This claim the French government also yielded. But still the weary months rolled on, and no payment was made. The simple fact was that there was no money in the treasury. The government was in a condition of a man, struggling and floundering amidst all the intolerable embarrassments of approaching bankruptcy. There were claims upon them vastly more pressing than the payment of a few thousand livres to a few hundred poor foreign seamen. Commodore Jones was fully aware of all this. With characteristic courtesy, kindness, and yet firmness, he addressed a letter, as follows, to the marshal on the 23d of June, 1785.
“By the letter your excellency did me the honor to write me on the 13th of May last, you were pleased to promise that as soon as M. de Chardon should have sent you the liquidation of my prizes, which you expected without delay, you would take measures for the payment, and you would let me know.
“From the great number of affairs more important that engage your attention, I presume this little matter, which concerns me in a small degree personally, but chiefly as the agent of the brave men who served under my orders in Europe, may have escaped your memory. Since the first of November, 1783, when I received authority to settle this business with your excellency, I have been waiting here for no other purpose, and constantly expecting it to be concluded from month to month. To say nothing of my expenses during so long an interval, the uncertainty of my situation has been of infinite prejudice to my other concerns. My long silence is a proof that nothing but necessity could have prevailed on me to take the liberty of reminding your excellency of your promise. I hope for the honor of a final determination, and I am with great respect, etc.”
Still there were delays of the most annoying character too numerous and too tedious to be narrated. Through all these, Commodore Jones retained his equanimity, and commanded the respect of those with whom he was contending. The expenses of Commodore Jones, as agent of the United States at the court of Versailles, were necessarily considerable. One could not fill the post of an ambassador there upon the wages of a day-laborer. It was essential to his influence, as he was daily brought in contact with the ancient nobility of France, that he should maintain the style of a gentleman.
At length, on the 15th of July, 1785, Marshal Castries issued an order to pay to Commodore Jones, at L’Orient the sum of one hundred eighty-one thousand and thirty-nine livres, one sous, and ten derniers. Thomas Jefferson was then our minister at Paris. In a letter addressed to him about this time, Jones wrote:
“I cannot bring myself to lessen the dividend of the American captors by making any charge either for my time or trouble. I lament that it has not been in my power to procure for them advantages as solid and extensive as the merit of their services. I would not have undertaken this business from any views of private emolument that could possibly have resulted from it to myself, even supposing I had recovered a sum more considerable than the penalty of my bond. The war being over I made it my first care to show the brave instruments of my success that their rights are as dear to me as my own. It will, I believe, be proper for me to make oath before you, to the amount charged for my ordinary expenses.”
Our minister received a salary of ten thousand dollars a year. It required the most rigid economy, with that sum, to meet expenses. Mrs. Adams, the wife of our distinguished ambassador John Adams, in her letters, gives a graphic account of their residence at the little village of Auteuil, about four miles from Paris. The house was large, and coldly elegant. There were massive mirrors and waxed floors, but no air of comfort. A servant polished the floors each morning with a brush buckled to one of his feet. The expenses of housekeeping were enormous. A heavy tax was imposed upon everything. All articles of domestic use about thirty per cent. higher than in Boston. It was absolutely necessary to keep a coach. The coachman and horses cost fifteen guineas a month. The social customs of the country required seven servants. The inevitable expenses of the family were so heavy that it required all Mrs. Adams’s remarkable financial skill to save them from pecuniary ruin. The humble style in which they lived, compared with the splendor with which the other foreign ministers were surrounded, often caused mortification. Mr. Jay was compelled to resign, since he could not support himself upon his salary.
Such were the surroundings of Commodore Jones in his arduous mission. And yet he practised such rigid economy, that he charged but five thousand dollars a year for all his services and expenses. Franklin and Jefferson both carefully examined his accounts and gave them their approval. They were then sent to Congress, where they were again subjected to a rigid scrutiny, and were again approved. Not long after, on the 16th of October, 1787, Congress passed the following vote:
“Resolved unanimously, that a medal of gold be struck and presented to the Chevalier John Paul Jones, in commemoration of the valor and brilliant services of that officer, in the command of the squadron of American and French ships, under the flag and commission of the United States, off the coast of Great Britain, in the late war; and that the Honorable Mr. Jefferson, minister plenipotentiary of the United States at the court of Versailles, have the same executed with the proper devices.”
At the same time, Congress commended Commodore Jones to the special regard of the king of France, and solicited permission for him to embark in the French fleets of evolution, convinced that he can nowhere else so well acquire that knowledge which may hereafter render him more extensively useful.[useful.]