Autograph signature to a letter : Paris, to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall et Elbridge Gerry, "le 28 Ventose, an 6" [1798 Mar. 18].

Responding to the Commissioner's document of 17 January 1798 (28 Nivose last); expressing dismay that the envoys failed to acknowledge the complaints of the French Republic; enumerating specific complaints against the United States; reviewing their efforts at conciliation in the face of the United States' favorable treatment of France's enemies; expressing astonishment that while the French Republic was making every effort to repair the relationship they were betrayed by the United States by the treaty that Mr. [John] Jay negotiated with Great Britain; referring to the 'confiance intime" which should exist between allies and above all between the United States and the French Republic; explaining that these are the reasons for the decrees of the Directory; adding that the French Republic has always expected, given their support for the United States, they would be granted favored nation status with regard to navigation and commerce; complaining of the insulting treatment of France in the newspapers and pamphlets distributed in the United States and the speech by the President of the United States which expressed a latent enmity; concluding that the intentions of the Commissioners are so little disguised that there is little hope for conciliation and impossible to see where the talks will lead; proposing, that notwithstanding the prejudice against them by the Commissioners, he is willing to negotiate with the one of the three Commissioners presumed to be more impartial; expressing his hope that the Commissioners are authorized to negotiate jointly or separately.