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The Writings of James Madison, comprising his Public Papers and his Private Correspondence, including his numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed, ed. Gaillard Hunt (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1900). Vol. 1.

Author: James Madison
Editor: Gaillard Hunt

Part of: The Writings of James Madison, 9 vols.

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TO EDMUND PENDLETON.1

Philadelphia, January 8, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Yesterday was opened, for the first time, the Bank instituted under the auspices of Congress. Its principal founder is Mr. Robert Morris, who has certain prerogatives with respect to it in his quality of Superintendent of Finance. It is pretty analogous in its principles to the Bank of England. The stock subscribed is 400,000 dollars. When the scheme was originally proposed to Congress for their approbation and patronage, a promise was given that as soon as it was ripe for operation the company should be incorporated. A few days ago the fulfilment of the promise was claimed. The competency of Congress to such an act had been called in question in the first instance; but the subject not lying in so near and distinct a view, the objections did not prevail. On the last occasion, the general opinion, though with some exceptions, was, that the Confederation gave no such power, and that the exercise of it would not bear the test of a forensic disquisition, and consequently would not avail the Institution. The Bank, however, supposing that such a sanction from Congress would at least give it a dignity and preeminence in the public opinion, urged the engagement of Congress; that on this engagement the subscriptions had been made, and that a disappointment would leave the subscribers free to withdraw their names. These considerations were re-inforced by the Superintendent of Finance, who relied on this Institution as a great auxiliary to his department; and, in particular, expected aid from it in a payment he is exerting himself to make to the army. The immediate interposition of Congress was rendered the more essential, too, by the sudden adjournment of the Assembly of this State, to whom the Bank might have been referred for the desired incorporation, which, it was the opinion of many, would have given them a sufficient legal existence in every State. You will conceive the dilemma in which these circumstances placed the members who felt on one side the importance of the Institution, and on the other a want of power, and an aversion to assume it. Something like a middle way finally produced an acquiescing, rather than an affirmative, vote. A charter of incorporation was granted, with a recommendation to the States to give it all the necessary validity within their respective jurisdictions. As this is a tacit admission of a defect of power, I hope it will be an antidote against the poisonous tendency of precedents of usurpation.

In the ordinance lately passed for regulating captures, which I presume you have seen, a clause was inserted exposing to capture all merchandizes produced in Great Britain, if coming into these States, and within three leagues of the coast, although the property of a neutral nation. Congress have now recommended to the States to subject them to seizure, during the war, if found on land within their respective limits. These measures had become necessary to check an evil which was every day increasing, and which both enabled and encouraged Great Britain to persevere in the war, at the same time that it mortified our ally with daily seeing the fruits of his generosity to us remitted in payment to the rival of his nation and the enemy of both.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.1

Philadelphia, January 15, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The result of the attack on your administration was so fully anticipated that it made little impression on me.2 If it had been consistent with your sentiments and views to engage in the service to which you were called, it would have afforded me both unexpected and singular satisfaction, not only from the personal interest I felt in it, but from the important aid which the interest of the State would probably have derived from it. What I particularly refer to is her claim to Western territory. The machinations which have long been practised by interested individuals against this claim, are well known to you. The late proceedings within the walls of Congress, in consequence of the territorial cessions, produced by their recommendations to the States claiming the Western country, were, many weeks ago, transmitted for the Legislature by a Captain Irish. By the same conveyance I wrote to you on the subject. We have the mortification to find, by our latest letters from Richmond, that this gentleman had not, at the date of them, appeared there. As it is uncertain whether that information may not have totally miscarried, it will be proper to repeat to you that the States, besides Virginia, from which the cessions came, were Connecticut and New York. The cession of the former consisted of all her claim west of New York as far as the Mississippi. That of the latter, of all her claims beyond a certain western limit, drawn on the occasion. The cession of Connecticut extended to the soil only, expressly reserving the jurisdiction. That of New York made no reservation. These cessions, with that of Virginia, and sundry memorials from the Indiana and other land companies, were referred to a committee, composed of a member from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The ingredients of this composition prepared us for the complexion of their proceedings. Their first step was to investigate and discuss the respective titles of the States to the territory ceded. As this was directly in the face of the recommendation of Congress, which professed to bury all such discussions, and might prejudge future controversies between individual members of the Union, we refused to exhibit any evidence in favor of the title of Virginia, and endeavored, though in vain, to prevail on Congress to interdict the Committee from proceeding in the inquiry. The next step of the Committee was still more obnoxious. They went fully into a hearing of the memorialists through their agent, and received all the evidence adduced in support of their pretensions. On this occasion we renewed our remonstrances to the Committee, and our complaints to Congress, but with as little effect as on the first occasion. The upshot of the whole was a report to Congress, rejecting the cessions of Connecticut and Virginia, and accepting that of New York; disallowing also the claims of the companies northwest of the Ohio, but justifying that of the Indiana company. The report seems to distrust the doctrine hitherto maintained, of territorial rights being incident to the United States collectively, which are not comprehended within any individual State; substituting the expedient of recognizing the title of New York, stretching over the whole country claimed by the other ceding States, and then accepting a transfer of it to the United States. In this state the business now rests—the report having never been taken into consideration; nor do we wish it should, till it shall have undergone the consideration of Virginia.

In whatever light the policy of this proceeding may be viewed, it affords an additional proof of the industry and perseverance with which the territorial rights of Virginia are persecuted, and of the necessity of fortifying them with every precaution which their importance demands. As a very obvious and necessary one, we long since recommended to the State an accurate and full collection of the documents which relate to the subject. If the arrival of Captain Irish had taken place before the adjournment of the Assembly, and during your stay with it, we flattered ourselves that the recommendation would have been attended to, and that the task would have fallen on you. As this was not the case, we have no hope at present of being enabled, from any other sources than the voluntary aid of individuals, to contradict even verbally the misrepresentations and calumnies which are daily levelled against the claims of Virginia, and which cannot fail to prepossess the public with errors, injurious at present to her reputation, and which may affect a future decision on her rights. Colonel Mason’s industry and kindness have supplied us with some valuable papers and remarks. Mr. Jones has also received from Mr. Pendleton some judicious remarks on the subject. We are still, notwithstanding, far from possessing a complete view of it. Will you permit me to ask of you such information as your researches have yielded, with the observations which you have made in the course of them. I would not obtrude such a request on you if the subject were not of public importance, and if it could have been addressed with equal prospect of advantage elsewhere. Indeed, if you could prevail on yourself to spare as much time as would survey the whole subject, beginning with the original charter, pursuing it through the subsequent charters and other public acts of the crown, through the government of Virginia, and referring to all the transactions with the Indians which have been drawn into the question, the public utility, I am persuaded, would sufficiently reward you for the labor.

TO EDMUND PENDLETON.1

Philadelphia, January 22, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Congress are much occupied and perplexed at present with the case of Vermont. The pretensions of that settlement to the character of an independent State, with the grounds on which they are made, and the countenance given them by Congress, are, I presume, pretty well known to you. It has long been contended, that an explicit acknowledgment of that character, and an admission of them into the Federal Union, was an act both of justice and policy. The discovery made through several channels, and particularly the intercepted letters of Lord G. Germaine, added such force to the latter of these considerations, that in the course of last summer preliminary overtures were made on the part of Congress for taking them into the Confederation, containing, as one condition on the part of Vermont, that they should contract their claims within the bounds to which they were originally confined, and guaranteeing to New York and New Hampshire all the territory without those bounds to which their encroachments had been extended. Instead of complying with this condition, they have gone on in their encroachments both on the New York and New Hampshire sides, and there is at this moment every symptom of approaching hostility with each of them. In this delicate crisis, the interposition of Congress is again called for, and, indeed, seems to be indispensable; but whether in the way of military coercion, or a renewal of former overtures, or by making the first a condition of a refusal of the last, is not so unanimously decided. Indeed, with several members, and, I may say, States in Congress, a want of power either to decide on their independence, or to open the door of the Confederacy to them, is utterly disclaimed; besides which the danger of the precedent, and the preponderancy it would give to the Eastern scale, deserve serious consideration. These reasons, nevertheless, can only prevail when the alternative contains fewer evils. It is very unhappy that such plausible pretexts, if not necessary occasions, of assuming power should occur. Nothing is more distressing to those who have a true respect for the constitutional modifications of power, than to be obliged to decide on them.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, January 22, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The repeal of the impost act by Virginia is still considered as covered with some degree of mystery. Colonel Bland’s representations do not remove the veil. Indeed, he seems as much astonished at it, and as unable to penetrate it, as any of us. Many have surmised that the enmity of Doctor Lee against Morris is at the bottom of it. But had that been the case, it can scarcely be supposed that the repeal would have passed so quietly. By this time, I presume, you will be able to furnish me with its true history, and I ask the favor of you to do it. Virginia could never have cut off this source of public relief at a more unlucky crisis than when she is protesting her inability to comply with the continental requisitions. She will, I hope, be yet made sensible of the impropriety of the step she has taken, and make amends by a more liberal grant. Congress cannot abandon the plan as long as there is a spark of hope. Nay, other plans on a like principle must be added. Justice, gratitude, our reputation abroad, and our tranquillity at home, require provisions for a debt of not less than fifty millions of dollars, and I pronounce that this provision will not be adequately met by separate acts of the States. If there are not revenue laws which operate at the same time through all the States, and are exempt from the control of each—the mutual jealousies which begin already to appear among them will assuredly defraud both our foreign and domestic creditors of their just claims.

The deputies of the army are still here, urging the objects of their mission. Congress are thoroughly impressed with the justice of them, and are disposed to do everything which depends on them. But what can a Virginia Delegate say to them, whose constituents declare that they are unable to make the necessary contributions, and unwilling to establish funds for obtaining them elsewhere? The valuation of lands is still under consideration.

TO EDMUND PENDLETON.1

Philadelphia, February 7, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Congress are still occupied with the thorny subject of Vermont. Some plan for a general liquidation and apportionment of the public debts is also under their consideration, and I fear will be little less perplexing. It is proposed that until justice and the situation of the States will admit of a valuation of lands, the States should be applied to for power to substitute such other rule of apportioning the expenditures as shall be equitable and practicable, and that Commissioners be appointed by the concurrent act of the United States and each State, to settle the accounts between them. The scheme is not yet matured, and will meet with many difficulties in its passage through Congress. I wish it may not meet with much greater when it goes down to the States. A spirit of accommodation alone can render it unanimously admissible; a spirit which but too little prevails, but which in few instances is more powerfully recommended by the occasion than the present. If our voluminous and entangled accounts be not put into some certain course of settlement before a foreign war is off our hands, it is easy to see they must prove an exuberant and formidable source of intestine dissensions.

TO JAMES MADISON.mad. mss.

Feb. 12, 1782.

Hon^d. Sir,—

A conveyance by a waggon returning to your neighbourhood this moment presenting itself I make use of it to forward a collection of papers which have accumulated since the last supply. If there are any deficiencies be so good as to point them out to me. By the same conveyance I send to M^r. W. Maury 4 English grammars the price of which is 3 dollars which he is to remit thro’ you.

The disappointment in forwarding the money by Mr. Brownlow has been sorely felt by me, and the more so as the Legislature has made no provision for the subsistence of the Delegates that can be relyed on.1 I hope some opportunity will soon put it in your power to renew the attempt to transmit it, & that the delay will have made considerable addition to it. Besides the necessity of this supply for the common occasions, I have frequent opportunities here of purchasing many scarce & necessary books at ¼ of the price which if to be had at all they will hereafter cost me. If an immediate conveyance does not present itself for the cash, I w^d. recomend that a bill of exchange on some merchant here be got of Mr. Hunter, Mr. Maury or other respectable merchant, & forwarded by the post. This is a safer method than the first and I make no doubt is very practicable. I wish at all events the trial to be made & that speedily.

I recollect nothing new which is not contained in some of the late papers. Present my affectionate regards to all the family. I have not time to add more than that I am,

your dutiful son.

TO EDMUND PENDLETON.1

Philadelphia, February 25, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

You have been misinformed, I find, with respect to that article in the scheme of the Bank, which claims for it the exclusive privilege of issuing circulating notes. It is true, Congress have recommended to the States to allow it such privilege, but it is to be considered only during the present war. Under such a limitation it was conceived both necessary to the success of the scheme, and consistent with the policy of the several States; it being improbable that the collective credit and specie of the whole would support more than one such institution, or that any particular State would, during the war, stake its credit anew on any paper experiment whatever.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.1

Philadelphia, March 18, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

I have met with a bundle of old pamphlets belonging to the public library here, in which is a map2 published in 1650, which, from this and other circumstances, I am pretty confident is of the same impression with that of Dr. Smith’s. It represents the South Sea at about ten days’ travel from the heads or falls, I forget which, of James River. From the tenor, however, of the pamphlet to which it is immediately annexed, and indeed of the whole collection, there is just ground to suspect that this representation was an artifice to favor the object of the publications, which evidently was to entice emigrants from England by a flattering picture of the advantages of this country, one of which, dwelt on in all the pamphlets, is the vicinity of the South Sea, and the facility it afforded of a trade with the Eastern world. Another circumstance, which lessens much the value of this map to the antiquary, is, that it is more modern by twenty-five years than those extant in Purchase’s Pilgrim, which are referred to in the negotiations between the British and French Commissaries touching the bounds of Nova Scotia, as the first of authenticity relating to this part of the world. If, notwithstanding these considerations, you still desire that a copy be taken from the map above described, I shall with pleasure execute your orders; or if you wish that a copy of Virginia, or of the whole country, may be taken from those in Purchase, your orders shall be equally attended to. I much doubt, however, whether that book be so extremely scarce as to require a transcript from it for the purpose you seem to have in view.

Congress have taken no step in the business of the Western territory since the report of the Committee, of which I have already given you an account, and which, we hear, arrived at Richmond on the day of the adjournment of the Assembly. We wish it to undergo their consideration, and to receive their instructions before we again move in it.

TO EDMUND PENDLETON.1

Philadelphia, March 19, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The Ministerial speeches, with other circumstances, place it beyond a doubt that the plan for recovering America will be changed. A separate peace with the Dutch—a suspension of the offensive war here—an exertion of their resources thus disencumbered against the naval power of France and Spain—and a renewal of the arts of seduction and division in the United States, will probably constitute the outlines of the new plan. Whether they will succeed in the first article of it, cannot be ascertained by the last intelligence we have from Holland. It is only certain that negotiations are on foot, under the auspices of the Empress of Russia.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.1

Philadelphia, March 26, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

A letter has been lately received from you by the President of Congress, accompanied by a bundle of papers procured from the Cherokees by Colonel Campbell. As it appears that these papers were transmitted at the request of the late President, it is proper to apprize you that it was made without any written or verbal sanction, and even without the knowledge of Congress; and not improbably with a view of fishing for discoveries which may be subservient to the aggressions meditated on the territorial rights of Virginia. It would have been unnecessary to trouble you with this, had it not appeared that Colonel Campbell has given a promise of other papers; which if he should fulfil, and the papers contain any thing which the adversaries of Virginia may make an ill use of, you will not suffer any respect for the acts of Congress to induce you to forward hither.

TO JAMES MADISON.mad. mss.

Philad^a. March 30^th. 1782.

Hon^d. Sir,—

Mr. J. Walker has safely delivered to me three letters from you attended with the money therein specified. He has also been so obliging as to undertake the conveyance of the several articles of medicine you wanted with a gallon keg filled with good Port wine; to all which I add a large packet of Newspapers—and an almanack. The last packet I sent was by a waggon returning to your neighborhood which brought me a letter from M^r. W. Maury, by which I sent at the same time a small supply of Bark for my Mother.

I mentioned to you in one of my former letters that I had a prospect of getting on very favorable terms a few scarce books from a library brought hither for sale by Col. Lane. My purchases of him have amounted in the whole to nineteen pounds three shillings of this currency. As I had not the money here for him, & he could not conveniently wait till it would be convenient for me to pay him, I was obliged to give him a draught on you. I hope you will be able to find means to satisfy it. If it can not be otherwise done than by a deduction from the further supply you have in contemplation for me I must submit to it. How far I shall depend on you for the resources necessary for my expenses here not included in the legal provision, and for the arrearages into which I have unavoidably fallen, will be known as soon as the assembly have finally decided on our accounts & the allowance which is to be made to us. This I suppose will be done at their session in May next. Unless liberal principles prevail on the occasion, I shall be under the necessity of selling . . . a negro.

The newspapers will give you in general the intelligence we have from Europe. As far as we are enabled to judge of the views of the British Cabinet, the misfortunes of one more campaign at least will be necessary to conquer their obstinacy. They are attempting a separate peace with the Dutch & talk of suspending their offensive war ag^st. us, & directing their whole resources ag^st. the naval power of France & Spain. If this be their real plan we may be sure they do not mean by it to abandon their pretensions to the U. States but try another mode for recovering them. During their offensive exertions ag^st. our ally, they can be practicing insidious ones ag^st. us: and if in the first they should be successful & in the latter disappointed, a renewal of a vigorous war upon us will certainly take place. The best security ag^st. every artifice & every event will be such military preparations on our part as will be sufficient either to resist or expell them as the case may require.

With my affectionate regards for the family
I am Hon^d. Sir y^r. dutiful son

TO EDMUND PENDLETON.1

Philadelphia, April 2, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The only event with which the period since my last has enabled me to repay your favor of the twenty-fifth ultimo, is the arrival of four Deputies from Vermont, with a plenipotentiary commission to accede to the Confederacy. The business is referred to a committee who are sufficiently devoted to the policy of gaining the vote of Vermont into Congress. The result will be the subject of a future letter.

The thinness, or rather vacancy, of the Virginia line, and the little prospect of recruiting it, are subjects of a very distressing nature. If those on whom the remedy depends were sensible of the insulting comparisons to which they expose the State, and of the wound they give to her influence in the general councils, I am persuaded more decisive exertions would be made. Considering the extensive interests and claims which Virginia has, and the enemies and calumnies which these very claims form against her, she is perhaps under the strongest obligation of any State in the Union, to preserve her military contingent on a respectable footing; and unhappily her line is perhaps, of all, in the most disgraceful condition. The only hope that remains is, that her true policy will be better consulted at the ensuing Assembly, and that as far as a proper sense of it may be deficient, the expostulations of her friends, and clamors of her enemies, will supply the place of it. If I speak my sentiments too freely on this point, it can only be imputed to my sensibility to the honor and interest of my country.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, April 9, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

I perceive, by a passage cited in the examination of the Connecticut claim to lands in Pennsylvania, that we have been mistaken in supposing the acquiescence of Virginia in the defalcations of her chartered territory to have been a silent one. It said that “at a meeting of the Privy Council, July 3d, 1633, was taken into consideration the petition of the planters of Virginia, remonstrating that some grants had lately been obtained of a great proportion of the lands and territories within the limits of the Colony there; and a day was ordered for further hearing the parties, (to wit: Lord Baltimore, and said adventurers and planters.)” The decision against Virginia is urged as proof that the Crown did not regard the charter as in force with respect to the bounds of Virginia. It is clearly a proof that Virginia at that time thought otherwise, and made all the opposition to the encroachment which could then have been made to the arbitrary acts which gave birth to the present revolution. If any monuments exist of the transactions of Virginia at the period above mentioned, or any of the successive periods, at which these encroachments had been repeated, you will have an opportunity of searching more minutely into them. It is not probable, however, that after a failure in the first opposition any further opposition will be found to subsequent grants out of Virginia.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.1

Philadelphia, April 16, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

I entreat that you will not suffer the chance of a speedy and final determination of the Territorial Question, by Congress, to affect your purpose of tracing the title of Virginia to her claims. It is, in the first place, very uncertain when a determination will take place, even if it takes place at all; and in the next it will assuredly not be a final one, unless Virginia means to be passive and silent under aggression on her rights. In every event, therefore, it is proper to be armed with every argument and document that can vindicate her title. Her adversaries will be either the United States, or New York, or both. The former will either claim on the principle that the vacant country is not included in any particular State, and consequently falls to the whole, or will clothe themselves with the title of the latter by accepting its cession. In both cases it will be alleged, that the charter of 1609 was annulled by the resumption of it into the hands of the Crown, and that the subsequent grants to Maryland, &c., denote this to have been the construction of it; that the proclamation of 1763 has constituted the Alleghany ridge the Western limit of Virginia, and that the letter of President Nelson, on the subject of a new Colony on the Ohio, relinquishes on the part of Virginia all interference with the authority of the Crown beyond that limit. In case the title of New York should alone be opposed to that of Virginia, it will be further alleged against the latter, that the treaties of 1684, 1701, 1726, 1744, and 1754, between the Government of the former and the Six Nations, have annexed to it all the country claimed by these nations and their tributaries, and that the expense of New York in defending and protecting them ought in equity to be reimbursed by this exclusive advantage. The original title of New York is indeed drawn from the charter to the Duke of York in 1663-4, renewed after the treaty of Westminister in 1674. But this charter will not, I believe, reach any territory claimed by Virginia.

Much stress will also be laid on the treaty of Fort Stanwix, particularly as a bar to any corroboration of the claim of Virginia from the treaties of Lancaster and Loggstown. It is under this treaty that the companies of Indiana and Vandalia shelter their pretensions against the claims of Virginia, &c. &c. See the pamphlets entitled “Public Good” and “Plain Facts.” As these pretentions can be of no avail, unless the jurisdiction of Congress, or New York at least, can be established, they no otherwise deserve notice than as sources of calumny and influence in the public councils; in both which respects it is the interest of Virginia that an antidote should be applied.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, April 23, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Congress have received from the Minister of France some informal communications relative to the issue of the proposed mediation of Vienna and Petersburgh. The answer of the British Court to the preliminary articles is among them. It rejects explicitly that part of the plan which requires concurrent negotiations between her and America, and guaranties the result, as incompatible with the relation of subjects to their sovereign, and the essential interests of the Empire; alleging, at the same time, that a great part of the people are disposed to return to their allegiance, and that such a treaty would supply the rebels with new pretexts for misleading them. The final answer of the mediating Courts professes great impartiality and delicacy toward the belligerent parties; adheres to the expediency of the first plan, and hopes that it may still become, under more favorable circumstances, the basis of a general pacification.

Another letter has come to hand from Mr. Dana. His proposed step was probably taken a few days after the date of it, which was about the middle of October.

The Committee on the last application from Vermont have reported fully in their favor. The consideration of the report will not be called for, however, till the pulse of nine States beats favorably for it. This is so uncertain that the agents have returned. The recognition of the Independence of Vermont is not fully stated in the report, as a resolution, antecedent, went to authorizing a committee to treat with them on the terms of their admission. You will know the object of this arrangement.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, May, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The enclosed gazette details all the information which we have received relative to the parliamentary advances towards a negotiation with the United States. The first reports which issued from the packet which brought them, were of a very different complexion, and raised high expectations of peace. We now find the ideas of the opposition, as well as the Ministry, to be far short of the only condition on which it can take place. Those who are the farthest reconciled to concessions calculate on a dissolution of the compact with France. The Ministry will yield to the experiment, and turn the result upon their adversaries. Our business is plain. Fidelity to our allies, and vigor in military preparation,—these, and these alone, will secure us against all political devices.

We have received no intelligence which speaks a danger of a separate peace between the Dutch and Great Britain. Mr. Adams’ request of a categorical answer was taken, ad referendum, prior, if I mistake not, to the knowledge of Cornwallis’ fate; and it is not likely that after that event they would be less disposed to respect our overtures, or reject those of the enemy.

We have letters from Mr. Jay and Mr. Carmichael of as late date as the twenty-seventh of February. They differ in nothing from the style of the former. The conduct of the Spanish Court subsequent to the date of the letter received the day preceding your departure, corresponds entirely with the tenor of it as therein related. Mr. Jones will inform you of the act of Congress which that letter produced.

We have made no progress in the Western subject. We mean to desist, after one or two more attempts, and state the matter to the Assembly by next post, expecting that they will pursue such measures as their interest prescribes, without regard to the resolutions which proposed the cession.

I beg you to keep me punctually informed of every legislative step touching the Western territory. I suppose the cession cannot fail to be revoked, or, at least, a day of limitation set to it. The condition relative to the companies will certainly be adhered to in every event. I find that those who have been against us do not wish to lose sight of the prospect altogether. If the State is firm and prudent, I have little doubt that she will be again courted. Previous to Mr. Jones’ departure, our opinions were united on the expediency of making the impost of five per cent. subservient to an honorable adjustment of territory and accounts. I have since discovered that Varnum is left out, the latter having promoted it, and that Chase is inflexible against it. Massachusetts also holds out. The expedient, therefore, would not be efficacious, and clamors would be drawn on Virginia, which it would be best should fall elsewhere. Show this to Mr. Jones. He will be with you about the twentieth instant.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, May 14, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The Ceres man-of-war, we are informed by a New York paper, arrived there, in twenty-five days, on the fifth instant, having on board His Excellency, Sir Guy Carleton, Commander-in-Chief, &c., and commissioned for making peace or war in North America. The intelligence brought by this conveyance is, that the vibrations of power between the Ministry and their rivals had terminated in the complete dissolution of the former and organization of the latter. What change of measures will follow this change of men is yet concealed from us. The bill for empowering the King to conclude a peace or truce with the revolted Colonies in North America had been brought into Parliament on the twenty-seventh of March. The language of it is at the same time cautious and comprehensive, and seems to make eventual provision for our independence, without betraying any purpose of acknowledging it. The terms peace and truce are scarcely applicable to any other conventions than national ones. And the King is authorized to annul or suspend all acts of Parliament whatever, as far as they speak of the Colonies. He can, therefore, clearly remove any parliamentary bar to his recognition of our Independence, and I know of no other bar to his treating with America on that ground. All this is, however, very different from a real peace. The King will assuredly prefer war as long as his Ministry will stand by him, and the sentiments of his present Ministry, particularly of Shelburne, are as peremptory against the dismemberment of the Empire as those of any of their predecessors. They will at least try a campaign of negotiation against the United States, and of war against their other enemies, before they submit to it. It is probable that the arrival of Sir Guy Carleton will not long precede an opening of the first campaign. Congress will, I am persuaded, give a proper verbal answer to any overtures with which he may insult them; but the best answer will come from the States, in such supplies of men and money as will expel him and all our other enemies from the United States.

We have at length brought our territorial business to an issue. It was postponed sine die on the sixth instant. We have transmitted the whole proceeding to the Governor, to be laid before the Assembly.

There are various accounts from the West Indies, which render it pretty certain that an engagement has taken place between the two fleets. The circumstances are not ascertained. The issue seems, at least, to have been so far in favor of our allies as to leave them free to pursue their course with their convoy to Hispaniola, where a junction is to be made with the Spaniards. The object of this junction is universally supposed to be Jamaica.

Since I finished the above, a letter has come to Congress from General Washington, enclosing one to him from Sir Guy Carleton, announcing his commission, in conjunction with Admiral Digby, to treat of peace with this country, and requesting a passport for his secretary, Mr. Morgan, to bring a similar letter of compliment to Congress. The request will certainly be refused, and General Washington probably directed to receive and forward any despatches which may be properly addressed to Congress.

A public audience was yesterday given to the Minister of France, in which he formally announced the birth of the Dauphin. It was deemed politic at this crisis to display every proper evidence of tionate attachment to our ally. The Minister was accordingly received with military honors, and the audience concluded with the discharge of cannon, and a feu de joi of small arms. A public entertainment followed, and fireworks at night closed the scene.

The answer reported by the committee on Mr. Dana’s letter gave him a cautionary instruction. It afterwards went to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and thence, I suppose, in his dress, to Petersburg. Mr. Jones will give you more satisfactory information on this, as also with respect to the answer to Mr. Jay’s letter.

Your surmises relative to a revival of paper currency alarms me. It is impossible that any evil can render such an alternative eligible. It will revive the hopes of the enemy, increase the internal debility of the States, and awaken the clamors of all ranks throughout the United States against her. Much more to Virginia’s honor would it be to rescind the taxes, although the consequence of that can but be of a most serious nature.

TO JAMES MADISON.mad. mss.

Phil^a., May 20th, 1782.

Hon^d. Sir,—

Having written a letter and enclosed it with a large collection of Newspapers, for you which was to have been carried by M^r. J. Smith, but which I have now put into the hands of Capt: Walker, whose return will be quicker, little remains for me to add here. Our anxiety on account of the West India news, published at New York is still supported by contradictory reports and conjectures. The account however to which Rodneys name is prefixed renders our apprehensions too strong for our hopes. Rivington has been very bold in several of his spurious publications, and at this conjuncture might venture as far to serve a particular turn as at any. But it is scarcely credible that he would dare or be permitted to sport with so high an official name.

If M^r. Jefferson will be so obliging as to superintend the legal studies of W^m. I think he cannot do better than prosecute the plan he has adopted. The interruption occasioned by the Election of Mr. J.1 although inconvenient in that respect, is by no means a decisive objection ag^st. it.

I did not know before that the letters which M^r. Walker was to have carried last fall had met with the fate which it seems they did. I shall be more cautious hereafter. The papers missing in your list were I presume for I do not recollect, contained in them.

The short notice does not leave me time to obtain the information you ask as to Stiles. I have never heard of Iron Stiles cast here, nor do I know the price of Copper ones.

If Continental money passes here at all it is in a very small quantity, at very great discount, and merely to serve particular local & temporary ends.

It has at no time been more difficult for me to fix my probable return to Virg^a. At present all my Colleagues have left Congress except Col: Bland, and it is a crisis which calls for a full representation from every State. Anxious as I am to visit my friends, as long as I sustain a public trust, I shall feel a principle which is superior to it. The state of my finances also, unless the Assembly shall make a different provision for the Delegates from what has hitherto been in force, will be a serious bar to my removal from this place. I shall I believe be under the necessity of purchasing a carriage of some kind besides discharging considerable arrears, & where the means for effecting either are to be found is totally without my comprehension. * * * * *

I am, etc.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, May 21, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Your favor of the 10th was received yesterday. I suspect that I have expressed myself ambiguously with respect to Mr. Jefferson. He does not allege ignorance of the report of the committee, but of the title of New York, which is the ground on which the report places the controversy with Virginia.

The final report of our suit to Congress for an answer to the Western cession was sent by the last post. Mr. Jones can explain every thing relative to it. I feel myself much disburdened by the termination of the business. If it should be revived here, in consequence of steps taken by the Legislature, I flatter myself it will be under circumstances less embarrassing.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, May 28, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

A letter from Dr. Franklin, of the fourth March, informs the Superintendent of Finance that the Court of France had granted an aid of six millions of livres to the United States for the present year. It appears, however, that this aid has been wholly anticipated, as well as the aids of the last year, by bills of exchange; by supplies for the army, particularly those in Holland; by the debt of Beaumarchais, amounting to two millions and a half of livres; by the interest money; by the deduction on account of Virginia, computed at seven hundred thousand livres, &c. The States must, therefore, by some means or other, supply the demands of Congress, or a very serious crisis must ensue. After the differences between the modes of feeding the army by contracts and by the bayonet have been experienced both by the army and the people, a recurrence to the latter cannot be too much dreaded.

The Province of Friesland has instructed its Delegates in the States General to concur in a public reception of Mr. Adams. The city of Dort has done the same to theirs in the Provincial Assembly of Holland.

The above letter came by the Alliance, which is arrived at Rhode Island. Captain Barry, I am told, says that the Marquis will come with a squadron for the American coast, which was equipping. If this be true, Barry is wrong in disclosing it. I distrust it.

A French cutter is since arrived, after a short passage, with despatches for the Minister here. He received them on Saturday by an express from Salem, and has not yet communicated their contents to Congress. I understand, through the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, that the Court of London has lately proposed to the Court of France a separate peace, as the price of which she would place Dunkirk in its former state, make some sacrifices in the East Indies, and accede to a status quo in the West Indies. The answer of France was dictated by her engagements with the United States. This insidious step taken at the same moment with the agency of Mr. Carleton, will, I hope, not long be withheld from the public. We have heard nothing from this gentleman since the answer to his request of a passport for his secretary.

In order to explain our public affairs to the States, and to urge the necessity of complying with the requisitions of Congress, we have determined to depute two members to visit the Eastern States, and two the Southern. The first are Root and Montgomery; the others, Rutledge and Clymer. I put this in cypher, because secrecy has been enjoined by Congress. The deputation will probably set off in a few days.

I find that the Minister of France has been informed, by some correspondent in Virginia, that the late intelligence from Britain has produced very unfavorable symptoms in a large party. He seems not a little discomposed at it. The honor of the State concurred with my own persuasion in dictating a consolatory answer to him. For this reason, as well as for others, I think it would be expedient for the Legislature to enter into an unanimous declaration on this point. Other States are doing this, and such a mode of announcing the sense of the people may be regarded as more authentic than a declaration from Congress. The best form, I conceive, will be that of an instruction to the Delegates. Do not fail to supply me with accurate and full information on the whole subject of this paragraph.

A letter from Dr. Franklin, of thirtieth of March, enclosing a copy of one to him from Mr. Adams, at the Hague, was laid before Congress subsequently to writing the above. By these, it appears not only that an essay has been made on the fidelity of France to the alliance, but that the pulse of America has been at the same time separately felt through each of those Ministers. They both speak with becoming indignation on the subject, attest the firmness of our ally, and recommend decisive efforts for expelling the enemy from our country. Mr. Adams says, ‘ten or eleven cities of Holland have declared themselves in favor of American Independence, and it is expected that to-day or to-morrow this Province will take the decisive resolution of admitting me to my audience. Perhaps some of the other Provinces may delay it for three or four weeks, but the Prince has declared that he has no hopes of resisting the torrent, and, therefore, that he shall not attempt it. The Duke de la Vauguyon has acted a very friendly and honorable part in this business, without, however, doing any ministerial act in it.’ What was said above of Friesland came from Mr. Barclay, the Consul. Mr. Adams says nothing of that Province, although his letter is of later date.

The Secretary of War has just given notice to Congress, that the Department of Finance is unable to supply the essential means of opening the campaign. This shocks, rather than surprises, us. It will be one article in the communications of the deputies above mentioned, and adds force to the expediency of their mission.

The denial to Congress of the right of granting flags is singular indeed. May not the power of Congress to agree to a truce be contested on the same grounds? The former is a partial truce, and if the silence of the Confederation reserves it to the States, the same silence reserves the latter. Admitting that Congress had the right of granting flags, was it not exercised to the advantage of Virginia in procuring a vent to her staple, and stopping the exportation of her specie?

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, May 29, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

I wrote you yesterday morning by the post, fully and in cypher. As I am told, however, the bearer will probably be in Richmond before the post, it may not be amiss to repeat to you that we have heard nothing from Carleton since our refusal of the passport to his secretary, and that we have authentic information from Europe, that insidious attempts have been made both on Doctor Franklin and Mr. Adams, by British emissaries, as well as tempting overtures employed to divide our ally from us. These machinations have served no other end than to expose the meanness and impotence of our enemy, and to supply fresh proofs of the indissoluble nature of the alliance. Mr. Adams begins to advance with considerable speed towards the object of his mission in Holland.

The action in the West Indies is still wrapt up in darkness. The enclosed paper contains a specimen of the obscure and contradictory advices which have alternately excited our hopes and our apprehensions.

A copy of sundry resolutions of the House of Delegates, touching the exportation of tobacco in the flags, was laid before Congress yesterday by the Superintendent of Finance, and referred to a committee. On a review of the doctrine of the ninth Article of Confederation, I believe, the right of the State to prohibit in the present case the exportation of her produce cannot be controverted. The States seem to have reserved at least a right to subject foreigners to the same imposts and prohibitions as their own citizens; and the citizens of Virginia are at present prohibited from such an exportation as is granted in favor of the British merchants. This is a very interesting point, and unless the division line between the authority of Congress and the States be properly ascertained, every foreign treaty may be a source of internal as well as foreign controversy. You will call to mind one now in negotiation, which may be affected by the construction of this clause in the Confederation. Congress have no authority to enter into any convention with a friendly power which would abridge such a right. They cannot have a greater authority with respect to a hostile power. On the other side, it is equally clear, that the State has no authority to grant flags for the exportation of its produce to the enemy. Armed vessels would not respect them, nor would they be more respected in the Courts of Admiralty. Unless Congress and the State, therefore, act in concert, no tobacco can be remitted to New York, and a further drain of specie must ensue. When the matter was first opened in Congress, the impression was unfavorable to the right of the States, and pretty free strictures were likely to be made on its opposition to the constitutional power of Congress. It became necessary, therefore, to recur to the law and the testimony, which produced an acquiescence in the contrary doctrine. Their sentiments, however, with regard to the policy and consistency of the resolutions, are very different. The last resolution in particular, compared with the preliminary doctrines, produces animadversions, which I need not recite to you. There are several reasons which make me regret much this variation between Congress and Virginia, of which a material one is that a great personage will be touched by it, since it originates in his act; and, since a conference between a committee and him and the Superintendent, he concurred in the expediency of granting the passports.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, June 4, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

According to your request, I send an authenticated extract from the Journals of the vote of Congress on the clause which interdicts British manufactures. It has, however, been for some time in print, and will probably be at Richmond before you receive the manuscript copy. The arguments urged against the measure appear to me in the same light in which you describe them. The policy of Great Britain in the capture of St. Eustatia has been constantly reprobated by some of the wisest statesmen. But whatever her policy might at that period be, it is manifest that a very different one is now pursued. British goods are issued from the enemy’s line with greater industry than they have ever been, and, as is universally believed, with the knowledge, if not at the instigation, of those in power. Indeed, they would counteract their new system in doing otherwise. The sense of the Eastern States will appear from the ayes and noes on the question. Mr. Adams, in his last despatches, ascribes much of the late pacific symptoms in the British nation, and of the facilities which begin to attend the mission in Holland, to our proscription of the British merchandize.

You have not sufficiently designated the papers from Mr. R. Morris, from which you wish an extract. I do not recollect, nor can I find, any letter which contains a state of the finances, except his circular letters, which may be found either among the Legislative or Executive archives. If you should be disappointed in these researches, I will, on a renewal of your demands, renew my researches. My charity, I own, cannot invent an excuse for the prepense malice with which the character and services of this gentleman are murdered. I am persuaded that he accepted his office from motives which were honorable and patriotic. I have seen no proof of misfeasance. I have heard of many charges which were palpably erroneous. I have known others, somewhat suspicious, vanish on examination. Every member in Congress must be sensible of the benefit which has accrued to the public from his administration; no intelligent man out of Congress can be altogether insensible of it. The Court of France has testified its satisfaction at his appointment, which I really believe lessened its repugnance to lend us money. These considerations will make me cautious in lending an ear to the suggestions even of the impartial; to those of known and vindictive enemies, very incredulous. The same fidelity to the public interest which obliges those who are its appointed guardians, to pursue with every rigor a perfidious or dishonest servant of the public, requires them to confront the imputations of malice against the good and faithful one. I have, in the conduct of my colleague here, a sure index of the sentiments and objects of one of my colleagues who is absent, relative to the Department of Finance.

The Chevalier de la Luzerne tells us he has written to the General on the subject of the transaction between them, and has no doubt that the difficulties which attended it will be removed.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, June, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

General Washington has transmitted to Congress sundry informations he has received, of preparations at New York for expediting from thence a considerable number of ships. Whether they are to convoy troops, and whither, or to bring off troops from other places, is uncertain. He has also transmitted to Congress an answer to him from General Carleton, on a demand, made at the instance of the Legislature of South Carolina, of a re-transportation of the exiles at the expense of the King of Great Britain. This demand was instituted, not executed, during the command of Clinton, from whom an imperious refusal was calculated upon. In pursuance of the views of the new system, his successor weeps over the misfortunes of the exiles, and in the most soothing language that could be framed, engages to comply fully with the application. This incident at once mortifies our pride and summons our vigilance. We have nothing further from Carleton on the main point.

The communication, expected in my last from the Minister of France, has been received, and afforded a very seasonable occasion, which was improved, of renewing the assurances suited to the present crisis.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, June 6, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Mr. Webb being detained till this morning, I enclose the gazette of it. You will find a singular extract from Lord North’s budget. The speech was delivered on the eleventh of March. It must have been Mr. Ross’s contract, therefore, and not Mr. Morris’s, which supplied this article. I am just told that the Senate have put their veto on the resolutions of the House of Delegates against the latter. If an existing law, however, prohibits the exportation, and one branch of the Legislature protests against the authority of Congress to dispense with it, the Executive will scarcely suffer the tobacco to be exported. * * * The proviso in the resolutions in favor of the contract of the State agents, furnishes, I find, a copious topic for anti-Virginian critics. It is inconsistent with the laws of the State—with the ordinances of Congress—with the treaty with France—with gratitude to our allies—for tobacco to be shipped to New York, by Mr. Morris, for the advantage of the United States; but if the identical tobocco be shipped by Mr. Ross, for the advantage of Virginia, the inconsistency is done away in the eyes of the House of Delegates of Virginia.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, June 11, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

I have your favor of the first instant. I hope you have received mine, although you do not acknowledge them. My punctuality has not been intermitted more than once or twice since your departure, and in no instance for a considerable time past.

I have written so fully concerning the flags that I have nothing to add on that subject, but that I wish the Senate may, by their perseverance on this occasion, exemplify the utility of a check to the precipitate acts of a single legislature.

Having raised my curiosity by your hints as to certain manœuvres, you will not forget your responsibility to gratify it. The pleasure I feel at your being included in the commission for vindicating the claims of Virginia, is considerably impaired by my fears that it may retard your return hither.

Great as my partiality is to Mr. Jefferson, the mode in which he seems determined to revenge the wrong received from his country does not appear to me to be dictated either by philosophy or patriotism.2 It argues, indeed, a keen sensibility and strong consciousness of rectitude. But this sensibility ought to be as great towards the relentings as the misdoings of the Legislature, not to mention the injustice of visiting the faults of this body on their innocent constituents.

Sir Guy Carleton still remains silent. The resolutions which the Legislatures of the States are passing, may, perhaps, induce him to spare British pride the mortification of supplicating in vain the forgiveness of rebels.

Mr. Izard, warm and notorious as his predilection for the Lees is, acknowledges and laments the opposition made by them to measures adapted to the public weal.

The letter in the first page of the Gazette of this morning was written by Mr. Marbois.1 In an evening of promiscuous conversation I suggested to him my opinion, that the insidiousness of the British Court, and the good faith of our ally, displayed in the late abortive attempt of the former to seduce the latter, might with advantage be made known, in some form or other, to the public at large. He said he would think of the matter, and next day sent me the letter in question, with a request that I would revise and translate it for the press, the latter of which was done. I mention this that you may duly appreciate the facts and sentiments contained in this publication.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, June 18, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

I received no letter from you yesterday, nor shall I receive any for that week, unless it be through the channel of Rivington’s Gazette, the post having been robbed of his mail on Saturday evening last in Maryland. I hope your letter did not contain anything not in cypher which is unfit for the public eye. The policy, however, which seems to direct Carleton’s measures, renders it probable that he will decline the mean expedient pursued on such occasions by his predecessors for giving pain to individuals. It will be proper for us to take from this accident an admonition to extend the use of our cypher.

The trade with New York begins to excite general indignation, and threatens a loss of all our hard money. The continued drains which it makes from the bank must at least contract its utility, if it produces no greater mischief to it. The Legislature of New Jersey are devising a remedy for this disgraceful and destructive traffic, and a Committee of Congress are also employed in the same work. I have little expectation that any adequate cure can be applied, whilst our foreign trade is annihilated, and the enemy in New York make it an object to keep open this illicit channel.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, June 25, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Your favor of the fifteenth, being more fortunate than the preceding one, came safe to hand yesterday. The loss of the mail is the more provoking, as it is said to have contained a packet from New York, which had been intercepted on its passage to England and carried to North Carolina.

The illicit trade with the British lines has been pushed so far, under the encouragement of the enemy, as to threaten a deep wound to our finances. Congress have renewed the exhortation to the States on this subject, and recommended to the people, through them, a patriotic co-operation with the public measures. This trade, we have also discovered, is carried on with considerable effect, under collusive captures. This branch of the iniquity falls properly within the purview of Congress, and an ordinance for its excision is in the hands of a committee.

A letter from Mr. Adams, of the eleventh of April, informs his correspondent that five of the seven provinces had decided in favor of a treaty with the United States, and that the concurrence of the remaining two might be expected in a few days. A Leyden paper, of a subsequent date, reduces the exception to a single province. It would seem, from a memorial from the merchants to the States General, that this resolution had been greatly stimulated by an apprehension that a sudden pacification might exclude their commerce from some of the advantages which England may obtain. The memorial appeals to the effect of the American trade on the resources of France, and to the short and indirect experience of it, which Holland enjoyed before the loss of St. Eustatia, as proof of its immense consequence. It observes, also, that the ordinance of Congress against British manufactures presented a precious crisis for introducing those of other nations; which ought to be the rather embraced, as nothing would be so likely to dispose Britain to the independence of America and a general peace, as the prospect of her being supplanted in the commercial preference expected from the habits of her lost provinces.

The present conjecture with regard to the fleet mentioned in my late letters, is, that it conveyed a parcel of miserable refugees, who are destined to exchange the fancied confiscations of their rebellious countrymen, for a cold and barren settlement in Nova Scotia or Penobscot.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, July 2, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The confidential and circumstantial communications, in your favor of the twentieth of June, have afforded me much pleasure. Those which relate to the scheme of garbling the delegation were far from surprising me. In a conversation with Mr. Jones, before he left Philadelphia, it was our joint inference, from a review of certain characters and circumstances, that such a scheme would be tried.

No addition has been made to our foreign intelligence in the course of the past week. Some of the republications from the European papers herewith sent throw light, however, on the general state of foreign affairs. Those which relate to Ireland, in particular, are very interesting. The Empress of Russia appears, by the memorial of her Ministers, to be more earnest in forwarding a reconciliation between England and Holland, than is consistent with the delicate impartiality she has professed as mediatrix, or with that regard which we flattered ourselves she felt for the interests of the United States.

One article of our late communications from France was, that the interest on the certificates is no longer to be continued, and that provision must be made within ourselves. This has caused great commotion and clamor, among that class of public creditors, against Congress, who, they believe, or affect to believe, have transferred the funds to other uses. The best salve to this irritation, if it could with truth be applied, would be a notification that all the States had granted the impost of five per cent., and that the collection and appropriation of it would immediately commence. It is easy to see that the States whose jealousy and delays withhold this resource from the United States, will soon be the object of the most bitter reproaches from the public creditors. Rhode Island and Georgia are the only States in this predicament, unless the acts of Virginia and Maryland should be vitiated by the limitations with which they are clogged.

No step has yet been taken in the instructions prepared before your departure. I expostulated a few days ago with Dr. Witherspoon on the subject, and prevailed on him to move in the business; but his motion only proved the watchfulness and inflexibility of those who think they advance towards their own objects, in the same proportion as they recede from those of Virginia. I have since shown him the report, and he is a confirmed advocate both for the innocence and expediency of it.

We are, even at this day, without official advice of the naval event of the twelfth of April, in the West Indies; nor have we any advices of late date from that quarter. There is little room to hope that the misfortune of our ally will be repaired by any subsequent enterprises.

Congress are much perplexed by the non-appearance of Connecticut at the time appointed for the meeting of her agents and those of Pennsylvania. We wish to avoid leaving her any pretext to revive the controversy, and yet the reasons for her neglect cannot be pronounced sufficient. Her adversary professes a strong jealousy that she means, by every artifice, to parry a decision during the war; and it cannot be denied that appearances but too well authorize it.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE CONSISTING OF MR. MADISON, MR. DUANE, & MR. CLYMER, RELATIVE TO THE INSTRUCTIONS OF MR. ADAMS—July 5^th, 1782.mad. mss.

The comittee appointed to revise the instructions of M^r Adams &c, recommend.

That the Minister Plenipo: at the Hague be instructed, in case no definitive steps shall have been taken by him in the proposed Treaty of amity and commerce with the U. Provinces, to engage them if possible, in an express stipulation to furnish annually to the U. States, a loan of NA, with an interest not exceeding NA, the principal not to be demanded within NA years after the conclusion of the war, and the payment of the interest to be suspended during the war, or in case the U. Provinces shall refuse to stipulate such a loan, that the said Minister endeavor to obtain their engagements, to authorize and countenance a loan from their subjects & to guaranty if requisite the due payment of the interest & repayment of the principal by the U. States.

That in case definitive steps shall have been taken in the proposed Treaty, the said Minister Plenipo: be instructed still to represent to the U. Provinces the great advantages which would result as well to them as to the U. States from such pecuniary succours to the latter as would give stability to their finances and energy to their measures against the common Enemy. and to use his utmost address to prevail on them either to grant directly the loan abovementioned, or to support by such responsibility as may be necessary the applications made to individuals for that purpose, on the part of the U. States.

The Committee beg leave to observe that in the Treaty between the U. S. & M [ost] C [hristian] Majesty, it is among other things stipulated that the subjects of the parties “may by testament, donation, or otherwise dispose of their goods immoveable as well as moveable, in favor of such persons, as to them shall seem good, and the heirs of the respective subjects, wheresoever residing, may succeed them ab intestato without being obliged to obtain letters of naturalization:

That the plan of the proposed treaty between the U. S. & the U. P. with which the Minister Plenipo: of the former is furnished, extends this privilege to the subjects of the latter, under a general stipulation of the same privileges as are allowed to the most favor’d nation:

That as it is not probable that the U. P. have granted, or will grant this privilege even to the most favored nation, the said treaty if executed in its present form, will engage the U. S. in a concession which will not be reciprocal, and which if reciprocal, would not be equally beneficial to the parties.

That in the opinion of the committee it is at least questionable whether the extension of this privilege to the subjects of other powers than France and Spain will not encroach on the rights reserved by the federal articles to the individual States.

That without enquiring into the inconveniences which may result from an indefinite permission to aliens to hold & transmit real estates within this country the apparent reluctance of some of the States, notwith[standing] the special clause in the federal articles with respect to France their favorable disposition towards her to pass the proper laws on this subject, renders their compliance in case of a similar engagement to another power, extremely precarious.

That in order to avoid these difficulties & consequences, the committee recommend further:

That the s^d Minister Plenipo: be instructed in case no steps inconsistent therewith, shall have been taken, to decline stipulating to the subjects of the U. Provinces any right or privilege of holding any real estates within the U. States.1

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.2

Philadelphia, July 9, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Your favors of the twenty-seventh were received this morning. I sincerely regret that any reports should have prevailed injurious to the patriotism of Williamsburg, and particularly that my name should, in any manner whatever, be connected with them. I informed Mr. Jones that the Minister of France had been made somewhat uneasy by some accounts from Virginia, and desired him to enable me to remove it by proper inquiries. It must have been a very gross mistake that could have built the reports in question on this letter, even if its contents had been known. You saw, I presume, the letter. I think I wrote you a letter to the same effect, but I am not sure.

The trade with the enemy at New York has at length, I am told, produced spirited and successful exertions among the people of New Jersey for suppressing it. The same alarm and exertions seem to be taking place in Connecticut. The ordinance of Congress against collusive captures on water has not yet passed. The mode of proof, and the distribution of the effects, occasioned some diversity of opinion, and a recommitment ensued. I am not very sanguine that any thing of efficacy will be done in the matter. Notwithstanding the supposed danger arising to the Bank from the exportation of hard money to New York, a dividend of four and a half per cent. for the first half year has been advertised to the stockholders. Will not this be very captivating to the avarice of the Dutchman, in case his apprehensions shall be removed by a political connection between the two countries?

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, July 16, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Notwithstanding the defensive professions of the enemy, they seem to be waging an active war against the post-riders. The mail for the Eastward, on Wednesday last, shared the same fate which the Southern mail did a few weeks ago, and, it is said, from the same identical villains. This operation has withdrawn them from their Southern stand, and secured the arrival of the mail, which brings your favor of the fifth instant. I fully concur in the change of cypher which you suggest, and understand the reference for a key-word. I have been in some pain from the danger incident to the cypher we now use. The enemy, I am told, have in some instances published their intercepted cyphers. On our first meeting, I propose to prepare, against another separation, a cypher framed by Mr. Livingston on a more enlarged and complicated plan than ours, of which he has furnished me several blank printed copies.

Your computation of the numbers in Virginia tallies exactly with one transmitted by Mr. Jefferson, in an answer to several queries from Mr. Marbois. It is as accurate as the official returns to the Executive of the Militia would admit. His proportion of the fencibles to the whole number of souls is stated precisely as your computation states it.

You will continue your information on the case of the flag, and send me the acts of the Legislature as fast as they are printed. Will you be so good, also, as to obtain from the Auditors a state of the balance due on the principles established by law, and let me know when and how it is to be applied for?—as also what chance there is of obtaining a regular remittance of future allowance?

General Washington and Count Rochambeau met here on Saturday evening. The object of their consultation is among the arcana of war.

A despatch from the Commander in Chief communicated to Congress yesterday a late correspondence between him and General Carleton, principally on the subject of two traitors, who, under cover of a flag, have exposed themselves to arrest in New Jersey, and had sentence of death passed upon them. General Carleton, among other observations on the subject, says that, “In a civil war, between people of one Empire, there can, during the contest, be no treason at all,”—and asks a passport for General Robinson and Mr. Ludlow to confer with General Washington, or persons appointed by him, and to settle arrangements on this idea. General Washington declines the conference, observing, that the proposed subject of it is within civil resort. Whereupon General Carleton asks—“Am I to apply to Congress to admit persons to conferences at Philadelphia? Can any deputation be sent by Congress to your camp to meet persons appointed by me? Or will you, sir, undertake to manage our common interest?” The drift of all this need not be pointed out to you. As a counterpart to it, the British General proposes, in order to remove all objection to an exchange of soldiers for seamen, that the latter shall be perfectly free, and the former subject to the condition of not serving against the thirteen Provinces for one year, within which period he is very sanguine that an end will be put to the calamities of the present war.

The same despatch informs Congress that a party of the enemy have lately made a successful incursion upon the settlements of Mohawk, have re-occupied Oswego, and are extending themselves into the Western country. However little these movements may coincide with a defensive plan, they coincide perfectly with ideas which will not fail to be urged at a pacification.

Messrs. Montgomery and Root returned yesterday from their Eastern deputation. They have not yet made their report. The former complains that several of the States are appropriating the taxes, which they lay as their quota of the eight millions, to internal uses. He owns that the knowledge he has obtained of the case changed his mind on that head, and that if the ground was to be trodden over again, he should take a very different part in Congress. He adds, that the current opinion is, that a vessel arrived at Quebec brings a Royal Charter for Vermont; that the people there are in much confusion, and many of them disposed to re-unite with New Hampshire. A letter to Mr. Livingston, from Mr. Livermore, corroborates this good news. It imports that a very unexpected turn had taken place in the temper of the people, between the river and the ridge, that they were petitioning New Hampshire to be restored to that State, and that measures would be taken in concert with New York for that purpose. The revolution in the sentiments of Montgomery may be owing, in part, to the new relation in which Pennsylvania stands to Connecticut, which, he says, is governed on this occasion by interested individuals. The controversy between Pennsylvania and Connecticut will, I suppose, be now resumed, and put into a course for decision, the return of Mr. Root having removed the cause which suspended it.

In the beginning of this month, committees were appointed, in pursuance of a previous resolution for such an appointment every half-year, to examine into the proceedings of the several Executive Departments, and make report to Congress. This plan was adopted not only to discharge the general duty of Congress, and to satisfy their constituents, but also that such reports might shelter, in some degree, faithful officers from unmerited imputations and suspicions, as well as expose to just censure those of an opposite character. * * *

This cypher, I find, is extremely tedious, and liable to errors.

General Carleton, in his letter to General Washington above quoted, says, with respect to Lippencot only, that the court had passed their judgment, and that as soon as the length of the proceedings would admit, a copy should be sent to him. It is inferred that this murderer will not be given up, and consequently a vicarious atonement must be made by the guiltless Asgill.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, July 23, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

I have at length the pleasure of presenting you with certain, though not official, intelligence of the recognition of our Independence by the States General. This event, with other interesting particulars, is contained in the enclosed gazettes. Among its salutary consequences to this country, I hope the people of Virginia will not be inattentive to its influence on the value of its staple, on which it is very probable speculations will be attempted.

The language and measures of the present Administration will furnish you with copious matter for reflection. If we had received fewer lessons of caution against sanguine expectations, I should, with confidence, explain them by a scheme for a general pacification, and for fathering on their predecessors all the obnoxious conditions which the public distresses may expose them to. If this solution were a just one, it ought, at the same time, to be remembered that the triumph of Rodney may give a new turn to their politics. It appears, from the paper from which the enclosed intelligence is republished, that this event had reached London; that it was received with great rejoicings; but that the public were still haunted with fears for Jamaica. Other articles, not included in the paper herewith sent, are the capture of one, if not two, French seventy-fours, with a number of transports for the East Indies, by Admiral Barrington; the capture of a British frigate, with some transports, by a Dutch ship of war; the capture of the valuable Island of Ceylon, from the Dutch, by Admiral Hughes; and of Negapatam, another of their important possessions, on the coast of Coromandel, with two ships, richly freighted with spices and other oriental productions. Ireland is likely to be indulged in every thing. In addition to a free trade and a free legislation, they have obtained the assent of the Lord Lieutenant to an Act of Parliament for emancipating the Catholics from their shackles on their religious rights, and on their tenures of real property. Your philanthropy will be gratified by my adding, as other proofs of the progress of light and freedom, the abolition of the inquisitorial jurisdiction in Sicily—the only part of the Neapolitan dominions where it was in force—and the inefficiency of the Pope’s visit to Vienna in checking the liberal innovations of the Emperor in his ecclesiastical polity. * * *

General Washington is still here. I have nothing to add to my last on the subject of Lippencot and Asgill.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, August 9, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Extract of a letter from Carleton and Digby to General Washington, August the second: “We are acquainted, sir, by authority, that negotiations for a general peace have already commenced at Paris, and that Mr. Grenville is invested with full powers to treat with all parties at war, and is now at Paris in execution of his commission. And we are likewise, sir, further made acquainted, that His Majesty, in order to remove all obstacles to that peace which he so ardently wishes to restore, has commanded his ministers to direct Mr. Grenville that the independency of the Thirteen Provinces should be proposed by him, instead of making it a condition of a general treaty; however, not without the highest confidence that the loyalists shall be restored to their possessions, or a full compensation made them for whatever confiscations may have taken place.”

This is followed by information that transports are preparing to convey all American prisoners in England to the United States, and a proposition for a general exchange, in which seamen are to be placed against seamen as far as they will go, and the balance in favor of Great Britain to be redeemed by land prisoners—the former to be free, the latter not to serve in war against the Thirteen Provinces for one year. An embarcation is taking place at New York for Charleston, either to reinforce that garrison or replace it.

The preceding letter was published in New York, at the same time it was sent to General Washington. I commit this intelligence to your discretion, making no other remark than that it clearly calls for our watchfulness, at the same time that it flatters our expectations.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, August 13, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

I transmitted to you, a few days ago, by express, the contents of a letter from General Carleton and Admiral Digby to General Washington, announcing the purpose of the British Court to acknowledge the independence of the Thirteen Provinces. Our expected advices on this head from Europe are not yet arrived. A Mr. Blake, an opulent citizen of South Carolina, who came from Great Britain under a passport from Mr. Laurens to New York, and thence hither, assures us that the Administration are serious with respect to peace and the independence of this country; that the point, however, was carried in the Cabinet by a majority of two voices only; that their finances are so disordered that a continuance of the war is in a manner impracticable; that the militia at New York have been thanked for their past services, and told explicitly that they would not be wanted in future; that the evacuation of the United States will certainly take place this fall, and that a large number of transports are coming from England to remove the British garrisons, probably to the West Indies; that these transports will contain about two thousand five hundred Germans, who, it is supposed, in case of such an evacuation, will have the same destination; that Carleton told him, and desired him to mention it at large, that he was a real friend to America, and wished her to be powerful, rich, united, and happy, and secure against all her enemies; that he also intimated, in the course of conversation, that Canada would probably be given up as a fourteenth member of the Confederacy. You will draw such conclusions from these particulars as you think fit. The gentlemen of South Carolina vouch for the veracity of Mr. Blake. It appears to me much more clear that the Ministry really mean to subscribe to our independence, than that they have renounced the hope of seducing us from the French connection.

The motion for revoking the power given to France has been made again, and pushed with the expected earnestness, but was parried, and will issue, I believe, in an adoption of your report with a representation thereupon to the Court of France.

Among other means of revenue, the back lands have on several late occasions been referred to, and at length recommended by a Grand Committee to the consideration of Congress. A motion for assigning a day to take up the report was negatived by a small majority. The report has been repeated by the committee, but a second experiment has not been made in Congress. Several of the Middle States seem to be facing about. Maryland, however, preserves its wonted jealousy and obstinacy.

In compiling the evidence of our title, I suppose you will, of course, be furnished with all Mr. Jefferson’s lights. I have lately seen a fact stated by him, which shows clearly the ideas entertained by Virginia with respect to her territorial limits subsequent to the resumption of the charter. In a convention between commissioners on the part of the Commonwealth of England, and of the Grand Assembly of Virginia in 1651, by which the latter submit to the new government, it is stipulated that Virginia shall enjoy the ancient bounds and limits granted by the charters of the former Kings, and that a new charter shall be issued from the Parliament against any that shall have entrenched upon the rights thereof

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, August 20, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

In my last I informed you that the motion to rescind the control given to France over the American Ministers had been parried, and would probably end in an adoption of your report. It was parried by a substitute so expressed as to give a committee sufficient latitude in reporting, without implying on the part of Congress a design to alter past instructions. The composition of the committee appointed according well with the object of the substitute, a report was made that the expository report should be referred to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, to be by him revised and transmitted to the Ministers in Europe, and that the latter should communicate so much thereof as they might judge fit to His Most Christian Majesty. * * *

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, August 27, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Your favor of the sixteenth came duly to hand yesterday. The hints which it gives with regard to merchandizes imported in returning flags, and the intrusion of obnoxious aliens through other States, merit attention. The latter subject has, on several occasions, been mentioned in Congress, but, I believe, no committee has ever reported a remedy for the abuse. A uniform rule of naturalization ought certainly to be recommended to the States. Their individual authority seems, if properly exerted, to be competent to the case of their own citizens. * * *

We are still left without information concerning negotiations in Europe. So long a silence of our Ministers, at so interesting a crisis, grows equally distressing and inexplicable. The French fleet has gone into Boston harbour. The arrival of a British fleet on this coast is reported, but disbelieved by many. The French army is on its way northward from Baltimore. It is to proceed in five divisions, the first of which is to be here about Friday next.

Congress received yesterday a letter from General Washington enclosing one to him from Carleton, with the proceedings of the court-martial in the case of Lippencot. It appears that this culprit did not deny the fact charged upon him, but undertook to justify it as a necessary retaliation, and as warranted by verbal orders from the Board of Refugees. The court decided this warrant to be insufficient, but acquitted him on the pretext that no malicious intention appeared. Carleton explicitly acknowledges and reprobates the crime, and promises to pursue it in other modes; complaining, at the same time, of irregularity in the step taken by General Washington of selecting and devoting to execution an innocent, and even capitulant, officer, before satisfaction had been formally demanded and refused. General Washington seems to lean to the side of compassion, but asks the direction of Congress. What that will be, may, perhaps, be communicated in my next.

The consideration of your territorial report has been resumed. The expedient which was meant to conciliate both sides proved, as often happens, a means of widening the breach. The jealousies announced on the side mentioned in my last were answered with reciprocal jealousies from the other, and the report between the two was falling to the ground, when a commitment, as a lesser evil, was proposed and agreed to.

Mr. Jones and his family arrived on Sunday at Germantown, without halting in this city. Himself, his lady, and little son, were all extremely sick during the whole journey. Mrs. Jones is still very much indisposed, and Mr. Jones considerably so. They do not propose to come into the city till the salubrity of Germantown shall have enabled them to encounter its noise and polluted atmosphere.

I cannot, in any way, make you more sensible of the importance of your kind attention to pecuniary remittances for me, than by informing you that I have for some time past been a pensioner on the favor of Haym Salomon, a Jew broker. Will not the agent of Mr. Morris give a draft, payable to me, for notes payable to the bearer? Or may not the notes be so endorsed as, in case of accident, to prevent payment to another? In either of those cases, a remittance of notes (if they can be procured for me) by the post will be safe. But my present situation renders such a conveyance preferable to delay, even if neither of the foregoing expedients be practicable. Show this paragraph to Mr. Ambler, if you please.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, September 3, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

You will again be disappointed at the opening of this, since it contains no European intelligence on the subject of peace. Among other reasons which render it astonishing that we should be long uninformed, a material one is, that neither the Court of France, nor our Ministers, can be insensible of the inexpediency of leaving the people at large so exposed to misrepresentations of the enemy. I am happy to find, by your letter of the twenty-fourth, and those received from my other correspondents by yesterday’s post, that so cautious an ear is given to every thing which comes from them of a flattering aspect.

The enclosed hand-bill, published a few days ago, will inform you of the steps taken at Charleston towards an evacuation of that place. It is said to have given fresh violence to the fermentations in New York.

Another petition from Kentucky has been received by Congress, contending for the right of Congress to create new States, and praying for an exertion of it in their behalf. A copy will be sent to the Governor by the Delegates. Mr. Lee moved that the original should be referred to him by Congress. The debate which ensued was terminated by an adjournment, and has not been revived.

General Washington writes to Congress that Carleton had concurred in the proposition for a general cartel so far as to appoint a Commissioner for that purpose. There is little probability, however, that he has authority to settle such a cartel on the principles which Congress had in view, namely, those of a National Convention. It was thought, by some, that this would put to the test the sincerity of their professions on the subject of independence.

I believe I did not acquaint you, on a former occasion, that the prisoners who had lately returned from captivity in England were discharged, in consequence of an agreement, by Franklin, that a like number of the army of Cornwallis should be given for them. This bold step at first gave much offence. Compassion, however, for the patriotic captive stifled reproaches. They will probably come out yet, unless subsequent events discountenance them.

There are, it seems, three letters in the post-office from Carleton to the Governor, which do not appear to have been licensed, nor is it known how they got into that channel. The curiosity of people on this point is inconceivable.

A very unlucky accident has happened to one of the fleet of our Allies. After it got safe into the harbour of Boston, the unskilfulness or negligence of a pilot suffered a seventy-four to strike on a rock, the wound occasioned by which proved mortal. Most of the furniture has been saved.

I have not yet presented the note to Cohen which you have been so good as to enclose me. The general obstacle to advances here, to be replaced in Virginia, has been the balance in trade against the latter. This is the current answer to attempts to negotiate drafts on Virginia. My next will inform you of the result of the experiment of your note. If its success depends merely on a confidence in your credit, it will certainly be productive. Mr. Ross has unlimited credit in this place. May it not be made instrumental to our supply? At least it would be well to consult him when an occasion presents. His bills on Whiteside will command any sum that may be wanted.

The French army has been passing through this place for several days northward. The last division will pass to-morrow or the day after. The praises bestowed on their discipline and sobriety in Virginia are repeated here with equal cordiality and justice.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, September 10, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The loss of the French seventy-four in Boston harbour presented an occasion, which was embraced by Congress, of making a small requital to their Ally for his benevolent exertions in behalf of the United States. They have directed the Agent of Marine to replace the loss by presenting, in the name of the United States, the ship America to the Chevalier de la Luzerne, for the service of His Most Christian Majesty. The States were unanimous in this vote. The dissenting members were Bland and Jones, of Virginia.

The report of the Grand Committee, “that the Western lands, if ceded to the United States, would be an important fund,” &c., was the subject of the deliberations of Congress on Thursday and Friday last. After the usual discussion of the question of right, and a proposal of opposite amendments to make the report favor the opposite sides, a turn was given to the debate to the question of expediency, in which it became pretty evident to all parties, that unless a compromise took place, no advantage could ever be derived to the United States, even if their right were ever so valid. The number of States interested in the opposite doctrine rendered it impossible for the title of the United States ever to obtain a vote of Congress in its favor, much less any coercive measures to render the title of any fiscal importance; whilst the individual States, having both the will and the means to avail themselves of their pretensions, might open their land offices, issue their patents, and, if necessary, protect the execution of their plans; without any other molestation than the clamors of individuals within and without the doors of Congress. This view of the case had a manifest effect on the most temperate advocates of the Federal title. Witherspoon moved a set of resolutions recommending to the States which had made no cessions to take up the subject; and to the States whose cessions were not entirely conformable to the plan of Congress, to reconsider their acts; and declaring, that in case of a compliance of the several States claiming the back lands, none of their determinations with regard to private property within their cessions shall be reversed or altered without their consent, except in cases falling within the ninth Article of the Confederation. On this motion the report was postponed, and these resolutions committed. The report of the committee on the last article will probably determine the ultimate sense of Congress on the pretensions of the companies.

Every review I take of the Western territory produces fresh conviction, that it is the true policy of Virginia, as well as of the United States, to bring the dispute to a friendly compromise. A separate government cannot be distant, and will be an insuperable barrier to subsequent profits. If, therefore, the decision of the State on the claims of companies can be saved, I hope her other conditions will be relaxed.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, September 11, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The gentleman by whom I wrote this morning having waited till I had the opportunity of knowing the contents of the despatches from Holland, I take advantage of it to add that we are disappointed by their silence with regard to peace. Those from Mr. Adams relate chiefly to his transactions with the States General. A letter from Mr. Laurens, of the thirtieth of May, informs us that he is returning to the United States, having declined the service of Minister for peace. There is an uninteresting part of a letter from Mr. Dana, the first pages of it having been omitted. Mr. Berkley writes, on the thirteenth of July, that the mail from England, subsequent to the resignation of Fox, Burke, &c., breathes war. He confirms the success of the combined fleets against the Quebec, &c., and the sailing of a fleet from the Texel, consisting of eleven sail of the line, five or six frigates, &c., to cruise in the North Seas, and the retreat of Admiral Howe into port. A New York paper of the seventh contains a very interesting conversation on the — July, in the House of Lords, between Shelburne and the Duke of Richmond, on the subject of ministerial politics, in which the latter assigns his reasons for not following the example of Fox, &c., and both their sentiments with respect to American Independence. The Duke of Richmond seems tolerably well reconciled to it, but Shelburne speaks out his antipathy without depriving himself of the plea of necessity. He professes to adhere, however, to the principles which the Administration carried into office relative to the war against America. I have written this in extreme haste; you will be very sensible of it by its incorrectness.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, September 17, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

My letters, by a private hand, subsequent to the last post, have anticipated the chief intelligence from Holland, which I had allotted for the post of this week. I have, however, one important article, which at that date lay under an injunction of secrecy, which has been since taken off. Mr. Adams, we are informed, has contracted with a mercantile house in Holland for the negotiation of a loan of five millions of guilders, or about ten millions of livres, for which he is to give five per cent. interest, and four and a half per cent. for commission and other douceurs and charges, which will raise the interest to about six per cent. The principal is to be discharged in five annual payments, commencing with the tenth year from the date of the loan. When the despatches left Holland, upwards of a million and a half of guilders had been subscribed, and upwards of one million actually received. The contractors, however, make it a condition that none of the money should be paid to the United States until the contract should be ratified by Congress. This ratification passed on Saturday, and its arrival in Holland will place under the orders of Mr. Morris the money which shall then have been procured. How far the amount will, by that time, have been augmented, is uncertain. The contractors seemed to be tolerably sanguine, but not absolutely sure, of getting the whole sum. The partial subscription already secured is a most seasonable relief to the Department of Finance, which was struggling under the most critical difficulties.

In addition to the preceding fund, Congress have been led, by a despair of supplies from the States, to sue for a further loan of four millions of dollars for the service of the ensuing, and the deficiencies of the present, year. This demand will be addressed, in the first instance, to the Court of France. In case of miscarriage there, an experiment will be made on the liberality of our new friends.

The Legislature of Rhode Island has broke up without according to the impost of five per cent. Congress have apportioned one million two hundred thousand dollars on the States, for the payment of interest to the public creditors. Virginia is rated somewhat lower in this requisition than in the last; not, however, without complaints from some quarters. On these subjects you will have full information from Mr. Lee, who will set off in a few days, he says, for Virginia, in order to be at the October Session.

I should have told you that some progress had been made by Mr. Adams in the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with their High Mightinesses. His propositions, with the remarks and amendments of the College of Admiralty, had been taken ad referendum. It is somewhat extraordinary that he should omit to send us a copy of those propositions and remarks. He had taken no steps towards a Treaty of Alliance.

The debates and explanations produced by the resignation of Mr. Fox and his adherents, have unveiled some of the arcana of the British Cabinet. I enclose them for you complete, as far as they have been published here. If there be any sincerity in the party remaining in office, it would seem that the war is not to be pursued against the United States, nor the independence suffered to be a bar to peace. We shall be able to judge better of this sincerity when the proceedings of Mr. Grenville come to our knowledge.

Mr. Cohen has advanced me fifty pounds of this currency, which, he says, is the utmost that his engagements, and the scarcity of money, will permit. I have given him an order on you for that sum, in favor of his partner at Richmond.

September 17.

On Friday two large French frigates, bringing money, &c. for the French army, and despatches for Congress and the French Minister, came into Delaware Bay. For want of pilots in time, they got entangled among the bars which perplex the navigation of this Bay. The appearance and bearing of the British fleet, after pilots were obtained, rendered it impossible for them to return into the proper channel. The only expedient that remained was to push forward and attempt, under the advantage of high water, to force a passage through the shoal which obstructed them. In this attempt, one of them succeeded. The other stuck in the sand, and was lost. All the public stores, particularly the money on board, have, however, been fortunately saved. The captain and crew, we fear, have fallen into the hands of the enemy. The ship, it is supposed, cannot be raised by them, having been scuttled before they took possession of her. The frigate which escaped is up at Chester. We expect the despatches will be here to-day. The Marquis Viominil, and twenty or thirty other French officers, have returned in these ships.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, September 24, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The substance of the despatches brought by the French frigates, mentioned in my last, is, that Mr. Oswald first, and afterwards Mr. Grenville, had been deputed to Versailles on a pacific mission; that the latter was still (twenty-ninth of June) at Versailles; that his proposals, as to the point of independence, were at first equivocal, but at length more explicit; that he associated with the preliminary that the treaty of Paris, of 1763, should be the basis of the treaty in question; that as to this proposition he was answered, that as far as the treaty of ’63 might be convenient for opening and facilitating a pacification, it would be admitted as a basis, but that it could not be admitted in any sense that should preclude His Most Christian Majesty from demanding such equitable arrangements as circumstances might warrant, and particularly in the East Indies and on the coast of Africa; that upon these grounds there was at first a prospect that negotiations would be opened with mutual sincerity, and be conducted to a speedy and happy issue; but that the success of the British navy in the West Indies had checked the ardor of the Ministry for peace, and that it was pretty evident they meant to spin out the negotiation till the event of the campaign should be decided. You will take notice that this is a recital from memory, and not a transcript of the intelligence.

The frigate L’Aigle, whose fate was not completely determined at the date of my last, we hear, has been raised by the enemy, and carried to New York. Captain De la Touche and the crew were made prisoners. Besides merchandize to a great value, nearly fifty thousand dollars were lost, most of which fell into the hands of the captors. The loss of this ship is to be the more regretted, as it appears that the two were particularly constructed, and destined for the protection of the trade of this country.

Our Ally has added another important link to the chain of benefits by which this country is bound to France. He has remitted to us all the interest which he has paid for us, or was due to him on loans to us, together with all the charges attending the Holland loan; and has, moreover, postponed the demand of the principal till one year after the war, and agreed to receive it then in twelve successive annual payments. These concessions amount to a very considerable reduction of the liquidated debt. The fresh and large demand which we are about to make on him, will, I fear, be thought an unfit return for such favors. It could not, however, be avoided. The arrears to the army in January next will be upwards of six millions of dollars. Taxes cannot be relied on. Without money, there is some reason to surmise that it may be as difficult to disband an army as it has been to raise an army.

My last informed you that Mr. Laurens had declined serving in the commission for peace. His proceedings, during his captivity, as stated by himself, are far from unexceptionable. Congress, nevertheless, were prevailed on to assent to a resolution informing him that his services could not be dispensed with. A few days after this resolution had passed, several numbers of the Parliamentary Register were received at the Office of Foreign Affairs, in one of which was published the enclosed petition. The petition was introduced by Mr. Burke, was a subject of some debate, and finally ordered to lie on the table. The extreme impropriety of a Representative of the United States addressing that very authority against which they had made war, in the language of the address, determined Mr. Jones and myself to move that the resolution above referred to should not be transmitted until the further order of Congress. In support of the motion it was observed, that however venial the fault might be in a private view, it evidently rendered Mr. Laurens no longer a fit depository for the public dignity and rights, which he had so far degraded; and that if Congress should reinstate him against his own desire, and with this fact before their eyes, it would seem as if they meant to ratify, instead of disowning, the degradation. The motion was opposed on two grounds—first, that the character of Mr. Laurens, and the silence of his letter, overbalanced the testimony of the Register, and rendered the fact incredible; secondly, that the fact, although faulty, ought to have no influence on the public arrangements. The first objection was the prevailing one. The second was abetted by but few. Several professed a readiness to renounce their friend, in case the authenticity of the paper should be verified. On the question there were five noes, three ayes, two divided, two half votes aye. The petition had been published some time ago at New York, and had made some noise in New Jersey, but was ultimately regarded as spurious. There are so many circumstances relating to this gentleman during his captivity, which speak a bias towards the British nation, and an undue cordiality with its new leaders, that I dread his participation in the work of peace.

Your favor of the seventh, which had not arrived last post-day, came a few days afterwards, the post having been detained by sickness. The subsequent one came to hand yesterday in due time. The expedient of drawing bills here on funds in Virginia, even the most unquestionable, has been often tried by us, but in vain. The balance is so much against Virginia that no one wants money there, and the evil will increase as the prospect of peace retires. Your credit with Mr. Cohen, which procured me fifty pounds, with two hundred dollars transmitted by Mr. Ambler, have been of much service to me, but I am relapsing fast into distress. The case of my brethren is equally alarming.

As some of Mr. Laurens’s friends strenuously maintain that the petition enclosed is spurious, I would not wish it to be made public through me until the matter be ascertained, or he be present to explain it.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, September 30, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The remittance to Colonel Bland is a source of hope to his brethren. I am almost ashamed to reiterate my wants so incessantly to you, but they begin to be so urgent that it is impossible to suppress them. The kindness of our little friend in Front street, near the coffee-house, is a fund which will preserve me from extremities, but I never resort to it without great mortification, as he obstinately rejects all recompense. The price of money is so usurious, that he thinks it ought to be extorted from none but those who aim at profitable speculations. To a necessitous Delegate he gratuitously spares a supply out of his private stock.

No addition has been made to our stock of intelligence from Europe since the arrival of the French frigates. Some letters from the Marquis de la Fayette and others have since come to hand, but they are all of the same date with the despatches then received. One of the Marquis’s paragraphs, indeed, signifies the tergiversation of Mr. Grenville, which had been only in general mentioned to us before. On the communication made by this gentleman to the Count de Vergennes of the object of his mission, he proposed verbally the unconditional acknowledgment of American Independence as a point to which the King had agreed. The Count de Vergennes immediately wrote it down, and requested him to put his name to the declaration. Mr. Grenville drew back, and refused to abide by any thing more than that the King was disposed to grant American Independence. This illustrates the shade of difference between Shelburne and Fox.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, October 8, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Your favor of the twenty-seventh of September came to hand yesterday, and is a fresh instance of the friendly part you take in my necessities. In consequence of the hint in your last of a pressing representation to the Executive, our public letter of last week touched on that subject, but the letter received yesterday from the Governor, which seems to chide our urgency, forbids much expectation from such an expedient. The letter from Mr. Ambler enclosed for me a second bill on Mr. Holker, for two hundred dollars, which very seasonably enabled me to replace a loan by which I had anticipated it. About three hundred and fifty more (and not less) would redeem me completely from the class of debtors.

I omitted, in my last, to inform you that the Swedish Minister at Versailles had announced to Dr. Franklin the wish of his King to become an Ally of the United States, and that the treaty might be negotiated with the Doctor in particular. A plenipotentiary commission has, in consequence, issued for that purpose. The model transmitted by Congress is pretty analogous to the treaty with France, but is limited in duration to fifteen years.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, October 15, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

The offensive paragraph in the correspondence of Mr. L. with Mr. P., spoken of in your favor of the fifth, was, as you supposed, communicated to me by Mr. Jones. I am, however, but very imperfectly informed of it.

We have not yet received a second volume of the negotiations at Versailles; nor any other intelligence from Europe, except a letter from Mr. Carmichael, dated about the middle of June, which is chiefly confined to the great exertions and expectations with respect to Gibraltar. Whilst the siege is depending, it is much to be apprehended that the Court of Madrid will not accelerate a pacification.

Extract of a letter from Sir Guy Carleton to General Washington, dated New York, September twelfth, 1782.

“Partial though our suspension of hostilities may be called, I thought it sufficient to have prevented those cruelties in the Jerseys (avowed) which I have had occasion to mention more than once; but if war was the choice, I never expected this suspension should operate further than to induce them to carry it on as is practised by men of liberal minds. I am clearly of opinion with Your Excellency, that mutual agreement is necessary for a suspension of hostility, and, without this mutual agreement, either is free to act as each may judge expedient; yet I must, at the same time, frankly declare to you, that being no longer able to discern the object we contend for, I disapprove of all hostilities both by sea and land, as they only tend to multiply the miseries of individuals, when the public can reap no advantage from success. As to the savages, I have the best assurances, that from a certain period, not very long after my arrival here, no parties of Indians were sent out, and that messengers were despatched to recall those who had gone forth before that time; and I have particular assurances of disapprobation of all that happened to your party on the side of Sandusky, except so far as was necessary for self-defence.”

It would seem, from this paragraph, that the insidious object of a separate convention with America was still pursued.

The symptoms of an evacuation of New York became every day less apparent. Our next intelligence from Charleston will probably confirm our expectations as to that metropolis.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, October 22, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

By the vessel spoken of in my last, Congress have received a letter from Mr. Adams, dated Hague, August the eighteenth, which enclosed a copy of the plenipotentiary commission issued to Mr. Fitzherbert, the British Minister at Brussells. The following skeleton of the commission will give you an idea of its aspect towards America:

“Georgius tertius, etc., omnibus, etc., salutem. Cum, belli incendio jam nimis diu diversis orbis terrarum partibus flagrante, in id quam maxime incumbamus ut tranquillitas publica, tot litibus, etc., rite compositis, reduci, etc., possit,—cumque eâ de causa, virum quendam tanto negotio parem, ad bonum fratrem nostrum, Regem Chris^mum mittere decrevimus: Sciatis igitur quod nos, fide, etc. Alleini Fitzherbert, etc., confisi, eundem nominavimus, etc., nostrum Plenipotentiarum, dantes, etc., eidem omnem potestatem, etc., nec non mandatum generale pariter ac speciale, etc., in aula prædicti bon. frat. Reg. Chris^mi pro nobis et nostro nomine, una cum Plenipotentiariis, tam Celsorum et Præpotentium Dominorum, ordinum Generalium Fœderati Belgii, quam quorumcunque Principum et Statuum quorum interesse poterit, sufficiente auctoritate instructis, tam singulatim ac divisim quam aggregatim ac conjunctim, congrediendi, etc., atque cum ipsis de pace, concordia, etc., præsentibus, etc. etc. In palatio nostro, etc., 24 Julii, 1782.

The only further circumstance contained in his letter, relative to the business of a pacification, is the appointment of a Plenipotentiary by the States General, who was to set out for Paris in about three weeks after the date of the letter.

The States of Holland and West Friesland had determined upon the proposed treaty of commerce, and Mr. Adams expected to have a speedy conference with the States General, in order to bring it to a conclusion.

The Secretary of War lately communicated to Congress an extract of a letter from General Washington of a very unwelcome tenor. It paints the discontents of the army in very unusual colors, and surmises some dangerous eruption, unless a payment can be effected within the present year. The Secretary is gone to head-quarters at the request of the General. How far their joint precautions will calm the rising billows, must be left to the result.

Congress have reduced the estimate for the ensuing year to six millions of dollars, and the requisitions on the States, for the present, to one-third of that sum. A call for the residue is suspended till the result of the applications for loans shall be known.

The combined fleets have certainly gone to support the siege of Gibraltar. The Dutch has returned to the Texel. According to the preconcerted plan, it was to have proceeded North, after disposing of its convoy, and have reinforced the combined fleet. The disappointment is traced up to the machinations of the Prince of Orange, whose attachment to the enemies of the Republic seems to be fatal to all her exertions. For other particulars taken from foreign gazettes, I refer to those herewith enclosed, and those enclosed to Mr. Ambler.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.1

Philadelphia, October 29, 1782.

Dear Sir,—

Some intelligence has been received from the frontiers of New York, which revives the apprehensions of further inroads from Canada, and co-operation on the part of the Vermonters. The tenor of Carleton’s letter to General Washington on this subject, and other circumstances, render this article at least extremely doubtful.

The British fleet at New York has been busy in preparing for sea, and will probably soon depart from that station. The West Indies most naturally occur as the object of its destination. It is said their preparations have been much expedited by the most direct and undisguised supplies from the people of New Jersey.

Congress have been occupied for several days past with the case of Lippencot, referred to them by General Washington. On one side it was urged, that the disavowal and promises by the British Commander, the abolition of the obnoxious board of refugees, and the general change of circumstances, rendered retaliation unnecessary and inexpedient. On the other side it was contended, that a departure from the resolution so solemnly adopted and repeated by General Washington, with equal solemnity ratified by Congress, would be an indelible blot on our character; that after the confessions on the part of the enemy of the deed complained of, a greater inflexibility on our part would be looked for; that after such confessions, too, the enemy would never suffer the innocent to perish, if we persisted in demanding the guilty; and finally, that if they should suffer it, the blood would be on their heads, not on ours. No definitive resolution has yet passed on the subject. All the intermediate steps have been very properly entered on the secret journals.

General Lincoln has just returned from the army. He has not yet made a report to Congress. He says, I understand, that his visit has had a very salutary operation, but that some pay must be found for the army. Where it is to be found, God knows. The state of the public finances has already compelled the Superintendant to give a discharge to the former contractors, and to accept of a new contract, by which thirty per cent. is added to the price of a ration in consideration of credit for three months. He has, on this occasion, written a pressing exhortation to the States, which, I suppose, is accessible to you.

Mr. Carroll moved, yesterday, a resolution for accepting the territorial cession of New York. It stands the order for to-day. I regret much, on this occasion, the absence of Mr. Jones.