If to this be added above two millions and a half due on Beaumarchais' bills, we shall have an amount of about twelve and a half millions, being at least one half of all the moneys obtained abroad for the service of the year 1781 and 1782. And we shall find, that this greater half is totally consumed in paying the principal of some, and the interest of other debts, which have been contracted before that period. I shall make no further comments on these things. They are before Congress, and will speak for themselves. I have only to lament, that the situation to which our affairs have been reduced is such, that the greatest exertion which our ally can make in our favor is barely sufficient to satisfy present engagements, and that the knowledge of such aid only confirms the inattention of our own citizens to those distressing circumstances which it does not relieve.
I have the honor to be, &c.
ROBERT MORRIS.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Office of Finance, May 27th, 1782.
Sir,
I do myself the honor to enclose certain information, which I have just received in a letter from the Minister of France. I take this occasion to mention, that it is some time since M. de la Luzerne communicated to me the grant of his Court, which was made in the month of December last. I think it my duty to add the persuasion I have, that this grant was made on the Minister's representations, and I cannot omit testifying to Congress my grateful sense of his conduct, and my conviction, that his endeavors have not been wanting still further to promote the interests of the United States.
I should earlier have communicated my intelligence of the loan in question, but I wished to receive the details, which would enable me to judge how much of it was at my disposition. I confess that I did not expect they would have been so unfavorable. I was restrained also by an apprehension, that the exertions of the States would relax, when they should learn that any foreign aid could be obtained; and the situation of our commerce was such, that if I had been enabled to draw for much larger sums, it would have been of no avail, as I could not have got money for the bills.