REPORT TO CONGRESS RELATIVE TO THE PAY OF THE ARMY.
Office of Finance, July 15th, 1783.
The Superintendent of Finance, to whom was referred, on the 11th instant, the extract of a report, with order to report thereon, and also to report what measures he has taken relative to the pay of the army, begs leave to report,
That the receivers in the several States have long since been instructed, to take all notes signed by the Superintendent of Finance in payment of the taxes, and also, take up all such notes whenever tendered, if they have public money in their hands.
That when it was in contemplation to make a payment to the army, the committee who conferred with the Superintendent on that subject were informed, that it could only be done in notes, and that in order to support the credit of such notes, it would not be sufficient that they should only be receivable in taxes in some particular State, but that the receivers throughout the States must receive and exchange them, in like manner with other notes issued from the Office of Finance.
That the instruction to the receivers is generally known to all those who are concerned in the business they relate to, and in consequence thereof the receivers are in the constant practice of receiving and exchanging notes signed by the Superintendent of Finance, which they duly remit to the treasury.
That whenever they shall find it difficult to obtain such notes for the purpose of making their remittances (which is not likely to be the case in any short period,) they will naturally advertise to obtain them. Wherefore, any general notification, such as is contained in the extract committed, will be unnecessary.
That if such publication as is recommended were confined (as seems to have been the idea,) to those notes which have been issued for payment of the army, it would destroy what little credit is at present reposed in the public servants, and by bringing home immediately all other notes which have been issued, render it impracticable to discharge them; in which case the notes issued to the army could be of no use, because nobody would take them. The importance of preserving credit in this respect, will appear from the preamble to an Act of Congress of the 2d of May last.
That if (as is most probable) the publication were intended to relate alike to all notes, it is a thing which is already well known, and therefore the expense of printing may be spared.
With respect to the measures taken relative to paying the army, he begs leave to report, that upon an estimate from the War Office, he signed warrants for four months' pay of the present year, whereof one month's pay has been made to the noncommissioned officers and privates in specie, and to the officers in notes, and three months' pay to both officers and soldiers in notes. That the Paymaster has not yet received all the notes necessary for the purpose, but has in his hands as many as he wants for the present.
All which is humbly submitted.
ROBERT MORRIS.