PARIS, December 25, 1786.
SIR,--A dislocation of my right wrist has for upwards of three months
prevented my writing to you. I begin to use it a little for the pen;
but it is with great pain. To this cause alone I hope you will ascribe
that I have acknowledged at one time the receipt of so many of your
letters. Their dates are September 12, 26, October 6, 17, 19, 23,
November 3, 17, December 1, and there is one without date. They were
communicated to the Marquis de LaFayette according to your desire, and
those to Mr. Jay have been forwarded from time to time as private
conveyances occurred, except some of the last for which no such
conveyance has occurred till now. A gentleman is setting out for
London, and from thence for New York.
We receive news from America of collections of the people in three or
four instances in the Eastern States, demanding delays in the
proceedings of the courts of justice. Those States, as you know,
depended before the war chiefly on their whale oil and fish. The former
was consumed in London, but, being now loaded with heavy duties, cannot
go there. Much of their fish went up the Mediterranean, now shut to us
by the piratical States. Their debts, therefore, press them, while the
means of payment have lessened. The mobs, however, separated without a
single injury having been offered to the person or property of any one,
nor did they continue twenty-four hours in any one place. This country
has opened a market for their whale oil, and we have made a good treaty
of peace with Morocco. But with Algiers we can do nothing. An American
paper has published a letter, as from me to the Count de Vergennes, on
the subject of our productions of tobacco and rice. It is surreptitious
and falsified; and both the true and untrue parts very improper for the
public eye. How a newswriter of America got at it, is astonishing, and
with what views it had been altered. I will be much obliged to you if
you will endeavor to prevent its publication in the Leyden Gazette.
The following question I take the liberty of proposing to you
confidentially. This country wants money in its treasury. Some
individuals have proposed to buy our debt of twenty-four millions at a
considerable discount. I have informed Congress of it, and suggested to
them the expediency of borrowing this sum in Holland, if possible, as
well to prevent loss to this country as to draw all their money
transactions to one point. But could they borrow the money in Holland?
I would be obliged to you for your opinion on this question, as it
would decide me in pressing this matter further on Congress, or letting
it drop. It will readily occur to you that the answer should come
through the hands of your ambassador here alone. The pain in which I
write obliges me, after many thanks for the interesting details of
transactions in your country, to assure you of the esteem and respect
with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most
humble servant.