I have the honor to be, &c.
SILAS DEANE.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF SECRET CORRESPONDENCE.
Paris, 1st December, 1776.
Gentlemen,
Among the many important objects, which employ your whole attention, I presume ways and means for defraying the expenses of the present war have a capital place. You will therefore give the following thoughts the weight which they deserve. In the first place, to emit more bills will be rather dangerous; for money, or whatever passes for such, when it exceeds the amount of the commerce of a state, must lose its value; and the present circumscribed state of the American commerce, is perhaps within the amount of your emissions already made. Your bills, therefore, must be borrowed of individuals by the public at interest, or those already emitted paid off by taxes and new emissions. Some Colonies may now be content with a tax, but it is most probably quite out of the power of some, and a measure rather impolitic in a majority of the Colonies or States, durante bello.
To effect any considerable loan in Europe is perhaps difficult. It has not been tried, and on the probability of succeeding in this I will give my sentiments hereafter. It is obvious, that let the loan be made when it will, it must have a day fixed for payment, and respect to some fund appropriated to that purpose. The relying on future taxes is holding up to the people a succession of distresses and burthens which are not to cease even with the war itself, whereas could they have a prospect of paying the expenses of the war at the close of it, and enjoying the remainder of their fortunes clear of incumberance, it must greatly encourage and animate both the public and private spirit in pushing it on with vigor. A loan of six or eight millions, or a debt of that amount, will probably enable you to finish the war. This I am confident may be negotiated on terms, which I will propose hereafter, but previously let it be attended to, that the present contest has engaged the attention of all Europe, and more, it will eventually interest all Europe in favor of the United States, the Russians in the north and Portugal in the south, excepted; I make no consideration of the little mercenary electorates in my calculation. The mercantile part of the other powers are convinced, where their interest appears so evidently engaged. The political part are sensible of the importance of enlarging their own naval concerns and force, and of checking that of Great Britain. The good and wise part, the lovers of liberty and human happiness, look forward to the establishment of American freedom and independence as an event, which will secure to them and their descendants an asylum from the effects and violence of despotic power, daily gaining ground in every part of Europe. From those and other considerations, on which I need not be minute, emigrations from Europe will be prodigious, immediately on the establishment of American Independency. The consequence of this must be the rise of the lands already settled, and a demand for new or uncultivated land; on this demand I conceive a certain fund may now be fixed. You may smile, and recollect the sale of the bearskin in the fable, but at the same time you must be sensible that your wants are real, and if others can be induced to relieve them, it is indifferent to you whether they have a consideration in hand or in prospect.
I trace the river Ohio from its junction to its head, thence north to Lake Erie on the south and west of that lake to Fort Detroit, which is in the latitude of Boston, thence a west course to the Mississippi, and return to the place of my departure. These three lines of near one thousand miles each, include an immense territory in a fine climate, well watered, and by accounts exceedingly fertile; it is not inhabited by any Europeans of consequence, and the tribes of Indians are inconsiderable, and will decrease faster than the lands can possibly be demanded for cultivation. To this I ask your attention as a resource amply adequate, under proper regulations, for defraying the whole expense of the war, and the sums necessary to be given the Indians in purchase of the native right. But to give this land value, inhabitants are necessary. I therefore propose, in the first place, that a grant be made of a tract of land at the mouth of the Ohio, between that and the Mississippi, equal to two hundred miles square, to a company formed indiscriminately of Europeans and Americans, which company should form a distinct state, confederated with and under the general regulations of the United States General of America. That the Congress of the United States shall, out of such grant, reserve the defraying or discharging of the public debts or expenses; one fifth part of all the lands, mines, &c. within said tract, to be disposed of by the Congress, in such manner as good policy and the public exigencies may dictate, the said one fifth to be sequestered out of every grant or settlement made by the company, of equal goodness with the rest of such grant or settlement. The company on their part shall engage to have, in seven years after the passing such grant —— thousand families settled on said grant, and civil government regulated and supported on free and liberal principles, taking therein the advice of the honorable Congress of the United States. They shall, also, from and after their having one thousand families as abovementioned, contribute their proportion of the public expenses of the Continent, or United States, according to the number of their inhabitants, and shall be entitled to a voice in Congress, as soon as they are called on thus to contribute. The company shall at all times have the preference of purchasing the Continental or common interest thus reserved, when it shall be offered for sale. The company shall consist, on giving the patent or grant, of at least one hundred persons.
These are the outlines of a proposed grant, which you see contains more than 25,000,000 acres of land, the one fifth of which, if a settlement is carried on vigorously, will soon be of prodigious value. At this time a company might be formed in France, Germany, &c. who would form a stock of one hundred thousand pounds sterling, to defray the expense of this settlement. By such a step, you, in the first place, extend the circle of your connexion and influence. You increase the number of your inhabitants, proportionably lessen the common expenses and have in the reserve a fund for public exigencies. Further, as this company would be in a great degree commercial, the establishing commerce at the junction of these large rivers, would immediately give a value to all the lands situate on or near them within the above extensive description, and future grants might admit of larger reserves, amply sufficient for defraying the expenses of the war, and possibly for establishing funds for other important purposes. It may be objected that this is not a favorable time for such a measure. I reply it is the most favorable that can happen. You want money, and by holding up thus early to view a certain fund on which to raise it, even the most certain in the world, that of land security, you may obtain the loan and engage the monied interest of Europe in your favor. I have spoken with many persons of good sense on this subject, which makes me the more sanguine.
As to a loan, I will now dismiss this scheme to speak of that, only adding, or rather repeating what I have in a former letter written, that a large and generous allowance ought immediately to be made to the officers and soldiers serving in the present war, in which regard should be had to the wounded, the widows or children of those that fall, and to the term or number of campaigns each one serves. This will make the army consist literally of a set of men fighting for freehold, and it will be a great encouragement to foreigners, with whom five hundred or a thousand acres of land has a great sound.