To James Madison from Valentin de Foronda, 27 January 1807 (Abstract)
From Valentin de Foronda, 27 January 1807 (Abstract)
§ From Valentin de Foronda. 27 January 1807, Philadelphia. Foronda informs JM that the snow that has fallen over the past several days has delayed his journey to Washington, D.C., to meet with JM and Thomas Jefferson. Foronda notes that he has not received a reply to his 31 December 1806 letter to JM.1
Foronda observes that since his appointment as chargé d’affaires, he has engaged in no intrigue and has sought only to be a spokesman for his sovereign. He reiterates what he mentioned in an earlier letter [not found]: that he hopes never to give cause to Brutus’s words:
“L’Ambassadeur d’un Roy m’est toujours redoutable
Ce n’est qu’un ennemi sous un titre honorable
Qui vient rempli d’Orgueil, ou de dexterité,
Insulter ou trahir avec impunité.”2
Instead, he hopes that JM will apply to him the following lines:
“Les vrais Ambassadeurs, interprets des Lois,
Sans les deshonorer savent servir leurs Rois.”3
RC (DNA: RG 59, NFL, Spain, vol. 2A). 2 pp.; in Spanish.
1. Letter not found, but if the correspondence reached JM, he may have ignored it; the Jefferson administration recognized only an officially accredited replacement for Carlos Martínez de Yrujo (Turreau to JM, 3 Dec. 1806, n. 1).
2. Foronda quoted from act 1, scene 1 of Voltaire’s Brutus: Tragédie en cinq actes et en vers (Paris, 1788), 4: I always watch the ambassador of a king with distrust. He is nothing but an enemy under an honorable title who comes filled with pride or dexterity to insult or betray with impunity.
3. Foronda quoted from act 5, scene 2 of Brutus (ibid., 38): Real ambassadors, interpreters of the laws, know how to serve their kings without dishonoring them.