The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume XII Part 14

Office of Finance, May 29th, 1782.

Dear Sir,

I do myself the honor to enclose you copies of two Acts of Congress, one of the 5th of June, and the other of the 18th of June, 1779, relating to the affairs of M. de Beaumarchais.

You will observe, Sir, that you were authorised to pledge the faith of the United States to the Court of Versailles for obtaining money or credit to honor the drafts on you. There is a mysteriousness in this transaction arising from the very nature of it, which will not admit of explanation here, neither can you go so fully into an explanation with the Court. M. de Beaumarchais certainly had not funds of his own to make such considerable expenditures; neither is there any reason to believe that he had credit. If the Court advanced money it must be a secret; but there would be no difficulty in giving an order in your favor for the sum necessary to pay those bills, and, therefore, measures might be taken to obtain from him the reimburs.e.m.e.nt of any sums he might have received. Consequently, there would be no actual advance of money made, as the whole might be managed by the pa.s.sing of proper receipts from you to the Court, from M. de Beaumarchais to you, and from the Court to him.

I wish that you would apply on this subject and get it adjusted. The diverting from a loan, for the service of the current year, so considerable a part as that due to M. de Beaumarchais, will defeat the object for which it was granted. It ought not, therefore, to be done if possible to be avoided.

With respect and esteem, I am, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

TO DANIEL CLARKE.

Office of Finance, May 30th, 1782.

Sir.

I received your letters of the 7th, 9th, 14th, 18th, and 21st of May.

The resolutions of the House of Delegates, pa.s.sed on the 20th, have been submitted to Congress, and they have referred the matter to Mr Rutledge, and Mr Clymer, two of their members, who are going on special business to the southward. Your letters contain a great many particulars, which I shall briefly enumerate, and take notice of; many of them are of a private and personal nature, and therefore ought not in any case to have influenced the determinations on a matter of great public importance. I should pay no attention to them, if I were not persuaded, that the design is not so much to injure me, as to involve the national affairs committed to me.

I find there are made against me personally, the following charges.

1st. That I have robbed the Eastern States of their specie.

2dly. That I am partial to Pennsylvania, being commercially connected with half the merchants of Philadelphia.

3dly. That I am partial to the disaffected.

4thly. That I have established a bank for sinister purposes.

5thly. That my plan and that of Pennsylvania, are to keep Virginia poor, and

6thly. That with the Secretary of Congress and Mr Coffin I am engaged in speculation.

As to the first point, I believe the Eastern States have a very different opinion of the matter, although there may be one or two persons in some part of those States, who from their great lat.i.tude of conscience, would not scruple to a.s.sert what they know to be false.

Those who make and respect such a.s.sertions, must be content to pa.s.s for the authors and inventors of untruths, with design to injure the public service and sow dissensions among the States. I have not received from the Eastern States, any more than from the Southern States, _one shilling of specie_, since I was appointed to my present office, although I have sent very considerable sums from hence, both eastward and southward, as the exigencies of the service required.

As to the second point, that I am commercially concerned with half the merchants of Philadelphia, if that were as true as it is false, the conclusion, that I am partial to Pennsylvania would by no means follow. A merchant, as such, can be attached particularly to no country. His mere place of residence, is as merchant perfectly accidental, and it would be just as reasonable to conclude, that an American residing at L'Orient, and trading to China, must be partial to the French and Chinese. I know that this story of my partiality to Pennsylvania has been very a.s.siduously circulated, and has obtained an extensive currency. It was supposed that I must be partial to Pennsylvania, because I reside in it. The a.s.sertion therefore was made, and the contracts I had entered into were brought as the evidence to support it. I have received from Pennsylvania, for the service of the last year, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, besides a warrant on their treasury for near ninety thousand, which is not yet paid. The contracts in Pennsylvania have not amounted to that sum. Is there a State in the Union, which can say I received from them one shilling for the last year? There is not one. But I can demonstrate that while I was charged with this partiality, I had exhausted my credit, and supplied every shilling of money, which I could command from my private fortune, to support and succor _the Southern States_. But this was not from a partiality in their favor, for I will neither endeavor to ingratiate myself with them, on such principles, nor subject myself to the ignominy of just reproach from others. It was for the general good.

That I am partial to the disaffected is among those threadbare topics of defamation, which have been so generally applied, that they have lost their effect. But I have remarked, that this particular aspersion is generally cast on those who least deserve it, and by those who are in a fair way of becoming disaffected themselves. I am not very sorry for this charge, because it shows, that while I have inveterate enemies, they have nothing to allege against me, and must resort to the regions of fiction for the ground of calumny.

That I have established the bank I shall confess. That bank has already saved America from the efforts of her avowed, and the intrigues of her concealed enemies; and it has saved her from those, who, while they clamor loudly against the administration for doing so little, sedulously labor to deprive it of the means of doing anything.

The bank will exist in spite of calumny, operate in spite of opposition, and do good in spite of malevolence. If there be sinister purposes in view, it must be easy to show what they are. The operations of a bank are such plain matters of arithmetic, that those who run may read. There is nothing of mystery, disguise, or concealment. If, therefore, these sinister views cannot be shown, (and I know that they cannot) that defect of proof, after the charge made, is itself a proof that the thing does not exist. But the matter does not terminate here. A groundless unfounded opposition against measures of public utility, must proceed from some cause. If it proceed from an opposition to the public interests, their conduct is dangerous; but if it proceed from aversion to me, I pity them.

That I should, or that Pennsylvania should have a plan to keep Virginia poor, is a strange a.s.sertion. I believe that Pennsylvania will probably be rich, the soil and climate are good, and the people are quiet and industrious. Their rulers also begin to be sensible of their true interests. They encourage commerce, have laid aside all the idle systems of specific supplies, and content themselves with laying money taxes. There can be no doubt but that such a people must become rich. On the other hand, if Virginia, or any other State, be poor, it must be their own fault. Prudence, diligence, and economy, promote national prosperity; and vice, indolence, and prodigality, involve national ruin. I am so far from wishing to impoverish Virginia, that I have constantly labored, both in my public and private applications to bring about those measures, which are calculated to make her wealthy and powerful. In the moment of cool reflection this will be acknowledged; whenever my measures are adopted, it will be known, and in that moment those who from ignorance, or wickedness, have opposed themselves to their country's good, will be known and despised. The charge of speculating, in conjunction with the Secretary of Congress and Mr Coffin, is one of those foolish things, which are not worth an answer. The whole business was known to the General, and after him, to a committee of Congress, before anything was done.

You tell me further, that there are jealousies and resentments against Congress, for a design to curtail the territory of Virginia; that it is alleged no money can come into the country, while bank notes and bills on Philadelphia will purchase tobacco; and that the enemy having failed to subdue Virginia by force, would now try the arts of seduction, wherefore great care ought to be taken in preventing any intercourse with them. As to any design in Congress to curtail Virginia, if there be such, I know nothing, of it. Congress will undoubtedly pursue the line of justice, and might be justly offended were they charged with that design, which you say has offended Virginia. There was a time when Pennsylvania clamored loudly against Congress. It impeded the public service, and injured the reputation of Pennsylvania, without producing any good, much less a counterbalance for the evils, which it did produce. Happily all those heats have subsided, and Pennsylvania is now, what I hope Virginia will soon be, the zealous supporter of Congress.

The means of bringing money into a country are very simple, being nothing more than the creating a demand for it. If every man be obliged to get some money, every man must part with something to get money. This makes things cheap, and those who have money always choose to expend it where things are cheapest. But what is the predilection in favor of specie? If bank notes answer the purposes of money the man who receives them has every benefit, which he could derive from specie. If they will not answer those purposes, no man will receive them; and then Virginia will not be troubled with them. If money is due from Virginia to Pennsylvania or Maryland, it must go thither, and the only way to get it back again is to sell something cheaper than Pennsylvania or Maryland will sell it. As to any profit made by the bank in issuing their paper, gentlemen in Virginia may easily share it by purchasing stock, which can be had here for the subscription and interest.

That the enemy have been foiled in their attempts to subdue Virginia is true, and when we recollect the means by which they were foiled, it will not only obviate the charges of partiality, but show the advantages of unanimity; and ought to become a motive to cultivate harmony and excite exertion. That the enemy will try the arts of seduction I verily believe, or rather that these arts have been tried, but I do not believe they have the will or the power to buy many. It will sufficiently answer their purposes, if they can promote disunion among us, because our concord is our only safety. To produce disunion nothing more is necessary than to set at work a few turbulent spirits.

Neither do I see that they need go at the trouble of sending ships into the harbors of the several States, because such negotiations may be accomplished without that trouble or parade.

You tell me that the Executive of Virginia refused the pa.s.sports, because they deemed the commerce and intercourse with the enemy to be dangerous. There can be no doubt, that a commerce with the enemy is not only dangerous but highly reprehensible, and if the transaction in question could be considered as a commerce of that sort, I would readily join in the censure. But if there was a commerce, it was by the capitulation, and the present object relates only to the mode of paying a debt already contracted under that solemn agreement.

You tell me, also, that it is the Governor's opinion, that the State should have the benefit resulting from the pa.s.sports, because the undoubted power of granting such pa.s.sports is in the State; and in another letter you say it has been urged in argument, that Congress have no right to grant the pa.s.sports. As the right is thus brought in question, it is to be presumed, that should that right be in Congress, the Governor's argument must operate in their favor. If I am rightly informed, their right on this occasion is not only unquestionable, but it is exclusive; and I am told that numerous instances have occurred in which vessels having pa.s.sports from one State have been captured by the privateers of another State, and been adjudged lawful prize. Judge Griffin, who is now in Virginia, can doubtless give information on this subject, and if one could be allowed to determine where the right is from where it ought to be, there can be no doubt but that it must be in Congress. If this be so, then the a.s.sertions about delivering the rights of Virginia into the hands of Congress, must be considered as nothing more than mere flowers of rhetoric, which are very good to please an audience, but ought not to influence or convince a legislative body.

How it can be said, that these pa.s.sports contravene the resolutions of Congress for confiscating British manufactures within the United States, I am at a loss to conceive, and shall be, unless it can be proved, that tobacco is a British manufacture. For I cannot suppose, that it is intended to confiscate that property, which, having been secured by the capitulation, is under the protection of the law of nations, which law must always be taken notice of and respected by the munic.i.p.al law of every civilized country. As to the laws of Virginia, which may be contravened by it, I cannot speak decidedly, but I have a pretty strong reason to doubt the truth of this a.s.sertion, and it will presently be a.s.signed. But of all things in the world the most ridiculous is the a.s.sertion, that this would give cause of complaint to the King of France. There is something of the same kind in the resolutions of the Delegates, which I will now consider; observing beforehand, that the objection would come rather unfortunately, should it be made by men, whose zeal for the honor and interest of his Most Christian Majesty has never shown itself, except in the present moment, and then by exciting discord among his allies.

The resolutions, being the act of a respectable body, are deserving of respect, and shall meet with it from me. But I must take the liberty to differ from them in some of their positions. It is resolved first, that allowing the capitulants to export tobacco is not _warranted_ by the capitulation. Much of what follows depends on the equivocal sense of the word _warranted_. If by that word is meant enjoined, or directed, the position is just, but if the idea to be conveyed is, that such exportation is not _permitted_, then the position is untrue.

The exportation is very clearly permitted by the capitulation, because the capitulation does not prohibit it, nor indeed say anything about it. But in a day or two after the capitulation an agreement was made for the purchase of goods payable in tobacco, which is now sanctioned by the Delegates in the last of their resolutions. Clearly, therefore, the exportation of tobacco in payment for British goods, is (in the judgment of the Delegates) _permitted_ by the capitulation.

The second resolution seems to go upon a mistake. The Acts of Congress for confiscating British manufactures, as I have already observed in another place, cannot, I should imagine, be contrary to the laws of the Commonwealth, or else it would not have been permitted in another instance, for the Delegates cannot be supposed to intend a breach of the law, and still less can they be supposed to mean, that it was lawful for the general and the State Agent to do what it is not lawful for the United States in Congress to do.

The third resolution, quoting a part of an article in the treaty of commerce, appears to me to be rather inconclusive. The object of that article was to make provision in a case which might happen, when one of the high contracting parties was at peace, and the other at war, which is not the case at present. The sense which France entertains on this subject may clearly be learnt from the various capitulations granted to the conquered Islands; and if I am not much misinformed the sense of Virginia on this very question of exporting tobacco may be found, by consulting sundry instances of the kind subsequent to the capitulation of York.

The fourth resolution is a conclusion drawn from the three preceding, and says that the capitulation does not warrant the enemy to export tobacco, and that such exportation would be contravening the regulations of the United States, and contrary to the laws of the Commonwealth, wherefore the vessels ought not to be permitted to load.

The premises on which this conclusion is founded being unsupported, the conclusion itself must fall, or else the next succeeding resolution ought to be revoked.

The industry which you say has been used on this occasion would not have surprised me, if our affairs had been in such train, that the country was entirely out of danger. But under our present circ.u.mstances, it both astonishes and afflicts me, not for myself, but for the public. Men may flatter themselves, that all is safe and well, and endeavor to shrink from the public burdens and embarra.s.s the public operations, but the consequence is clear, and certain. The enemy know they cannot conquer, and therefore seek to divide us.

Convinced that the Northern and Eastern States cannot even then be subdued, their ultimate ambition now is to subjugate those to the southward, and the only means under heaven of preventing it is by unanimity. That the other States should be plunged into hasty measures, pregnant with disunion, might have been expected, but that any inhabitants of a State, deeply interested to pursue the contrary conduct, should be so blind both to the duty and interest of that State will scarcely be believed hereafter, and could not have happened now, but from causes which would bear a harder name than I shall give them.

I am, Sir, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Office of Finance, May 31st, 1782.

Sir,

I perceive that on the 29th instant Congress resolved, "that the salaries and allowances to which the public servants of the United States are, or shall be ent.i.tled, be in future paid by the Superintendent of Finance, and of the moneys which shall from time to time be in his hands, and that the said public servants be authorised to make quarterly drafts on him for that purpose." The tenor of this resolution would, I believe, give to every officer of the United States, both civil and military, the right of drawing upon me, which would be liable to this objection among many others, that I should frequently be obliged to protest the bills for want of funds to discharge them. If, therefore, the object of the resolution was to provide for the foreign servants only, it might, perhaps, be proper to make some alteration in the terms.

But I would submit to Congress whether a better mode might not be devised for payment of the salaries in question. It will tend greatly to simplify the public accounts if those of each Department be brought under one separate head, whereas if bills are to be drawn by every public officer much confusion would be introduced, and forged bills might be paid without a possibility of detecting the forgery. The present mode which I have adopted is, that the accounts of each Department of the civil list be made up and settled at the treasury quarterly, and that a warrant issue for the amount. If this mode be pursued with respect to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the moneys may be remitted to those who are abroad by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, until they shall have appointed their respective agents to receive it for them here. This will not only simplify the accounts, but be of great use to the parties, because in some cases they may be unable to sell their bills on this country at all, and in others they must suffer a considerable loss. And if obliged to send such drafts on their own account to obtain payment of their salaries, much time may be lost by delay in tedious pa.s.sages and other accidents, and of course they will be exposed unnecessarily to inconveniences and disappointments.

I am, Sir, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.