I am now to acknowledge the favor of your joint letter by the Washington, together with a copy of the Preliminary Articles, both were laid before Congress. The Articles have met their warmest Approbation and have been generally seen by the People in the most favorable point of view. The steadiness manifested in not treating without an Express acknowledgment of your Independence, previous to a Treaty, is approved, and it is not doubted, but it Accelerated that declaration. The boundaries are an extensive as we have a Right to Expect, and we have nothing to complain of, with respect to the Fisheries. My Sentiments as to the English debts you have in a former letter, no honest Man could wish to withhold them. A little forbearance in British Creditors, till People have recovered in part the losses sustained by the War, will be necessary to render this Article Palatable, and indeed to secure more effectually the debt. The Article relative to the Layalists, is not quite so Accureately expressed, as I could wish it to have been. What for instance is intended by Real British Subjects? It is clear to me, that it will Operate nothing in their favor in any State in the Union, but as you made no Secret of this to the British Commissioners, they will have nothing to charge you with, and indeed the whole Clause seems rather to have been inserted to appease the Clamors of those poor Wretches, than to Satisfy their Wants. Britain would have discovered more Candor, and Magnanimity in paying to them three Months expence of the War Establishment, which would have been an ample conpensation for all their losses; and left no germe of dissatisfaction to breed, and blow, and ripen into discontent here. Another mad Administration may think, the Non-complyance of the Legislatures, with the recommendations of Congress on this Subject, a sufficient cause for giving themselves, and us new troubles. You however were perfectly right in agreeing to the Article, the folly was theirs, who did not either insist upon more, or give up this.

But Gentlemen, tho’ the issue of your Treaty has been successful, tho’ I am satisfied that we are much indebted to your firmness, and perseverance, to your accurate knowledge of our situation, and of our wants for this success, Yet I feel no little pain at the distrust manifested in the Management of it, particularly in signing the Treaty, without communicating it to the Court of Versailles, till after the Signiture, and no concealing the separate Article from it, even when signed. I have examined with the most Minute Attention, all the reasons assigned in your several letters, to justify these Suspicions. I confess, they do not appear to Strike me, so forcibly as they have done you, and it gives me pain, that the Character for candor and fidelity to it’s engagements, which should always Characterize a great People should have been impeached thereby. The concealment was in my Opinion, absolutely unnecessary. For had the Court of France disapproved the terms you had made, after they had been agreed upon, they could not have Acted so Absurdly, as to Counteract you at that late day, and thereby feel themselves in the power of an Enemy, who would certainly betray them, and perhaps justify you in making terms for yourselves.

The secret article is no Otherwise important, that as it carries in it the seeds of enmity to the Court of Spain, and shews a marked preference for an open Enemy. It would in my Opinion, have been much better, to have fixed on the same boundaries for West Florida, into what ever hands it fell, without shewing any preference, or rendering concealment necessary.

Since all the arguments in favor of the Cession to England, would then have operated with equal force, and nothing have been lost by it, for there can be no doubt, that whether Florida, shall at the close of the War be ceeded to England, or to Spain, it will be ceeded, as it was held by Britain. The Seperate Article is not, I suppose by this time a secret in Europe, it can hearly be considered as such in America.

The Treaty was sent out to the General with this Article annexed by Sir Guy Carlton, without the smallest injunction of secrecy, so that I dar say, it has been pretty generally read, at Head-Quarters.

Congress still conceal it here. I feel for the embarasment explanations on this Subject, must Subject you to, when this secret is known to your Allies. I intended to have submitted this letter to Congress, but I find that there is not the least prospect of Obtaining any decision upon it, in time, to send by this conveyance, if at all.

I leave you to Collect their Sentiments, as far as I know them, from the following State of their proceedings, after your joint, and seperate letters and the Journals had been submitted to them by me, and had been read, they were refered back to me, to report. When I wrote them on the enclosd. letter (no. 1.) When the letter was taken into consideration, the following Motions No. 2. 3. 4 were made, and debated a whole day, after which the letter and Motions were committed, and a report bro’t in No. 5. This was under consideration two days, when the Arrival of a Vessel from Cadiz with letters from the Count d’Estaing and the Marquis de la Fayette, containing accounts that preliminaries were signed, induced many members to think, it would be improper to proceed in the report, and in that State it remains, without any express decision.

From this, you will draw your own inferences. I make no Apology for the part I have taken in this business. I am satisfied you will readily acquit me, for having discharged what I conceived, my duty upon such a view of things, as you present to me. In declaring my Sentiments freely, I invite you to treat me with equal Candor in your letters, and in sending Original papers, I guard against misrepresentation’s that might give you pain. Upon the whole, I have the pleasure of assuring you, that the Services you have rendered your Country, in bringing this business to a happy issue, are very greatfully received by them, however we may differ in Sentiments about the mode of doing it. I am sorry that the extreme negligence of the different States has prevented, and will probably long prevent, my being able to send you a State of the injury done to real property, and the number of Stores destroyed, and carried off by the British Troops, and their Allies. Tho’ no apins have been, or shall be wanting on my part, to urge them to it. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen with great respect and esteem Your most Obedient humble Servant