Tr (AMAE: CPEU, xxxvi); at head of text: “Copie d’une lettre de Mr. de Ternant au Sécrétaire d’Etat Etats unis.” Recorded in SJL as received 25 Aug. 1792. Enclosed in George Taylor, Jr., to TJ, 16 Aug. 1792, and TJ to Washington, 27 Aug. 1792.

Although Ternant was under instructions from his government to inform TJ in person of the French declaration of war on Austria, he advised the French foreign minister that his ill state of health precluded a visit to Monticello and that he had dispatched the communication by courier. News of the outbreak of war, known in Philadelphia since early June, failed to arouse any unusual interest among the heads of government and those involved in national affairs, he explained, because a land war between two continental powers did not threaten American commercial interests. On the contrary, most Americans believed that the war would redound to their advantage by increasing European demand for American exports and by encouraging European immigration to the United States. In Ternant’s view, the United States would take a more lively interest in the conflict only in the event of a naval war, or if Britain became involved in it, but until then the American people would confine themselves to expressions of sympathy for the success of the French cause (Ternant to Dumouriez, 2 Aug. 1792, Turner, CFM, description begins Frederick Jackson Turner, “Correspondence of French Ministers, 1791–1797,” American Historical Association, Annual Report, 1903, II description ends 148–9).