I am now to acknowledge the favor of your joint Letter by the Washington1 together with a copy of the preliminary articles— Both were laid before Congress— The articles have met with their warmest approbation & have been generally recd ^seen^ by the people in the most favourable point of view—

The steadyness manifested in not treating without an express acknowledgment of yr. independance previous to a treaty is approved, and it is not doubted but it accelerated that declaration— The boundaries are as extensive as we have a right to expect & we have nothing to complain of with respect to the fisheries— My sentiments as to English debts you have in a former Letter,2 no honest man could wish to withhold them a little forbearance in british creditors till people have recovered in part from the losses ^sustained^ by the war will be necessary to render this article palatable, and indeed to secure more effectualy the debt3— The article relative to the Loyalists is not quite so accurately expressed as I could wish it to have been What for instance is intended by real british subjects—4 It is clear to me that it will operate nothing in their favor in any state in the Union not but as you made no secret of this to the British commissioners they will have nothing to charge you with and indeed the whole clause seems rather to have been inserted to appease the Clamours of these poor wretches than to satisfy their wants— Britain would have discovered more candor & generosity ^magnanimity^ by ^in^ paying to them three months expence of the war establishment which would have been an ap ample compensation for all their losses & left no germ of dissatisfaction to bud & blow & ripen d into discontents here— Another mad administration may think the non compliance of the Legislatures with the recommendations of Congress on this subject a sufficient cause for new giving themselves & us new troubles— You however were perfectly right in agreeing to the article The folly was in theirs who did not ^either^ insist upon more—or give up this nothing—

But Gent tho’ the issue of your treaty has been successful, tho’ I feel ^am satisfied^ that we are much indebted to your firmness & perseverance and to your accurate knowledge of our situation and our wants for this success yet I feel no little pain at the extreme distrust you have manifested in the management of it of our generous ally particularly in signing the treaty without communicating it to the Court of Versailles till after the signature & in concealing the separate article from from ^it^ even after the signature ^when signed^—5 I have examined with the most minute attention all the reasons assigned in your several letters to justify these suspicions I confess they do not appear to strike me so forceably as they have done you & it gives me pain that a ^the^ character for candor & fidelity to its engagements which should always characterize a great people should have been impeached by thereby— The concealment was in my opinion absolutely unnecessary— For had the court of France disapproved the terms you had made after they had been agreed upon they certainly could not have been acted so absurdly as to counteract you at that late day & thereby put themselves so far in the power of an enemy who would certainly betray them as to ^& perhaps^ Justify you in making a separate peace terms for yourselves— The secret article th is no otherwise important than as it carries in it the seeds of enmity to the court of Spain & shews a marked preference for an open enemy— It would in my opinion have been much better to have fixed on the same boundaries for West Florida than to have into whatever hands it fell without shewing strong ^any^ preference or rendering concealmt. necessary—since all the arguments in favor of the cession ^to England^ would then have operated with equal force and nothing have been lost by it for there can be no doubt that whether this art Florida shall at the close of the war be ceded to England or to Spain that it will be ceded ag as it was held by Britain— The Separate article is not I suppose by this time a secret in Europe it can hardly be considered as such in America— The treaty was sent out to the Genl with this article annexed by G Sr. Guy Carleton & without the smallest injunction of secresy—6 So that I dare say it has been pretty generally read at head quarters— Congress still conceal it here tho’ [as I?] I feel for the embarrassments explanations on this subject must subject you to when this secret is know to your allies— I intended to have submitted this Letter to Congress so that you might have had their sense upon this subject but I find that there is not the least prospect of obtaining any direction upon it in time to send by this conveyance if all at all— I leave you to collect their sentiments as far as I know them from the following state of their proceedings— After your joint & separate Letters & the journals had be submitted to them by me & had been read they were referred back to me to report—when I wrote them the enclosed letter No. 1— When the Letter was taken into consideration the following motions ^No 2 No 3 No 4^ were made & debated for a whole day—after which the Letters & motions were committed— And a report brought in No. 5— This was under consideration two days when the arrival of a vessel from Cadiz with Letters from the Count Destaing & the Marquis DeLafayette containing accounts that preliminaries were signed induced many members to think it would be improper to proceed in the report & in that state it remains wth. out any express descision—7 From this you will draw your own inferences— I make no appology if for they ^the^ part I have taken in this business I am satisfied that your own integrity will readily acquit me for having discharged what I conceived my duty upon such a view of things as you presented to me—in declaring my sentiments freely I invite you to treat me wth. equal candor in your Letters & in sending original papers I guard agt. misrepresentations that might give you pain— Upon the whole I have the pleasure of assuring you that the services you have rendered your country in bringing this business to a happy Issue are very gratefully rec’d. by yr. Country however we may differ in sentiments about the mode of doing it—8 I am sorrey that the extreame negligence of the Different states has prevented & will probably long prevent my being able to send you the a state of the ravages injury done to ^real^ property ^& the destruction of Slaves^ ^& the number of slaves destroyed & carried off^ by the British troops & their allies— Tho’ no pains have been ^or shall be^ wanting on my part to urge them to it—9 I have the honor to be Gent. with very great respect & esteem Your Most Obt Hum: Servt.