I hasten to have the honor of presenting to you the Account of the French Revolution in Geneva of which I had previously sent to you only a very imperfect outline. But I hasten all the more to relay to you the outcome of my communications with Geneva regarding the project of our American colony and the justifiable hopes I draw from them to see the colony become a reality, if, thanks to your patronage, some American province has agreed to the proposals I had the honor of submitting to you.

The enclosed letter, which I take the liberty to ask you to forward to Mr. Jefferson, and which I leave open so that you may read it over first, will persuade you, sir, of the extent to which this fine project is appreciated and even advanced on the Genevans’ side.1 By addressing this report to Virginia in particular, I flatter myself no less to think, sir, that you have taken some interest in seeking an asylum for us in one of your northern or central provinces, and in that case the enclosed dispatch of which you could deliver a copy to the province in question would certainly persuade her sufficiently, as it would you, sir, that we are worthy of her protection by the extent of our misfortunes, and by the sacrifices we are prepared to make either to redress them or to erase in another hemisphere the stain that certain of our citizens, 326 poisoned by a foreign influence, have made or allowed to be made upon Genevan freedom.

As compensation for what we hope from her, may America never cease to be considered the true refuge of peoples from whom freedom and peace is stripped away! May she be ruled for a long time to come by the wise men who rescued her from authoritarian attack, and who know equally well how to protect her laws today against the extremism of unrestraint! There, sir, is my heart’s most ardent wish, and by presenting it to you, I am aware that I address it to one of the people most capable of fulfilling it.

I have the honor respectfully to be, sir, your most humble and most obedient servant