3548. GOVERNMENT, Recognition of.—[further continued] .
On the dissolution of the
late constitution in France, by the removal of
so integral a part of it as the King, the
National Assembly, to whom a part only of
the public authority had been delegated, sensible
of the incompetence of their powers to
transact the affairs of the nation legitimately,
incited their fellow citizens to appoint
a national convention during this defective
state of the national authority. Duty
to our constituents required that we should
suspend payment of the moneys yet unpaid
of our debt to that country, because there
was no person, or persons, substantially authorized
by the nation of France to receive
the moneys and give us a good acquittal. On
this ground my last letter desired you to
suspend payments till further orders, with an
assurance, if necessary, that the suspension
should not be continued a moment longer
than should be necessary for us to see the
reestablishment of some person, or body of
persons, with authority to receive and give
us a good acquittal. Since that we learn that
a convention is assembled, invested with full
powers by the nation to transact its affairs.
Though we know that from the public
papers only, instead of waiting for a formal
annunciation of it, we hasten to act upon it
by authorizing you, if the fact be true, to
consider the suspension of payment, * * *
as now taken off, and to proceed as if it had
never been imposed; considering the convention,
or the government they shall have
established, as the lawful representative of
the nation, and authorized to act for them.
Neither the honor nor inclination of our
country would justify our withholding our
payment under a scrupulous attention to
forms. On the contrary, they lent us that
money when we were under their circumstances,
and it seems providential that we can
not only repay them the same sum, but under
the same circumstances.—
To Gouverneur Morris.
Ford ed., vi, 150.
(Pa.,
Dec. 1792)
