PARIS, December 7, 1786.
SIR,--I should with great pleasure have perused your manuscript of the
history of the American Revolution, but that it comes to me in the
moment of my setting out on a journey into the south of France, where I
am to pass the winter. In the few moments of leisure which my
preparations for that journey admitted, I have read some detached
parts, and find that it would have been very interesting to me. In one
of these (page 60), I have taken the liberty of noting a circumstance
which is not true, and to which I believe M. d'Aubertueil first gave a
place in history. In page 75, I observe it says that Congress removed
to Hartford, but this is a misinformation. They never sat there. In
general, I would observe to you, that where there is no other authority
for a fact than the history of d'Aubertueil, it will not be safe to
hazard it. These authors have been led into an infinitude of errors,
probably by trusting to the English papers, or to the European ones,
copied from them. It is impossible to resort to a more impure source. I
am much pleased to find, that you concur in the justice of the
principles which produced our revolution, and have only to wish that I
could have been able to go through the whole work. I have the honor to
be, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble
servant.