Papers of John Adams, volume 13
I do myself the Pleasure to congratulate you on the Success of your patriotic Labors in Holland. The general Tribute paid to your Abilities on this Occasion will so well dispense with the Addition of my feeble Voice that I shall spare your Delicacy the Pain of expressing my Sentiments.
The enclosed Resolutions and Copies of Letters will convey to 497you so fully the Views of Congress, and explain so clearly my Conceptions on the Subject, that very little need to be added.1 If the Application to France should fail of Success, which I cannot permit myself to believe, you will then have a new Opportunity of shewing the Influence you have acquired over the Minds of Men in the Country where you reside, and of exerting it in the Manner most beneficial to our Country.
Before I conclude this Letter I must congratulate your Excellency on the Success of the Loan you have already opened, and which I consider as being by this Time compleated.
The enclosure included three items. The first was Robert Morris' letter of 30 July to the president of Congress in which he presented his estimate that nine million dollars would be needed for expenditures in 1783 and that four million of that total should be borrowed (Wharton, Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.
, 5:636–638). The second, attested to by Congress' secretary Charles Thomson, contained the text of three resolutions adopted on 14 Sept. and of another adopted on the 23d. The resolutions of the 14th authorized and directed Benjamin Franklin to obtain a loan of four million dollars from France, while that of the 23d directed him to do so despite the reservations expressed in his letters of 25 June to Livingston and Morris (
JCC
, 23:578–579, 595–596; Franklin, Papers
, 37:535–544). The last enclosure was a copy of Morris' letter of 27 Sept. to Franklin informing him of Congress' actions and directing him to proceed with the loan (Franklin, Papers
, vol. 38).