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geance, as well for what is due to him as Captain of the Bon Homme Richard as for the shares of the Americans and foreigners composing the crew of the said vessel, and for several powers in favor of the said Commodore, the sum of....... ......Liv. 75,532 Os. 5d.

To the said Sieur Paul Jones for the shares due to the Americans who belonged to the Pallas frigate, amounting to..

Total.....

321 17 11

Liv. 75,853 18 4

We, Commodore of the Naval Forces of the United States of America, authorized by the Congress, and the Mareschal de Castries, Minister and Secretary of State for the Department of Marine, to receive the amount of prizes of the American subjects and foreigners, according to a letter of the 15th-July, 1785, acknowledge to have received of M. Gratien de Comorre, Treasurer of Marine for this port, and charged with the continuance of the payments of the late M. Bourgeois, the sum of seventy-five thousand eight hundred and fifty-three livres eighteen sols four deniers, in full.

L'Orient, August 18, 1785.

PAUL JONES.

Certified to have counted, the 18th August last, to Commodore Paul Jones, the sum of seventy-five thousand eight hundred and fifty-three livres eighteen sols four deniers.

Given at L'Orient, 10th October, 1785.

GRATIEN DE COMORRE.

Shares of the Prizes made in 1779 by the Squadron of Commodore Paul Jones.

Translation.

L'Orient, September 5, 1785.

To M. Paul Jones, Commandant of the Squadron consisting of the Bon Homme Richard, the Alliance, the Pallas, and the Vengeance, for what is due to the frigate Alliance, commanded by M. Landais, the sum of one hundred and five thousand one hundred and eighty-five livres three sols six deniers, (105,185liv. 3s. 6d.)

We, Commodore of the Naval Forces of the United States of America, authorized by the Congress, and orders of the Mareschal de Castries, Minister and Secretary of State for the Department of Marine, to receive the amount due to the Alliance frigate, belonging to the United States, commanded by M. Landais, according to the despatches of 19th and 26th August, 1785, acknowledge to have received of M. Gratien de Comorre, Treasurer of Marine for this port, and charged with the continuation of the payments of the late M. Bourgeois, the sum of one hundred and five thousand one hundred and eighty-five livres three sols six deniers, in full.

PAUL JONES.

Certified to have counted, the 5th September, 1785, to Commodore Paul Jones, the sum of one hundred and five thousand one hundred and eighty-five livres three sols six deniers.

Given at L'Orient, 10th October, 1785.

GRATIEN DE COMORRE.

FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MESSRS. VAN STAPHORST.

.Gentlemen,

Paris, October 12, 1785.

The receipt of your favor of September 19th should not have been so long unacknowledged, but that I have been peculiarly and very closely engaged ever since it came to hand.

With respect to the expediency of the arrangement you propose to make with Mr. Parker, I must observe to you that it would be altogether out of my province to give an official opinion for your direction.

These transactions appertain altogether to the Commissioners of the Treasury, to whom you have very properly written on the occasion. I shall always be willing, however, to apprise you of any facts I may be acquainted with, and which might enable you to proceed with more certainty; and even to give my private opinion, where I am acquainted with the subject, leaving you the most perfect liberty to give it what weight you should think proper.

In the present case I cannot give even a private opinion, because I am not told what are precisely the securities offered by Mr. Parker.

So various are the securities of the United States, that unless they are precisely described by their dates, consideration, and other material circumstances, no man on earth can say what they are worth. One fact, however, is certain, that all debts, of any considerable amount, contracted by the United States while their paper money existed, are subject to a deduction, and not payable at any fixed period.

I think I may venture to say also that there are no debts of the United States on the same footing with the money loaned by Holland, except those due to the Kings of France and Spain.

However, I hope you will soon receive the answers of the Commissioners, which alone can decide authoritatively what is to be done.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

TH: JEFFERSON.

FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO MESSRS. VAN STAPHORST.

Paris, October 25, 1785.

Gentlemen,

I received yesterday your letter of the 20th instant. In order to give you the information you desire on the subject of the liquidated debts of the United States, and the comparative footing on which they stand, I must observe to you that the first and great division of our Federal debt is into, 1, foreign; and 2, domestic. The foreign debt comprehends: 1, the loan of the Government of Spain; 2, the loan from the Government of France, and from the Farmers General; 3, the loans negotiated in Holland by order of Congress. This branch of our debt stands absolutely singular: no man in the United States having ever supposed that Congress or their Legislatures can in any wise modify or alter it. They justly view the United States as the one party, and the lenders as the other, and that the consent of both would be requisite were any modification proposed. But with respect to the domestic debt, they consider Congress as representing both the borrowers and lenders, and that the modifications which have taken place in this have been necessary to do justice between the two parties, and that they flowed properly from Congress as their mutual umpire. The domestic debt comprehends: 1, the army debt; 2, the loan office debt; 3, the liquidated

debt; 4, the unliquidated debt. The first term includes debts to the officers and soldiers for pay, bounty, and subsistence. The second term means moneys put into the loan office of the United States. The 3d comprehends all debts contracted by quartermasters, commissaries, and others duly authorized to procure supplies for the army, and which have been liquidated (that is settled) by commissioners appointed under the resolution of Congress of June 12th, 1780, or by the officer who made the contract. The 4th comprehends the whole mass of debts described in the preceding article, which have not yet been liquidated. These are in a course of liquidation, and are passing over daily into the 3d class. The debts of this 3d class, that is the liquidated debts, is the object of your inquiry. No time is fixed for the payment of it, no fund as yet determined, nor any firm provision for the interest in the meantime. The consequence is that the certificates of these debts sell greatly below par. When I left America they could be bought for from 2s. 6d. to 15s. in the pound, this difference proceeding from the circumstance of some States having provided for paying the interest on those in their own State, which others had not. Here an opinion had arisen with some, and propositions had even been made in the Legislatures for paying off the principal of these debts with what they had cost the holder and interest on that.

This opinion is far from being general, and I am of opinion will not prevail. But it is among possible events. I have been thus particular that you might be able to judge, not only in the present case, but also in others, should any attempt be made to speculate in your city on these papers.

It is a business in which foreigners will be in great danger of being duped. It is a science which bids defiance to the bounds of reason. To understand it a man must not only be on the spot, and be perfectly possessed of all the circumstances relative to every species of these papers, but he must have that dexterity which the habit of buying and selling them alone gives.

The brokers of these certificates are few in number, and any other person, venturing to deal with them, engages in a very unequal

contest.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

TH: JEFFERSON.

Sir,

FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, January 2, 1786.

Several conferences and letters having passed between the Count de Vergennes and myself, on the subject of the commerce of this country with the United States, I think them sufficiently interesting to be communicated to Congress.

They are stated in the form of a report, and are herein enclosed. The length of this despatch, perhaps, needs apology; yet I have not been able to abridge it, without omitting circumstances which I thought Congress would rather choose to know. Some of the objects of these conferences present but small hopes for the present, but they seem to admit a possibility of success at some future moment.

The enclosed letter from the Baron Thulemeier will inform you of the ratification, by the King of Prussia, of the treaty concluded with him. My answer accompanies it. I have no doubt but you have long ago received notice of this from Mr. Dumas, whose opportunities of conveying letters are so much more frequent than mine, especially since the French packets have been nearly discontinued. Mr. Crevecoeur is laboring to reëstablish them, and under some hopes of

success.

From Mr. Adams you have doubtless been also notified of the overtures from Portugal to treat with us at London.

We are probably indebted for this new spur towards us to the commercial arrangements which are on the tapis between France and England; and I think it fortunate that they have chosen to commit the negotiation to their Minister in London, rather than to their Ambassador here, whose torpid character would probably have spun it to a great length.

I communicated to the Count de Vergennes, according to your commands, the report of Captain Shaw's voyage to China, making, at the same time, those acknowledgments which were due for these new proofs of the friendship of the French nation towards us. I enclose you my letter and his answer, whereby you will see that he thought it a proper occasion to express the dissatisfaction of this Court, with the acts of some of the American Legislatures on the subject of foreign commerce, and to hint that their continuance would render measures necessary here to countervail the inequalities they supposed us to be establishing.

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