PARIS, May 3, 1788.
DEAR SIR,--Mine of February the 6th, acknowledged the receipt of yours
of December the 9th and 20th; since that, those of February the 19th
and 20th have come to hand. The present will be delivered to you by Mr.
Warville, whom you will find truly estimable, and a great enthusiast
for liberty. His writings will have shown you this.
For public news, I must refer you to my letters to Mr. Jay. Those I
wrote to him from Amsterdam will have informed you of my journey
thither. While there, I endeavored to get, as well as I could, into the
state of national credit there; for though I am an enemy to the using
our credit but under absolute necessity, yet the possessing a good
credit I consider as indispensable, in the present system of carrying
on war. The existence of a nation having no credit is always
precarious. The credit of England is the best. Their paper sells at par
on the exchange of Amsterdam the moment any of it is offered, and they
can command there any sum they please. The reason is, that they never
borrow, without establishing taxes for the payment of the interest, and
they never yet failed one day in that payment. The Emperor and Empress
have good credit enough. They use it little and have been ever
punctual. This country cannot borrow at all there; for though they
always pay their interest within the year, yet it is often some months
behind. It is difficult to assign to our credit its exact station in
this scale. They consider us as the most certain nation on earth for
the principal; but they see that we borrow of themselves to pay the
interest, so that this is only a conversion of their interest into
principal. Our paper, for this reason, sells for from four to eight per
cent. below par, on the exchange, and our loans are negotiated with the
Patriots only. But the whole body of money dealers, Patriot and
Stadtholderian, look forward to our new government with a great degree
of partiality and interest. They are disposed to have much confidence
in it, and it was the prospect of its establishment, which enabled us
to set the loan of last year into motion again. They will attend
steadfastly to its first money operations. If these are injudiciously
begun, correction, whenever they shall be corrected, will come too
late. Our borrowings will always be difficult and disadvantageous. If
they begin well, our credit will immediately take the first station.
Equal provision for the interest, adding to it a certain prospect for
the principal, will give us a preference to all nations, the English
not excepted. The first act of the new government should be some
operation, whereby they may assume to themselves this station. Their
European debts form a proper subject for this. Digest the whole, public
and private, Dutch, French and Spanish, into a table, showing the sum
of interest due every year, and the portions of principal payable the
same year. Take the most certain branch of revenue, and one which shall
suffice to pay the interest, and leave such a surplus as may accomplish
all the payments of the capital, at terms somewhat short of those at
which they will become due. Let the surplusses of those years, in which
no reimbursement of principal falls, be applied to buy up our paper on
the exchange of Amsterdam, and thus anticipate the demands of
principal. In this way, our paper will be kept up at par; and this
alone will enable us to command in four and twenty hours, at any time,
on the exchange of Amsterdam, as many millions as that capital can
produce. The same act which makes this provision for the existing
debts, should go on to open a loan to their whole amount; the produce
of that loan to be applied, as fast as received, to the payment of such
parts of the existing debts as admit of payment. The rate of interest
to be as the government should privately instruct their agent, because
it must depend on the effect these measures would have on the exchange.
Probably it could be lowered from time to time. Honest and annual
publications of the payments made will inspire confidence, while
silence would conceal nothing from those interested to know.
You will perceive by the _compte rendu_ which I send you, that this
country now calls seriously for its interest at least. The non-payment
of this, hitherto, has done our credit little injury, because the
government here, saying nothing about it, the public have supposed they
wished to leave us at our ease as to the payment. It is now seen that
they call for it, and they will publish annually the effect of that
call. A failure here, therefore, will have the same effect on our
credit hereafter, as a failure at Amsterdam. I consider it then, as of
a necessity not to be dispensed with, that these calls be effectually
provided for. If it shall be seen that the general provision, before
hinted at, cannot be in time, then it is the present Government which
should take on itself to borrow in Amsterdam, what may be necessary.
The new Government should by no means be left by the old, to the
necessity of borrowing a stiver, before it can tax for its interest.
This will be to destroy the credit of the new Government in its birth.
And I am of opinion, that if the present Congress will add to the loan
of a million (which Mr. Adams and myself have proposed this year) what
may be necessary for the French calls to the year 1790, the money can
be obtained at the usual disadvantage. Though I have not, at this
moment, received such authentic information from our bankers as I may
communicate to Congress, yet I know privately from one of them, (Mr.
Jacob Van Staphorst, who is here,) that they had on hand a fortnight
ago, four hundred thousand florins, and the sale going on well. So that
the June interest, which had been in so critical a predicament, was
already secured. If the loan of a million on Mr. Adams' bonds of this
year, be ratified by Congress, the applications of the money on hand
may go on immediately, according to the statement I sent to Mr. Jay.
One article in this, I must beg you to press on the treasury board;
that is, an immediate order for the payment of the three years'
arrearages to the French officers. They were about holding a meeting to
take desperate measures on this subject, when I was called to Holland.
I desired them to be quiet till my return, and since my return, I have
pressed a further tranquillity till July, by which time, I have given
them reason to hope I may have an answer from the treasury board, to my
letters of March. Their ill humor can be contained no longer, and as I
know no reason why they may not be paid at that time, I shall have
nothing to urge in our defence after that.
* * * * * * * *
You remember the report, drawn by Governor Randolph, on the navigation
of the Mississippi. When I came to Europe, Mr. Thompson was so kind as
to have me a copy of it made out. I lent it to Dr. Franklin, and he
mislaid it, so that it could never be found. Could you make interest
with him to have me another copy made, and send it to me? By Mr.
Warville I send your pedometer. To the loop at the bottom of it, you
must sew a tape, and at the other end of the tape, a small hook, (such
as we use under the name of hooks and eyes) cut a little hole in the
bottom of your left watch pocket, pass the hook and tape through it,
and down between the breeches and drawers, and fix the hook on the edge
of your knee band, an inch from the knee buckle; then hook the
instrument itself by its swivel hook, on the upper edge of the watch
pocket. Your tape being well adjusted in length, your double steps will
be exactly counted by the instrument, the shortest hand pointing out
the thousands, the flat hand the hundreds, and the long hand the tens
and units. Never turn the hands backward; indeed, it is best not to set
them to any given place, but to note the number they stand at when you
begin to walk. The adjusting the tape to its exact length is a critical
business, and will cost you many trials. But once done, it is done for
ever. The best way is, to have a small buckle fixed on the middle of
the tape, by which you can take it up, and let it out at pleasure. When
you choose it should cease to count, unhook it from the top of the
watch pocket, and let it fall down to the bottom of the pocket.
* * * * * * * *
I am, with sentiments of the most sincere esteem and attachment, dear
Sir your affectionate friend and servant.