2096. DEBTS DUE BRITISH, Plan to pay.—
They [British merchants whom I met in
London] were certainly disposed to consent to
accommodation as to the article of debts. I was
not certain, when I left England, that they
would relinquish the interest during the war.
A letter received since, from the first character
among the American merchants in Scotland,
satisfies me they would have relinquished it
to insure the capital and residue of interest.
Would to heaven all the States, therefore, would
settle a uniform plan. To open the courts to
them, so that they might obtain judgments;
to divid the executions into so many equal annual
instalments, as that the last might be paid
in the year 1790; to have the payments in actual
money, and, to include the capital, and interest
preceding and subsequent to the war,
would give satisfaction to the world, and to the
merchants in general. Since it is left for each
nation to pursue their own measures in the execution
of the late treaty, may not Congress with
propriety recommend a mode of executing that
article respecting the debts, and send it to each
State to be passed into law. Whether England
gives up the [Western] posts or not, these debts
must be paid, or our character stained with infamy
among all nations and through all time.
As to the satisfaction for slaves carried off, it is
a bagatelle, which, if not made good before the
last instalment becomes due, may be secured
out of that.—
To James Monroe. Washington ed. i, 565.
Ford ed., iv, 221.
(P.
1786)
