ssion was, not as
M. Gerond's and Luzerne's had been, '_a nos tres chers, &c. le President
et membres du Congres general des Etats-Unis_,' &c. but '_a nos tres
chers, &c. les Etats-Unis de l'Amerique_,' &c. Under this general
address, the proper member of the government was included, and could
take it up. When, therefore, it was seen in the commissions of Messrs.
Dupont and Hauterive, that your executive had returned to the ancient
address to Congress, it was conceived to be an inattention, insomuch,
that I do not recollect (and I do not think it material enough to
inquire) whether I noticed it to you either verbally or by letter. When
that of M. Dannery was presented with the like address, being obliged
to notice to you an inaccuracy of another kind, I then mentioned that
of the address, not calling it an innovation, but expressing my
satisfaction, which is still entire, that it was not from any design in
your Executive Council. The Exequatur was therefore sent. That they will
not consider our notice of it as an innovation, we are perfectly
secure. No government can disregard formalities more than ours. But
when formalities are attacked with a view to change principles, and to
introduce an entire independence of foreign agents on the nation with
whom they reside, it becomes material to defend formalities. They would
be no longer trifles, if they could, in defiance of the national will,
continue a foreign agent among us, whatever might be his course of
action. Continuing, therefore, the refusal to receive any commission
from yourself, addressed to an improper member of the government, you
are left free to use either the general one to the United States, as in
the commissions of Messrs. Mangourit and La Forest before cited, or the
special one, to the President of the United States.

I have the honor to be, with respect, Sir, your most obedient and most
humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLXXV.--TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE U.S., December 18, 1793

TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.

Philadelphia, December 18, 1793.

Sir,

The Minister Plenipotentiary of France has enclosed to me a copy of a
letter of the 16th instant, which he addressed to you, stating that
some libellous publications had been made against him by Mr. Jay, Chief
Justice of the United States, and Mr. King, one of the Senators for
the State of New York, and desiring that they might be prosecuted. This
letter has been laid