CABARRUS."
This letter needs no comments; it breathes the fears and precautions of a creditor, striving to make the most of a failing debtor, and therefore I considered this letter as inauspicious. I returned a verbal answer, that an examination of these accounts must precede a settlement of them, and that as to a speedy payment of the balance due to him, he knew my exact situation.
A day or two before the date of this letter, M. Cabarrus had a conference with the Minister on these subjects, and according to M. Cabarrus' representations, the Minister then declared, that he would pay the balance due on the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and no more; that the King was dissatisfied at America's having made no returns to his good offices, either in ships or flour, &c. &c.; that he had mentioned to me a year ago his desire of having the men-of-war building in New England, but had not yet received an answer, &c.
It appeared to me very extraordinary, that the Minister should promise the Ambassador to do his best, and yet tell M. Cabarrus that he would do nothing, and yet so I believe were the facts.
The next morning, viz. 26th of February, I paid the Ambassador an early visit, and mentioned these circumstances to him minutely. I expressed my apprehensions, that the pretended discontents of the King belonged to the same system of delays and pretexts, with which we had been so long amused; and which in this instance were probably dictated by a desire of avoiding inconvenient advances.
I reminded him, that Dr Franklin had given me expectations of his being able to replace the money I had borrowed of M. Cabarrus, and that this sum, added to the balance to be paid by the Court, would reduce the remainder of the money wanted to less than twenty thousand pounds sterling; and that it would appear a little surprising in the eyes of Europe as well as America, that our credit should be permitted either by France or Spain to suffer essential injury for the want of such a sum. I requested him to advise me what to do. He said that he knew not what advice to give me; that he saw no resources anywhere; that he should dismiss a courier on Saturday next, and that he would again write to the Count de Vergennes on the subject. I observed to him, that the answer if favorable would probably come too late, as a great number of the bills would become payable about the 14th of March. He replied, that if the Court should resolve to supply the money, he should soon be informed of it.
We had some conversation about the Marquis de Lafayette. The Ambassador spoke well of him, and as a proof of the confidence of Congress in the attachment of that nobleman, I mentioned my having received orders to correspond with him.
I then drew the conversation to our affairs in Holland, and the prospects of an alliance with the Dutch. He said those prospects were less fair than ever; for that though Mr Wentworth had been sent there by England on pretence of settling a cartel, yet that his real business was to negotiate a separate peace. I observed that in my opinion England would be the first nation to acknowledge our independence, (for there are many reasons that induce me to think that France does not in fact wish to see us treated as independent by other nations until after a peace, lest we should become less manageable in proportion as our dependence upon her shall diminish.) I threw out this opinion to see how it would strike him. He made a short pause, and then asked me if I had heard that Lord Germain had resigned? I told him I had, and as he chose to wave the subject I did not resume it, lest he should from my pressing it suspect that I meant more than a casual remark. The conversation then turned upon our affairs here. I remarked, that the friends of Spain in America must greatly diminish, that the manner we were treated by this Court was far from conciliatory, and that it would perhaps have been better as things have turned out, if America had not sent a Minister here. He gave into this opinion, but added, we must be contented here now during the war; that Spain was necessary; that she was to be treated like a mistress. He also said, that if I had been landed in France instead of Spain, I should not probably have come to Madrid so soon as I did, and was going to explain himself, when the entry of his servants with breakfast interrupted us.
Having made it a rule to give Dr Franklin frequent and minute information of my situation, I wrote him the following letter by the Ambassador's courier.
"Madrid, March 1st, 1782.