“Permit me, my dear General, to present to you alone an observation upon the last choice of an American ambassador. I am a personal friend of Gouverneur Morris, and I have always been, as an individual, content with him; but the aristocratic principles, and even counter-revolutionary ones which he has professed, render him scarcely the proper person to represent the only nation of which the government resembles ours, since both of them are founded upon the plan of a democratic representation. I will add, that as France finds herself surrounded by enemies, it would seem that America ought to desire to conform herself to the changes in our government. “I speak not only of those which democratic principles can hasten and introduce, but of those new projects of the aristocracy, such as the re-establishment of a nobility, the creation of a chamber of peers, and other political blasphemies of that kind, which, so far as we are able, we shall not have realized in France. “I have desired that we should establish an elective senate, a more independent judiciary corps, and a more energetic administration; but it is necessary that the people should be taught to know the advantages of a firm government before knowing how to reconcile it with their ideas of liberty, and to distinguish it from those arbitrary systems which it has overthrown. “You see, my dear General, I am not an enthusiast regarding all the clauses of our constitution, though I love those principles which resemble those of the United States; as to the exception of an hereditary president of executive power, I believe it conforms to our circumstances at present. “But I hate all that resembles despotism and the aristocracy, and I cannot relinquish the desire that these principles, American and French, should be in the heart and upon the lips of the ambassador of the United States in France. I make these reflections in case only that some arrangements conformable to the wishes of Gouverneur Morris can in the sequel be made. “Permit me to add here the tribute of praise which I owe to M. Short for the sentiments which he has expressed, and for all the esteem which he has inspired in this country, I desire that you should personally recognize it. “There are changes in the ministry preparing. The king has chosen his council from the most violent portion of the popular party, that is to say, from the club of the Jacobins, a kind of Jesuitical institution more likely to make deserters from our cause than to attract to us followers. These new ministers, however, are not suspected of being able to have a chance of re-establishing order. They discuss that which they should apply to themselves. The Assembly is little enlightened; they value too highly popular applause. The king in his daily conduct from time to time acts very well. After all, the thing will go on, and the success of the revolution cannot be placed in doubt.