ARTHUR LEE.
P. S. I have brought with me the original vouchers, to show the manner of the expenditure in public supplies, of the money intrusted to me, particularly for the public use. These vouchers I shall lay before Congress as soon as it is their pleasure to receive them.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Philadelphia, December 7th, 1780.
Sir,
I received in due time the letter, which your Excellency did me the honor of writing me, on the 26th of October, enclosing a resolution of Congress, by which I am directed to lay before them all the information in my power, relative to their affairs in Europe.
As a citizen of the United States, I should have immediately complied with the desire of that respectable body, had I not felt myself embarrassed by the dubious light in which the manner of my dismission from the public service had placed my conduct.[52]
The information Congress requires should comprehend the conduct, character, views, and dispositions of the Courts and Ministers with which these United States are connected, and the proceedings of the servants of Congress in Europe. It is hardly to be expected, that I should commit to paper what I know and think of the former; and of the latter, the disputes which have been artfully excited and fomented, make it a painful task to speak even the truth.
In my letter of the 21st of May, 1779, I have written as far as I might of the state of Europe, and the most material alterations since, are the declaration of Spain against Great Britain, upon a distinct ground, and the league of the neutral powers, planned by the Empress of Russia, to maintain and enlarge the rights of neutral ships. But the real policy of this plan was to prevent the House of Bourbon, as well as Great Britain, from acquiring a dominion of the seas, dangerous to the liberties of the rest of Europe.