still think it my duty to defer it a while. I presume it cannot now
be long, before I receive your definitive answer to my request. I send
herewith the public papers, as usual; and have the honor to be, with the
most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble
servant,

Th: Jefferson.




LETTER V.--TO JOHN JAY, August 5, 1789

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, August 5, 1789.

Sir,

I wrote you on the 19th of the last month, with a postscript of the
21st; and again on the 23rd and 29th. Those letters went by private
conveyances. This goes by the London post. Since my last, some small and
momentary tumults have taken place in this city, in one of which a
few of the rioters were killed by the city militia. No more popular
executions have taken place. The capture of the Baron de Besenval,
commandant of the Swiss troops, as he was flying to Switzerland, and of
the Duke de la Vauguyon, endeavoring to escape by sea, would endanger
new interpositions of the popular arm, were they to be brought to Paris.
They are, therefore, confined where they were taken. The former of
these being unpopular with the troops under his command, on account of