In January, 1776, when I was about returning to my family and private concerns, which had suffered much by my absence, I was applied to, by the committee of Congress, to go to France, to negotiate the political as well as commercial affairs of America in that kingdom. The advantages proposed to me in the latter were considerable, and without any probability of difficulty, embarrassment, or risk, further than the dangers of the voyage, which were indeed great at that time. In the former it was very different, but the difficulties which presented, great as they were, had no consideration with me, in the situation in which our affairs then were. My subsequent conduct, from my arrival in France, until I left that kingdom, fully demonstrates that private interest and personal safety never had any weight with me, when the service of my country called upon me. In my narrative I have been so particular on the situation I found myself in, on my arrival in Europe, the embarrassments and difficulties I constantly labored under, and had to encounter, and in the many letters I have written to Congress since my return, requesting my conduct might be examined, in the strictest and most public manner, I have so often represented to them what my situation and line of conduct had ever been, that I am under no necessity of saying anything on the subject at present. On the fourth of March, 1778, after having succeeded in procuring supplies for these States, which fell almost solely on me, and having, jointly with my colleagues, concluded the treaty of the sixth of February, which secured and guarantied the independence of these States, when I found myself, for the first time after my leaving America, free from those distressing embarrassments and difficulties I had been constantly under, and at liberty to pursue openly the great objects in view, and which I had for some time contemplated for the service of these States, I received the resolution of Congress of the 8th of December, ordering me to return immediately to America, to inform Congress of the _state of foreign affairs in Europe_. I did not hesitate a moment as to the part I should take, but immediately set myself on improving this circumstance and others, which then fortunately coincided, to the greatest possible advantage of these States,--the publication of the treaty, until that time ordered to be kept a profound secret, and the sending out the Toulon fleet, in which I embarked early in April.