My affectionate respects to Mrs. Madison; to yourself, health and
friendship. Adieu.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCXX.--TO JAMES MADISON, January 25, 1798
TO JAMES MADISON.
Philadelphia, January 25, 1798.
Dear Sir,
I wrote you last on the 2nd instant, on which day I received yours of
December the 25th. I have not resumed my pen, because there has
really been nothing worth writing about, but what you would see in the
newspapers. There is, as yet, no certainty what will be the aspect
of our affairs with France. Either the Envoys have not written to
the government, or their communications are hushed up. This last is
suspected, because so many arrivals have happened from Bordeaux and
Havre. The letters from American correspondents in France have been
always to Boston: and the experience we had last summer of their
adroitness in counterfeiting this kind of intelligence, inspires doubts
as to their late paragraphs. A letter is certainly received here by an
individual, from Talleyrand, which says our Envoys have been heard, that
their pretensions are high, that possibly no arrangement may take place,
but that there will be no declaration of war by France. It is said that
Bournonville has written that he has hopes of an accommodation (three
audiences having then, November, been had), and to be himself a member
of a new diplomatic mission to this country.
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