7. On March 24, a Wednesday, BF had issued an American passport for the vessel London Packet. See Bancroft’s letters to WTF, one of March 20 and the second printed under March 21. The present letter must have been written shortly thereafter.

8. A draft of the passport in WTF’s hand is at the APS, and a copy is at the Library of Congress. Addressed “To all Captains and Commanders of Vessels of War, Privateers and Letters of Marque belonging to the United States of America,” the document states that Louis XVI had thought fit for reasons of state to issue his own passport to the vessel bound from Calais to London. Hence, the ship and its cargo of wine should be considered as the property of French subjects; American commanders should let the ship pass once she produced this French passport.