To Thomas Jefferson from C. W. F. Dumas, 5 April 1793
From C. W. F. Dumas
The Hague, 5 Apr. 1793. The lifting of the embargo in the Dutch ports enables him to resume his dispatches. He encloses a statement of his disbursements for the last half of 1792, two copies of which he furnished to the bankers at Amsterdam when he drew on them for the sums of ƒ301.16 and ƒ204.15 mentioned in it. The poorly conceived French campaign strategy of maintaining separate corps instead of concentrating them on the Meuse and the Rhine has just had the most disastrous results for them. At the same time civil war is breaking out in earnest in France itself. He veils his face like that of the king whose daughter was being sacrificed and prays daily that God may protect the United States, its Congress, the President, and the Secretary of State.
RC (DNA: RG 59, MLR); 1 p.; in French; at head of text: “No. 95. à S. E. Mr. ____ Secretaire d’Etat & des Aff. Etr. en Congrès genl. des Et. Un. d’Am.” Dupl (same, MDC); at head of text: “Dupl.”; endorsed by TJ as received 19 July 1793 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Statement of Dumas’s official disbursements for July-December 1792, dated 18 Mch. 1793 and sent to Willink, Van Staphorst & Hubbard on that date, showing expenditures of ƒ301.16 and ƒ204.15 (MS in same; entirely in Dumas’s hand).
Dumas also wrote a brief letter of 14 Apr. 1793 to the Secretary of State congratulating the United States on its good fortune in not being entangled in the current European crisis (RC in DNA: RG 59, MLR, at head of text: “No. 96. a Son Exce. M. ____ le Secretaire d’Etat & pour les Affaires Etr. en Congrès-genl. des Et. un. d’Am.”; endorsed by TJ as received 29 July 1793 and so recorded in SJL; Dupl in same, MDC, at head of text in part: “Dupl.,” endorsed by TJ as received 19 July 1793 and so recorded in SJL).