1. On 2 July 1782 Congress had appointed John Lowell and the delegates named in the headnote as the members of this committee (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 370). See also Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (5 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , IV, 335; 344, and n. 5. Having been granted a leave of absence by Congress on 2 August, Lowell left Philadelphia three days later to go to Boston (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 427; Burnett, Letters description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (8 vols.; Washington, 1921–36). description ends , VI, 412). JM interlineated “Secretary for the,” probably for the reason suggested in n. 2.

2. Judging from the date of the earliest dispatch listed in this report, the committee decided that the “institution” of the department began on 20 October 1781, when Robert R. Livingston took the oath of office as secretary for foreign affairs, rather than 10 January 1781, when Congress had resolved to establish the department (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XIX, 42–44; XXI, 851–52, 1028; George Dangerfield, Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York, 1746–1813 [New York, 1960], p. 143).

3. JM interlineated “said” before, and deleted “of the said Department” after, “Secy.”

4. JM here refers to “the second clause” of the act of 22 February 1782, which superseded the act of 10 January 1781, mentioned in n. 2, above (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 88).

5. Although JM itemized the outgoing dispatches chronologically under the name of each addressee, the “List of the Books and Papers kept in the office of foreign affairs” is in another hand, probably a clerk’s. The docket, written by JM, reads, “List of books and papers referred to in the report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the proceedings of the Department of F. affairs.” This “List” appears to have been considered by the committee, by Congress, and by Charles Thomson, its secretary, as a supporting document rather than as an integral part of the report. In the main, the list is an analysis of the department’s filing system, giving the title of each “book” and the contents of each “box” in which the records were kept (NA: PCC, No. 25, II, 73; JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIII, 589–90, n. 1).

6. That is, the ordinance of 22 February 1782 (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 87–92).

7. For example, see JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 100–101, 105.

8. Although JM allotted a full line to each letter, the editors, to conserve space, have punctuated the dates, omitted the “do.” (ditto), frequently used by JM to save repeating the month or year in his columns, and grouped the correspondence in blocks under the names of the addressees.

9. For these letters to Benjamin Franklin, see Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , IV, 795–97, 809–10, 868–69; V, 4–7, 53–54, 87–94, 123–26, 135, 160–61, 232, 434–35, 501–2, 595.

10. For all except one of these letters to John Jay, see ibid., IV, 814–16; V, 29–30, 44–45, 144–46, 229–30, 332–35, 377, 404–7, 502–3. The letter of 16 April 1782 is in NA: PCC, No. 118, fols. 136–44.

11. For the letters to John Adams, see Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , IV, 806–9 (Livingston wrote on 23 and 24 October and 1 November 1781 in a single letter), 849–51; V, 73–74, 96–97, 219–22, 433–34, 447–48, 459–60.

12. For the letters to Francis Dana, see ibid., IV, 802–5; V, 209–13, 411–14, 436, 446–47.

13. For the letters to William Carmichael, see ibid., V, 65–66, 383–84.

14. For the letters to Thomas Barclay, consul for France, see NA: PCC, No. 118, fols. 46–47, 134–35, 203–4, 213–14.

15. See Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , V, 203–4. On 27 June 1781, at Robert Morris’ suggestion, Robert Smith (d. 1783), a merchant in Havana, had been appointed by Congress to be its unsalaried agent there (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XX, 705; XXIV, 362–63). Morris hoped that Smith could assist in selling American flour and other commodities in Cuba for much needed specie (Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Robert Morris: Patriot and Financier [New York, 1903], pp. 99–100, 169; Clarence L. Ver Steeg, Robert Morris, p. 69). Following about sixteen months as an officer in the 2d and 4th regiments of North Carolina, successively, Smith had served as a captain of the 3d Continental Dragoons from 9 January 1777 until he resigned on 4 November of the next year (Heitman, Historical Register Continental description begins F. B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution (Washington, 1914). description ends , p. 506).

16. See Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , V, 30–32. Charles Guillaume Frédéric Dumas (d. 1796) of German nativity, French ancestry, and Dutch residence, was a philosophe especially interested in international law. From the outset of the Revolution, he had been an enthusiastic supporter of the American cause. Soon after Benjamin Franklin reached Paris on 21 December 1776, he employed his friend Dumas at The Hague in various public services, including assisting John Paul Jones to outfit his warships. In 1782, while negotiating a treaty of amity and commerce with the Netherlands, John Adams welcomed Dumas’ help as a secretary and translator. During Adams’ stay in Paris as a peace commissioner, Dumas was nominally the American chargé d’affaires at The Hague.

Although provided by Franklin with a small annual stipend, Dumas had much reason for protesting, in a letter of 10 May 1782 to Livingston, that his “faithful and painful labor” for over six years, at the cost of “great persecutions, mortifications, losses, and sacrifices” had been inadequately recognized by the United States. On 16 September 1782 Congress referred a proposal of salary for Dumas to a committee of which JM was chairman, but it was 14 October 1785 before Dumas was promised an annual stipend of $1,300, made retroactive to 19 April 1775 and prospective until revoked by Congress. The payment of this salary was often far in arrears, at least as late as 1789 (Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , I, 603; II, 80–89, 305–6, 545–46, 580; III, 452, 549, 565–68; V, 392–93, 408–10, 421, 513, 776–78; Burnett, Letters description begins Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (8 vols.; Washington, 1921–36). description ends , III, 242, and n. 5; V, 252–53; JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XX, 472; XXII, 2, n. 2; 260; XXIII, 583, 792, 814; XXIX, 835; L[yman] H. Butterfield et al., eds., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams [4 vols.; Cambridge, Mass., 1961], III, 9–10 n.).

17. NA: PCC, No. 118, fols. 68–70. From 1778 until 1781, Jean de Neufville and Son, a mercantile company at Amsterdam, had transacted much business for the United States to the satisfaction of Franklin, Adams, and Congress (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XIII, 219–35; XVIII, 1072, 1179–81; XX, 554; Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , IV, 15, 452; Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (5 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , III, 103; 106, n. 11). Complaining in November 1781 that the interest and commission charges of the firm were exorbitant, Franklin thereafter seems to have dispensed with its services (Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , V, 8–10, 46–48, 707).

18. Ibid., V, 430–31; NA: PCC, No. 118, fols. 62–63, 105. For Richard Harrison, see Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (5 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , II, 53, n. 2; III, 105, n. 9; IV, 383, and n. 5.

19. See NA: PCC, No. 118, fols. 87–88. Before William Bingham left St. Pierre, Martinique, on 30 March 1780 to return to Philadelphia, he persuaded Parsons, Alston and Company to assume his duties as continental agent, pending decision by Congress about his successor. Until the firm dissolved on 31 October, as a result of its heavy losses in a hurricane, it frequently supplied Congress with military and economic information relating to the Caribbean. For seven months thereafter, Parsons alone continued this practice. In a letter of 14 July 1781, again requesting appointment as an agent, he added that Congress had not honored his firm or him with an acknowledgment of any of their communications (NA: PCC, No. 90, I, 232–35, 237–38, 323, 372–73). On 2 July 1782 Congress decided against having a consul in Martinique and directed Robert Morris to settle accounts with Parsons and his former company (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXII, 367–68).

20. These letters, excepting those of 10 December 1781 and 31 January 1782, and one of the notes of 10 May 1782, are printed in Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , IV, 809, 817, 832–33, 853–54; V, 67, 122, 190–91, 399, 401, 414, 481–82, 591. The dispatch of 10 December 1781 has not been found, but La Luzerne acknowledged its receipt the next day (ibid., V, 41). JM neglected to list a letter of 24 January (ibid., V, 126–27). The letter of 31 January, along with one of the notes of 12 May 1782, is apparently lost.

21. For these circulars, see ibid., IV, 839; V, 179–80, 181–84, 393–95.

22. Although a retained copy of this brief circular apparently is not in the PCC, it is printed in Pennsylvania Archives description begins Samuel Hazard et al., eds., Pennsylvania Archives (9 ser., 138 vols.; Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1852–1949). description ends , 1st ser., IX, 544–45. See also Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (5 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , IV, 212–13; 214, n. 9.

23. For the letters to Governor Jonathan Trumbull, see Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , V, 123, 488; Papers of Madison description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison (5 vols. to date; Chicago, 1962——). description ends , IV, 41, n. 11.

24. Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , V, 180.

25. These suggested “improvements and alterations” appear to have been oral. The passage between “business” and “they” originally read, “which in particular instances, as were judged by the Committee applicable.”

26. After accepting the report without a division, Congress routinely consigned it to Charles Thomson for filing (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XX, 476; XXIII, 586–89).