Part 20

3dly. That Rhode Island is, from its situation, liable to the unhappy accidents of war is true; but this incidental evil, arising from an advantageous position, cannot be adduced as a plea for exemption from public burdens. New York has suffered, at least as much and as long.

4thly. That the exclusive benefits of an impost should be carried to the State where it is collected, is a position unjust in itself, and which would forever prevent any duties; wherefore it would cut off not only one of the most productive, but one of the most useful branches of revenue. Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and some other States carry on the commerce of their neighbors as well as their own, from which they derive great riches. The duties are always (like the risks and the expenses) paid by the consumer; for unless this be so, no tolerable reason can be assigned, why foreign commodities should be dearer in war than in peace. If then a considerable duty were laid by the commercial State, it would fall on its uncommercial neighbor. That neighbor, therefore, would immediately take measures to carry on its own commerce, and prohibit the bringing of articles from the commercial State. Those measures would produce a repeal of the duty. I take no notice here of the altercations which would arise; it is sufficient to show, that the private view of revenue for the State would be defeated.

5thly, and 6thly. These objections do not appear to me to apply, because in the first place, I can hardly suppose the neighboring States will ever think of laying duties on the produce, for if any of them should, her citizens would be the sufferers. Secondly, if the article of produce be left uncontrolled by the government every individual will be a check on the avidity of his neighbors, and if by this means a piece of American goods can be vended cheaper in Rhode Island than a piece of foreign goods, the consumer in Rhode Island will by the purchase of it save money to himself, and therefore to the country. And as the duty is collected only on foreign goods he will not pay the duty, and of course the duty on his State will be so much the less.

7thly. The seventh objection will apply more strongly to almost any other kind of tax, because this may be collected by a very small number of men.

8thly. The eighth objection I cannot admit, because forming my opinion of that State from what I conceive to be the character of the gentleman who makes the objection, I cannot believe it to be valid. Smuggling was formerly not disreputable because it was the evading of laws, which were not made by proper authority, and therefore not obligatory; but nothing can be more infamous than to defraud our own government of so poor a pittance; and I trust, that if any individual were inclined to do so, he would be detected by the first person who saw him, and would be as much exposed to the resentment and contempt of his fellow citizens as an informer would have been in the times alluded to.

9thly. The last objection ought not to be made, because there is no reason to suppose, that Congress would devise means to oppress their fellow citizens. But it is one of our greatest misfortunes, that men are apt to reason from one thing to another that is very dissimilar. The parliament of England cared nothing about the consequences of laws made for us, because they were not affected by them. This is always the case under such circumstances, and forms one of the most powerful arguments in favor of free governments. But how can it be supposed, that a member of Congress who is liable to be recalled at a moment's warning would join in measures which are oppressive to the people, and which he must necessarily himself feel the weight of, without deriving any advantage from them. For it is not here as in England, that there is a King to buy votes for bad purposes. If the members of Congress be seduced, it must be by the Congress, which is absurd. If indeed the Congress were either an hereditary body, self-existent, or if they were self-elected, there might be room for apprehension, but as they are, there can be none.

Now, Sir, the state of things is shortly this. The United States are deeply indebted to the people of America. They have called for revenues to pay their debts in a course of years, being the only means of reviving credit and lightening burdens. All the States consent but Rhode Island, to whose citizens a very considerable part of this debt is due. Of consequence the whole is suspended. The reasons assigned are purely local, and I verily believe are founded on mistaken principles. The revenue, however, if granted is insufficient. More must be demanded; and consequently, as all taxes are unpleasant some State will be found to oppose any which can be devised, on quite as good ground as the present opposition. What then is the consequence?

I am, Sir, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

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TO SIR GUY CARLETON.

Office of Finance, August 20th, 1782.

Sir,

I do myself the honor to enclose to your Excellency letters from the masters of two flag ships, which have arrived in this port with American prisoners. I have sent them in by Mr John Greene, one of the persons that came in the Symmetry, who will bring such orders, as your Excellency may think proper to transmit to those gentlemen. I have further to mention, Sir, that I intend delivering to one of them such British marine prisoners as may be in this place, or its vicinity, when they depart, provided their receipt shall be deemed a proper evidence of the delivery, on a settlement of the account hereafter. On this point I shall be happy to learn your sentiments. It might have been more proper to have addressed myself to Admiral Digby, especially as Mr Greene carries the duplicates of a former letter to him. But as the King's servants in England have placed the masters of these flags under your Excellency's directions, I was led to conclude, that if the concurrence of the Admiral should be necessary, you would take the trouble of obtaining it.

I have the honor to be, with perfect respect, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

* * * * *

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Office of Finance, August 28th, 1782.

Sir,

I have duly received your several favors of the 22d and 27th of July, and 10th and 13th of August. My not answering them is owing to causes which you will easily conceive; for you will easily conceive the multiplicity of objects to which I must turn my attention. I am very sorry to learn that you can no longer continue in the office of Receiver. It would have given me great pleasure that you should have done so, because I am sure that you would have rendered very signal services to the public cause. This you will now do in another line, more important as it is more extensive; and the justness of your sentiments on public affairs, induce my warm wish that you may find a place in Congress so agreeable, that you may be induced to continue in it.

I am sorry to learn, that any letter of mine should have given offence; but I conclude that this effect must follow from many parts of my writings and conduct; because the steady pursuit of what appears to be the true line of duty will necessarily cross the various oblique views of interest and opinion. To offend is sometimes a fault, always a misfortune. The letter in question is, I suppose, under the date of the 11th of December, of which I enclose you a copy. Let me at the same time assure you, that in all your excellent letter of the 13th instant, I most esteem the clause now in question because it contains that useful information which is least common. I will make no apologies for the letter, to any one, because apologies are rarely useful, and where the intention has been good, they are to candid minds unnecessary. Possessed of the facts you can guard against misrepresentation, and I have found that to be the most hostile weapon, which either my personal or political enemies have been able to wield against me.

I have not even yet seen the resolutions of your Legislature, relative to an extension of the powers of Congress. I had supposed the same reason for them that you have expressed. Indeed power is generally such a darling object with weak minds, that they must feel extreme reluctance to bid it farewell; neither do I believe that anything will induce a general consent to part with it, but a perfect sense of absolute necessity. This may arise from two sources, the one of reason the other of feeling; the former more safe and more uncertain, the latter always secure and often dangerous. It is, my Dear Sir, in circumstances like these, that a patriotic mind seeking the great good of the whole on enlightened principles, can best be distinguished from those vulgar souls, whose narrow optics can see but the little circle of selfish concerns. Unhappily such souls are but too common, and but too often fill the seats of dignity and authority. A firm, wise, manly, system of federal government, is what I once wished, what I now hope, what I dare not expect, but what I will not despair of.

Your description of the mode of collecting taxes, contains an epitome of the follies, which prevail from one end of the continent to the other. There is no end to the absurdity of human nature; mankind seem to delight in contrast and paradox, for surely nothing else could sanctify (during a contest on the precise point of being taxed by our own consent) the arbitrary police, which on this subject, almost universally prevails. God grant you success in your views to amend it. Your ideas on the subject are perfectly correspondent to my own. As to your doubt on the mode of collecting it, I would wish to obviate it by the observation, that the further off we can remove the appointment of collectors from popular influence, the more effectual will be their operations; and the more they conform to the views of Congress, the more effectually will they enable that body to provide for general defence. In political life, the creature will generally pay some deference to the creator. The having a double set of officers is indeed an evil, but a good thing is not always to be rejected because of that necessary portion of evil, which in the course of things must be attached to it. Neither is this a necessary evil, for with a proper federal government, army, navy, and revenue, the civil administration might well be provided for, by a stamp act, roads by turnpikes, and navigation by tolls.

The account you give of the State is by no means flattering; and the more true it appears, the more concern it gives me. The loan I hope will be completed, and I wish the _whole_ amount of the tax may be collected. The forage plan I have disagreed to, and enclose for your information, the copy of my letter on that subject to the Quarter Master General. I believe your State is exhausted, but perhaps even you consider it as being more so than it is. The certificates, which now form a useless load, will (if the United States adopt, and the several States agree, to a plan now before Congress) become valuable property. This will afford great relief. The scarcity of money also may be immediately relieved, if the love of popular favor would so far give way to the love of public good, as to enforce plentiful taxation. The necessity of having money, will always produce money. The desire of having it produces, you see, so much as is necessary to gratify the desire of enjoying foreign luxuries. Turn the stream, which now flows in the channels of commerce, to those of revenue, and the business is completed. Unfortunately for us, this is an operation which requires fortitude, perseverance, virtue, and which cannot be effected by the weak or wicked minds, who have only partial, private, or interested views.

When I consider the exertions, which the country has already made, under striking disadvantages, and with astonishing prodigality of national wealth, by pernicious modes of applying it, I persuade myself that regular consistent efforts would produce much more than you suppose.

For your accurate, clear, and comprehensive description of general and particular characters, sentiments, and opinions, accept my sincere thanks and warm approbation. They do equal justice to your talents, both for observation and description.

Mr Duer's attention to the business of his contract, is very pleasing to me, and honorable to himself. I am very sorry that he should lose by it, but to avoid this as much as possible, I am determined to support him by liberal advances so soon as it shall be in my power to do it.

I pray you to believe me to be yours, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

* * * * *

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Office of Finance, August 20th, 1782.

Sir,

I have now to address you on a subject, which cannot be more painful to you than it is to me. I am determined to act justly, and therefore when I find that I shall be unable to pay the contractors, I will give them due notice in season. This period is fast approaching, and unless the States make infinitely greater exertions than they have hitherto done, it must soon arrive. To comprise this matter in a short compass, your army is fed at a dollar for nine rations, or three dollars and a third per month to feed a soldier. Twentyfour thousand rations per day would therefore amount to eighty thousand dollars monthly, which is more than had been paid by all the States on the 1st instant. The object of this letter, Sir, is to request that you will consider how your army is to be subsisted or kept together, if I am obliged to dissolve the contracts. I pray that Heaven may direct your mind to some mode by which we may be yet saved. I have done all that I could, and given repeated warnings of the consequences, but it is like preaching to the dead. Every exertion I am capable of shall be continued while there is the least glimmering of hope.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.[10]

[10] _August 29th._ Mr Duane, Arthur Lee, Abraham Clark, and Samuel Osgood, a Committee of Inquiry, came this morning and proceeded in their business. They desired me to make out an account of all the moneys that have come into my hands, and those which I have paid. They asked the reasons for employing Mr Swanwick, and proceeded in other parts of their inquiry until the hour for going to Congress arrived. They inquired into the reasons for appointing Receivers of Continental taxes in each State, and Mr Clark expressed doubts of my authority to make those appointments. I therefore produced the Acts of Congress of the 3d of November, 1781, which satisfied him on that point. I informed the Committee, that my reasons for making new appointments, in preference to employing the Loan officers, were first, the Loan officers have not settled their accounts with the United States, and some of them have long accounts depending; secondly, although some of them may be fit, all are not; thirdly, had the money paid by the States, for the current expenses of the year, been put into the hands of the Loan officers, the people entitled to the interest on Loan Office certificates, issued by these gentlemen, would have been very clamorous for payment. They would not have entered into, or admitted the distinction of moneys granted for revenue or for current expenses of the year. _Diary._

* * * * *

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Office of Finance, August 30th, 1782.

Sir,

My letter of the 29th, which is enclosed, I have written for two reasons; one that you may be informed and I may stand justified in every respect, should the event take place; the other, which is the principal one, that you may found a warm application on it to the States. You will, I hope, keep this entirely to yourself. You will see, that I have not intrusted a view of it to my Secretary, or to any of the clerks. The effect of your application must depend on raising a very general alarm.

I have the honor to be, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.[11]

[11] _September 3d._ This day I requested a Committee of Congress for a conference. Mr Rutledge, Mr Osgood, and Mr Madison, were appointed, and I proposed to them to present the seventyfour gun ship, America, to his Most Christian Majesty; who has lately lost _Le Magnifique_, a seventyfour gun ship, in the harbor of Boston. The Committee were unanimously of opinion with me, that this unfortunate incident afforded Congress an opportunity of showing a mark of the sincerity of their attachment to their ally, by enabling his Minister to continue the force of his fleet at a time when it could not otherwise be done. Besides the propriety which there is in showing this mark of attachment and gratitude to his Most Christian Majesty, I have several other strong and pointed reasons, which induced me to propose and always to support this measure. The want of money in our treasury to fit, equip, and man this ship, is amongst the number. _Diary._

* * * * *

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Office of Finance, September 9th, 1782.

Sir,

I did myself the honor to propose, in my letter of the 30th of July last, the borrowing or four millions of dollars for the service of the ensuing year. It always gives me pain to repeat any application to Congress, because it is my duty to suppose they pay every proper attention to those things, which are submitted to their consideration. But I must take the liberty, on this occasion to observe, that the many engagements I have been compelled to make for the purpose of supporting the public service to the present moment, will all fall due between this and the first of next year.

My prospects of relief from the revenues of America are slender indeed. As a safe opportunity for Europe will offer in a few days, Congress will be pleased to consider that the moments are precious. They will consider, that I cannot act in this business without their authority, and that it will take some days to prepare the necessary despatches, even after that authority is given. I hope, Sir, that I shall not be understood as desiring to precipitate any acts or resolutions. We are fast approaching to the winter. If everything could be ready by the 15th of this month, we could not reckon on the arrival of despatches at Paris before the beginning of November. A month is but a short period to transact this important business, and this would not leave another month for the winter's passage back.

With perfect respect, I have the honor to be, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

* * * * *

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Office of Finance, September 9th, 1782.

Dear Sir,

The dates of the enclosed letters will show you my extreme reluctance to wound your mind with the anxieties which distress my own. At the time they were written, I was sore pressed on every quarter; but a gleam of hope broke in upon me, and induced me to bear up still longer against the torrent of demands, which was rushing upon me. These would long since have overwhelmed me, had I been supported only by the revenues drawn from the States.

At length, however, my other resources, which are nearly exhausted, have become useless by the total stagnation of trade, owing to the expectations of peace. There is, therefore, no other dependence left but the taxes, and, unless these become immediately productive of funds sufficient to feed our troops, I need not describe the consequences. Already I am in arrears, in spite of my efforts. I am determined, however, to continue those efforts to the last moment, but at present, I really know not which way to turn myself.

With the most sincere esteem, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

* * * * *

TO MESSRS WILLINK & CO., AMSTERDAM.

Office of Finance, September 24th, 1782.

Gentlemen,

Presuming, from the letters of yourself and of Mr Adams, that the loan opened on account of the United States of America under your auspices is filled, I do myself the honor to enclose you sundry acts of Congress, by which you will see that the amount is subject to my disposal. Whatever measures I may take, you will from time to time receive due notice of, unless the miscarriage of letters by the accidents to which they are at present subjected should prevent.

I have now in view a money negotiation, which may or may not take place according to circumstances, but which will probably be accomplished, to the amount of from one to two millions of florins. If it should be effected, Messrs Le Couteulx & Co. bankers at Paris, will have occasion to draw on you. I am now, therefore, to desire that the bills drawn by that house to whatever amount, be punctually honored and paid on account of the United States. It is in a reliance on this that I shall take my measures, and a failure of payment would be attended with the worst consequences.

I have the honor to be, with perfect respect, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.

* * * * *

TO MESSRS LE COUTEULX & CO., PARIS.

Office of Finance, September 24th, 1782.

Gentlemen,

Enclosed you have letters of this date to the house of Messrs Le Couteulx, at Cadiz, and to Wilhelm and Jan Willink, Nicholas and Jacob Van Staphorst, and De la Land and Fynjé, at Amsterdam. These two letters, which I am to request that you will forward, are left open for your perusal, and will explain to you the object which I now have in view.

The United States having moneys in Holland, which are very necessary for the public service here, I have deemed it best to bring them through the Havana, for the following reasons. First, bills of exchange cannot be negotiated here to the necessary amount, and are even then negotiated at the rate of thirteen per cent discount. Secondly, as it is, therefore, necessary to import money, the risk is less from the Havana than from Europe. Thirdly, it might not be agreeable to the prejudices of many to draw from Europe their circulating coin; and, fourthly, I expect that a considerable gain will be made on the negotiations. Thus, for instance, to take it in its greatest extent, I am informed that bills on Cadiz, at thirty days' sight, sell at the Havana for an advance of eight per cent; and that bills on Paris sell at Cadiz, for an advance of nine per cent; and there is also an advance on bills drawn from Paris on Amsterdam; to which may be added, that a considerable time is also gained in these various negotiations; and, therefore, if any benefit can be derived to the United States from that circumstance, you will govern yourself accordingly. In this, as well as in every other circumstance relating to the business, I have on you, Gentlemen, the most perfect reliance.

I think it will be best for you to know immediately of the gentlemen in Amsterdam, whether they will answer your drafts to the amount; because, if they should raise obstacles in the way, those may be removed in season from this country, provided an early notice be transmitted; for I expect you will receive this letter by the time Mr ---- reaches the Havana, if not before; and I do not suppose that his bills can reach Cadiz in less than two months; and, of course, at one usance only (and they shall, if that can be done without loss, be drawn at two usances) they will not be payable until three months, and then if time is necessary, you will direct the house in Cadiz to draw at two usances more, which will bring the business to between five and six months from your receipt of my letters. At any rate, it will not do, that Mr ----'s bills be protested; I must rely on you to prevent an accident, which would be attended with such fatal consequences, and shall take measures to put you in a capacity to answer them seasonably.

With perfect respect, &c.

ROBERT MORRIS.