PARIS, February 26, 1788.
SIR,--I should with great cheerfulness have done anything I could for
the manufacturers of Bourges, had anything been in my power. To this I
should have been induced by justice to them, and a desire to serve
whomsoever you befriend. This company is part of a great mass of
creditors to whom the United States contracted debts during the late
war. Those States, like others, are not able to pay immediately all the
debts which the war brought on them; but they are proceeding rapidly in
that payment, and will, perhaps, get through it more speedily than any
nation ever did before.
You will have seen in the public papers the progress they are making in
this matter. They proceed in this by fixed rules, from which it is
their principle never to depart in any instance, nor to do on any
account for any one person what they will not be able to do for all
others claiming on the same grounds. This company should engage the
French Consul, or some other person on the spot, to be always ready to
present their claim whenever anything can be received on it, according
to the order of payment established by Congress. I suppose that the
interest might have been annually received. With respect to what they
call the reduction of the debt from its nominal sum, it is not a
reduction of it, but an appreciation at its true value. The public
effects of the United States, such as their paper bills of credit, loan
office bills, etc., were a commodity which varied its value from time
to time. A scale of their value for every month has been settled
according to what they sold for at market, in silver or gold. This
value in gold or silver, with an interest of six per cent. annually
till payment, is what the United States pay. This they are able to pay;
but were they to propose to pay off all their paper, not according to
what it cost the holder, in gold or silver, but according to the sum
named in it, their whole country, if sold, and all their persons into
the bargain, might not suffice. They would, in this case, make a
bankruptcy where none exists, as an individual, who being very able to
pay the real debts he has contracted, would undertake to give to every
man fifty times as much as he had received from him. The company will
receive the market value of the public effects they have on their
hands, and six per cent. per annum on that; and I can only repeat my
advice to them, to appoint some friend on the spot to act for them
whenever anything can be received. I have the honor to be, with
sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most
obedient, and most humble servant.