hether
you are to repay it or not. During the whole of this long transaction,
I have never ceased soliciting your discharge. The evidence furnished by
the Farmers to the ministers, impressed them with a belief that you were
guilty. However, they obtained a remission of all which the King could
remit, which was your condemnation to the galleys, and imprisonment,
and the sum in which you were fined. The confiscation belonged to the
Farmers, and the expenses of subsistence and of prosecution were theirs
also, and so could not be remitted by the King. I wish you to be assured
of my sensibility for your sufferings, and of my wishes to have obtained
an earlier relief, had it been possible. I shall be glad if you can have
an immediate and safe return to your own country, and there find your
families well, and make those who may be authorized to decide on your
case sensible, that these misfortunes have not been brought on you by
any desire of yours, to infringe the laws of the country in which you
have suffered. I enclose herewith your log-book and the other papers
desired by you, and am, Sir,

your most obedient, humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER XVIII.--TO JOHN JAY, May 23, 1786

TO JOHN JAY.

Sir,

Paris, May 23, 1786.

Letters received both from Madrid and Algiers, while I was in London,
having suggested that treaties with the States of Barbary would be much
facilitated by a previous one with the Ottoman Porte, it was agreed
between Mr. Adams and myself, that on my return, I should consult
on this subject the Count de Vergennes, whose long residence at
Constantinople rendered him the best judge of its expediency. Various
circumstances have put it out of my power to consult him, till to-day.
I stated to him the difficulties we were likely to meet with at
Algiers; and asked his opinion, what would be the probable expense of a
diplomatic mission to Constantinople, and what its effect at Algiers.
He said that the expense would be very great, for that presents must be
made at that court, and every one would be gaping after them: and that
it would not procure us a peace at Algiers one penny the cheaper. He
observed, that the Barbary States acknowledged a sort of vassalage to
the Porte, and availed themselves of that relation, when any thing was
to be gained by it; but that whenever it subjected them to a demand from
the Porte, they totally disregarded it: that money was the sole agent
at Algiers, except so