1. Pickering evidently enclosed copies of the letters to the secretary of state from William Allen Deas of 28 July and 8 Aug., which in turn enclosed letters from Deas to Lord Grenville of 6, 14, 19, and 27 July and 4 Aug., and from Grenville to Deas of 3 August. In the letter of 28 July, Deas surmised that he would not receive a response to the representations he had made in accordance with Edmund Randolph’s instructions of 18 April until after the expected arrival of the ratified treaty from the United States. The other letter was a brief note covering Grenville’s reply and Deas’s response to it (NHi: Rufus King Papers). After GW’s consideration of these letters, Pickering sent the following “hints given by the President’s direction” to Deas: “When in the correspondence from this office the feelings and resentments of the people of the United States are expressed in warm and indignant terms, it is by no means intended that the language of such letters should be used in addressing a foreign Court.” Those feelings “and the expectations of redress” should be expressed in terms “adapted not only to the nature of the case, to the correspondent right in the foreign Court to judge of the propriety of its own orders” and their execution, “but even to its pride,” which “repels whatever wears the semblance of reproach” but “often yields to mild language and firm but respectful representations” (Pickering to Deas, 10 Nov., DNA: RG 59, Diplomatic and Consular Instructions).

Robert Montgomery (d. 1823) was appointed consul at Alicante in 1793 and served in that post until his death. Pickering likely enclosed Montgomery’s letter to the secretary of state of 2 May (received at the State Department on 9 Oct.) and either his letter of 14 March (a duplicate of which was received on 3 Oct.) or of 30 May (not identified, but described in Montgomery’s letter of 28 Aug. [received 5 Nov.] as “My last”). In the letters of 14 March and 2 May, Montgomery reported that Hans Heissell, who had been given a consular appointment to the Barbary States, had offended the dey of Algiers (all DNA: RG 59, Consular Despatches, Alicante).

The papers given to GW’s secretary Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., have not been identified.