From Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, 23 June 1793
To Edmond Charles Genet
Philadelphia. June 23.1 1793.
Sir
In answer to your letter of the 18th. instant, on the subject of the bills drawn by the administration of St. Domingo in favor of certain citizens of the US.2 I am instructed3 to inform you that the funds therein mentioned have4 been so clearly5 understood on all hands to be specifically appropriated for the payment of the bills which were recognised by the former agents of France here, as to be incapable of being diverted, without disappointing the just expectations of our citizens, holders of those bills.
Indeed the government has been so much a party in countenancing6 those expectations, as, in such an event, to lie under an obligation, in point of propriety, to satisfy the parties themselves,7 to the extent of the balance which yet remains to be advanced.8 I have the honor to be with great & sincere esteem9 Sir Your most obedient & most humble servt
Th: Jefferson
RC (AMAE: CPEU, Supplément, xx); at foot of text: “The Minister Plenipy. of France.” PrC (DLC). Dft (DLC); in Alexander Hamilton’s hand, except for salutation, dateline, one interlined phrase, complimentary close, initials, and name of addressee by TJ; at foot of text in TJ’s hand: “The Minister Plenipy. of the republic of France”; only the most significant variations are noted below; recorded in SJPL. PrC of Tr (DLC); in a clerk’s hand. Tr (NNC: Gouverneur Morris Papers). Tr (DNA: RG 46, Senate Records, 3d Cong., 1st sess.). PrC (PRO: FO 97/1). FC (Lb in DNA: RG 59, DL). Printed in , 39–40. Enclosed in TJ to Gouverneur Morris, 16 Aug. 1793.
The President and the Cabinet agreed to “an answer” to Genet’s letter of the 18th. instant during a meeting on 22 June 1793 (, 187). For the antecedents, see note to Genet to TJ, 18 June 1793.
1. Digits reworked in Dft from what appears to be “19.”
2. Clause to this point represented in Dft by “——:—.”
3. Dft here reads: “by the President.”
4. Dft: “fund in question has.”
5. Preceding two words interlined in Dft.
6. Word interlined in Dft in place of “giving.”
7. Preceding four words interlined in Dft by TJ in place of “see that the parties are satisfied,” which Hamilton had substituted for “make itself the payments.”
8. Remainder of Dft in TJ’s hand.
9. Dft: “with great respect & esteem.”