SIR,--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.
I am Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.
[The above extract from the report referred to in the preceding letter embraces everything interesting therein, not communicated to the reader in the previous correspondence.]
_Answers by Mr. Jefferson, to questions addressed to him by Monsieur de Meusnier, author of that part of the Encyclopedie Methodique, entitled Economie politique et diplomatique_.
1. What has led Congress to determine, that the concurrence of seven votes is requisite in questions which, by the Confederation, are submitted to the decision of a majority of the United States, in Congress assembled?
The ninth article of Confederation, section six, evidently establishes three orders of questions in Congress. 1. The greater ones, which relate to making peace or war, alliances, coinage, requisitions for money, raising military force, or appointing its commander-in-chief. 2. The lesser ones, which comprehend all other matters submitted by the Confederation to the federal head. 3. The single question of adjourning from day to day. This gradation of questions is distinctly characterized by the article.
In proportion to the magnitude of these questions, a greater concurrence of the voices composing the Union was thought necessary. Three degrees of concurrence, well distinguished by substantial circumstances, offered themselves to notice. 1. A concurrence of a _majority of the people_ of the Union. It was thought that this would be insured, by requiring the voices of nine States; because, according to the loose estimates which had been made of the inhabitants, and the proportion of them which were free, it was believed that even the nine smallest would include a majority of the free citizens of the Union. The voices, therefore, of nine States were required in the greater questions. 2. A concurrence of the _majority of the States_. Seven constitute that majority. This number, therefore, was required in the lesser questions. 3. A concurrence of the _majority of Congress_, that is to say, of the States actually present in it. As there is no Congress, when there are not seven States present, this concurrence could never be of less than four States. But these might happen to be the four smallest, which would not include one-ninth part of the free citizens of the Union. This kind of majority, therefore, was entrusted with nothing but the power of adjourning themselves from day to day.