I have the honor to be, with great respect and esteem, &c.
ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Philadelphia, November 18th, 1781.
Sir,
The subject mentioned in the letters of Mr Adams, and their enclosures, requiring their express direction, I humbly submit to the consideration of Congress.
In Dr Franklin's letter of the 6th of August to Mr Adams, he informs him, "that he cannot depend on receiving any more money in France applicable to the support of the Ministers of Congress, and that what aids are thereafter granted, will probably be transmitted by the government directly to America." Congress need no arguments to convince them of the disgrace and danger of permitting their most confidential servants to be necessitous in a foreign country.
I will with their approbation, concert with the Superintendent of Finance, the means of supplying our Ministers, Agents, and Secretaries. But to facilitate these means, and convince the powers to whom we are indebted for money, that we know the value of their aids, I would humbly submit to Congress the propriety of practising the strictest economy, as far as it may be consistent with their honor, and the justice due to those they employ. That Congress may determine the more readily whether their establishment will admit of any reduction, or devise the most effectual means of defraying the expense of it, I take the liberty to lay before them the annual amount of the salaries of their servants now abroad.
If I am well informed, it is usual to distinguish the allowances to Ministers by the expenses of the country in which they live, and the character they are obliged to support. Such a rule would be productive of great saving to us, whose policy it is to have agents without any acknowledged public characters, at Courts which refuse to receive our Ministers. How far so important a station as that of Secretary to an Embassy might be supplied by private secretaries with moderate salaries, at least till the existence of the Embassy was acknowledged, must be submitted to the wisdom of Congress. Certain it is, that foreigners who may not be acquainted with the dignified characters of those we employ abroad as secretaries, will be surprised to find their emoluments equal, if not exceeding those allowed by the richest potentates in Europe, and that too, when the great object of the mission is to represent our wants, and solicit supplies for civil and military establishments at home.