Extract of a Letter from the Honorable John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson dated at Paris November 11th. 1784.
“A Letter received from the Count de Vergennes & another from Monsr. Grand to Doctor Franklin of which No. 21 & 22 are Copies give us reason to apprehend an uneasiness in this Court lest we should fail not only in the punctual payment of the interest on their particular Loans, but should permit the payment on the Dutch Loan which this Court guaranteed, to fall in the first instance upon them. This circumstance under the present probability of a War in Europe might be really inconvenient to them & give unfavourable Ideas of the sense we entertain of their past favours: Congress will know whether measures have been taken to make timely payments here, and they can best judge of what exertions the States are capable for reducing their foreign debt even faster than their stipulations require. A hearty disposition in the People goes far towards making them equal to whatever it is their duty & interest to do; and we cannot help supposing that four Countrymen would boldly look that part of their foreign debt in the face, which they have a right to discharge, if they would view it and view themselves they would find they could master it, perhaps in a single effort. Of this we can assure them that nothing would produce such a resolution in the opinion entertained in Europe of their powers of their justice and of the tone of their government. If a reputation for equity and gratitude, if a demonstration of our resources and of our resolution, if the subjection of the riches of Europe to our wishes on any future emergency may be bought at half a Guinea a head cannot our Countrymen be roused to make the purchase? Add to this that it would command for us a respect which might save us in the end millions of money and torrents of blood. Congress we hope will pardon us these reflections—we are on a field where every circumstance tends to produce them. Our Instruction as to a gratification and indemnification to John Baptist Pequet has not yet been complied with. Mr. Grand’s Letter will assign the reason—
The honor of our Country as well as our own feelings will not permit us to pass unnoticed that we are now depending for daily subsistance on the bounty of a Subject of this Kingdom: a bounty which he tells us in his Letter “qu’il sera forcè mettre des bornes” (he will be forc’d to set bounds) We trust that Congress will be so good as to order us effectual and instantaneous relief from this situation— By The United States in Congress Assembled