1. Jefferson used “refer” in the now obsolete sense of “postpone.”

2. The short titles of works alluded to: Cornelius van Bynkershoek, Traité du juge competent des ambassadeurs; Christianus Wolfius, Principes du droit de la nature et des gens, and Jus gentium methodo scientifica pertractatum; Hugo Grotius, De rebus Belgicis; or, The Annals and History of the Low-Countrey-Wars; Abraham van Wicquefort, The Ambassador and His Functions, to Which Is Added, an Historical Discourse concerning the Election of the Emperor, and the Electors; MM. de Silhouette, de la Galissonière, Abbé de la Ville, Memoires des commissaires du roi et de ceux de Sa Majesté Britannique, sur les possessions & les droits respectifs des deux Couronnes en Amérique; Daines Barrington, Miscellanies; Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Chemical Observations and Experiments on Air and Fire; Felice Fontana, Recherches physiques sur la nature de l’air nitreux et de l’air déphlogistiqué; Joseph Priestly, Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air; and Philosophical Empiricism; Jan Ingenhousz, Experiments upon Vegetables; Joseph Black, Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quick Lime and Other Alcaline Substances; William Irvine (1743–1787), professor of chemistry at the University of Glasgow, was famed for the clarity and logic of his lectures, but none of his writings appeared in print until 1805; Adair Crawford, Experiments and Observations on Animal Heat, and the Inflammation of Combustible Bodies.

3. Isaac Zane, Jr., was a delegate from Frederick County, 1776–1782, and thereafter from Shenandoah County until his death in 1795 (Swem and Williams, Register description begins Earl G. Swem and John W. Williams, eds., A Register of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776–1918, and of the Constitutional Conventions (Richmond, 1918). description ends , p. 450; Roger W. Moss, Jr., “Isaac Zane, Jr., a ‘Quaker for the Times,’” VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. description ends , LXXVII [1969], 291–306). Zane’s presence in the current session before 11 June cannot be demonstrated (JHDV description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg. Beginning in 1780, the portion after the semicolon reads, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond. In the County of Henrico. The journal for each session has its own title page and is individually paginated. The edition used is the one in which the journals for 1777–1786 are brought together in two volumes, with each journal published in Richmond in either 1827 or 1828 and often called the “Thomas W. White reprint.” description ends , May 1784, p. 51).

4. Jefferson had 200 copies of his Notes on the State of Virginia printed in Paris in 1785 (Boyd, Papers of Jefferson description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (18 vols. to date; Princeton, N. J., 1950——). description ends , IV, 167 n.).

5. Thomas Paine’s personal distress aroused Jefferson’s sympathy and moved other Virginians despite the “particular & smaller passion” that upset many in 1782. Then, Paine had written the pamphlet Public Good in support of a land speculating clique that challenged Virginia’s title to the lands north and west of the Ohio River. A bill introduced by JM in the House of Delegates on Paine’s behalf was defeated on 30 June 1784.

6. “Well accustomed,” i.e., well filled with lodgers.

7. The “obscure & worthless character” was Charles Julien Longchamps (Alfred Rosenthal, “The Marbois-Longchamps Affair,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LXIII [1939], 294–95). This episode created issues involving the “law of nations,” extradition, the power and duty of Congress and of the sovereign commonwealth of Pennsylvania, respectively, which embarrassed Franco-American relations for over two years.

8. Jefferson intended that JM should fill in the blank with “President John Dickinson” of Pennsylvania.

9. Pennsylvania enacted a law providing further punishment of a “violation of the law of nations” in the fall of 1784. Then, at its Oct. 1784 session, the Virginia General Assembly became the only other state to enact a similar law up to that time by explicitly providing for the extradition, upon the request of Congress. Any inhabitant of Virginia who had returned after allegedly violating the “law of nations” or “any treaty between the United States and a foreign nation” had to be surrendered to the offended nation (JHDV description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg. Beginning in 1780, the portion after the semicolon reads, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond. In the County of Henrico. The journal for each session has its own title page and is individually paginated. The edition used is the one in which the journals for 1777–1786 are brought together in two volumes, with each journal published in Richmond in either 1827 or 1828 and often called the “Thomas W. White reprint.” description ends , Oct. 1784, p. 110; Hening, Statutes description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619 (13 vols.; Richmond and Philadelphia, 1819–23). description ends , XI, 471–72). Thus after three years only these two states had heeded the congressional resolution of 23 Nov. 1781 urging each state to create or designate a court invested with power “to provide expeditious, exemplary and adequate punishment” of anyone found guilty of “offences against the law of nations” (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXI, 1136–37). See also J. Rives Childs, “French Consul Martin Oster Reports on Virginia, 1784–1796,” VMHB description begins Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. description ends , LXXVI (1968), 27–40. Oster was arrested in Norfolk on the complaint of a French national.