1. Montgomery enclosed a copy of his 4 Jan. letter to Moroccan Sultan Sidi Muhammad Ibn Abdallah, in which he claimed to have Congress’ authorization to propose treaty negotiations. He also enclosed a copy of the reply from the Moroccan secretary, Eliaho Leve, of 23 April (in Spanish with an English translation), in which Leve indicates that the sultan had accepted Montgomery’s proposal and appointed Giacomo Francisco Crocco to negotiate a treaty. In fact, Montgomery had no authority, and in his reply of 18 June, JA wrote that “your Letter to the Emperor of Morocco has given me great Uneasiness. How you could venture to write such a Letter I cannot concieve, and what will be the consequence of it to yourself or the Public, I know not” (LbC, APM Reel 108). In a similar vein JA wrote to Robert R. Livingston on 12 July that “Mr. Montgomery ventured too far, however, in writing in the name of the United States, and what will be the consequences of the deception I know not” (Wharton, Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. description begins The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, ed. Francis Wharton, Washington, 1889; 6 vols. description ends , 6:537–538). Congress, no more pleased with Montgomery than JA, resolved on 16 March 1784 that its ministers in Europe should “enquire on what grounds Mr. Montgomery has undertaken to write in the name of the United States, to the Emperor of Morocco, a letter by which their characters and interest may be so materially affected” (JCC description begins Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, Gaillard Hunt, John C. Fitzpatrick, Roscoe R. Hill, and others, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 26:144). Not until 1786 did the United States negotiate a treaty with Morocco, and then it was Thomas Barclay who did the negotiating (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, and others, Cambridge, 1963–. description ends , 7:27; Miller, Treaties description begins Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, ed. Hunter Miller, Washington, 1931–1948; 8 vols. description ends , 2:185–227).

2. Crocco wrote to Benjamin Franklin from Cadiz on 15 July and said that he was awaiting a message from Franklin on the opening of treaty negotiations, noting too that he had traveled there with the expectation that the United States would pay his expenses. On 25 Nov. he wrote Franklin again to say that he had not received an answer, that his expenses now amounted to $1,500, and that he feared his return to Morocco without a satisfactory explanation would “forever indispose” the sultan toward the United States (Wharton, Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev. description begins The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, ed. Francis Wharton, Washington, 1889; 6 vols. description ends , 6:549–550, 734).