1. JJ replied to this letter on 17 July, below. The reference is to the discussions concerning a peace-time diplomatic establishment that the news of the Preliminaries had touched off in Congress, along with the letters of JA, BF, Francis Dana, and Henry Laurens requesting permission to return home. DNA: PCC, item 80, 2; RDC description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1889) description ends , 6: 106, 110–14. On 1 Apr. Boudinot observed that Congress, oppressed by the ill-timed parsimony of the states, was considering “reducing their Ministers in Europe.” See Boudinot to James Searle, 1 Apr. 1783, LDC description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds., Letters of Delegates to the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (26 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1976–98) description ends , 20: 125–26. On 8 May 1783 a congressional committee (Hamilton, Madison, James Wilson, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, and Samuel Holton of Massachusetts) reported on peace arrangements for the department of foreign affairs. It considered salaries for the secretary for foreign affairs, and for ministers abroad, consular appointments, and secretaries to American embassies. It did not, however, discuss ministerial appointments. See PAH description begins Harold C. Syrett et al., eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (27 vols.; New York, 1961–87) description ends , 3: 351–53; PJM description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison, Congressional Series (17 vols.; Chicago and Charlottesville, Va., 1962–91) description ends , 7: 44, 67; and JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1904–37) description ends , 25: 965, 967. For Gouverneur Morris’s assessment of JA’s suitability as minister to Britain, see JJ to RRL, 30 May 1783, note 2, above.