Sir, FROM JOHN JAY TO MONSIEUR DE MAREOIS. Office for Foreign Affairs, June 27, 1785. It was not until the day before yesterday that I received the letter you did me the honor to write on the 14th instant, enclosing a memorial of M. De Chaumont. I shall immediately communicate both to Congress, and, without delay, inform you of whatever resolution they may come to on the subject. There was concluded, the 25th February, 1783, a contract between the King and the United States. According to the terms of this contract, negotiated a little time after the peace, his Majesty had lent to Congress the sum of six millions, and he has made a release to the United States of the interest of part of the year 1783. But you will see, sir, by the fourth article, that the interest agreed upon commenced the beginning of the year 1784, and that the first payment ought to have been made at the commencement of this. I beg you will be pleased to lay this contract before Congress. I am, &c., DE MARBOIS. LOAN CONTRACT. The United States in Congress assembled, To all who shall see these presents, send greeting: Whereas Benjamin Franklin, our Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Versailles, in pursuance of the powers in him vested, did, on the 25th day of February, in the year 1783, with Charles Gravier de Vergennes, &c., Counsellor of the King in all his Councils, Commander of his Orders, Minister and Secretary of State, &c., vested with full powers of his most Christian Majesty for the purpose, enter into, conclude, and sign a contract between his most Christian Majesty and the United States of North America, in the words following, viz: Contract between the King and the Thirteen United States of North America. The reestablished peace between the belligerent Powers, the advantage of a free commerce to all parts of the globe, and the independence of the thirteen United States of North America, acknowledged and founded on a solid and honorable basis, rendered it probable that the said States would be in a condition to provide hereafter for their necessities by means of the resources within themselves, without being compelled to implore the continuation of the succors which the King has so liberally granted during the war. But the Minister Plenipotentiary of the said United States to his Majesty having represented to him the exhausted state to which they have been reduced by a long and disastrous war, his Majesty has condescended to take into consideration the request made by the aforesaid Minister in the name of the Congress of the said States, for a new advance of money, to answer numerous purposes of urgent and indispensable expenses in the course of the present year; his Majesty has, in consequence, determined, notwithstanding the no less pressing necessities of his own service, to grant to Congress a new pecuniary assistance, which he has fixed at the sum of 6,000,000 livres Tournois, under the title of loan, and under the guarantee of the whole thirteen United States, which the Minister of Congress has declared his acceptance of, with the liveliest acknowledgments, in the name of the said States. And as it is necessary to the good order of his Majesty's finances, and also useful to the operations of the finances of the United States, to assign periods for the payment of the 6,000,000 livres in question, and to regulate the conditions and terms of reimbursement, which should be made at his Majesty's Royal Treasury at Paris, after the manner which has been stipulated for the preceding advances by a former contract of the 16th July, 1782; We, Charles Gravier Count de Vergennes, &c., Counsellor of the King in his Councils, Commander of his Orders, Chief of the Royal Council of Finances, Counsellor of State, &c., Minister and Secretary of State, and of his Commands and Finances, invested with full powers by his Majesty, given to us for the purpose of these presents; And we, Benjamin Franklin, Minister and Plenipotentiary of the United States of North America, likewise invested with full powers, by the Congress of said States, for the same purpose of these presents, after having compared and duly communicated to each other our respective powers, have agreed on the following articles: ARTICLE I. The payment of the 6,000,000 livres, French money, above-mentioned, shall be made from the funds of the Royal Treasury, in proportions of 500,000 livres, during each of the twelve months of the present year, under the acknowledgments of the Minister of the said United States, promising, in the name of Congress and in behalf of the thirteen United States, to reimburse and refund the said 6,000,000 livres in ready money, at his Majesty's Royal Treasury, at the house of the Sieur Grand, banker at Paris, with interest at five per centum per annum, at periods hereafter stipulated in the third and fourth articles. The advances which his Majesty has been pleased to allow to be made on account of the 6,000,000 in question, shall be deducted in the payments of the first month of this year. ARTICLE II. For better understanding the fixing of periods for the reimbursement of the 6,000,000 livres at the Royal Treasury, and to prevent all ambiguity on this head, it has been found proper to recapitulate here the amount of the preceding aids granted by the King to the United States, and to distinguish them according to their different classes. The first is composed of funds lent successively by his Majesty, amounting in the whole to the sum of 18,000,000 livres, reimbursable in specie at the Royal Treasury, in twelve equal portions of 1,500,000 livres each, besides the interest, and in twelve years, to commence from the third year after the date of the peace, the interest, beginning to reckon at the date of the peace, to be discharged annually, shall diminish in proportion to the reimbursement of the capital, the last payment of which shall expire in the year 1798. The second class comprehends the loan of 5,000,000 Dutch florins, amounting, by a moderate valuation, to 10,000,000 livres Tournois, the said loan made in Holland in 1781, for the service of VOL. I.-11 the United States of North America, under the engagement of the King to refund the capital, with interest at four per centum per annum, at the general counter of the States General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, in equal portions, reckoning from the sixth year of the date of said loan; and under the like engagement on the part of the Minister of Congress, and in behalf of the thirteen United States, to reimburse the 10,000,000 of said loan, in ready money, at the Royal Treasury, with interest at four per centum per annum, in ten equal portions of a million each, and in ten periods, from year to year, the first of which shall take place in the month of November, 1787, and the last in the same month, 1796. The whole conformable to the conditions expressed in the contract of 10th July, 1782. In the third class are comprehended the aids and subsidies furnished to the Congress of the United States, under the title of gratuitous assistance from the pure generosity of the King, 3,000,000 of which were granted before the treaty of February, 1778, and 6,000,000 in 1781; which aids and subsidies amount in the whole to 9,000,000 livres Tournois. His Majesty here confirms, in case of need, the gratuitous gift to the Congress of the said thirteen United States. ARTICLE III. The new loan of 6,000,000 livres Tournois, the subject of the present contract, shall be refunded and reimbursed, in ready money, at his Majesty's Royal Treasury, in six equal portions of 1,000,000 each, with interest at five per centum per annum, and in six periods, the first of which shall take place in the year 1797, and so on, from year to year, until 1802, when the last reimbursement shall be completed. ARTICLE IV. The interest of five per centum per annum of the capital of the 6,000,000, mentioned in the preceding article, shall begin to be reckoned from the first of January of the year 1784, and shall be paid in ready money, at his Majesty's Royal Treasury at Paris, on the same day of each year, the first of which shall take place the 1st January, 1785, and so on from year to year, until the definitive reimbursement of the capital. His Majesty being pleased, by a new act of generosity, to present and remit to the thirteen United States, the partial interest of the present year, which the underwritten Minister of Congress has declared to accept, with acknowledgments in the name of the said United States. ARTICLE V. The interest of the capital of the 6,000,000 shall diminish in proportion to the reimbursements, at the periods fixed in the preceding article; Congress and the United States reserving, however, the liberty of freeing themselves by anticipated payments, should the state of their finances admit. ARTICLE VI. The contracting parties will reciprocally guarantee the faithful observation of the foregoing articles, the ratifications of which shall be exchanged in the space of nine months from the date of this present contract, or sooner, if possible. In faith whereof, we, the Ministers Plenipotentiary of his Majesty, and the Congress of the thirteen United States of North America, in virtue of our respective full powers, have signed the present contract, and thereunto affixed the seal of our arms. Done at Versailles, the 25th day of February, 1783. GRAVIER DE VERGENNES. Now, know ye that we, the said United States in Congress assembled, impressed with a lively sense of the assistance and affection manifested by his most Christian Majesty in the above contract, have ratified and confirmed, and by these presents do ratify and confirm, the said contract and every article thereof. And we do hereby empower our Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Versailles to deliver this our ratification, in exchange for the ratification of the said contract on the part of his most Christian Majesty. In testimony whereof, we have caused our seal to be hereunto affixed, witness, his Excellency Elias Boudinot, President, this 31st day of October, 1783, and of our sovereignty and independence the eighth. I have received the letter which you did me the honor to write yesterday, together with the paper mentioned to be enclosed with it. |