RC (DNA: RG 59, DD); at head of text: “(No. 65.)”; at foot of first page: “The Secretary of State”; endorsed by TJ as received 19 Mch. 1793 and so recorded in SJL, where TJ erroneously listed it as No. 63 dated 23 Jan. 1793. Tr (Lb in same). Enclosures: (1) Memorial of Humphreys to Foreign Minister Luis Pinto de Sousa Coutinho, 27 Dec. 1792, setting forth the mutual advantages of permitting the importation of American flour into Portugal before the conclusion of a treaty of commerce with the United States. (2) Humphreys to same, 16 Jan. 1793, requesting an answer to his memorial so that he can inform his government by a ship about to sail for Philadelphia, noting that after some difficulty a cargo of American flour had recently been admitted for sale in Lisbon by a temporary measure, and emphasizing the mutual benefits of regularizing such admissions. (3) Pinto de Sousa Coutinho to Humphreys, 17 Jan. 1793, stating that he would respond to Humphreys’s memorial as soon as the council to which the Prince of Brazil referred it had considered the matter. (4) Samuel Harrison to same, 16 Jan. 1793, reporting that the administrator of the corn market has denied to three American ships recently arrived in Lisbon with wheat the privilege of “franquia to proceed to the Ports of their destination” and has ordered them to “come up and discharge.” (5) Memorial of Humphreys to Pinto de Sousa Coutinho, 18 Jan. 1793, enclosing Harrison’s letter regarding the abolition of the customary “indulgence of Franquie” at Lisbon, so far at least as it applies to the American vessels recently arrived, pointing out that he will be required to announce this innovation in American newspapers so that merchants trading to Europe have the opportunity to order vessels not destined to unload in Portugal to go instead to England, Ireland, or other countries, whence they could proceed to their final destinations, and asking whether the new measure would not divert surpluses of cargoes wanted in Portugal. (6) Same to same, 21 Jan. 1793, reminding him of the papers he had left concerning the government’s rejection of the accustomed “indulgence of Franquiæ” at Lisbon, noting that British merchants have been alarmed by reports of a declaration from a high official that the government had decided not to permit cargoes of grain to leave until a six months’ supply had been obtained, protesting that this policy would be “assuming a power to reduce the price in Portugal below what it is in the Ports of the neighbouring Nations,” and asking whether it would not “create the scarcity it means to avert” (Trs in same, with No. 3 in Portuguese filed with translation in TJ’s hand; Trs in Lb in same).

TJ submitted this letter and its enclosures to the President on 19 Mch. 1793, and Washington returned them the same day (Washington, Journal description begins Dorothy Twohig, ed., The Journal of the Proceedings of the President, 1793–1797, Charlottesville, 1981 description ends , 94–5).