. Jay. I have the honor to be Sir, Your most obedt Humble. Servant
Arthur Lee5
The Honble John Jay Esqr.
ALS, NNC (EJ: 6776); LbkC, DNA: PCC, item 110, 1: 62–65 (EJ: 4091); Dft, DNA: PCC, item 102, 3: 169.
1. See, for example, , 2: 279–83, 491–92, 509–10, 516, 536, 649–50, 850.
2. Possibly a reference to intrigues by French diplomats. Lee may also have been warning JJ against William Carmichael, whom he had earlier depicted as willing to “assume any character and perpetrate any villainy to accomplish his purpose.” See “The Jay-Carmichael Relationship” (editorial note), note 21, on p. 174. In a letter to the President of Congress of 7 Dec. 1780, Lee reported that Carmichael was “in the most confidential correspondence” with a Swiss banker at Amsterdam who had a son-in-law who was a Swiss officer in the service of Britain. Lee believed that the banker would pass on any information he received about the American mission in Madrid to advance his son-in-law’s career. See , 4: 99; and , 4: 184.
3. On the supplies shipped by Gardoqui and Sons, see the editorial note “John Jay’s Conference with Floridablanca” on p. 94; and , 60. On Conyngham, see Anne Conyngham to JJ, 17 July 1779, : 648–50. Lee had raised charges of malfeasance in the handling of Conyngham’s ship and prizes in Spain. Some prize money had been frozen as a result of Conyngham’s capture of an illegal prize, while much of the rest had gone to the ship’s expenses and to the crew’s share of prize money. On the various controversies over Conyngham’s Spanish operations and efforts to transfer his ship to private ownership, see Robert W. Neeser, ed., Letters and Papers Relating to the Cruises of Gustavus Conyngham: A Captain of the Continental Navy, 1777–1779 (New York, 1915), 4–9, 119–20, 125–26, 150–51, 216–18; , 416–20, 435–36n.
4. Michael Lagoanère (b. c. 1737), formerly of Bordeaux, had established Michael Lagoanère and Company at La Coruña in 1768 and had acted as American agent and then consul there since 1777. , 24: 529–30, 540–42; , 2: 412n.
5. JJ acknowledged receipt of Lee’s letter in his letter to BF of 14 Apr., below.