Existing comment:
Folded letter to James Monroe
October 19, 1794
In 1794, to avoid being drawn into the war between France and Great Britain, President Washington sent John Jay to London and James Monroe to Paris as U.S. ministers. Monroe received this letter two months after he arrived in France.
Jay had confidential instructions (written by Hamilton) to negotiate a commercial treaty with Great Britain. Although disappointed by some aspects of Jay's final agreement, Hamilton successfully crusaded for Senate ratification.
Monroe's failure to reassure France's revolutionary government about Jay's treaty got him recalled from his post in 1796. Monroe blamed the fiasco on Hamilton, and exposed Hamilton's extramarital affair with Maria Reynolds in revenge. The two nearly dueled over the scandal in 1797. |