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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS; ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS WITH FRANCE. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 9.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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MESSAGE TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS;

ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS WITH FRANCE.

21 June, 1798.

Gentlemen of the Senate, and
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,

While I congratulate you on the arrival of General Marshall, one of our late envoys extraordinary to the French republic, at a place of safety, where he is justly held in honor, I think it my duty to communicate to you a letter received by him from Mr. Gerry, the only one of the three who has not received his congé. This letter, together with another from the minister of foreign relations to him, of the third of April, and his answer of the fourth, will show the situation in which he remains, his intentions, and prospects.

I presume that before this time he has received fresh instructions (a copy of which accompanies this message) to consent to no loans; and therefore the negotiation may be considered at an end.

I will never send another minister to France, without assurances that he will be received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation.

John Adams.