Papers of John Adams, volume 14
It is some Months ago since I had the honor to write you, & am well persuaded, altho I received no Answer thereto, that it will have engaged your attention. I earnestly wish it may have been productive of an Improvement to the Finances of Congress which I then foresaw would be short of our Wants & which is unfortunately too much the case at present.
Last Month I remitted to the Honorable Rt. Morris the State of his Account, the Ballance of which were £[₶]413,892.13. 9. due to me.1 This added to the subsequent Payments I had to make would have thrown me in a State of Perplexity had it not been for the Assistance given me by the Garde du Tresor Royal.
You will see, Gentlemen, by the State I have the honour to inclose for your Consideration that the Sums I am to pay exceed of one Million those that are to be paid me. And making even Abstraction of all that is not M. Morris Bill there still remains a defect of £[₶]500,000 independant of the Allowance to be made for his usual Wants from Jany. 24 (date of his last Bills) up to the 12th. of March.
I am happy to have it in my Power to say that I have exerted to this instant all that my Zeal & my Faculties could suggest me, did the last keep Pace with the former, I should never have applied but to them. However the State of Affairs is such now, that a Resolution must be taken relative thereto, & even without delay. The Bearers of M. Morris Bills growing so urgent upon me that rather than to have occasioned an Eclat before I could be informed with your Resolution, I prefferred accepting a further Sum of £[₶]54000. this Day.
I crave your Excellencies will honour me with a quick answer,2 meantime, I remain, / most respectfully, / Gentlemen, / Your Most obedient / & most humble Servt.
State of Congress's Finances at Paris on the 10th. of may 1783.—
| Ballance due to me on the last Account | £[₶]413.892.13. 9. |
Sums paid by his Excelly. Bn. Franklin's orders |
172 001. 5. 1. |
The Hble. Rt. Morris drafts to be paid |
1,872,871. 1.10 |
His fresh drafts from Jany. 24. at 60. days sight,of which I already accepted £[₶]54000 |
804 371. 8. |
| £[₶]3 263 136. 8 8 | |
| 475 | |
| Interest on the Dutch Loan 400,000.3 | |
| Sabatier & Desprez Chaim for | |
| Fournitures to the LaFayette 134,000.4 | 534 000. |
| £[₶]3,797,136. 8. 8. |
LbC-Tr in Jean L’Air de Lamotte's hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “To the American Ministers for negociating a Peace.”; APM Reel 103.
This letter, dated 15 April, has not been found, but see Robert Morris’ reply of 25 July. There he expressed his hope that the French court would provide additional funds and that the conclusion of the definitive treaty would permit expenditures to be reduced (Morris, Papers
, 8:338–339).
See JA, D&A
, 3:125, for the commissioners’ reply of 22 May, in which they indicated an understanding of the problem that Grand faced but also noted their powerlessness to resolve it.
When JA published this letter and its enclosure in the Boston Patriot of 1 Feb. 1812, he noted that “this 400,000 Livres, for ‘interest on the Dutch loan’ was not interest on my loans in Holland, but for loans they had made or pretended to have made in that country for America.” JA refers to the 10 million livre loan raised in the Netherlands and guaranteed by the French government. It was the product of John Laurens’ 1781 mission to Europe at Congress’ behest to raise money to support the war effort. For Laurens’ mission and the loan, see vol. 11:295–296.
Presumably a claim remaining from the 1781 capture of the Marquis de Lafayette, which was carrying 500 tons of clothing and military supplies to America (vol. 11:250).
t:Petersbourg
May 1
st.1783. O.S. [
12 May N.S.]
I sent to your Care by the last Post thrô this same Channel a Copy of the Memorial which I presented on the 27th. ult: to the Vice Chancellor, and of my Letter to him accompanying it.1 I now send you fair and complete Copies of them. If you shou'd not have forwarded the first Copy of the Memorial when this second comes to your hands, you will be pleased not to send it on at all, not only because it is in too slovingly a Condition, but it is incomplete also. If you will take the Trouble to compare them together, you will find that there is a material Paragraph omitted in the first, which closes my Reply to the second part of the Answer; relative to the Date of my Letter of Credence.2 I send a third Copy by this post to Messrs: De la Lande & Finje, to be fowarded from Holland; which perhaps may save Mr: Thaxter the Trouble of making out a Copy, as I had desired— The Memorial is a plain unadorned thing, but if the reasoning is just, I shall be satisfied with it: and I wish it may have the effect I think it ought to have.
Your Son has never written to me since his Letter from Copenhagen, thô he remained as I find by the publick prints, several days at 476Hamborough. I hear nothing of him since he left that place, but have no doubt he has safely arrived with you long before this time. I want his account of the Route &c which he has made, and which he promised to send me. It wou'd have been very useful to me, as I propose to take the same Route on my Return to America. The time of my Departure will depend upon the Answer I may receive to my Memorial. I have no intention to sacrifice another Year of my life, in the manner I have already done near Two Years of it in this Country. I hope Almighty God has created me for some more useful purpose. If not, I shou'd be ashamed of my Existence. I cannot write to you in confidence by this opportunity, and will thereof add nothing more than that I am with great Respect. &c &c
FC (MHi:Francis Dana Letterbooks, Private, 1782–1784); internal address: “(His Excelly J: Adams Minister Plenipotentiary &c.).”
For Dana's memorial of 8 May to Ivan A. Osterman and the 23 April conference to which it refers, see his letter of [9 May], note 2, above.
The copy of the memorial enclosed with Dana's [
9 May
] letter has not been found, but apparently it was identical to that sent to Osterman on [8 May] because Dana wrote to the vice chancellor on [10 May] and enclosed the missing paragraph (MHi:Francis Dana Letterbooks, Official, 1782–1784). Note, however, that the “omitted” paragraph is not in Dana's letterbook copy of the memorial. Unless, then, there was a draft that is not extant and from which the copies sent to JA and Osterman were made, the restored paragraph may have been an afterthought, done after the memorial was sent. For the passage, which noted that George III had agreed to negotiate with the American Peace Commissioners even though their commissions were dated long before he recognized American independence, see Wharton, Dipl. Corr. Amer. Rev.
, 6:414–415.