Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeier to the American Commissioners: Résumé, 8 October 1784
Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeier to the American
Commissioners2
LS and copy: National Archives
⟨The Hague, October 8, 1784, in French: I have notified the king without delay of the dispositions of the United States for the conclusion of a treaty of amity and commerce, contained in your letter of September 9.3 His majesty has furnished me with full powers to conclude this treaty, of which I am enclosing a copy.4 It appears unnecessary to send you a copy of the treaty negotiated by Mr. Adams and myself, as that minister undoubtedly has kept his own copy.5 Please inform me in which manner you want to conduct the negotiations. The king would also like the United States to indicate in which city the exchange of commerce between merchants of the two nations might take place. The Prussian ports Stettin and Emden, as well as several ports in Holland and France, could all serve this purpose equally well.⟩
2. Published in Jefferson Papers, VII, 436–7, and, with an English translation, in Adams Papers, XVI, 338.
3. That letter was nearly identical to the commissioners’ Sept. 9 letter to Sousa Coutinho; see the annotation there.
4. Thulemeier’s commission was dated Sept. 30; Humphreys copied it into his letterbook. For an English translation see Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, II, 218–19.
5. That draft treaty was negotiated the previous spring; see XLII, 196–7.