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TO THE COUNT DE VERGENNES.

Paris, November 20, 1785.

Sir,

I found here, on my return from Fontainebleau, the letter of October the 30th, which your Excellency did me the honor there of informing me had been addressed to me at this place; and I shall avail myself of the first occasion of transmitting it to Congress, who will receive, with great pleasure; these new assurances of the friendly sentiments, which his Majesty is pleased to continue towards the United States.

I am equally persuaded they will pay the most serious attention to that part of your Excellency’s letter, which mentions the information you have received of certain acts or regulations of navigation and commerce, passed in some of the United States, which are injurious to the commerce of France. In the mean time, I wish to remove the unfavorable impressions which those acts seem to have made, as if they were a departure from the reciprocity of conduct, stipulated for by the treaty of February the 6th, 1776. The effect of that treaty is, to place each party with the other, always on the footing of the most favored nation. But those who framed the acts, probably did not consider the treaty as restraining either from discriminating between foreigners and natives. Yet this is the sole effect of these acts. The same opinion, as to the meaning of the treaty, seems to have been entertained by this government, both before and since the date of these acts. For the Arrêt of the King’s Council, of August the 30th, 1784, furnished an example of such a discrimination between foreigners and natives, importing salted fish into his Majesty’s dominions in the West Indies; by laying a duty on that imported, by foreigners, and giving out the same, in bounty, to native importers. This opinion shows itself more remarkably in the late Arrêts of the 18th and 25th of September, which, increasing to excess the duty on foreign importations of fish into the West Indies, giving the double, in bounty, on those of natives, and thereby rendering it impossible for the former to sell in competition with the latter, have, in effect, prohibited the importation of that article by the citizens of the United States.

Both nations, perhaps, may come into the opinion, that their friendship and their interests may be better cemented, by approaching the condition of their citizens, reciprocally, to that of natives, as a better ground of intercourse than that of the most favored nation. I shall rest with hopes of being authorized, in due time, to inform your Excellency that nothing will be wanting, on our part, to evince a disposition to concur in revising whatever regulations may, on either side, bear hard on the commerce of the other nation. In the mean time I have the honor to assure you of the profound respect and esteem, with which

I have the honor to be,

your Excellency’s

most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.