RC (DLC); 2 p.; in French; endorsed. FC (Dumas Letter Book, Rijksarchief, The Hague; photostats in DLC). Enclosure (FC, same): enclosing “deux Pieces” which will show the outcome of the affair set forth in his last dispatch with its enclosures, and stating that he had substituted “à la porte de l’hotel des Etats-Unis le terme de leur Correspondant à celui d’Agent;” that in spite of all obstacles, he will continue to fulfill, to the best of his ability, his duties to the United States; and that he is not the only representative of a foreign power who has been humiliated. This letter to Jay, dispatch No. 48, 26 Sept. 1788 and its enclosures are listed in Dipl. Corr., 1783–89 description begins The Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States of America, from the Signing of the Definitive Treaty of Peace … to the Adoption of the Constitution, Washington, Blair & Rives, 1837, 3 vols. description ends , iii, 628 as being among Dumas’ dispatches between 20 Aug. 1788 and 1 Jan. 1789 that are missing, but the enclosure is there described as being “an extract from the Register of the Resolutions of their High Mightinesses of September 23, declaring him to be a private individual.”

The resolution affecting Dumas’ status no doubt explains the following remark in Washington’s letter to Gouverneur Morris in providing him with letters of introduction for his projected trip to Europe: “I could have addressed a line to Mr. Dumas the former agent of the United States at the Hague, but he is too much under a cloud to be of any utility to you” (Washington to Morris, 26 Nov. 1788, Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, xxx, 142).