Philadelphia March 5th. 1783
Dear Sir
I had the pleasure of receiving your Letter relative to Capt. Landais.
1
The representation made by Mr. Morris of his behaviour at the Office of Finance did him such disservice that I am persuaded it woud be in vain for me to propose any thing in his favor, & woud be considerd as aimd at Mr. Morris, not intended to do justice.
The resignation of Mr. Morris, & the manner of it are a great shock to public credit.
2
At bottom it is certainly a manouvre to force the system of funding upon the States, in which Mr. Morris & his friends are so deeply interested as to hazard the destruction of this Country, rather than not realise the immense wealth, which large purchases of Loan Office Certificates at a infinitly low depretiation, has offerd to their hopes. I hope the good sense & discernment of the Public will see this factious measure in its true light. This only can prevent its malignant operation here; but abroad the full mischieff of it must be felt, & I fear will put an insurmountable bar in the way of Loans, upon which only we depend. This Morris coud not be ignorant of, & therefore the injury done is a deliberate Act, & deserves exemplary punishment. That punishment will not proceed from Congress, untill the public voice calls for it.
Such is his influence here. But you know the stage & the chief Actors; & can be at no loss to form a just judgment.
I beg you will present my best Compts. to Mrs Adams, Genl Ward, Warren &c. Farewell,
A.L.
P.S. I enclose you the Freeman's Journal containg. several good Essays.3 I am told that it is not taken in by your Printers. It is the popular Paper. The Independent Gazetteer is Gouverneur Morris's Paper or the Court-paper. Your Printers should have the former & give you the good Essays.
Receiver's copy, Adams Papers, New York Public Library.
1 Adams' February 10, 1783, letter to Lee is in Adams, Writings (Cushing), 4:277 - 80.
2 Lee is referring to the fact that Robert Morris had arranged for the publication of his January 24 and February 26 letters of resignation in the Independent Gazetteer on March 1, which not only administered a "shock to public credit," but also touched off a bitter debate in Congress that was led by Lee and Theodorick Bland. See Morris, Papers (Ferguson), 7:462 - 77; JCC, 24:165 - 68; and James Madison's Notes of Debates, March 4 - 5, 1783.
3 Apparently the March 5 issue of Francis Bailey's Freeman's Journal, containing essays by "Lucullus" on George III's speech to Parliament, by "Probus" on the Pennsylvania assembly's encroachments on the right of trial by jury, and the first of five by "Lucius" denouncing Morris for making a public announcement of his resignation, for which see the preceding note. For a discussion of the authorship of the "Lucius" letters, which many contemporaries believed were written by Lee, although no convincing evidence for this attribution has been found, see Morris, Papers (Ferguson), 7:501 - 7.