Beschreibung:

MONROE, JAMES, President . Autograph draft letter signed ("Jas. Monroe") "To the President & Representatives of the French People," Paris, August 1794. 1 full page, 245 x 192 mm. (9.5/8 x 7 in.), neatly tipped to a larger sheet. , verso docketed by Monroe. JAMES MONROE AFFIRMS "THE PROFOUND INTEREST WHICH THE GOVERNMENT & PEOPLE OF AMERICA TAKE IN THE SUCCESS & PROSPERITY OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC" A revealing draft, showing signs of its hasty composition in the several deleted words and interlinear additions, in which the young Monroe, just arrived to take up his post as Minister to the revolutionary government of France, states his credentials and asks formal recognition: "Having lately arrived here with authority from the President [Washington] of the United States of America, to represent those States in quality of minister plenipotentiaty with the French Republic, and not knowing the competent department nor the forms established by law for my reception, I have thought it my duty to make known my mission immediately to the representatives of the Nation. To them it belongs to fix the day & prescribe the mode by which I shall be acknowledged as the representative of their ally & sister republic...I make to you this communication with the greatest pleasure," and he avows his own "devotion to the cause of liberty," and will testify "in the most solemn manner" to "the profound interest which the government & people of America take in the success & prosperity of the French Republic." Monroe arrived in Paris five days after Robespierre's execution, in early August, and the Virginian was "excited at observing at first hand the Revolution he had so long admired from a distance" (H. Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity , p.117). But there was considerable confusion over the recognition and validation of Monroe's credentials, hence the present letter, which was sent, in final form, on August 13. The next day, with a hastily prepared address, Monroe "entered the chamber of the 700-member Convention...As he entered the hall he was greeted with clapping and loud cries of 'Long live the Convention, long live the United States of America, our brave brothers!'" (ibid., p.119). After Monroe had spoken to the assembled chamber, he was warmly applauded and given a fraternal embrace by the Convention President, Merlin de Douai, and it was ordered that an American flag be displayed in the chamber, next to that of France (Monroe himself paid for the flag.)