Copy of a letter : Paris, to Monsieur Gerry, [1798 July 12].

Expressing his frustration that negotiations are not continuing after the departure of Pinckney and Marshall; offering his assurances to the President of the United States that France wants conciliation; expressing fear that circumstances will slow negotiations; authorizing the issuance of a passport for him and the ship at Le Havre; asking that he assure the United States government of the sincerity of the French in their desire for conciliation; detailing, chronologically, the substance of their efforts at negotiation and the responses; expressing regret that he is leaving; adding, in a signed postscript, that a serious circumstance has delayed the dispatch of this letter; detailing the recent American authorization to attack every French vessel of war which may have stopped or intended to stop an American vessel and the suspension of commercial relations with the French Republic and its possessions; saying that at this moment of new provocation, it has no choice but war; expressing the desire to settle the differences without war.