The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume XII Part 21

Now, Sir, the state of things is shortly this. The United States are deeply indebted to the people of America. They have called for revenues to pay their debts in a course of years, being the only means of reviving credit and lightening burdens. All the States consent but Rhode Island, to whose citizens a very considerable part of this debt is due. Of consequence the whole is suspended. The reasons a.s.signed are purely local, and I verily believe are founded on mistaken principles. The revenue, however, if granted is insufficient. More must be demanded; and consequently, as all taxes are unpleasant some State will be found to oppose any which can be devised, on quite as good ground as the present opposition. What then is the consequence?

I am, Sir, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

TO SIR GUY CARLETON.

Office of Finance, August 20th, 1782.

Sir,

I do myself the honor to enclose to your Excellency letters from the masters of two flag ships, which have arrived in this port with American prisoners. I have sent them in by Mr John Greene, one of the persons that came in the Symmetry, who will bring such orders, as your Excellency may think proper to transmit to those gentlemen. I have further to mention, Sir, that I intend delivering to one of them such British marine prisoners as may be in this place, or its vicinity, when they depart, provided their receipt shall be deemed a proper evidence of the delivery, on a settlement of the account hereafter. On this point I shall be happy to learn your sentiments. It might have been more proper to have addressed myself to Admiral Digby, especially as Mr Greene carries the duplicates of a former letter to him. But as the King's servants in England have placed the masters of these flags under your Excellency's directions, I was led to conclude, that if the concurrence of the Admiral should be necessary, you would take the trouble of obtaining it.

I have the honor to be, with perfect respect, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Office of Finance, August 28th, 1782.

Sir,

I have duly received your several favors of the 22d and 27th of July, and 10th and 13th of August. My not answering them is owing to causes which you will easily conceive; for you will easily conceive the multiplicity of objects to which I must turn my attention. I am very sorry to learn that you can no longer continue in the office of Receiver. It would have given me great pleasure that you should have done so, because I am sure that you would have rendered very signal services to the public cause. This you will now do in another line, more important as it is more extensive; and the justness of your sentiments on public affairs, induce my warm wish that you may find a place in Congress so agreeable, that you may be induced to continue in it.

I am sorry to learn, that any letter of mine should have given offence; but I conclude that this effect must follow from many parts of my writings and conduct; because the steady pursuit of what appears to be the true line of duty will necessarily cross the various oblique views of interest and opinion. To offend is sometimes a fault, always a misfortune. The letter in question is, I suppose, under the date of the 11th of December, of which I enclose you a copy. Let me at the same time a.s.sure you, that in all your excellent letter of the 13th instant, I most esteem the clause now in question because it contains that useful information which is least common. I will make no apologies for the letter, to any one, because apologies are rarely useful, and where the intention has been good, they are to candid minds unnecessary. Possessed of the facts you can guard against misrepresentation, and I have found that to be the most hostile weapon, which either my personal or political enemies have been able to wield against me.

I have not even yet seen the resolutions of your Legislature, relative to an extension of the powers of Congress. I had supposed the same reason for them that you have expressed. Indeed power is generally such a darling object with weak minds, that they must feel extreme reluctance to bid it farewell; neither do I believe that anything will induce a general consent to part with it, but a perfect sense of absolute necessity. This may arise from two sources, the one of reason the other of feeling; the former more safe and more uncertain, the latter always secure and often dangerous. It is, my Dear Sir, in circ.u.mstances like these, that a patriotic mind seeking the great good of the whole on enlightened principles, can best be distinguished from those vulgar souls, whose narrow optics can see but the little circle of selfish concerns. Unhappily such souls are but too common, and but too often fill the seats of dignity and authority.

A firm, wise, manly, system of federal government, is what I once wished, what I now hope, what I dare not expect, but what I will not despair of.

Your description of the mode of collecting taxes, contains an epitome of the follies, which prevail from one end of the continent to the other. There is no end to the absurdity of human nature; mankind seem to delight in contrast and paradox, for surely nothing else could sanctify (during a contest on the precise point of being taxed by our own consent) the arbitrary police, which on this subject, almost universally prevails. G.o.d grant you success in your views to amend it.

Your ideas on the subject are perfectly correspondent to my own. As to your doubt on the mode of collecting it, I would wish to obviate it by the observation, that the further off we can remove the appointment of collectors from popular influence, the more effectual will be their operations; and the more they conform to the views of Congress, the more effectually will they enable that body to provide for general defence. In political life, the creature will generally pay some deference to the creator. The having a double set of officers is indeed an evil, but a good thing is not always to be rejected because of that necessary portion of evil, which in the course of things must be attached to it. Neither is this a necessary evil, for with a proper federal government, army, navy, and revenue, the civil administration might well be provided for, by a stamp act, roads by turnpikes, and navigation by tolls.

The account you give of the State is by no means flattering; and the more true it appears, the more concern it gives me. The loan I hope will be completed, and I wish the _whole_ amount of the tax may be collected. The forage plan I have disagreed to, and enclose for your information, the copy of my letter on that subject to the Quarter Master General. I believe your State is exhausted, but perhaps even you consider it as being more so than it is. The certificates, which now form a useless load, will (if the United States adopt, and the several States agree, to a plan now before Congress) become valuable property. This will afford great relief. The scarcity of money also may be immediately relieved, if the love of popular favor would so far give way to the love of public good, as to enforce plentiful taxation.

The necessity of having money, will always produce money. The desire of having it produces, you see, so much as is necessary to gratify the desire of enjoying foreign luxuries. Turn the stream, which now flows in the channels of commerce, to those of revenue, and the business is completed. Unfortunately for us, this is an operation which requires fort.i.tude, perseverance, virtue, and which cannot be effected by the weak or wicked minds, who have only partial, private, or interested views.

When I consider the exertions, which the country has already made, under striking disadvantages, and with astonishing prodigality of national wealth, by pernicious modes of applying it, I persuade myself that regular consistent efforts would produce much more than you suppose.

For your accurate, clear, and comprehensive description of general and particular characters, sentiments, and opinions, accept my sincere thanks and warm approbation. They do equal justice to your talents, both for observation and description.

Mr Duer's attention to the business of his contract, is very pleasing to me, and honorable to himself. I am very sorry that he should lose by it, but to avoid this as much as possible, I am determined to support him by liberal advances so soon as it shall be in my power to do it.

I pray you to believe me to be yours, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Office of Finance, August 20th, 1782.

Sir,

I have now to address you on a subject, which cannot be more painful to you than it is to me. I am determined to act justly, and therefore when I find that I shall be unable to pay the contractors, I will give them due notice in season. This period is fast approaching, and unless the States make infinitely greater exertions than they have hitherto done, it must soon arrive. To comprise this matter in a short compa.s.s, your army is fed at a dollar for nine rations, or three dollars and a third per month to feed a soldier. Twentyfour thousand rations per day would therefore amount to eighty thousand dollars monthly, which is more than had been paid by all the States on the 1st instant. The object of this letter, Sir, is to request that you will consider how your army is to be subsisted or kept together, if I am obliged to dissolve the contracts. I pray that Heaven may direct your mind to some mode by which we may be yet saved. I have done all that I could, and given repeated warnings of the consequences, but it is like preaching to the dead. Every exertion I am capable of shall be continued while there is the least glimmering of hope.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.[10]

[10] _August 29th._ Mr Duane, Arthur Lee, Abraham Clark, and Samuel Osgood, a Committee of Inquiry, came this morning and proceeded in their business. They desired me to make out an account of all the moneys that have come into my hands, and those which I have paid. They asked the reasons for employing Mr Swanwick, and proceeded in other parts of their inquiry until the hour for going to Congress arrived. They inquired into the reasons for appointing Receivers of Continental taxes in each State, and Mr Clark expressed doubts of my authority to make those appointments. I therefore produced the Acts of Congress of the 3d of November, 1781, which satisfied him on that point. I informed the Committee, that my reasons for making new appointments, in preference to employing the Loan officers, were first, the Loan officers have not settled their accounts with the United States, and some of them have long accounts depending; secondly, although some of them may be fit, all are not; thirdly, had the money paid by the States, for the current expenses of the year, been put into the hands of the Loan officers, the people ent.i.tled to the interest on Loan Office certificates, issued by these gentlemen, would have been very clamorous for payment. They would not have entered into, or admitted the distinction of moneys granted for revenue or for current expenses of the year. _Diary._

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Office of Finance, August 30th, 1782.

Sir,

My letter of the 29th, which is enclosed, I have written for two reasons; one that you may be informed and I may stand justified in every respect, should the event take place; the other, which is the princ.i.p.al one, that you may found a warm application on it to the States. You will, I hope, keep this entirely to yourself. You will see, that I have not intrusted a view of it to my Secretary, or to any of the clerks. The effect of your application must depend on raising a very general alarm.

I have the honor to be, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.[11]

[11] _September 3d._ This day I requested a Committee of Congress for a conference. Mr Rutledge, Mr Osgood, and Mr Madison, were appointed, and I proposed to them to present the seventyfour gun ship, America, to his Most Christian Majesty; who has lately lost _Le Magnifique_, a seventyfour gun ship, in the harbor of Boston.

The Committee were unanimously of opinion with me, that this unfortunate incident afforded Congress an opportunity of showing a mark of the sincerity of their attachment to their ally, by enabling his Minister to continue the force of his fleet at a time when it could not otherwise be done. Besides the propriety which there is in showing this mark of attachment and grat.i.tude to his Most Christian Majesty, I have several other strong and pointed reasons, which induced me to propose and always to support this measure. The want of money in our treasury to fit, equip, and man this ship, is amongst the number. _Diary._

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Office of Finance, September 9th, 1782.

Sir,

I did myself the honor to propose, in my letter of the 30th of July last, the borrowing or four millions of dollars for the service of the ensuing year. It always gives me pain to repeat any application to Congress, because it is my duty to suppose they pay every proper attention to those things, which are submitted to their consideration.

But I must take the liberty, on this occasion to observe, that the many engagements I have been compelled to make for the purpose of supporting the public service to the present moment, will all fall due between this and the first of next year.

My prospects of relief from the revenues of America are slender indeed. As a safe opportunity for Europe will offer in a few days, Congress will be pleased to consider that the moments are precious.

They will consider, that I cannot act in this business without their authority, and that it will take some days to prepare the necessary despatches, even after that authority is given. I hope, Sir, that I shall not be understood as desiring to precipitate any acts or resolutions. We are fast approaching to the winter. If everything could be ready by the 15th of this month, we could not reckon on the arrival of despatches at Paris before the beginning of November. A month is but a short period to transact this important business, and this would not leave another month for the winter's pa.s.sage back.

With perfect respect, I have the honor to be, &c.