[N° 3] The Hague 7. Aug^t 1799. My dear Sir, At length in an auction of old books I picked up a Pecquet's le Esprit de maxims for you & now send it — I am looking out for Lempriede on the rights of neutral nations & when I get it will send also to you — I was so lucky as to get your N° 1. — but none since — & except a line from M^r. Wolcott & two letters from Col. Pickering I have not received any thing from America — [per S. I have paid him in drawn] if [undecipherable: Tenuis?] would seal up his books' papers, & send each packet to M^r. Girard in those ships I came — W.G. I am sure would put them in a way to some port in Holland — & I am so extremely anxious sometimes upon the State of things at Philad^a. that I would give their weight in gold for late papers. My dear Sir, I fear — much fear that nothing will be done by congress that will bear out your negotiations with spirit — I am more aware of the folly & wickedness of any step that would do mischief — but I am certain that Spirit — guided by moderation in its display — & Preparation alone can ensure Peace A weak nation must arm as well as negociate — a powerful one need not always — a nation [underline: supposed] to be divided must give a testimony of its union by those great Preparatory mea:sures which none would be taken unless the country was united — Preparation must be the evidence that we are united & that we are not French — doubtless France has several objects — first to destroy british commerce — secondly to plunder while she produces this end — thirdly to produce eventually disunion — that she may erect any part into an independent government as she has the Lombardy Republic, Genoa — & Batavia — Part of her scheme she has accomplished, the plundering of our trade — this is among her means of forcing us to give up British commerce — If she finds us not united she will urge the necessity of giving up the Treaty & of making such a treaty with her as the Dutch have done — & in the early struggle upon her propositions, she will expect to see the completion of her grand Scheme — a dissolution of the Union & a revolution in the U.S. in which she would occupy all the ground she could. — A united & most decided tone attended by armed Preparation alone can lead her to listen to reason — our relation from situation to her colonies, especially to the [undecipherable] of her allies, [undecipherable] and if we arm & that give [undecipherable] — [undecipherable] would [undecipherable] the [undecipherable] to encounter [undecipherable] — [undecipherable] present evil [undecipherable] we shall have to meet [undecipherable] — [undecipherable] greater War. P. — there [undecipherable] little expectation of Peace between [undecipherable] & G.B. — [undecipherable] at the Cape of G[undecipherable] and [undecipherable] are among the obstacles — G.B. will not yield them to the Dutch — She probably might to Portugal at [undecipherable] the ports — I have not as you may have received calculated the Spanish Peace this summer — This is important to the U.S. — The [undecipherable] by the B. navy I have feared would tend to defeat it. The [undecipherable] in congress, as though no alliance was thought of, if we were found to war, there will be a natural co:operation between [undecipherable] the enemies of France — The British navy however is now more energetic than once — discipline restored & [undecipherable] needed — [undecipherable] the France, Spain and their Republics contain their fleets as [undecipherable] — The moderates too in the councils [undecipherable] daily [undecipherable] — [undecipherable] the public mind — They are rather in [undecipherable] — their influence [undecipherable] the public mind — [undecipherable] — natural than the [undecipherable] of countries in Spain, union & can convince them that they have no chance of the King — & [undecipherable] for their own country through our insisting weakness & disunion, there men will, if any wire is in France — do us something like justice. — Parties are again critically high in Paris. The army of the Sambre & Meuse advance in detachments to the vicinity of the capital, it is supposed to act with the Directory against the Cinque Cents. — Depend upon it that devoted country is yet to unfold all the horrors which superstition has awarded as the punishment of impious opinions; a dissolute moral character — I wish our excessive patriots could see & hear the Republicanism of Frenchmen in Europe, not as they write it, but practise it — if they could recollect in the most gloomy periods of Roman despotism or invent a Scheme of practices more oppressive & at the same time more ambitious, more sickening to the soul of any man who can pity the miseries & vices of the human Species, I would agree to admit of the apology and thank the apologist — I remember nothing worse — But this is like canting — yet so perfectly does human nature appear trampled upon & so withered all the opinions resulting from the civilized state, it is impossible to be here & not be occasionally gloomy. — — The Batavians to a certainty will reject the constitution which has been in truth bastardized upon them by the French universal political customs — but which it had been best for them to accept. If they reject, it to-morrow is the day of trial, the FRENCH will force one down their throats — That they reject is lamentable! some of their best men wish it! such is their state — a nation without a political existence. — By a Paris paper it is cuttingly said Congress has rejected the propositions to arm — except militia! Sorrowfully did I read this — Since I saw this I have said — As France had not any great naval Preparation to act eventually of us, America strong in Herself & conscious of her vast internal strength waited the result of a conciliating negotiation & that we rely on the Justice of France on reason. I am always most affectionately my dear the M^r. M'Henry. your faithfully W. V. Murray