Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet, 23 June 1793
Thomas Jefferson to Edmond Charles Genet1
Philadelphia June 23. 17932
Sir
In answer to your letter of the 18th. inst.3 I am instructed by the President to inform you that the fund in question has been so clearly understood on all hands to be specifically appropriated for the payment of the bills which were recognised by the former agents of France here as to be incapable of being diverted without disappointing the just expectations of our citizens holders of those Bills.
Indeed the Government has been so much a party in countenancg those expectations, as in such an event to be under an obligation in point of propriety to see that the parties are satisfied,4 to the extent of the ballance which yet remains to be advanced.5
I have the honor to be with great respect & esteem Sir your mo. obedt. & most hble sevt.
Th: J
The Minister Plenipy. of the republic of France
DfS, in the handwriting of H, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress.
1. For background to this letter, see “Conversation with George Hammond,” June 10–July 6, 1792, note 2.
2. This line is in Jefferson’s handwriting.
3. Genet’s letter of June 18 to Jefferson is printed in “Conversation with George Hammond,” June 10–July 6, 1793, note 2.
4. Above the italicized words Jefferson wrote “satisfy the parties themselves,” words which he used in the letter he sent to Genet on June 23, 1793 (ALS, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress).
5. The remainder of the draft is in the handwriting of Jefferson.