TO THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA. V. S. A. ANNAPOLIS Mar. 18. 1784 SIR,-In my letter of the 3 inst I mentioned to you the gazette account of a change in the British Ministry. Just in the moment of the departure of the post we received a letter from the Marquis Fayette confirming the account of the change, and rectifying that of the vote of the Prince of Wales, the letter which had come here supposed the king a friend to the E. India bill & that the Prince voted against it. The Marquis said that the king by a special maneuvre got Fox & North committed on the fate of their bill which they carried through the commons, but his practices were disappointed in the Lords, in which latter stage the Prince voted for the bill, in opposition to his father. Dr. Franklin's letter containing an interesting paragraph I have copied it & take the liberty of inclosing it.1 We have had no post since that which carried my 1" Extract of a letter from Dr. Franklin to the President of Congress dated Passy, Dec. 25. 1783. "With respect to the British Court we should, I think, be constantly on our guard & impress strongly upon our minds that tho' it has made peace with us, it is not in truth reconciled either to us or to its loss of us; but still flatters itself with hopes that some change in the affairs of Europe or some disunion among ourselves may afford them an opportunity of recovering their dominion, punishing those who have most offended, and securing our future dependence. It is easy to see by the general turn of the ministerial newspapers (light things indeed as straws & feathers, and like them they show which way the wind blows,) and by the malignant improvement their ministers make in all the foreign courts of every little accident or dissension among us, the riot of a few soldiers at Philadelphia, the resolves of some town meetings, the reluctance to pay taxes &c &c all which are exaggerated to represent our governments as so many anarchies of which the people themselves are weary, the Congress as having lost its influence, being no longer respected. I say it is easy from this letter of the 3d. nor are we certain when to expect one. I am therefore obliged to have letters in readiness, to send the moment of his coming as he does not tary above an hour here. Hence it happens that my letters are sometimes a week or a fortnight old before they leave the post office. P. S. The Marquis Fayette is coming out this spring. Mr. Laurens is supposed to be on his way to America, Mr. Adams left England for the Hague & Mr. Jay at Bath but about to return to Paris. RESOLVES ON EUROPEAN TREATIES.' J. MSS. [March, 1784.] Resolved that treaties of Amity & commerce with the European nations ought not to be refused on our part until those nations will send ministers to negotiate them within these states: nor ought they to be delayed until they shall have previously been submitted to the several legislatures & received their approbation. 1. Because it is not to be expected that the nations of Europe, antient & established as they are, will cross the Atlantic to treat with us on our own ground: 2. Because a refusal to treat with them in Europe amounts to a refusal to treat with them at all; to the suppression of every conduct to see that they bear us no good will, & that they wish the reality of what they are pleased to imagine. They have too numerous a royal progeny to provide for, some of whom are educated in the military line. In these circumstances we cannot be too careful to preserve the friendships we have acquired abroad, & the Union we have Established at home, to secure our credit by a punctual discharge of our obligations of every kind, & our reputation by the wisdom of our councils; since we know not how soon we may have a fresh occasion for friends & for reputation." 1 The first notice of this subject is in the Secret Journals of Congress, March 26, 1784, when the report of a committee, consisting of Jefferson, Gerry, and Williamson, was taken into consideration by Congress. These resolutions were probably prepared in connection with that report. effort for the admission of our citizens into their ports on an equal footing with those of other countries; to a continuance of the occlusion of the West Indian markets against the produce of these states; loses a crisis of favourable disposition in the European powers in general to enter into connections of amity and commerce with us; endangers the loss of a proffered treaty from the Emperor of Morocco who has made us friendly advances whose honour will be touched and resentment kindled by our declining to meet them; and whose power & connections may, in our present unarmed state, shut to us the ports of the Mediterranean, oblige us to send our commodities to them in foreign bottoms, or to seek them in our own at the risk of consigning our citizens to perpetual slavery & chains. 3. Because the federal constitution does not require that treaties, before their conclusion, should be communicated to the thirteen legislatures, and should receive all their several approbations, and such a delay in the present instance would be unseasonable & injurious to them; would protract the negotiations to a length indefinite both in time & expence; would leave our citizens in the mean time exposed to all the evils before stated; would be more distressing to these states, whose channels of commerce are yet to be opened, than to the nations constituting the other parties, who may in the mean time pursue their antient & long established trade; and might suffer opportunities finally to pass by which might never be recalled. REPORT OF GOVERNMENT FOR THE WESTERN TERRITORY.' C.C. [March 22, 1784.] The Committee to whom was recommitted the report of a plan for a temporary government of the Western territory have agreed to the following resolutions. Resolved, that so much of the territory ceded or to be ceded 1 Endorsed 64 Report on Western Territory. Delivered 22 March, 1784. Read. Wednesday 24 assigned for consideration." The original report of a temporary ordinance (see ante, p. 407) not satisfying Congress, it was recommitted to the original committee for amendment, and the |