2022. DEBT (French), Complaints of officers.—[further continued] .
Mr. Adams informs me
he has borrowed money in Holland, which, if
confirmed by Congress, will enable them to pay
not only the interest due here to the foreign
officers, but the principal. Let me beseech you
to reflect on the expediency of transferring
this debt to Holland. All our other debts in
Europe do not injure our reputation so much
as this. These gentlemen have connections both
in and out of office, and these again their connections,
so that our default on this article is
further known, more blamed, and excites worst
dispositions against us, than you can conceive.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. ii, 209.
Ford ed., iv, 422.
(P.
1787)
