Office of Finance, September 25th, 1781.
Sir,
I received last night your Excellency's billet requesting to be informed of the amount of the bills drawn by me; as Superintendent of the Finances, on Messrs Le Couteulx & Co. of Paris, under the sanction of your engagements.
This communication I intended making to your Excellency in consequence of the conversation that passed between us a few days since; but it was only yesterday that I completed the delivery of such bills as had been sold previous to that conversation, which amounted to fiftyseven thousand seven hundred and eighty livres; and now on summing up the whole I find, that I have drawn one hundred and eightyone sets of bills, all at sixty days' sight, in favor of various persons to whom they have been sold, amounting to nine hundred and one thousand and eighteen livres, four sous, and eight deniers tournois; of these bills three hundred and seventysix thousand one hundred and twentytwo livres, ten sous, have been sold at five shillings and six pence for five livres, and five hundred and twenty four thousand eight hundred and ninetyfive livres, fourteen sous, eight deniers, at six shillings for five livres; by which it appears the discount does not exceed sixteen and five eighths per cent on the value in Europe; and were this money to be imported I suppose the freight and insurance might amount to nearly the value of that discount; if so, this mode of bringing it into use is not a bad one. Besides I must again observe, that by a union of management in the sale of bills drawn for the service of his Most Christian Majesty's fleets and armies, and those drawn for account of the United States, still better prices might be obtained, nay, I should not despair of trying to raise the price of exchange to par, by means of partial importations of money, and passing bills before the expenditure thereof, so that necessity might not have any influence in fixing the price.
What your Excellency has said to me respecting the advances made this year by his Majesty to the United States, has left on my mind those impressions you intended to make. You may depend, Sir; that it is my wish, and shall be a part of my study, to render these States as little troublesome to his Majesty as possible, and I shall probably have many opportunities to convince you, that it is a fixed point with me, that the United States, to become truly independent, must trust more to their own exertions, and lean but lightly on their allies. But, Sir, you must remember the situation, in which I found their affairs; you are not ignorant, that although I have cut off entirely many sources of expense, and curtailed others, yet that I have not been able to obtain either supplies of money or permanent revenue from the States, which however I attribute chiefly to the recess of the several Legislatures during the greatest part of the time that I have been in office, for I hope and expect that they will severally attend to the calls upon them, when they shall come to know their real situation.
But in the meanwhile, what am I to do if the means of supplying indispensable wants are cut off? The important operations now carrying on by General Washington depend so materially on the performance of my engagements, that the most fatal consequences may ensue from any breach of them. Your Excellency well remembers, that you thought yourself justifiable, in giving me assurances, that Messrs Le Couteulx & Co. should be supplied with one million five hundred thousand livres tournois, to answer my drafts to that extent; the produce whereof to be employed in the service of the present campaign. You will also recollect, that previous to my journey in August to camp, I judged it necessary to know, whether that sum was the whole on which I could place dependence, because, as the General's operations would in a great measure depend on the aids I could afford him, it was absolutely incumbent on me to be informed of their extent in every channel, through which I expected them to flow.
Your Excellency, convinced of the propriety of my observations, and of the actual necessities of our situation, ventured the assurance of another million of livres. Therefore, whilst I was at camp, during the consultations on the measures, I gave his Excellency reason to believe, that the amount of two millions five hundred thousand livres of bills on France, in conjunction with the resources provided by Congress, should be brought to the support of his operations. Counting upon this as certain, General Washington has taken his measures accordingly.
It has been my study to make the bills as productive as circumstances would permit, and to apply the money to the purposes for which it was granted, under the most scrupulous and assiduous attention to the principles of economy, and I may hazard the opinion, that no money has been more frugally or usefully expended by the United States during the war, without the least danger of being put in the wrong.
You are sensible that the money which arrived with Colonel Laurens, although landed on the Continent, cannot be brought into use until its arrival here; and although I have sent for it, yet it is but now on the road, and the General cannot stop his operations, nor can I refuse or defer compliance with my engagements until its arrival. The ruinous consequences that would follow, must appear too strong and clear to a gentleman of your reflection and information, to need any other demonstration than the bare mention of the facts. Consequently your Excellency will be well convinced of the absolute necessity of permitting me to draw to the extent agreed upon, and I hope his Majesty's Ministers will be too strongly impressed with apprehensions of the fatal consequences that would follow any neglect of my bills, to suffer the least inattention to them; and as the sum in total will not be of such magnitude as to occasion great inconvenience, I hope his Majesty will find cause to applaud your zeal and attention upon the occasion.
A committee of Congress have laid before me the communications your Excellency has lately made to Congress, which will claim my utmost attention, and your Excellency will do me the justice to believe that my most strenuous endeavors shall be to promote what is so strongly urged by his Majesty's Ministers, the most spirited exertions of these States to drive the enemy from our country. And that my affection for, and gratitude to France, are unalterably fixed, as is also my respect and esteem for your Excellency's person and character. Being, Sir, your most obedient, &c.