My reason for urging this matter at the present moment is, that I am not only pressed on the subject by several dismissed officers of those departments and by their creditors, but I have also had recent information of very considerable frauds and practices; and on conferring with the Controller of the treasury this morning, the plan above proposed appeared not only the most eligible, but indeed the only effectual one. It is submitted, with all due deference, by your Excellency's most obedient, &c.
On the 20th and 27th of last month, the United States in Congress passed Acts for settling and finally adjusting all the public accounts, up to the first day of the present year. These important Acts would immediately have been transmitted, but I wait the event of some additional propositions upon that subject, which are now under the deliberation of Congress, and then I shall have the honor of laying before you the whole of this very important business, so that it may be maturely considered in a general and comprehensive point of view.
At present I shall confine myself to congratulating your Excellency, which I do with the most unfeigned pleasure, on the prospect which begins to open, of adjusting these intricate and almost obsolete transactions of relieving the various public creditors, and consequently of rescuing and restoring the public credit. Let me add, Sir, that I consider these things essential to the consolidation of our federal Union, to the promotion of general harmony and generous confidence throughout the United States, and to the establishment of our glorious independence on the solid basis of justice. I am to request, Sir, that your public accounts be put in a state of preparation, so that the person appointed for that purpose may be able speedily to investigate them; as much time and consequently much expense will be thereby spared.
In a letter, of this day to Benjamin Franklin, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Court of Versailles, I inform him, (which information I am now to convey to you,) that I shall draw bills on you, as a market for them may offer, to the amount of five hundred thousand livres tournois, on account of the United States of North America. I have detailed to him everything necessary on the subject, which he will communicate. I am to request of you, that you will duly honor and pay those bills, giving me notice of every transaction, from time to time as occasion may offer and require. The necessary funds are, I presume, in your hands already, or will be before this reaches you; but at any rate Dr Franklin will provide them in season.