Circular to the Governors, 28 August 1786
Circular to the Governors
Office for foreign Affairs 28 Augt. 1786.
Sir,
I have the Honor of transmitting to you, herewith enclosed, an Extract of a Letter dated the 27th. May last, which I have received from the Honorable Mr. Jefferson, and also Copies of two other Papers which accompanied it, vizt. of the Contract between the Farmers General and Mr. R. Morris, and of a Letter from Count de Vergennes to Mr Jefferson.1
These Papers contain some Matters of Information, which should be known; but it appears to me that this had better be done without the Intervention of the Press; for if our Ministers should find that their Letters and Communications are sometimes published in Newspapers, when they do not expect it, they would naturally observe, afterwards, a Degree of Reserve and caution, which would render their Correspondence much less useful, than while unconstrained by such Apprehensions.2 I have the Honor to be, Your Excellency’s, Most obedient and Humble Servant,
John Jay
His Excellency The Governor of the State of Connecticutt
LS, marked “Circular,” to the Governor of Connecticut, MWa (EJ: 573). Enclosures: Extract of a Letter from TJ to JJ, 27 May 1786; Copy of the Contract between the Farmers General and Robert Morris, signed in Paris on 11 Jan. and in Philadelphia on 10 Apr. 1785; Vergennes to TJ, 30 May 1786; Resolves of a Committee held at Berni, 24 Mar. 1786. Endorsed: “… receivd Sepr 12th—86”. LS, to the Governor of Rhode Island, RPB (EJ: 5271), with enclosures as above; LS, to the Governor of Massachusetts, MHi: Bowdoin-Temple (EJ: 4728); LS to the Governor of New Jersey, MHi: Livingston II (EJ: 4729); LS, to the President of Delaware, NHi: John Jay Ide (EJ: 13227); LS to the Governor of Virginia, Vi (EJ: 2670); Dft, NNC (EJ: 5863). Addressed “Govr. of difft. States”. LbkC, to the Governor of New York, , 2: 446 (EJ: 2025). See also 18: 627–34, 722.
1. For the full text of TJ’s letter of 27 May, see PtC, DLC: Jefferson (EJ: 10125); LS, with copy of contract and translation, DNA: PCC, item 87, 1: 478–85, 486–97, and for the originals and translations of the texts enclosed in TJ’s follow up letter of 31 May, 502–6, 508–13; LbkC, and enclosures, DNA: PCC, item 107, 1: 293–314; 9: 582–90. On 2 Aug. JJ had forwarded TJ’s letter to Congress along with the copy of Robert Morris’s contract, Vergennes letter of 30 May, and the resolutions of the committee at Berni. By that date reports of a modification of the contract had begun to circulate based on an extract of a letter from a merchant at Lorient of 31 May 1786, which appeared in a number of Pennsylvania papers, beginning with the Freeman’s Journal of 2 Aug. After Congress removed the injunction to secrecy regarding the documents related to the tobacco contract on 3 Aug., Maryland delegates forwarded copies to their state on 4 Aug. ( 23: 440 and n2). On 22 Aug., and again on 29 Aug. and 5 Sept., the Maryland Journal (Baltimore) reported that at the direction of the governor the paper was publishing the particulars “so interesting to the planters and shippers” of Maryland and Virginia; it printed Vergennes’s letter to TJ of 30 May, the resolutions of the committee at Berni, and the translation of the Morris contract. These documents were reprinted in the Maryland Gazette (Annapolis) of 24 Aug. and 28 Sept., the Pennsylvania Packet of 28 Aug., the Pennsylvania Herald of 30 Aug., and the New York Daily Advertiser of 31 Aug. On 28 Aug. JJ forwarded his extract on the contract from TJ’s letter, with only a few sensitive passages removed, together with translations of the related texts, to all the states in his circular letter (, August 1786 [EJ: 3766]). On the contract and the efforts of TJ and Lafayette to end the French tobacco monopoly, see also 9: 150–59; Jacob M. Price, France and the Chesapeake: A History of the French Tobacco Monopoly, 1674–1791, and of Its Relationship to the British and American Tobacco Trades (2 vols.; Ann Arbor, Mich., 1973), 2: 772–87; and F. L. Nussbaum, “American Tobacco and French Politics,” Political Science Quarterly 40 (1925): 497–516.
2. Despite JJ’s warning against newspaper publication, the extract from TJ’s letter was published, prompting a complaint by TJ in his letter to JJ of 9 Jan. 1787 ( 11: 29–33), to which JJ responded in his letter of 24 Apr. 1787, below. The extract was first printed in Philadelphia newspapers: Pennsylvania Packet, 11 Sept.; Pennsylvania Herald, 13 Sept.; and Freeman’s Journal, 13 Sept. 1786. It also appeared in the Daily Advertiser (New York), 13 Sept.; Massachusetts Centinel (Boston), 23 Sept.; and American Herald (Boston), 25 Sept. 1786. Otto forwarded French translations of the published extract and related texts in his letter to Vergennes, 30 Sept. 1786, FrPMAE: CP-EU, XXXII.