confirmation of my agency on
the part of Congress, for my safety and quiet. I beg, Sir, that you
will second my request and obtain for me a resolution as favorable as
my demand is just.

I know that some Americans, whom I honor in other respects, have
entertained and propagated the idea, that a commission of the
honorable Committee of Foreign Affairs was not so valid as one of
Congress. One of them said so to me. I will not, Sir, give myself up
to an idea so injurious, as to think, that Congress would refuse to
ratify what their Committee has done; and the engagements it has made,
but this body is not always composed of the same persons; it has many
other affairs; it may forget me, and I may be cruelly supplanted,
abandoned, and consequently at the age of sixty years, ruined with my
family, without resource and without means. I put, then, my cause into
the hands of your Excellency, to endeavor to obtain for me, as
promptly as possible, the satisfaction I desire, and to send me the
commission I solicit. The service of the United States requires it,
and this will not interfere with the powers of Minister
Plenipotentiary, who may be sent here; on the contrary, I shall be
useful to him, if God spares my life.

One consideration, also, to which I pray Congress to give their
attention, is that far from being recompensed for my past labors, the
two hundred and twenty five louis d'ors or guineas which I draw yearly
for my subsistence and to defray the expenses of journeys, postages,
&c. charges, which, from prudence, and considering circumstances, I
have never carried to the account, are not sufficient; and I have been
obliged constantly to expend my own in addition. Besides my age, the
privation not only of a copyist, which the service demanded, but even
of a valet, which I have been obliged also to deny myself in order to
be able to subsist, for about three years, makes my life extremely sad
and painful.

In perfect trust that Congress will consent to give attention to my
petition, and to my state, I commend myself with my wife and daughter
to their protection.

I have the honor to be, &c.

DUMAS.

* * * * *

JOHN PAUL JONES TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

Ariel, Road of Croix, September 8th, 1780.

I dare say, my dear friend, my silence for so long a time must have an
extraordinary appe