TO B. FRANKLIN.
Office of Finance, July 1st, 1782.
Sir,
I have deferred until this moment my answer to your letters of the 4th, 9th, and 30th, of March, in expectation that I should have heard from you by the Marquis de Lafayette. A vessel now about to depart induces me to address you. I enclose an Act of Congress, by which you are empowered to adjust the public accounts with the Court of France. I wish this may be done, and the amount transmitted hither, that arrangements may be taken for ascertaining the times and the modes of payment. You will at the same time observe, that it is determined to appoint a commissioner for liquidating and finally adjusting the accounts of the public servants of Congress in Europe.
The Minister here, in a letter to me of the 25th of May last, gives the following state of moneys granted by France, viz.
"These advances have been made at the following periods, and are payable with interest, according to the obligations and acknowledgements of Dr Franklin.
| "In 1778, | 3,000,000 |
| 1779, | 1,000,000 |
| 1780, | 4,000,000 |
| 1781, | 10,000,000 |
| ———— | |
| Total | 18,000,000 |
| "From this sum must be deducted the | |
| gratuitous subsidy of last year, | 6,000,000 |
| ———— | |
| Remains | 12,000,000" |
| "To this must be added, | |
| 1st. The produce of the loan in Holland, | 10,000,000 |
| 2dly. The loan made by his Majesty for | |
| the current year, | 6,000,000 |
| ———— | |
| "Capital of the debt due to His Majesty | |
| by the United States, | 28,000,000" |
I think it right to send you this statement, on which I will make a few observations. I could have wished that the whole of the moneys, which the Court have furnished us had been what the greater part is, a loan. I know that the United States will find no difficulty in making payment, and I take this opportunity to give you an assurance, which is not meant for the Court, that I will endeavor to provide even now the means of repayment, by getting laws passed, to take effect at a future period, or otherwise, as shall be most convenient and agreeable to all parties, after the amount is ascertained and the times of payment fixed. I wish it had all been a loan, because I do not think the weight of the debt would be so great as the weight of an obligation is generally found to be, and the latter is of all others what I would least wish to labor under, either in a public or private capacity. A still further reason with me is, that there is less pain in soliciting the aid of a loan, when there is no expectation that it is to be a gift.
Prompted by such reasons, I could be well content, that the advances made previously to the year 1778, were by some means or other brought into this account. By Mr Grand's accounts is appears, that Messrs Franklin, Deane and Lee, on the 1st of January, 1777, paid him five hundred thousand livres; on the 28th of April, other five hundred thousand livres; on the 4th of June, one million of livres; on the 3d of July, five hundred thousand livres; and on the 10th of October, other five hundred thousand livres; amounting in the whole to three millions of livres. I suppose, that these sums were received of private persons in like manner with those supplies, which were obtained through M. de Beaumarchais, and if so they will be payable in like manner with those supplies.
I have in a former letter estimated the yearly interest on Loan Office certificates, payable in France at two million livres, consequently taking in the months intervening between September and March, the total amount from September the 10th, 1777, to March the 1st, 1782, may be stated at nine million livres; which is just one half of the supplies granted for the years 1778, 1779, 1780, and 1781.
A resolution now before Congress will, I believe, direct that no more bills be drawn for this instant; but Mr Grand in his letter of the 4th of March, tells me he has paid six million two hundred and thirtynine thousand one hundred end eightysix livres, thirteen sous, four deniers, in sixteen thousand eight hundred and nineteen bills, from the 11th of February, 1779, to the 28th of January, 1782. His accounts are now translating, and when that is completed, I shall transmit them to the treasury, and I hope soon to have the accounts of the several loan officers in such a train of settlement, that all these matters may finally be wound up.
Should the Court grant six million livres more for the service of the current year, making twelve million livres in the whole, which to tell you the truth, I do expect, then the sum total in five years will be forty million livres, or eight million annually. And when the occasion of this grant is considered, the magnitude of the object, and the derangement of our finances, naturally to be expected in so great a revolution, I cannot think this sum is by any means very extraordinary. I believe with you most perfectly in the good dispositions of the Court, but I must request you to urge those dispositions into effect. I consider the six millions mentioned to me by the Minister here, and afterwards in your letters, as being at my disposal. The taxes come in so slowly, that I have been compelled and must continue to draw bills, but I shall avoid it as much as possible. In my letters of the 23d and 29th of May, of which I enclose copies, are contained my sentiments as to M. de Beaumarchais' demand. Indeed, if the sums paid to him and others for expenditures previous to the year 1778, and the amount of the interest money, of which the principal was also expended at that time, be deducted, the remaining sum will be considerably less than thirty millions.
I must entreat of you, Sir, that all the stores may be forwarded from Brest as soon as possible, and I shall hope that the Court will take measures to afford you the necessary transports, so that they may come under proper convoy. As to the cargo of the ship Marquis de Lafayette, it is true, that some of it has arrived here from neutral ports, but it is equally true that money was necessary to purchase it, and that money is quite as scarce as any other article. If, however, all the cargo of that ship was like some which I procured, the taking of her has been no great loss, for the clothing was too small to go on men's backs. The goods from Holland we still most anxiously expect. Would to God that they never had been purchased. Mr Gillon, however, is at length arrived, and I hope we shall have those matters, in which he was concerned, brought to some kind of settlement.
I have the honor to be, &c.
ROBERT MORRIS.