JOHN JAY.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Madrid, May 26th, 1780.
Sir,
Since my departure from America I have had the honor of writing the following letters to your Excellency, viz. 20th, 22d, 24th, 25th, 25th, 26th and 27th of December, 1779, from Martinique; and 27th of January, 20th, 28th and 29th of February, and 3d of March, 1780, from Cadiz. I am still uncertain whether any, and which of them, have come to your hands, and request the favor of particular information on this subject.
Of such of them as respect immediately the business committed to me I now send duplicates, as well as copies of such other papers as, taken collectively, will give Congress a full and accurate state of their affairs here.
This packet, of which an exact copy goes by another vessel, will appear voluminous. It will nevertheless be found interesting. I have interspersed such observations as to me appeared proper for the purpose of explanation.
On the 22d of January, 1780, I arrived at Cadiz, without letters of credit or recommendation to any person there. The Chevalier Roche (a passenger with us) was so obliging as to procure me credit for about two hundred pounds sterling with a relation of his, to whom I was obliged to give a bill on Dr Franklin at a more than usual short sight. I afterwards became acquainted with the house of Le Couteulx and Company, who offered me what money I might want, and furnished me accordingly, with great cheerfulness. I was very disagreeably circumstanced.
Finding reports ran hard against American credit, and that bills on Dr Franklin were held very cheap, by reason of his having, as was there said, postponed, delayed, and in some instances refused payment of them, on very frivolous pretences, I did, on the 26th of January, 1780, inform him by letter of my arrival, and of these reports.
In answer to this, the Doctor, on the 7th of April, 1780, wrote me a very friendly letter, asserting these reports to be false, and enclosing a certificate of his banker, which proved them to be so. Of this I have made the proper use, and as the same reports prevailed in Martinique, and probably in the other islands, I wish the remedy to be as extensive as the mischief, and therefore transmit the following extract from his letter on that subject, and a copy of the certificate mentioned in it.