A long letter involving the private account between Jay and Carmichael dealing with the sale of furniture Jay left in Madrid and the payment of wages by Carmichael to the wife of a servant in Jay's employ. Jay inquires why Carmichael failed to enumerate the exact sum owed to Jay by Carmichael for "wines, etc." and the sum owed Carmichael by Jay for "sundry expenses attending sales." Heal so asks wh y there are such discrepancies between the price at which the furniture was appraised and the sum they actually brought. Lastly, Jay notes that there is no mention in Carmichael's account of the return of part of the furniture to the original dealer, who promised to accept it and return 3/4 of the original price if it were returned within three years. He would like an explicit answer to each of these three points. He repeats his instructions to Carmichael of 28 Jan. 1784, when he asked Carmichael to sell all his remaining effects before leaving Madrid at whatever price they would fetch so that he could once and for all settle all his accounts before leaving for America. The second half of the letter deals with Carmichael's account of the money Carmichael says he paid to a servant's wife. Jay had taken a certain Manuel with him to Paris and had instructed Carmichael to pay to Manuel's wife a part of her husband's wages, giving Jay an account of the sums he advanced so that Jay could deduct them from Manuel's salary. Carmichael never gave Jay any account of the sums he gave Manuel's wife, nor did he answer Manuel's letter asking for this information. Consequently Jay was forced to pay Manuel his total wages at the end of his service, and now he discovers that Carmichael says he gave to Manuel's wife a total sum larger than the whole of Manuel's wages. Furthermore, Jay quotes from the original and adds a translation of a letter from Manuel's wife to her husband dated 16 Oct. 1782 in which she stated that Carmichael told her he had instructions not to give her any of Manuel's wages and that anything he had given her or gave her in the future was a favor. In this letter Manuel's wife also wrote that Carmichael was "scandalized" at the treatment Manuel received at the hands of Mrs. Jay and that he believed Mr. Jay would set it right. It does not appear necessary, Jay concludes, to make any remarks upon this matter.
Subjects
United States--History--1783-1865; Jay, John, 1745-1829