To Thomas Jefferson from C. W. F. Dumas, 23 January 1789
From C. W. F. Dumas
Lahaie 23e. Janv. 1789
Monsieur
Votre Excellence verra dans la Dépeche ci-jointe, tout ce qu’un Anachorette comme moi peut avoir oui dire de ce qui se passe.—Je saisis cette occasion pour Lui témoigner mon desir, de savoir si les dernieres Lettres, jusqu’ici au nombre de 5, que j’ai fait insérer successivement dans les supplémens de Leide et qui seront suivies de quelques autres encore, ont mérité l’approbation de V. E.
D’après la rémotion (c’est le terme favori ici1 pour désigner les dépositions et dégradations que l’on exerce encore tant qu’on peut) dont mon ami L——[Luzac] croit être menacé, V. E. ainsi que le Congrès, pourra juger de l’Esprit et des motifs qui ont dicté et opéré la mienne.
Je fais les voeux les plus sinceres pour la santé et conservation de Votre Excellence de qui je suis avec grand et vrai respect Le très humble & très-obéisst. serviteur,
C W F Dumas
RC (DLC); endorsed. FC (Dumas Letter Books, Rijksarchief, The Hague; photostats in DLC). Recorded in SJL as received 28 Jan. 1789. Enclosure: Dumas to Jay, 20 Jan. 1789, reporting that everything remains in the state of dejection set forth in his last of 11 Dec. 1788; that the favorable turn of events in France gives utmost pain to many in Holland; that his enemies, having tried to destroy him politically and diplomatically, are now content with having ostracized him in society at The Hague, making him “comme monnoie de bas alloi, sans pouvoir s’en prendre ouvertement à personne pour cela”; that, for example, when his daughter was married he was obliged to refrain from entering his own house in order to avoid frightening away the customary visits of felicitation; that it was even desired he should give his consent to the marriage before a magistrate by proxy, but he indignantly refused; that Luzac’s gazette will give the best possible picture of affairs in Europe, especially since “la bonne foi n’y est plus la base de l’amitié des puissances, et…la ruse et la perfide lui succédé”; that possibly the storm will not break this year, but it seems impossible affairs can remain quiet much longer; that [in postscript:], after having been obliged to efface the inscription Agent and then Correspondent of the United States from the door of the house, he notices that the court almanac (in which he never asked to be included) again places him in the diplomatic corps as Chargé d’Affaires des Etats-unis; that he understands this almanac is scrupulously examined by the court before being printed and he cannot therefore account for the inclusion; that, just as he was closing this letter, he received one from his friend Luzac in which appears the following sentence, referring to the professorship conferred on him by the preceding sovereign: “Peut-être travaille-t-on … dès ce moment à me déplacer” (FC, Dumas Letter Books, Rijksarchief, The Hague; photostats in DLC; translation, in part erroneous, printed in , iii, 629–30).
The dernieres lettres … au nombre de 5 that Dumas wrote for the Gazette de Leide are identified in notes to Dumas to TJ, 11 Dec. 1788.
1. In margin, keyed by asterisk to the text at this point, Dumas added the following in both RC and FC: “On se plait singulièrement à étendre platement ce terme jusque sur les choses inanimées: on ne dit plus la lapidation, le pillage, la destruction, mais la ré; motion des maisons, sépulcres, &c.”