TO B. FRANKLIN.
Office of Finance, May 26th, 1783.
Sir,
I have now before me your letters of the 14th and 23d of December, which are the last I have received. Enclosed you have a letter from me to the Minister of France, with his answer of the 14th of March, on the subject of the delay which happened in transmitting his despatches. You will see by these, that Lieutenant Barney was not to blame.
Your bills in favor of M. de Lauzun have not yet appeared, or they should have been duly honored. That gentleman has since left the country, and therefore it is possible that the bills may not come.
The reflections you make, as well on the nature of public credit, as on the inattention of the several States, are just and unanswerable; but in what country of the world shall we find a nation willing to tax themselves. The language of panegyric has held forth the English as such a nation, but certainly if our Legislatures were subject to like influence with theirs, we might preserve the form, but we should already have lost the substance of freedom. Time, reason, argument, and above all, that kind of conviction, which arises from feeling, are necessary to the establishment of our revenues, and the consolidation of our union. Both of these appear to me essential to our public happiness; but our ideas, as you well know, are frequently the result rather of habit than reflection, so that numbers who might think justly upon these subjects, have been early estranged from the modes and means of considering them properly.
I am in the hourly wish and expectation of hearing from you, and sincerely hope it may be soon. Believe me, I pray, with esteem and respect, yours, &c.
ROBERT MORRIS.