From Thomas Jefferson to Christopher Gore, 22 November 1793
To Christopher Gore
Germantown Nov. 22. 1793.
Sir
In the inclosed gazette is a paper purporting to be a Protest of the Consul Dannery against the revocation of the Exequatur of Mr. Duplaine issued by the President. Before the President proceeds to consider what notice such a protest would call for from him, he thinks it requisite to be assured that the paper is genuine. I have therefore to ask the favor of you to endeavor to procure authentic proof of the paper, and to transmit it to me. Whether the original has been deposited with the Lieutenant governor, or in any court, from whence either that or any copy of it can be obtained certified, or whether there be no other means of procuring evidence of it but the calling on Mr. Dannery to avow or disavow it, you will be best able to decide. I have the honor to be with respect Sir Your most obedt & most humble servt.
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC); at foot of text: “Mr. Gore.” FC (Lb in DNA: RG 59, DL). Enclosure: Boston Independent Chronicle, 11 Nov. 1793, which contained (1) Thomas Dannery to Governor Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, Boston, 7 Nov. 1793, stating that Edmond Charles Genet refused to accept the validity of the President’s revocation of Antoine Charbonnet Duplaine’s interim vice-consular exequatur and wished the Massachusetts legislature to investigate the crime of which Duplaine stood accused, as well as the motives for his dismissal and the legal forms that should have been followed in his case, so that the French Republic can punish him if necessary; and (2) Protest by Dannery, 7 Nov. 1793, setting forth fifteen reasons why he considered the presidential revocation of Duplaine’s exequatur to be an arbitrary and unwarrantable dismissal of a French official and why therefore only his own consular appointment sufficed to deprive Duplaine of his official functions.
TJ obtained Cabinet and presidential approval for the substance of this letter before sending it to Gore (Cabinet Opinions on Various Letters, [23 Nov. 1793]). For the official response in Massachusetts to Dannery’s protest, see note to Edmond Charles Genet to TJ, 27 Oct. 1793.
Gore presumably replied to this letter in one of 4 Dec. 1793, recorded in SJL as received from Boston on 12 Dec. 1793 but not found.