Having said thus much, Sir, on the reason of the deficiency, I find it proper to add, that the bills drawn in December and November amount to two millions; which being at thirty days' sight will not be payable until February or March next. One million negotiated through the Havana on Cadiz, thence to Paris, &c. will not finally be payable until March and April. And one million drawn the beginning of this month at one hundred days' sight, will not fall due until some time in April and May. On the other hand, any further success of Mr Adams's loan will apply for the payment.
I trust from the whole state of these things your Excellency will see, that nothing has introduced any disorder into these transactions, but the appropriation without my authority of moneys intended to be at my disposition, and that this again has arisen from the utter incapacity of Dr Franklin any otherwise to acquit the demands on him, arising from expenditures made some years before my administration. If I might venture, therefore, to advise, it should be that three and a half or four millions were paid to Mr Grand as an addition to the loan of 1782, and then the sum which the Court may think proper to advance for 1783, being clear of preceding transactions, I will pledge myself that no act of mine shall exceed the limits to be prescribed by your Court.
You see, Sir, that I rely on aid for the current year; and this brings me to the resolution of Congress, which I had also the honor to communicate. You observed on it with great propriety, as a Minister of France, that you advised me not to comply with it; and as a Minister of the United States I might reply, that I should certainly obey the order of my masters. At the bottom I believe we are both agreed. I would not put my name to a bill if I doubted the payment, and you must be convinced that it is necessary to draw. Not to mention those critical circumstances of the army, which you are perfectly apprized of, it must be remembered how important an effect it might have on the negotiations for peace, if we should now neglect to prepare for war, and much more if we should suffer any serious misfortune. To keep the army together, in good humor and prepared for action, is a duty which we owe alike to ourselves, to our allies, and to our associates in the war.