The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume XII Part 10

ROBERT MORRIS.

GEORGE WASHINGTON TO ROBERT MORRIS.

Head Quarters, April 23d, 1782.

Sir,

I am obliged to you for the copy of the contract you have been pleased to send me, under cover of your favor of the 15th instant. It came very opportunely, as I have already been applied to for a determination upon the points submitted to my decision.

I am very glad to find that an Intendent, appointed by you, is to attend the army, and to hear and decide causes of complaint or uneasiness, which may arise between the army and the contractors. As we are still to gain knowledge by experience, other complaints than those which have already occurred may yet arise; and I shall be very happy to be relieved from those troubles as much as possible. I wish you may be fortunate in the appointment of this person, and that he may be with the army at an early period.

You may be a.s.sured, that I am fully persuaded of the importance and utility of the present mode of feeding the army, and that I shall take every occasion to impress the same ideas upon the minds of the officers. I am pleased to find, that saving the complaints, which have arisen in their execution, they are generally inclined to acquiesce and promote the contracts; and you may depend, that I shall take pleasure in giving the gentlemen concerned in our supply, every a.s.sistance and protection in my power, consistent with that justice, which I think is due to the army.

I have the honor to be, &c.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

TO MAJOR GENERAL GREENE.

Office of Finance, April 24th, 1782.

Sir,

The several bills you found it necessary to draw upon me have been punctually honored, and I am pleased at having been able by this means to strengthen your credit and provide you with money, which I dare say will, agreeably to your declaration, be expended only on occasions of pressing necessity. Would it were in my power to make you perfectly easy on the score of money; you would then experience the alacrity with which my compliances would be made.

I have observed by the tenor of several of your letters on the subject of the confederation, that your sentiments coincide entirely with my own. The inefficacy of that instrument is daily felt, and the want of obligatory and coercive clauses on the States will probably be productive of the most fatal consequences. At present they content themselves with the a.s.sertion, that each has done most, and that the people are not able to pay taxes. Languor and inexertion are the offspring of this doctrine, and finally the people, who are said to be incapable of bearing taxation, actually pay double the sum, that would be necessary in the first instance. Nothing on my part has been omitted that I could think of, to stimulate them to exertions; and I have given them every encouragement to support my arrangements, that could be derived from regularity, system and economy; but all this does not produce the effect it ought; there are in every Legislature, characters too full of local attachments and views, to permit sufficient attention to the general interest. I am perfectly sensible, and was the day I became Superintendent of Finance, of the difficulties that are to be encountered. I know full well that it requires much time, more patience, and greater abilities than I claim, to bring the finances to the order in which they ought to be in every well governed country. But I apprehend this knowledge ought not to deter either you or me from continuing the struggle with those difficulties. If I had been deterred by their appearance from the acceptance of my appointment, our affairs would probably have been worse than they now are, or if you had declined to oppose the British arms in the Southern States, Virginia might now have formed the boundary line.

You, therefore, my Dear Sir, must continue your exertions, with or without men, provisions, clothing, or pay, in hopes that all things will come right at last; and I will continue mine until somebody more competent shall be found to relieve me. The Secretary at War will say everything that is necessary with respect to men, clothing, short enlistments, and future operations.

With respect to the pay of the army, we have abolished the practice of partial payments. The officers with you will be furnished monthly with their subsistence money, and let their distance be what it may, they shall have the same payments with those that are nearer; for I never will consent to partial payments so long as it depends on me. How much pay I shall be able to make, depends absolutely on the collection of taxes in the several States. If they comply tolerably well with the requisition of Congress for the year 1782, I will make tolerably good pay to the army for that year, but if the States will not furnish the means, it is impossible. The discontents of the army should in justice be directed to the Legislatures of those States, which neglect or delay to pay their quotas of the continental tax, and it shall be clearly known in future which they are.

I am, Sir, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

TO THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.

Office of Finance, April 27th, 1782.

Sir,

In a letter from the Minister Plenipotentiary of France, of the 22d instant, is the following paragraph.

"His Majesty having consented to furnish the State of Virginia with arms, clothing, and munitions, for a sum, with the amount of which I am unacquainted, the Minister desires that Virginia would render an account of the same to the United States, and that you would close the business, and the amount which has been advanced by France to Virginia, shall be deducted from the sums loaned to the United States."

My answer of this date is as follows.

"With respect to the supplies for the State of Virginia, I have already had the honor of mentioning to your Excellency, that I could by no means consider purchases made for any particular State in the Union, as properly chargeable to the United States. This was in a letter of the 26th of November last, in consequence of your application relating both to Maryland and Virginia. If Dr Franklin has asked the supplies on the credit of the United States, they will, of course be brought to their account. But I cannot conceive, that this has been done by him, as I do not know of any orders to do so from the Congress. Your Excellency will, I am confident, see with me the impropriety of listening to the applications made by separate States, and be convinced how much it is the duty of those to whom the administration is committed, to oppose these appearances of disunion in our councils; appearances, which, however unfounded, are not the less injurious. The State of Virginia, is, as you well know, far from being singular in her applications abroad for separate aid, and your Excellency is better informed than almost any other, of the evils which have resulted from them. I do not mention this with a view to blame those who made, or those who granted the requests, alluded to.

On the contrary, it gives me pleasure to find, that in some instances among so many, a fruitless recourse has not been had to the purses of individuals. As there is a hope that these irregularities may no longer take place, I will not absolutely decide, and must pray that this question be for the present left open; as I am extremely desirous not to injure the operations or credit of any particular State, while I pursue the road marked out by public duties. I shall transmit to the government of Virginia that part of our letter, which relates to this object."

I presume that it will be unnecessary to remark to your Excellency, how incapable the United States are of a.s.suming burdens of debt, while so little attention is paid to put the public treasury in a situation to defray the necessary expenses of the current service. I must pray to be furnished with an exact account, as soon as may be, of the sum due by the State of Virginia to the Court of France, and of the funds which the State propose to apply in discharge of it; in order that I may, if possible, take such measures as may preserve her credit, and not be injurious to the United States. It becomes my duty, Sir, on this occasion, to mention further the sum of sixtysix thousand eight hundred and fiftythree livres, which were expended by Mr Lee in the purchase of supplies for your State; which were acknowledged by a certificate of the 13th of March, 1780, with a promise to account.

Your letter of the 28th of March last has been received some time ago.

I have the honor to be, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

TO THE SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Office of Finance, April 27th, 1782.

Sir,

His Excellency the Minister of France having informed me on the part of his Court, that no extraordinary sums will be paid to the Ministers of the United States in Europe, I must request that you will furnish me with an account of the several salaries payable to the foreign Ministers and their Secretaries; and I will make out bills in your favor on the Banker of the United States in Paris, for the last quarter, commencing with the present year. I must, at the same time, pray you will require of those gentlemen, the state of their several accounts with the public for salaries, that the whole may be adjusted, and all future expenses of that sort be cla.s.sed under the proper head of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

I have the honor to be, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

TO THE GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND.

Office of Finance, April 30th 1782.

Sir,

I had the honor to receive your Excellency's letter, dated In Council, Annapolis, April, 1782, previous to which I had in mine of the 15th instant, transmitted the Acts of Congress, which you mention. I hope they will meet the wishes of your Excellency and of the State, so that a speedy compliance with them may forward the great business they are formed to accomplish.

I am much obliged by your Excellency's observation, as to the propriety of stating how much money is to be expended. The estimates of the current year were formed by Congress; the accuracy of them I cannot answer for, but rather incline to think they will fall short of the object proposed. The loose manner in which business has formerly been conducted, did indeed render it impracticable to frame very precise estimates. That those adopted are not exorbitant, will easily be seen, by comparing the sum total with the expenditure of former years. It is my intention to show by the exhibition of clear accounts, how the public money intrusted to me has been expended. This shall be done publicly, and then estimates formed agreeably so such accounts will be clearly understood, and convey that satisfaction to the mind of every candid man, which I am desirous of imparting.

Your Excellency will easily perceive, that the primary step must be to grant money, and the accounting for it a secondary one. I presume that by the American Const.i.tution, the determination on sums to be appropriated must be vested in the supreme representative, and I hope there is so much confidence in the wisdom and integrity of that body, as to believe that they do not ask for sums which are unnecessary.

Before I close this letter I will pray leave to repeat to your Excellency a sentiment often expressed before, that I despise every scheme or system, which must depend for its success on mystery or concealment, and am convinced that our credit will never be fully established, until all our public affairs are open to the public eye.

I ardently long for the arrival of that moment, when I may lay a state of them before the world, in an account of the moneys received and the moneys expended, with the debts we owe, and the produce of the funds a.s.signed for the payment of them. Your Excellency is not a stranger to many of the reasons why such an account cannot now be framed, and will, I doubt not, sincerely co-operate with me in removing them.

I have the honor to be, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.