Papers of John Adams, volume 20
We beg leave to refer to our last respects of 8 dec̃:, since whch. time we continue without your agreable favors, we are now
paying the intrest due on the 4 PC. Obt: and request Your Sending us the Coupons of
yours & to dispose of Said amount; it is highly agreable to us to see the American
Credit on a respectable footing, in consequence the 5 PC: Obt: are advanced at 99 1/2
PC: and the 4 PC: Sell at a premium of 2 PC: on acct. of the
Lotery, the management we kept in it, we flatter ourselves will assure us the
satisfaction of the United States & your personal knowledge in how much the
influence of our Credit has contributed to it will assure us your benevolence. We think
it our duty to inform you as our Friend abt: the letter we
write with Msr. V Staphorst to the Treasurer Hamilton Esqr. of the applications made to the Court of france to transfer
to Speculaters the debt of Congress paye.
1 Part in money Part in france Stocks to great
advantage of the undertakers, who made application to borrow on said American debt here,
on terms very advantageous to money Lenders, whch. they
Could easily pay out of the profit that 229 Should result to
them from this operation, whch. measure the Houses
considered highly detrimental to the Credit of the United States, as the obligt. of their Loans should necessary decline, whenever people
could obtain much higher intrest of Obt: funded on a debt of the Same United States
& those Speculators Possessed of such a considerable debt became in Some measure
Masters of the Credit here whch. they had no reason to
maintain & obliged to Satisfy their engagemts. Should be
in the necessity to get money on Said debt at any condition & by those advantages
make it absolutely impossible for the United States to borrow here at a reasonable
Condition at the Simple intrest of 5 PCt. after all our
endeavours to put a Stop to it in Paris, & by the knowledge Of the desire of
Congress to Pay if not of the Principal the arrears of intrest at least to france, the
houses considered the best measure to make it almost impossible to the Speculators to
agree, to make the obtaining of money if not impossible, highly difficult to them, in
order to maintain the Credit of the United States & keep the faculty to borrow for
them, the houses took on themselves to open a Loan under approbation of the United
States for 3 Mills of f at 5
PC. in full Confidence, that our motives Should be Considered in the true light & be
highly approved, the more as we get it on the terms of the first Loan, and Sacrifis a
great Profit offered to us by the speculators either to be partners or commissioners
whch. we thought our duty to decline.
some Members however may blame the Liberty we have taken, but we
flatter ourselves of the equitable Judgment of the States, that our motives will be done
Justice and considered as it is truely, a determination for the intrest of the United
states, there we regretted infinitely your & Mr.
Jefferson’s absence to be able to Consult the Ministers in a Matter of Such
delicacy.
In case of any remarks on our conduct We hope you’ll be so kind to
be a favourable interpreetor of the Sincerity of our Sentiments there nothing than a
Sense of our duty & attachmt. to the intrest of the
United States could bring us to the dermination & make us decline a considerable
profit to maintain their Credit & the faculty, to borrow on advantageous terms in
full reliance on your friendship we hope to hear from you, well assured that we’ll
always retain a proper Sense of Your benevolence
We request our Sincere Compliments to your Lady & remain with great esteem / sir Your most Obedient servants
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Honl: John
Adams Esqr / Newyork”; endorsed: “Willinks. 1. Feb. 1790.”
Dupl (Adams
Papers).
Following JA’s and Thomas Jefferson’s departures
from Europe, the supervision of American foreign loans reverted to U.S. treasury
secretary Alexander Hamilton. On 28 Jan. William Short, the U.S. chargé d’affaires in
Paris, forwarded a 25 Jan. letter from the Dutch loan consortium to Hamilton apprising
him that on 1 Feb. it would open a fifth loan, of 3 million florins, to be reimbursed
between 1801 and 1805. The agreement was mainly identical to the previous four
contracts, and it halted Jefferson’s plans to transfer American debt to revolutionary
France. Despite lacking a U.S. minister to authorize it, the Dutch bankers publicly
advertised the loan, and Hamilton approved it on 7 May 1790, pending the finalization
of plans for the federal assumption of state debt (vol. 19:289; Hamilton, Papers
,
6:210–218, 409).