1. In his 1809 letters to the Boston Patriot, JA wrote: “About this time, considering the connection between the United States and France, it was very obvious that prudence required I should communicate my design to the French ambassador. I was not, however, without apprehensions of the consequence of it, for I could not doubt that the count de Vergennes had information of my appointment sooner than I had, and I had a thousand reasons to believe that my whole system in Holland, and even my residence in it, was disagreeable to him. I might presume, and I did presume, that the duke had instructions from the count to counteract me. But the inconveniences that would arise from concealing my design from the French ambassador, appearing to overbalance those in the other scale, I wrote to his excellency ...” (JA, Corr. in the Boston Patriot , p. 431–432).

At some point, perhaps to prove that he was working in consultation with La Vauguyon, JA sent two copies of this letter, both in John Thaxter's hand, to Congress (PCC, No. 84, III, f. 127; Misc. Papers, Reel No. 1, f. 255).