Philad^a — April 1798 Dear Sir [undecipherable] much [undecipherable] has just given me notice that a vessel will sail to morrow for [undecipherable] from whence a letter he tells me will find a ready passage to Lisbon Our ministers have not [undecipherable: Rec^d] Passports of [undecipherable: Leave] and it is not clear that they can get [undecipherable: them] yet, altho' it is pretty plain from the despatches that they ought to have got one [undecipherable] long since. There [undecipherable] not any prospect that they would be received, nor of accommodation upon terms that could be [underline: acceded] to with out compromitting our neutrality and [undecipherable] on our government. Prior [undecipherable: to this] agents of Talleyrand had held [undecipherable: converse] on [undecipherable] with them and endeavoured to prevail on them to agree to a bribe for that minister and [undecipherable: members] of [undecipherable] £ [undecipherable: sterl^g] to obtain their good offices. This proposition as well as another for a large loan to the government was rejected. Still however our three Plenipotentiaries remained, intending to make [undecipherable] effort to be formally heard, and [undecipherable] [undecipherable] to return. The [undecipherable: President] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] is [undecipherable] [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] upon the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] on this subject and our situation. This [undecipherable: message] has even [undecipherable: given] the opposition affect to consider [undecipherable] equivalent to a declaration of war, in consequence of which they have brought forward a resolution tantamount to a declaration of peace, or rather an invitation to the directory to continue their system of hostility against our commerce and in [undecipherable] of their support. This resolution added to a [undecipherable: desire] in our friends to [undecipherable: have] the people informed of our real situation has brought on a call for the instructions to our Plenipotentiaries at Paris and their communications to the Executive. This call has been agreed to in the House of Representatives to day and the [undecipherable: papers], [strikethrough: [undecipherable]] ask'd for [undecipherable] be [undecipherable: sent] to them to-morrow, with the exception of the names of the private agents of the Directory and such circumstances as might lead to a knowledge of them. It will not [undecipherable] [undecipherable: Comport] to [undecipherable: host] them [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: or] publish them. This measure will work [undecipherable] immediate good. It may however endanger the persons of our Plenipotentiaries, if they should be in Paris when the fact reaches the Directory, and should the present members of the Directory remain in [undecipherable: France] [undecipherable] forms a strong obstacle to future [undecipherable: negociation]. The spirit of the people is every where [undecipherable: rising], and promises in a short time to be what it always ought to have been. To the Southward we are threatened with the neighbourhood of the French, [undecipherable: circumstance] [undecipherable] [undecipherable], [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: could not] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable: Spain] [undecipherable] the request of the Directory relative to a cession of the Floridas & Louisiana yours sincerely James McHenry W^m Smith Esq^r