Thanks be to the Eternal King (the only one I revere and love, because he alone is wise and good), that which has ever been my consolation in the midst of persecution now constitutes my triumph: the high and mighty liars who wanted to shame and chastise me with their resolution of 23 September 1788, are chastised by another of 14 August 1795; and I am proclaimed the blessed of the Gospel of Matthew, 5:11. When you glance at the papers included herein, my preamble will need no commentary. Though I have sent them to the department of foreign affairs, I thought it best to communicate them to you directly as well, because of the letter which Secretary Fagel wrote you in 1787 on behalf of his masters, of the reply that you made to it, and of the kindness you did me then to have a copy delivered to me of these two pieces, which, along with their own resolution of 23 September 1788, have just served to degrade them according to their worth.1 I give it to your son Thomas, who will send it to you. I hear that Mr. Jefferson’s successor has resigned. He is the first from the department who never condescended to confirm receipt of my letters, which I have not stopped sending. I hope his successor will better remember this old servant in Europe of the United States since its cradle days. Kindly accept my respects on behalf of your dear and worthy spouse, as well as of Mr. John Jay, now governor of New York. I shall not write to you of our miserable Europe: succumbing still to its conflict between oligarchy and anarchy. She surely does not deserve to serve as a model to the Americans. What she will become in the end remains a profound secret of providence, which I revere, beseeching it only to preserve the United States—under the auspices of a good education (the most liberal possible) of its youth—from the damage caused to the old continent for so many centuries by regiments of deceitful priests, brutal military men, and so-called nobles. I am with great respect, sir, your most humble, and obedient servant