Charles Thomson to the American Commissioners, 18 June 1784
Charles Thomson to the American Commissioners
Copy: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia June 18. 1784
Gentlemen
I have the honor of forwarding three comm[issions] which were not prepared in time to go by Mr Jefferson,6 [and] a duplicate of the instructions he carried with him.7 I [also] enclose a copy of the Journal of the last session of Congress as far as printed and a news paper containing the Ordinance for putting the treasury into commission8 and an act defining the powers of the committee of the States during the recess of Congress.9 On the third of this Month Congress was adjourned pursuant to an act passed the 26 April to meet at Trenton on the 30 of October next.1 With great respect I have the honor to be Gentlemen yr. most Ob: h Servt
C T.
The honble. J Adams B Franklin & T. Jefferson
6. The three additional commissions, signed by Thomas Mifflin and Charles Thomson on June 3 (the day Congress resolved to send them: JCC, XXVII, 530), appointed JA, BF, and TJ ministers plenipotentiary to negotiate and conclude supplements to the existing treaties of amity and commerce with France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Mass. Hist. Soc.
7. It was not quite a duplicate. TJ had carried the instructions of May 7–11; the set sent with the present letter included the final instruction that Congress adopted on June 3: Jefferson Papers, VII, 261–71; Smith, Letters, XXI, 696.
8. Thomson sent the Journal of the United States In Congress Assembled: containing The Proceedings from the Third Day of November, 1783, to the Third Day of June, 1784 (Philadelphia, 1784) through signature Gg, which contains all of May 27 and the first page of May 28. Though the ordinance was passed on May 28 (JCC, XXVII, 469–71), it would be in signature Hh.
9. For this act of May 29 see JCC, XXVII, 474–7. In a June 20 letter to Samuel Hardy, Thomson listed five additional enclosures to the present document: copies of the instructions to the peace commissioners of May 30 (XL, 87–8n) and Oct. 29, 1783 (XLI, 154–8); the congressional response to a letter from the Burgomasters and Senate of Hamburg (XLI, 169–70); a resolution of Nov. 1, 1783, authorizing John Paul Jones to collect American prize money in France (XLI, 298); and a resolution of March 16, 1784, stipulating that only American citizens could serve in diplomatic positions abroad (see Mifflin to BF and JA, March 20): Smith, Letters, XXI, 696.
1. JCC, XXVI, 287–96; XXVII, 555–6.