Sir,

I was yesterday honored with yours of the 13th instant, covering the Governor of Vermont’s of July the 16th.  I presume it can not now be long before I shall receive his answer to the two letters I wrote him from Philadelphia on the same subject.  I now enclose letters received by yesterday’s post from Mr. Hammond, Mr. William Knox, and Mr. Paleske, with answers to the two latter.  Should these meet your approbation, you will be so good as to seal and let them go on under the cover to Mr. Taylor, who will have them conveyed according to their address.  Should you wish any alteration of them, it shall be made on their being returned.  The Prussian treaty is, I believe, within four years of its expiration.  I suspect that personal motives alone induce Mr. Paleske to press for a convention, which could hardly be formed and ratified before it would expire; and that his court cannot lay much stress on it.  Mr. Hammond’s former explanations of his notification of the 12th of April having been laid before Congress, may perhaps make it proper to communicate to them also his sovereign’s approbation of them.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect respect and attachment, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CXVIII.—­TO M. DE TERNANT, September 27,1792

TO M. DE TERNANT.

Philadelphia, September 27,1792.

Sir,

Your letter of the 2d instant, informing me that the legislative body, on the proposition of the King of the French, had declared war against the King of Hungary and Bohemia, has been duly received, and laid before the President of the United States:  and I am authorized to convey to you the expression of the sincere concern we feel, on learning that the French nation, to whose friendship and interests we have the strongest attachments, are now to encounter the evils of war.  We offer our prayers to Heaven that its duration may be short, and its course marked with as few as may be of those calamities which render the condition of war so afflicting to humanity; and we add assurances, that during its course we shall continue in the same friendly dispositions, and render all those good offices which shall be consistent with the duties of a neutral nation.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CXIX.—­TO MR. PINCKNEY, October 12,1792

TO MR. PINCKNEY.

Philadelphia, October 12,1792.

Dear Sir,