Message from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES transmitting Sundry Documents in Relation to the Claim of the Representatives of Caron de Beaumarchais; January 16, 1818

U. S. House; 15th Congress, 1st session, No. 53; 8vo; 14 pages; Removed document disbound from larger volume. Scattered foxxing and faint tide mark at right side. OCLC 64682379; OCLC 57432499; Shaw & Shoemaker 46441 This document is part of the series of efforts by the heirs of Caron de Beaumarchais to obtain compensation for his efforts supporting the American Revolution. Monroe and Madison transmit various pieces of correspondence in support of the Caron de Beaumarchais claims. In particular, the representatives of the French government - G. Hyde de Neuville, Albert Galatin and Ricelieu - all assert that "the million" paid to Caron de Beaumarchais was for services rendered (espionage) and NOT reimbursement for weapons and materiel provided to the American rebels during the Revolution. Background: Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732 — 1799) was a French polymath -- a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satirist, financier, and revolutionary (both French and American). As an early supporter of American independence, Beaumarchais lobbied the French government on behalf of the Americans during the American Revolutionary War. Beaumarchais established a business front called Roderigue Hortalez and Company to facilitate covert aid from the French and Spanish governments supplying the American rebels with weapons, munitions, clothes and provisions in the years before France's formal entry into the war in 1778. He later struggled to recover money he had personally invested in the scheme. …