TO MESSRS WILLINK & CO.
Office of Finance, February 12th, 1784.
Gentlemen,
I am to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 14th of October. My letter to you and the other Houses, will convey sufficiently my sentiments as to the disagreeable consequences occasioned by the ill success of our loan. I shall not here dilate upon that subject, which, for the present, I can only lament; for I agree, Gentlemen, with you, that urgency on your part would rather damp the spirits of monied men than increase their exertions.
I see clearly, that if it were possible to convey an adequate idea of the wealth, extent, and power of this country, it would do a great deal towards exciting the favorable attention of mankind. But this is a very difficult thing, for the British Ministers, and even their Generals in the country, with all the pains they could take, and all the intelligence they could procure, were extremely ignorant of our resources. This is among the reasons why they pursued the conquest of America full three years after every sensible man in it saw that the thing was impossible.
However, as you desire an account of our products, I will refer you to a very unexceptionable testimony, that of the British Ministers themselves, in a pamphlet lately published under the eye of the Court, by Lord Sheffield; in which the writer attempts to prove that we must trade with them whether they treat us well or ill. To show this, he gives certain facts, which, at least, prove that the British are our worst customers, so far as the sale and consumption of our produce is concerned. He proves, also, that if they have any advantage over others, it is what your countrymen may have in an eminent degree over them; I mean the securing a great part of our trade by giving credit to our solid mercantile houses.
But to return from that digression to the principal object of this letter, viz. the actual and probable resources of America. Let it be remembered, that a century ago the place from which this letter was written was an unlimited forest; that the whole State of Pennsylvania did not produce enough to support five hundred men after the European manner, and that every other part of America was, a little earlier or a little later, in the same situation. But now this very city is worth more than all the public and private debts put together, which we owe to Europe.
M. Van Berckel has convinced me, Gentlemen, of your good will, and zealous endeavors to promote the interests of America. And I flatter myself that not only his representations, but my own conduct, will convince you of the just sense I entertain of those endeavors.
With esteem and respect, &c.
ROBERT MORRIS.