October 26,1791.

LETTER LXXX.—­TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, November 6, 1791

TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

Philadelphia, November 6, 1791.

Sir,

My last letter to you was of the 24th of August.  A gentleman going from hence to Cadiz will be the bearer of this, and of the newspapers to the present date, and will take care that the letter be got safe to you, if the papers cannot.

Mr. Mangnal, at length tired out with his useless solicitations at this office, to obtain redress from the court of Spain for the loss of the Dover Cutter, has laid the matter before Congress, and the Senate have desired me to report thereon to them.  I am very sorry to know nothing more of the subject, than that letter after letter has been written to you thereon, and that the office is in possession of nothing more than acknowledgments of your receipt of some of them, so long ago as August, 1786, and still to add, that your letter of January the 24th, 1791, is the only one received of later date than May the 6th, 1789.  You certainly will not wonder, if the receipt of but one letter in two years and an half inspires a considerable degree of impatience.  I have learned through a circuitous channel, that the court of Madrid is at length disposed to yield our right of navigating the Mississippi.  I sincerely wish it may be the case, and that this act of justice may be made known, before the delay of it produces any thing intemperate from our western inhabitants.

Congress is now in session.  You will see, in the paper herewith sent, the several weighty matters laid before them in the President’s speech.  The session will probably continue through the winter.  I shall sincerely rejoice to receive from you, not only a satisfactory explanation of the reasons why we receive no letters, but grounds to hope that it will be otherwise in future.

I have the honor to be, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER LXXXI.—­TO THE PRESIDENT, November 6, 1791

TO THE PRESIDENT.

November 6, 1791.

Sir,

I have the honor to enclose you the draught of a letter to Governor Pinckney, and to observe, that I suppose it to be proper that there should, on fit occasions, be a direct correspondence between the President of the United States and the Governors of the States; and that it will probably be grateful to them to receive from the President, answers to the letters they address to him.  The correspondence with them on ordinary business may still be kept up by the Secretary of State, in his own name.