TO B. FRANKLIN
Office of Finance, September 30th, 1782.
Sir,
It is in some respects fortunate, that our stores were not shipped, because, as you observe, they might have been taken; but I hope they are now on the way, for if they are to lie in France at a heavy expense of storage, &c. while we suffer for the want, it will be even worse than if they were taken. You will find by the letters, which are to go with this, that Mr Barclay is prohibited from making any more purchases on account of the United States. I confess, that I disapprove of those he has made; for the purchase of unnecessary things because they are cheap, appears to be a very great extravagance. We want the money as much as anything else, and the world must form a strange idea of our management, if while we are begging to borrow, we leave vast magazines of clothing to rot at Brest, and purchase others to be shipped from Holland. I have said nothing on this subject to Mr Barclay, because the thing having been done, could not be undone, and because the pointed resolutions of Congress on the subject, will prevent any more such operations.
What I have now said, however, will I hope lead you to urge on him the necessity of making immediate shipments of all stores in Europe. A merchant does not sustain a total loss of his goods by their detention, but the public do. The service of the year must be accomplished within the year, by such means as the year affords. The detention of our goods has obliged me to purchase clothing and other articles at a great expense, while those very things were lying about at different places in Europe. I am sure that any demand made for money on our part, must appear extraordinary, while we show so great negligence of the property we possess. The funds, therefore, which were obtained for the year 1781, are not only rendered useless during the year 1781, but so far pernicious, as that the disposition of them will naturally influence a diminution of the grants made for the year 1782.
You mention in yours of the 25th of June, that you would send enclosed the account of the replacing of the Lafayette's cargo, if it could be copied in season. As it did not arrive I shall expect it by the next opportunity.
I have received Mr Grand's accounts, which are not settled in the manner I wish; and in consequence I have written to him by this opportunity to alter them. I have desired him to give your account credit for every livre received previous to the current year, including therein the loan of ten millions of livres in Holland, though a part of it may not have been received until this year. I have desired him to debit your account for every expenditure made by your order, which will include all your acceptances of bills, &c. and of course M. de Beaumarchais' bills, if they shall have been paid. Finally, I have desired him to carry the balance of your account to mine, in which he is to credit all moneys received for the current year; for instance, the six millions (and the other six if they are obtained) together with such moneys as may come to his hands, from the loan opened for the United States, by Messrs Willink, Staphorst, & Co.
I did expect to have had some kind of adjustment made by this time of Captain Gillon's affair; but Congress referred much of it to a committee, with whom it has long slept; but I have informed Mr Gillon, that I must have a settlement, and at present I wait a little for the determination of Congress.