LAFAYETTE.
TO JAMES LOVELL.
Passy, September 30th, 1779.
Sir,
I have within these few days received a number of despatches from you, which have arrived by the Mercury and other vessels. Hearing this instant of an opportunity from Bordeaux, and that the courier sets out from Versailles at five this evening, I embrace it just to let you know, that I have delivered the letters from Congress to the King, and have laid the invoices of supplies desired (with a translation) before the Ministers, and though I have not yet received a positive answer, I have good reason to believe I shall obtain most of them, if not all. But as this demand will cost the Court a vast sum, and their expenses in the war are prodigious, I beg I may not be put under the necessity, by occasional drafts on me, of asking for more money than is required to pay our bills for interest. I must protest those I have advice of from Martinique and New Orleans, (even if they were drawn by permission of Congress) for want of money; and I wish the Committee of Commerce would caution their correspondents not to embarrass me with their bills.
I put into my pocket nothing of the allowance Congress has been pleased to make me. I shall pay it all in honoring their drafts and supporting their credit, but do not let me be burthened with supporting the credit of every one, who has claims on the Board of Commerce or the navy. I shall write fully by the Mercury.
I send you some of the latest newspapers, and have the honor to be, &c. &c.
B. FRANKLIN.