Life of Count R^^mford. 349 



right to return here to the proscribed. We have seen, 

 too, that the Count, in a letter to Colonel Baldwin, had 

 not forgotten the disability ^i.der which he lay. The 

 natural inference, therefore, was that whatever action 

 was had by the government of the United States in 

 the case of the Count was prompted by some expression 

 or proposition of his own. 



The Hon. Charles Sumner, Senator of Massachu- 

 setts, and Chairman of the Senate Committee on For- 

 eign Affairs, was kind enough, at my request, to insti- 

 tute a search in the records of the State Department at 

 Washington, for the purpose of finding, if there were 

 such, any official documents of the tenor above de- 

 scribed. He informs me that no such documents ap- 

 pear. But inquiry in another direction, suggested by 

 the statement of Pictet, that the alleged invitation was 

 made to Rumford through the American Envoy at 

 London, has enabled me to give a full account of the 

 matter. 



Count Rumford, as I have said, became, after the 

 close of the war of the Revolution, a most warm and faith- 

 ful friend of his native country, holding correspondence 

 with many of its citizens, to whom he communicated 

 his plans, and sent his works, and generously dividing 

 among its literary and scientific institutions his benev- 

 olent endowments. He also, when in England, and 

 afterwards when in France, maintained the closest 

 social relations with Americans resident in those coun- 

 tries either as officials of our government or in pri- 

 vate life. Among his most intimate friends in Lon- 

 don at this time were the Hon. Rufus King and the 

 Hon. Christopher Gore. The former was the Ameri- 

 can Ambassador. Mr. Gore, afterwards Governor of 



