University of Virginia Library

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.[1]

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.