To John Jay from François de Barbé-Marbois, 2 August 1784
From François de Barbé-Marbois
A Philadelphie le 2. Aoue 1784.
Monsieur,
J’aime a croire que cinq années d’éloignement des ce pays ci ne vous ont pas fait oublier ceux à qui vous avés bien voulu marquer de l’interêt, et quelque peu durable qu’ait été votre sejour ici après mon arrivée je me souviens avec beaucoup de plaisir de l’accueil que j’y ay reçu de vous. Je desire beaucoup d’etre dans le cas de traiter d’affaires avec votre Excellence, et je suis fort impatient d’aprender que vous avés accepté le poste auquel le Congrès vous a nominé. C’est le voeu de tout le monde et jamais un choix n’a été plus generalement approuvé: l’arrivée du Successeur de M. le Chr. de la luzerne mettra fin à mes fonctions et peutêtre à mon sejour ici. quelleque soit sa durée, je vous prie d’être bien persuadé de mon empressement à meriter votre confiance et à vous marquer celle que je dois à un ministre egalemens attaché aux interets de Son pays et aux principes de l’alliance.
Permittés que Made. Jay trouve ici les assurances de mon respectueux attachement. Made. de Marbois desire beaucoup d’avoir l’honneur de faire Sa connoissance, et d’apprendre d’elle le secret de se faire generalement aimee et estimee lorsquelle Sera en Europe.
J’ay l’honneur d’étre avec un respectueux attachement, Monsieur, de votre Excellence le très humble et très obéissant serviteur
Barbé de Marbois
[Translation]
Philadelphia, 2 August 1784
Sir,
I like to think that five years away from this country have not made you forget those in whom you were good enough to show interest, and short as was your stay here after my arrival I remember with great pleasure the welcome I received from you there. I greatly desire to be able to transact business with your Excellency, and I am very impatient to learn that you have accepted the position to which Congress has appointed you. It is everyone’s wish, and never was a choice more universally approved. The arrival of M. le Chevalier de la Luzerne’s successor will put an end to my functions and perhaps to my stay here. Whatever its duration may be, I beg you to be firmly persuaded of my eagerness to deserve your trust and to show you that which I owe to a minister equally devoted to the interests of his country and to the principles of the alliance.
May Mrs. Jay find here assurances of my respectful attachment. Madame de Marbois greatly desires to have the honor of making her acquaintance and of learning from her the secret of making herself universally loved and esteemed when she will be in Europe. I have the honor to be with respectful attachments, Sir, your Excellency’s very humble and very obedient servant,
Barbé de Marbois
ALS, in French, trans. by the editors, NNC (EJ: 8556).
1. Barbé-Marbois came to the United States as secretary to the chevalier de La Luzerne, the second French minister. They arrived in Philadelphia during JJ’s presidency of Congress, about a month before JJ sailed for Spain in 1779. : 600n, 644; 2: 438, 439.
2. For the assertion that such French professions of enthusiasm for JJ’s selection as secretary for foreign affairs were false, see William Bingham to JJ, 16 Oct. 1784, below. For his part JJ had frequently complained of Barbé-Marbois’s intelligence-gathering activities in America, the mischievous “tittle tattle” in his reports to French officials, and his opposition to American retention of rights to the Newfoundland fisheries. See : 772; JJ to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 18 Sept. and 13 Oct. 1782, and to Gouverneur Morris, 17 July 1783, above; and “The Rayneval and Vaughan Missions to England” (editorial note), on pp. 95–99.
3. Barbé-Marbois had succeeded La Luzerne in April 1784 as chargé d’affaires. He was appointed the intendant of Santo Domingo on 1 July 1785 and left the United States in September of that year. Louis-Guillaume Otto succeeded him as chargé; a new French minister, Moustier, was not appointed until 1787. See Barbé-Marbois to JJ, 30 Aug. 1785, DNA: PCC, item 110, 1: 425–28 (EJ: 1749); Abraham P. Nasatir and Gary Elwyn Monell, French Consuls in the United States: A Calendar of their Correspondence in the Archives Nationales (Washington, D.C., 1967), 565–66.
4. On 17 June 1784 Barbé-Marbois married Elizabeth Moore, the daughter of Judge William Moore of Moore Hall, near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Moore had served as president of Pennsylvania in 1781–82. See Eugene P. Chase, trans. and ed., Our Revolutionary Forefathers: The Letters of François, Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, 1779–1785 (New York, 1969), 20.