Jones, John Paul. Autograph letter signed ("J. Paul Jones")...

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Jones, John Paul. Autograph letter signed ("J. Paul Jones") Jones, John Paul. Autograph letter signed ("J. Paul Jones"), 2 pages, (6 ¼ x 7 ¾ in.; 158 x 196 mm.), "L'Orient, August 17, 1785" to "His Excellency Thomas Jefferson Esq.r Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, Paris". Docketed on the second page by Thomas Jefferson "Jones. J.P. Aug. 17. 1785./recd. Aug. 21. 1785". Additional light docketing in an unknown hand. On watermarked laid paper showing uniform light foxing. Captain John Paul Jones writes to Thomas Jefferson urging him to help his crew on the Alliance receive the prize money due them - in 1779 they had fought with the Bonhomme Richard to capture the Serapis. Jones pens in full: "I am still waiting for a decision respecting the claim of Mr. Puchilberg. But I think it my duty to inform you that one or two of the common sailors that served on board the Alliance when that Frigate was under my Orders are now here in a Merchant Vessel, and, as I am this moment informed, they have been persuaded to write to Mr. Puchilberg desiring that their share in the Prizes may not be sent to America but paid to them here. This, I am told, has been urged as a reason to the Marechal to induce him to decide in favour of Mr. Puchilberg's claim. Those two Men will however sail in a day or two for Boston, and perhaps may never return to France: Besides their objection is too triffling [sic] to be admitted, as it would greatly injure the other persons both Officers and Men of that Crew, who would in all probabillity [sic] never receive any part of their Prize Money unless they should come from America to L'Orient on purpose; which would not pay their expenses. As the Post is just going, I must defer answering the Letter you did me the honor to write me on the 3d till another opportunity. [Jones added in a postscript in the left margin of the second page]: "NB. I beg you therefore to write again to the/Marechal de Castries". Following his service during the American Revolution, Captain John Paul Jones was authorized by Congress to collect from France monies owed to the United States as a direct result of his naval operations. Jones reached an impasse with M. Clouet, the Marine Minister at L'Orient, over the payment of prize money to the American members of the crew of Alliance. L'Orient is a seaport on the southern coast of Brittany in northwestern France, about 310 miles southwest of Paris. Alliance was part of the small Franco-American squadron commanded by Jones at the Battle of Flamborough Head (where the Bonhomme Richard captured Serapis), and her captain, Pierre Landais, was French-born. Capitalizing on this pretext and exploiting the impatience of the crew to collect their booty, a French merchant named Puchilberg managed, as Jones reported to Jefferson on July 29, 1785, to produce "a Letter of Attorney, which he obtained from the officers and Men of that Frigate when their Minds were unsettled, authorizing him to Receive their Share in the Prizes". In that same letter Jones requested that Jefferson write to the Marquis Charles de Castries, the French Secretary of State of the Navy "to obtain an explicit Order...to Mr. Clouet to pay into my hands the whole Mass of the Prize-Money that appears due the Alliance." Originally named "Hancock," the frigate was launched on April 28, 1778, and renamed "Alliance" on May 29, 1778 by resolution of the Continental Congress. The new frigate's first assignment was to carry Lafayette back to France to petition the French Court for increased support in the American struggle for independence. On August 17, 1785, the day Capt. John Paul Jones wrote this letter to Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson wrote to both French Secretary of State of the Navy Marquis Charles de Castries about settling the claims and then this letter to Capt. Jones: "Mine of the 13th informed you that I had written to the M. de Castries on the subject of Puchilberg's interference. Yesterday I received his answer dated the 12th. In that, he says that he is informed by the 'Ordonnateur' that he has not been able to get an authentic roll of the crew of the Alliance, and that, in the probable case of there having been some French subjects among them, it will be just that you should give security to repay their portions. I wrote to him this morning, that as you have obliged yourself to transmit the money to the treasury of the United States, it does not seem just to require you to be answerable for money which will be no longer within your power; that the repayment of such portions will be incumbent on Congress; that I will immediately solicit their orders to have all such claims paid by their banker here: and that should any be presented before I receive their orders, I will undertake to direct the banker of the United States to pay them, that there may be no delay. I trust that this will remove the difficulty, and that it is the last which will be offered. The ultimate answer shall be communicated the moment I receive it. Having pledged myself for the claims which may be offered, before I receive the orders of Congress, it is necessary to arm myself with the proper checks. Can you give me a roll of the crew, pointing out the French subjects? If not, can you recollect personally the French subjects, and name them to me, and the sums they are entitled to? If there were none such, yet the roll will be material, because I have no doubt that Puchilberg will excite claims upon me, either true or false." On August 30, 1785, Jefferson wrote to John Jay, U.S. Secretary for Foreign Affairs, about his solution to Capt. Jones' difficulties. In part, "I enclose you a correspondence which has taken place between the Marechal de Castries, minister of the Marine, and myself. It is on the subject of the prize money due to the officers and crew of the Alliance, for prizes taken in Europe, under the command of Captain Jones. That officer has been here, under the direction of Congress, near two years soliciting the liquidation and payment of that money...A Mr. Puchilberg presented powers to receive the money...The M. de Castries doubted the authority of Captain Jones to receive it, and wrote to me for information...I saw but one way to cut short these everlasting delays, which were ruining the officer soliciting the payment of the money, and keeping our seamen out of what they had hardly fought for, years ago. This was, to undertake to ask an order from Congress, for the payment of any French claimants by their banker in Paris; and, in the meantime, to undertake to order such payment, should any such claimant prove his title, before the pleasure of Congress should be made known to me."