Office of Finance, May 1st, 1782.
Sir,
I have been duly honored with yours of the 7th and 15th of April. From what you propose with respect to the establishment of a bank in New Hampshire, as well as from the ideas which you say are entertained of the increase of my private fortune, I am convinced that you and other gentlemen are alike mistaken as to the nature of the National Bank, and my official connexions and transactions. The confidence you have been pleased to repose in me, and your communication of sentiment as to public affairs, require of me, that I I should give such explanation of both, as the multiplicity of objects, which engross my attention will permit.
The bank is a mere thing, in which any man may be interested, who chooses to purchase stock. Personally I have no other concern in it, than any other gentleman may have, who pleases to invest his property in it. The government have nothing to do with the bank, except merely to prevent the Directors, should they be so inclined, from extending their operations in a manner disproportionate to their capital, thereby endangering their credit. Any aid which the government derives from the bank is by lodging proper securities with it, and borrowing money for short periods on the discount of interest at the rate of six per cent, which is receiving ninetynine and paying a hundred at the end of two months. The moneys so borrowed are punctually repaid.
By accepting the office I now hold I was obliged to neglect my own private affairs. I have made no speculation in consequence of my office, and instead of being enriched I am poorer this day, than I was a year ago.
You will, from what I have said, see two sufficient reasons against adopting the plan you have proposed. That I have not money, and that I have totally quitted commerce and commercial projects, to attach myself wholly to a business which requires my whole attention. A principal object of my last letter was to acquaint you with this circumstance, and by what I have there said I meant to acquaint you also with the manner of doing business at the bank. If, for instance, you draw a bill in favor of your factor here on a merchant of reputation, payable at sixty days' sight, and that merchant accepts the bill, your factor can get ninety dollars for every hundred of the bill by discounting it at the bank, and with that money can purchase the articles you direct; but you must then be careful to make due remittances to the merchant on whom you draw. If by connecting yourself in this manner with any gentleman in trade here you can derive any benefit, it will afford me a very sensible pleasure, but as to myself, I must again repeat, that I have quitted trade; and I will add, that the closing my past dealings, which is now the only private object of my attention, requires time, which I cannot spare for the purpose; and of consequence it is, with everything else of a private nature, very much neglected, to my very great disadvantage.
I am, &c.
ROBERT MORRIS.