Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry

Autograph letter signed ("Charles Cotesworth Pinckney"), countersigned by John Marshall ("J. Marshall") and Elbridge Gerry ("E. Gerry"), 1 1/4 pages, 4to (8 3/4 x 7 1/8 in.; 223 x 181 mm) with integral address leaf, Paris, 13 March 1798, to Fulwar Skipwith, American Consul in Paris, regarding their negotiations during the XYZ affair; small seal tear in left margin of address leaf. Cobalt blue cloth folding case, aubergine morocco spine, 3 brown morocco lettering pieces.

The XYZ affair. Negotiations with the French reach a stalemate. Pinckney writes to the American Consul in Paris, Fulwar Skipwith, that his efforts and those of his fellow commissioners John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry to end French depredations on American shipping have come to a halt. "The liberation & restoration to their country of our distress'd seamen is an object of so much magnitude that to attain it we have agreed to transcend ourpowers & have stated to you how far we can go. We cannot pass the limits marked in our letter to you of the 20th of Decr last." (For another letter dealing with the XYZ Affair, see lot 563).