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A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875
Journals of the Continental Congress --MONDAY, MAY 13, 1782
According to order, the Honble the minister of France being admitted to a public audience, addressed Congress in a speech, of which the following is a translation:
Gentlemen of the Congress: Since the alliance so happily concluded between the King my master and the United States, you have
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taken too intimate a part in every event which interested his glory and happiness, not to learn with sincere joy, that Providence has granted a dauphin to the wishes of the king your ally, and to those of France. His Majesty imparts this event, gentlemen, in the letter which I am directed to have the honor of delivering.
The connexions which unite the two nations, connexions formed in justice and humanity, and strengthened by mutual interests, will be as durable as they are natural. The prince who is just born will one day be the friend and ally of the United States. He will, in his turn, support them with all his power, and while in his dominions he shall be the father and protector of his people, he will be here the supporter of your children, and the guarantee of their freedom.
The letter from his Most Christian Majesty was then delivered and read, of which the following is a translation:
Very dear great friends and allies: Satisfied with the interest you take in every event which affects us, we are anxious to inform you of tile precious mark which Divine Providence has just given us of his goodness, and of the protection he has granted to our kingdom. We do not doubt that you will partake in the joy we feel on the birth of our son the dauphin, of whom the queen, our most dear spouse, is just now happily delivered. You will easily be convinced of the pleasure with which we shall receive every proof that you may give of your sensibility upon this occasion. We cannot renew, at a period more affecting to us, the assurance of our affection and of our constant friendship for you. Upon which we pray God that he would have you, very dear great friends and allies, in his holy keeping.
Written at Versailles, the 22 of October, 1781.
Your good friend and ally, (Signed) Louis.
(Underneath,) Gravier de Vergennes.
The President then addressed the minister as follows:
Sir: The repeated instances of friendship which the United States of America have received from his Most Christian Majesty, give him too just a title to their affections to permit them to be indifferent to any event which interests his happiness. Be assured, sir, that Congress learn with the most lively satisfaction, that it has pleased the Divine Giver of all good gifts, to bless their august ally with an heir to his throne. Our earnest prayer is, that he may with it inherit the virtues which have acquired to his Majesty so much glory, and
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to his dominions so much prosperity, and which will be the means of cementing and strengthening the union so happily established between the two nations; an union the mutual advantages of which become daily more conspicuous, and which has derived new lustre and additional force from every effort of the common enemy to dissolve it. Congress do not enlarge upon this subject, but satisfy themselves with the representations which your own observations will enable you, and your regard to the interests of both countries will induce you to make of the affectionate attachment which every rank of people within these states manifest to your sovereign, and of their inviolable fidelity to the principles of the alliance.1
[Note 1: 1 The proceedings of this day were also entered in the manuscript Secret Journal, Foreign Affairs.]
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