ur letter of the 27th ultimo, I perceive that painful impressions
have been made on your mind during your late mission, of which I had
never entertained a suspicion. I must, therefore, examine the grounds,
because explanations between reasonable men can never but do good. 1.
You consider the mission of Mr. Pinckney as an associate, to have been
in some way injurious to you. Were I to take that measure on myself,
I might say in its justification, that it has been the regular and
habitual practice of the United States to do this, under every form
in which their government has existed. I need not recapitulate the
multiplied instances, because you will readily recollect them. I went as
an adjunct to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, yourself as an adjunct first
to Mr. Livingston, and then to Mr. Pinckney, and I really believe
there has scarcely been a great occasion which has not produced an
extraordinary mission. Still, however, it is well known, that I was
strongly opposed to it in the case of which you complain. A committee of
the Senate called on me with two resolutions of that body on the subject
of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain, and requesting that
I would demand satisfaction. After delivering the resolutions, the
committee entered into free conversation, and observed, that although
the Senate could not, in form, recommend any extraordinary mission,
yet that as individuals, there was but one sentiment among them on the
measure, and they pressed it. I was so much averse to it, and gave them
so hard an answer, that they felt it, and spoke of it. But it did not
end here. The members of the other House took up the subject, and set
upon me individually, and these the best friends to you, as well as
myself, and represented the responsibility which a failure to obtain
redress would throw on us both, pursuing a conduct in opposition to the
opinion of nearly every member of the legislature. I found it necessary,
at length, to yield my own opinion, to the general sense of the national
council, and it really seemed to produce a jubilee among them; not from
any want of confidence in you, but from a belief in the effect which an
extraordinary mission would have on the British mind, by demonstrating
the degree of importance which this country attached to the rights which
we considered as infracted.

2. You complain of the manner in which the treaty was received. But what
was that manner? I cannot suppose you to have given a