"1st The lost dispatches are dated Oct. 6th and Oct. 7th. They were sent by a private hand--that is, they were not sent by the post. Capt. Folger had the charge of them. They were all under one cover containing five separate Packets; three of the Packets were on commercial matters only--one of these was to Mr. R[obert] Morris, Chairman of the Commercial Committee, one to Mr. Hancock (private concerns), another to Barnaby Deane, S. Deane's brother. Of the other two Packets, one of them was to the Secret Committee, then stiled the Committee for foreign Affairs, the other was to Richard H. Lee--these two last Packets had nothing in them but blank white French Paper. "2d. In Sept'r preceding the date of the dispatches Mr. B[eau-marchais] sent Mr. Francis [De Francy] to Congress to press payment to the amount mentioned in the official Letter of Oct. 6. Mr. F[rancy] brought a letter signed only by S. Deane--the Capt of the vessel (Landais) brought another letter from Deane; both of these letters were to enforce Mr. B[eaumarchais'] demand. Mr. F[rancy] arrived with his letters and demand. The official despatches (if I may so say) arrived blank. Congress therefore had no authoritative information to act by. About this time Mr. D[eane] was recalled and arrived in America in Count D'Estaing's fleet. He gave out that he had left his accounts in France. "With the Treaty of Alliance come over the Duplicates of the lost Despatches. They come into my office not having been seen by Congress; and as they contain an injunction not to be conceded by [to?] Congress, I kept them secret in the office because at that time the foreign Committee were dispersed and new members not appointed. "On the 5th of Dec. 1778, Mr. D[eane] published an inflamatory piece against Congress. As I saw it had an exceeding ill effect out of doors I made some remarks upon it--with a view of preventing people running mad. This piece was replied to by a piece under the Signature of Plain Truth--in which it was stated, that Mr. D[eane] though a stranger in France and to the Language, and without money, had by himself procured 30,000 stand of Arms, 30,000 suits of Cloathing, and more than 200 pieces of Brass Cannon. I replied that these supplies were in a train of Execution before he was sent to France. That Mr. Deane's private letters and his official despatches jointly with the other two Commissioners contradicted each other. "At this time I found Deane had made a large party in Congress--and that a motion had been made but not decided upon for dismissing me from the foreign office, with a kind of censure."