To Benjamin Franklin from Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, [1 March? 1780]
From Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont
AL: American Philosophical Society
[March 1, 1780?]5
M. de Chaumont a L’honneur d’envoyer a S. Ex. la depesche cy Jointe de M. Dumas, et La Lettre de M. Landais pour Scavoir Ce que S. Ex. veut qu’il Reponde.
M. De Chaumont Croit que M. Jones n’a lair de Chercher a estre employé en france que pour pouvoir dire en amerique qu’il ne Couroit pas après Le Commandement de L’alliance.6
Notation: M. de Chaumont.
5. On that date Landais wrote Chaumont asking him to forward BF’s response concerning Landais’ trunks (APS). BF did respond on March 1, immediately above, perhaps prompted by this letter from his landlord.
6. Jones had taken command of the frigate Alliance and returned to France from the Netherlands (via Spain) on Feb. 18, 1780: XXXI, 507n. Chaumont had been Jones’s liaison with the French government when he commanded the Bonhomme Richard squadron in 1779: XXIX, 240n.