AMSTERDAM, March 29, 1788.
SIR,--I have now to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of the 14th,
18th and 23d instant. I would have preferred doing it in person, but
the season, and the desire of seeing what I have not yet seen, invite
me to take the route of the Rhine, I shall leave this place to-morrow
morning, and probably not reach Paris till the latter end of April. In
the moment we were to have conferred on the subject of paying the
arrears due to you, a letter of the 20th of February from the Board of
Treasury was received, forbidding the application of money to any
purpose, (except our current claims,) till the June interest should be
actually in hand. Being by the letter tied up from giving an order in
your favor, I return you the letter you had written to Mr. Jay, on the
supposition that the order for your arrears was given. It has been
suggested, however, that if you could receive bonds of the loan, you
could make them answer your purpose, and the commissioners say this
would in no wise interfere with the views of the treasury board, nor
the provision for the June interest. I have, therefore, recommended to
them in writing, to give you bonds to the amount of your balance, if
you choose to take them, rather than to wait. I wish this may answer
your purpose. I remember that in the conversation which I had the honor
of having with you, on the evening I was at the Hague, you said that
your enemies had endeavored to have it believed that Congress would
abandon you, and withdraw your appointments. An enemy generally says
and believes what he wishes, and your enemies particularly, are not
those who are most in the councils of Congress, nor the best qualified
to tell what Congress will do. From the evidences you have received of
their approbation, and from their well-known steadiness and justice,
you must be assured of a continuance of their favor, were they to
continue under the present form. Nor do I see anything in the new
government which threatens us with less firmness. The Senate, who will
make and remove their foreign officers, must, from its constitution, be
a wise and steady body. Nor would a new government begin its
administration by discarding old servants; servants who have put all to
the risk, and when the risk was great, to obtain that freedom and
security under which themselves will be what they shall be. Upon the
whole, my dear Sir, tranquillize yourself and your family upon this
subject. All the evidence which exists as yet, authorizes you to do
this, nor can I foresee any cause of disquiet in future. That none may
arise, that yourself and family may enjoy health, happiness, and the
continued approbation of those by whom you wish most to be approved, is
the sincere wish of him, who has the honor to be, with sentiments of
sincere esteem and attachment, your most obedient, and most humble
servant.