engagement, that we will call for
him immediately, and that with himself, we may probably take and pay him
for all the implements of coinage he may have, suited to our purpose. If
he asks higher terms, he will naturally tell you so, and what they are;
and we must reserve a right to consider of them. In either case, I will
ask your answer as soon as possible. I need not observe to you, that
this negotiation should be known to nobody but yourself, Drost, and Mr.
Short. The good old Dr. Franklin, so long the ornament of our country,
and, I may say, of the world, has at length closed his eminent career.
He died on the 17th instant, of an imposthume of his lungs, which having
suppurated and burst, he had not strength to throw off the matter, and
was suffocated by it. His illness from this imposthume was of sixteen
days. Congress wear mourning for him, by a resolve of their body.

I beg you to present my friendly respects to Madame Grand, the elder and
younger, and to your son, and believe me to be, with sentiments of great
esteem and attachment, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble
servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER XXVIII.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA LUZERNE, April 30,1790

TO THE MARQUIS DE LA LUZERNE.

New York, April 30,1790.

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 hope that that absence was not
final. It turned out, in event, 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 felt at your removal from
among them; a very general and sincere regret, and tempered only by the
consolation of your personal advancement, which accompanied it. You will
receive, Sir, by order of the President of the United States, as soon
as they can be prepared, a medal and chain of gold, of which he desires
your acceptance, in token of their esteem, and of the sens