I like as little as you do, to have the gift of appointments.  I hope Congress will not transfer the appointment of their consuls to their ministers.  But if they do, Portugal is more naturally under the superintendence of the minister at Madrid, and still more naturally under that of the minister at Lisbon, where it is clear they ought to have one.  If all my hopes fail, the letters of Governor Bowdoin and Gushing, in favor of young Mr. Warren, and your more detailed testimony in his behalf, are not likely to be opposed by evidence of equal weight, in favor of any other.  I think with you, too, that it is for the public interest to encourage sacrifices and services, by rewarding them, and that they should weigh to a certain point, in the decision between candidates.

I am sorry for the illness of the Chevalier Pinto.  I think that treaty important:  and the moment to urge it, is that of a treaty between France and England.

Lambe, who left this place the 6th of November, was at Madrid the 10th of this month.  Since his departure, Mr. Barclay has discovered that no copies of the full powers were furnished to himself, nor of course to Lambe.  Colonel Franks has prepared copies, which I will endeavor to get, to send by this conveyance for your attestation:  which you will be so good as to send back by the first safe conveyance, and I will forward them.  Mr. Barclay and Colonel Franks being at this moment at St. Germain, I am not sure of getting the papers in time to go by Mr. Dalrymple.  In that case, I will send them by Mr. Bingham.

Be so good as to present me affectionately to Mrs. and Miss Adams, to Colonels Smith and Humphreys, and accept assurances of the esteem with which I am, Dear Sir,

your friend and servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CXLVI.—­TO JOHN JAY, January 2,1786

TO JOHN JAY.

Sir,

Paris, January 2,1786

Several conferences and letters having passed between the Count de Vergennes and myself, on the subject of the commerce of this country with the United States, I think them sufficiently interesting to be communicated to Congress.  They are stated in the form of a report, and are herein enclosed.  The length of this despatch, perhaps, needs apology.  Yet I have not been able to abridge it, without omitting circumstances which I thought Congress would rather choose to know.  Some of the objects of these conferences present but small hopes for the present, but they seem to admit a possibility of success at some future moment.

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I am, Sir, your most obedient

and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

[The following is an extract from the report referred to in the preceding letter, embracing every thing interesting therein, not communicated to the reader in the previous correspondence.]

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