Autograph letter signed as United States Ambassador to France, to Giovanni Fabbroni, Paris, 24 May...

Awaiting permission to return to the United States, Jefferson arranges a business connection for a friend of the Italian naturalist, Giovanni Fabbroni. "My residence in America being very far from Philadelphia I am not able, from my own acquaintance there to recommend a solid mercantile correspondent to your friend. But there happened to be in Paris a gentleman form Philadelphia, whose acquaintance there & whose kno[w]lege in that line of business enabled him to supply the recommendation I was unable to give." The "gentleman" in question was Gouverneur Morris. Two days before Jefferson wrote the present letter, Morris called on Jefferson to "ask him for Letters to be sent to Mr. Welsh of Cadiz at the request of Mr. LeNormand and at the same time to send him a Letter and Memorandum for a Correspondent at Florence who wishes a mercantile Connection at Philadelphia" (Morris, Diary, Vol. 1, p. 66). Jefferson writes that he expects "hourly to receive from America permission to return there for a few months, and shall leave Paris as soon as I receive it." Jefferson did not depart Paris until the end of September, and despite his intentions of a brief sojourn at home, he would never again return to Paris. Upon his arrival home in Virginia, he would find a letter from George Washington informing him that he had been nominated to become the first Secretary of State. Jefferson would assume the duties of that office in March 1790.