Gentlemen,
On the evening of the 9th instant I received your letters of the 20th of November and 1st of December. The intelligence contained in these letters, so far as concerns the loan under your direction, and the bills which I had drawn upon the credit thereof, is very far from being agreeable.
The tenor of your last letter, renders it necessary for me to obviate the constructions put on my conduct in drawing to that extent. And this is easily done, for it appears by your letters now before me, that the total of those bills for a million, did not exceed the funds actually in your possession, by above six hundred thousand guilders, and if the second expedition of tobacco be deducted, that excess cannot be considered as going beyond five hundred thousand. Now, Gentlemen, I have already told you, that Mr Grand's drafts exceeded my expectation; but we will put this out of the question for the present, as I shall write on that subject to him; but you will observe, that your letters announcing the decline of the loan did not reach me until the close of the last year; and therefore I could not have calculated on so great an alteration. The occurrences in this country, which occasioned it have never appeared of any consequence to us who are on the spot, although, by exaggeration, they have staggered the minds of people in Europe. You will observe also, Gentlemen, that when my letter of the 1st of October was written, I had not received any letter from you of later date than the 11th of June. The intelligence mentioned in my letters as having come through an indirect channel, was contained in a letter from Mr Adams himself, and your letters written in the months of July and August confirmed that intelligence. All this will appear if you compare our correspondences, and place yourselves in the situation, which the long passage of your letters of the 4th, 11th and 26th of September placed me. The two first of these did not come to hand until a very few days ago, as you will observe that they are not acknowledged until the 9th instant. It has therefore been alike impossible for me to conjecture the hard fate of my bills, or to provide against it by seasonable remittances.
But as I have already mentioned, the sum total of the advance, which those bills could have occasioned would not exceed five hundred thousand guilders, payable in all the month of March, supposing that the loan should produce nothing in the whole winter. By a circuitous negotiation this payment might have been prolonged without difficulty, and you will see that the measures I am taking, even at this late period, would have produced the necessary funds in season. I have not indeed any right to expect, that you would risk so heavy a sum in reliance on me, but if you had done it I should have felt the obligation, and I think my conduct would have been such as to convince you that the confidence was not misplaced.
Under the present very disagreeable circumstances, and not knowing whether Dr Franklin has complied with your proposals, I cannot take such decisive steps as I otherwise might. I enclose, however, a copy of the letter which I have written to him, and I shall proceed to make remittances, as soon as the weather, which now shuts up our navigation, will permit. The advices which I shall receive from Europe, while ships are lading, and which I daily expect, must govern me in the consignments; which is the reason that I can say nothing positive on that subject.
If Dr Franklin has complied with your proposals, you will of course have accepted my bills to the extent of the million guilders. If he has not, it is possible that my letters to him may still arrive in season to prevent the protests for nonpayment. If however this should not be the case, I wish you to call on those who held the bills, and tender payment, on return of the bills, or on giving an indemnity against them; in which case you will also pay the costs of protest, interest which may have accrued, and the like. If they will not do this, you will then be pleased to transmit notarial certificates of your tender of such principal, interest and costs; and if your payments are accepted, to transmit immediate accounts thereof.
With respect to the three bills, numbered one hundred and ninetyone, one hundred and ninetytwo, and one hundred and ninetythree, dated the 21st of October, for two hundred and fifty thousand guilders each, I have agreed with the Houses to whom I sold them, that they shall still lay to be accepted or not, as may hereafter be determined, and in the meantime the United States are to pay the interest of their advances to me until they can reimburse themselves, or are repaid by me, whichever shall eventually happen. The bill number one hundred and ninetyfour, dated the 12th of December last, for one hundred thousand current guilders, I purchased and remitted on my own private account, and have given orders that it be not returned to this country; so that on that subject you may also be at ease. I shall receive on my private account the interest of the forty thousand dollars paid for this bill, on the same principles with which I have settled for the other bills just mentioned. And by the way, you will see how great was my confidence in the success of your operations, when I have involved my own private fortune in the purchase, not only of that bill, but also of four hundred thousand guilders out of the million. All which was done because the demand for exchange on London being greater than on your city, I bought those bills, remitted them, and drew on my private account to replace my funds, merely with a view to facilitate the public service. In addition to the bills just mentioned, there is one which I request may meet due honor; it is number one hundred and ninetyfive, dated the 2d instant, payable at six months' sight, and for fourteen thousand three hundred and nineteen current guilders. This bill was drawn to replace bills drawn above two years ago at six months' sight on the American Minister at Madrid and protested for certain circumstances attending the negotiation of them; wherefore I was under the necessity of replacing them with twenty per cent damages, by a bill of equal dignity.
I am, Gentlemen, &c.
ROBERT MORRIS.