s on their taking leave
of us; and it is concluded that a medal and chain of gold will be
the most convenient. I am therefore to ask the favour of you to
order the dies to be engraved with all the despatch practicable.
The medal must be of 30-lines diameter, with a loop on the edge
to receive the chain. On one side must be the arms of the United
States, of which I send you a written description, and (p. 118)
several impressions in wax, to render that more intelligible;
round them as a legend must be "The United States of America."
The device on the other side we do not decide on; one suggestion
has been a Columbia (a fine female figure) delivering the emblems
of Peace and Commerce to a Mercury, with the legend "Peace and
Commerce" circumscribed, and the date of our Republic, to-wit: IV
Jul. MDCCLXXVI, subscribed as an Exerguum; but having little
confidence in our own ideas in an art not familiar here, they are
only suggested to you, to be altered, or altogether postponed to
such better device as you may approve on consulting with those
who are in the habit and study of medals. Duvivier and Dupre seem
to be the best workmen, perhaps the last is the best of the two.

I am with great and sincere esteem,
Thomas JEFFERSON.

_____

_Thomas Jefferson to the Marquis de la Luzerne._

To His Excellency
THE MARQUIS DE LA LUZERNE. New York, April 30th, 1790.

Sir: When in the course of your Legation to the United States
your affairs rendered it necessary that you should absent
yourself a while from that station, we flattered ourselves with
the hopes that that absence was not final. It turned out in
events that the interests of your Sovereign called for your
talents, and the exercise of your functions in another quarter.
You were pleased to announce this to the former Congress through
their Secretary for Foreign Affairs, at a Time when that body was
closing its Administration, in order to hand it over to a
Government, then preparing on a different model. This Government
is now formed, organized and in action, and it considers among
its earliest duties and assuredly among its most cordial, to
testify to you the Regret which the People and Government of the
United States