My information to
Congress, on the subject of our commercial articles with this country,
has only come down to January the 27th. Whether I shall say any thing on
it, in my letter to Mr. Jay by this conveyance, depends on its not
being too early for an appointment I expect hourly from the Count de
Vergennes, to meet him on this and other subjects. My last information
was, that the lease was too far advanced to withdraw from it the article
of tobacco, but that a clause is inserted in it, empowering the King
to discontinue it at any time. A discontinuance is, therefore, the
only remaining object, and as even this cannot be effected till the
expiration of the old lease, which is about the end of the present year,
I have wished only to stir the subject, from time to time, so as to keep
it alive. This idea led me into a measure proposed by the Marquis de
la Fayette, whose return from Berlin found the matter at that point, to
which my former report to Congress had conducted it. I communicated to
him what I had been engaged on, what were my prospects, and my purpose
of keeping the subject just open.
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