s-Lettres, Rue Chabanais, Paris.

Sir: Having it in charge to procure the honourary presents which
(during the late war) have been voted by Congress to several
meritorious officers in their service, particularly three medals
in gold, one for General Washington, another for General Gates,
and a third for General Greene; and, being extremely desirous
that these medals should be executed in a manner grateful to the
illustrious personages for whom they are designed, worthy the
dignity of the sovereign power by whom they are presented, and
calculated to perpetuate the remembrance of those great events
which they are intended to consecrate to immortality, I therefore
take the liberty to address, through you, Sir, the Academy of
Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, on the subject, and entreat that
this learned body will be pleased to honour me, as soon as (p. xiv)
may be convenient, with their advice and sentiments respecting
the devices and inscriptions proper for the before mentioned
medals. A memoir,[2] which has been left in the hands of M.
Barthelemy, one of their members, will give the necessary
information.

In addressing so respectable an assembly of _literati_ I do not
think myself permitted to enlarge on the importance of this
subject, because they must know, much better than I can inform
them, in how great a degree such monuments of public gratitude
are calculated to produce a laudable emulation, a genuine love of
liberty, and all the virtues of real patriotism, not only among
the innumerable generations who are yet to people the wastes of
America, but on the human character in general. Nor do I make
those apologies for the trouble I am now giving, which would be
requisite, did I not feel a conviction that whatever is
interesting to the national glory of America, to the good of
posterity, or to the happiness of the human race, cannot be
indifferent to a society composed of the most enlightened and
liberal characters in Europe, fostered by the royal protection of
a monarch whose name will forever be as dear to the United States
as it will be glorious in the annals of mankind.

Being so unfortunate as not to be able to write myself in French,
my intimate friend and brave companion in arms, M. le marquis de
la Fayette, has had the good