From John Jay to the President of Congress (Samuel Huntington), 3 March 1780
To the President of Congress (Samuel Huntington)
Cadis, 3d March 1780.
Sir,
Agreeable to my Promise to the Marquis De la flotte, I must inform your Excellency that a Monsieur Jean Guy Gautier, Merchant at Barcelona, recommended to the Marquis by Monsieur Aubere, the french Consul there, is desirous of becoming the Consul of the United States at that Port. He had been encouraged, as Mr. Aubere says, to expect this appointment by Doctor Franklin, but as he supposed my arrival would prevent the Doctor’s interference, it became necessary to make the application to me. I told the Marquis that my Commission did not authorize me to comply with his request, and that all I could do would be to mention his friend’s application to Congress.1
How far it may be proper to grant appointments of this sort to any but Citizens of America is a question whose Importance will not, I am persuaded, escape the notice of Congress. A sensible active Consul is a very useful Officer in many Respects; and has many opportunities of doing essential Services to those who employ him, or to whom he may be most attached. It is most certain that for want of proper persons appointed to take care of our distressed Seamen who, escaping from Captivity at Lisbon, Gibraltar, &c. daily arrive here, America loses many of them. Humanity as well as Policy calls for this Provision. I have some of them now with me, destitute of bread and money, and almost of Clothes, and of the means of getting either, unless by entering into the French or Spanish Service. Such as may arrive here after my going to Madrid will be friendless unless I employ some Person to take a little care of them, which I shall take the liberty of doing, being fully persuaded that the same Principles which press me into that measure, will induce Congress to approve it.2 I have the Honor to be, &c.
(Signed) John Jay.
1. Jean Guy Gautier, a French protestant merchant in Barcelona, head of the firm of Arabet, Gautier & Manning, and part of a mercantile family with ties to such prominent French firms as that of Ferdinand Grand, had requested the appointment of consul for Catalonia in a letter to BF of 2 May 1778. Papers of Benjamin Franklin Digital Edition. For further correspondence regarding Gautier’s appointment, which was never made, see Gautier to Congress, 27 Feb. 1782, ALS, PCC, item 42, 3: 242–45; and JJ to JA, 13 Aug. 1782, ALS, MHi (EJ: 6405).
2. JJ wrote an additional brief letter to the President of Congress of 3 Mar., forwarding a list of American seamen who had arrived at Cádiz from Lisbon, to whom he had advanced money to enable them to return home. He also sent a copy of their agreement to repay the money and informed the Navy Board at Boston of the arrangements. Copies of these letters to the President of Congress and to the Navy Board are in NNC: JJ Lbk. 5. The letter to the Navy Board was referred to the Board of Admiralty (, 17: 435). Notations on the letter indicate it was carried by Capt. Morgan of the Brig Expedition, bound for Boston.
For JJ’s arrangements for the care of American seamen in Spain, first with the firm of Le Couteulx and Company of Cádiz, then with Richard Harrison, see JJ to the President of Congress, 26 May, note 14; and Jacques, Louis, and Laurent Le Couteulx and Company to JJ, 3 Oct., and JJ’s reply of 15 Oct. 1780, all below. For the appointment of Arnold Dohrman to care for seamen in Lisbon, see James Lovell to JJ, 11 July 1780, below.