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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow ( Extract Inclosed. ) ELBRIDGE GERRY TO JOHN ADAMS. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782)

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

( Extract Inclosed. ) ELBRIDGE GERRY TO JOHN ADAMS. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782) [1852]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 7.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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(Extract Inclosed.)

ELBRIDGE GERRY TO JOHN ADAMS.

The resolutions of congress for calling in and cancelling the two hundred millions of dollars emitted by them, have in general been well received. The depreciation is stopped, and specie, which before the passing of the resolves, was sold for upwards of seventy for one, is now current at sixty, and has been lately at fifty-five. The advantage of this plan will be great to the landholder, inasmuch as the national debt, including certificates and foreign demands, does not now much exceed five millions sterling, which is but a trifling sum compared with the two hundred millions of pounds sterling due from Great Britain.

Another benefit resulting from it is a supply of five millions of dollars of the new emission, every dollar of which is equal to forty dollars of the old emission. Indeed, this must be called in before that can be realized; nevertheless, there is a greater demand among all ranks for continental money than there has been since the commencement of the war, and specie is no longer hoarded by the disaffected or timid. So much for the value and stability of the medium.

With respect to our resources, congress are at present much in want of money, and it is a happy circumstance, for their economy is in proportion to their wants. The demands on the treasury are generally answered by warrants on the several States, which are careful, by some means or other, to discharge the drafts. The taxes are indeed very heavy, but the collection goes on, and, I doubt not that the army will be well fed and paid. Military stores and clothing must, however, be procured on credit in Europe, as well as a considerable loan to serve as a fund for drawing on in case of necessity. Trade and privateering are brisk, and there is a plenty of goods of every kind excepting military, but no money to purchase them. This is easily accounted for, since the whole sum in circulation, as congress have fixed it, is only five million dollars. Our privateers and commerce have, nevertheless, lately suffered much by the cruisers of the enemy, who have the command of the sea-coast.

It is much to be wished that the Court of France would order a squadron superior to the enemy, to be stationed in some part of the United States, as the best and only means of putting a speedy end to the war. It is almost impossible to conceive the havoc that our privateers made of the enemy’s cruisers and transports, during the time that the Count d’Estaing was at Rhode Island and Charleston. But our losses at present nearly equal our captures. Indeed, that worthy officer, aware of those and other advantages, ordered the Count de Grasse to be stationed at the Chesapeake, but his plan was defeated by the tempestuousness of the weather. Had the latter arrived with his squadron, Charleston could not have been besieged, and three or four of our frigates, which are now in Ashley’s River, and will probably be destroyed, would have been employed in intercepting the enemy’s transports.

I forgot to mention a resolution of congress to pay off the continental certificates, according to the value of money at the time of their being respectively issued. This is but justice, and will undoubtedly be satisfactory to foreigners. Bills of exchange are now at forty-five for one, and will be higher, in consequence of the great risk of sending vessels from the Eastern States to the Southern for produce.