t commercial schemes.

I have the honor to be, &c.

FRANCIS DANA.

* * * * *

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO FRANCIS DANA.

Philadelphia, May 10th, 1782.

Dear Sir,

In my letter of the 2d of March last, I explained fully to you the
intentions of Congress in sending you to Petersburg; and the reasons
that influenced them to wish, that you would by no means display your
public character, till you were fully convinced, that it was the wish
of the Court to acknowledge it. And I saw with pleasure, in your
letter of the 31st of March, 1781, to the Count de Vergennes, that you
had determined agreeably to the spirit and meaning of your
instructions, to appear only as a private citizen of the United
States, until the result of your inquiries should point out a ready
and honorable reception. The opinion of the Minister of his Most
Christian Majesty, as well as of Dr Franklin, whom you were directed
to consult, was so decided upon that point, that though you might not
have thought it sufficient to justify delaying your journey, yet it
certainly rendered it proper to take the best precautions to conceal
your public character, under some other, that would have been
unsuspected; and this for reasons that carried the greatest weight
with them.

The Empress having projected the armed neutrality, she naturally
wished it to have the appearance of a general regulation, and not of
an attempt to serve one of the belligerent powers at the expense of
the other. The strictest impartiality could alone give a dignity to
her measures, or crown them with success. She further wished to be the
means of re-establishing peace, and was perhaps influenced by the
laudable ambition of being at the same time the great legislator and
arbiter of Europe. At this critical moment it could hardly be
expected, that she would publicly entertain a Minister from the United
States. For though the powers at war have many collateral objects, yet
it is well known, that American independence is the great question in
controversy; and though a decision in favor of it might be worthy of
the magnanimity of the Empress, yet it would certainly militate
against her objects, and afford Great Britain an apology for
considering the armed neutrality as a partial regulation; and for
rejecting the mediation of a power, whom they would