Trenton Decemr. 14th 1784
Sir
I have the honor to enclose to your Excellency a resolve of Congress passed this Day, the arrival of which in due season to prevent the signing of the convention alluded to, until an Opportunity of reconsidering it in full Congress may be had, will be very agreeable to that Body.1
I have the honor to be with the highest esteem and regard, Sir, Your Excellency's Most Obedient Servant,Richard Henry Lee P.2
Letter book, Papers of Continental Congress, item 16, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
1 Congress had resolved that "in case the convention proposed for regulating and ascertaining the powers and privileges of consuls should not be already signed," Franklin should delay the signing until he received "further instructions."
In his February 8, 1785, response to this letter Franklin explained that this resolve "came too late to suspend signing the convention, it having been done July last, and a copy sent so long since that we now expected the ratification." Diplomatic Correspondence, 1783 - 89, 1:393. For the instructions Congress had adopted for the negotiation of a consular convention January 25, 1782, and the convention Franklin and Vergennes had signed July 29, 1784, see these Letters, 18:303 - 4; and JCC, 22:46 - 54, 31:725 - 35. See also James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, August 15, 1785, note 4. At issue was the suspicion that the convention Franklin had negotiated granted excessive privileges and immunities to French consuls, "incompatible with American sovereignty," a view held especially by John Jay who was about to assume the office of secretary for foreign affairs, which he subsequently used to prevent its ratification and to force the negotiation of a new convention which was not ultimately ratified until 1788.
2 Lee sent this letter to Franklin under cover of the following brief letter of this date to the marquis de Lafayette. "In the name of Congress I am to request that you will be so kind as to deliver the enclosed letter to the Minister plenipotentiary of the United States at your Court, as soon after your arrival as may be convenient." PCC, item 16, fols. 316 - 17.
And the letter to Lafayette was sent under cover of the following note to "The Post Master at New York." "I am directed by Congress to desire that you will immediately on the receipt of this, yourself deliver the enclosed packet to the Marquis de La Fayette who is now in New York with design to sail to-morrow. The business requires punctuality and dispatch, therefore you will please loose no time in delivering the packet." Ibid., fol. 317.