Philadelphia 10th August 1779.
Dear Sir.
My last trouble is dated the 3d Inst per post;1 yesterday I was favored with yours of the 1st2 accompanied by Copies of three Letters which I fear will be of very little use or service hereafter.
Congress as you will read in Dunlap’s Paper of this date have "discharged Mr. Deane from any further attendance"3 this Resolution was effected at a time when I was unavoidably absent seeking for new apartments, being obliged to leave these I am in, the day after to morrow; I had previously, but without effect, objected to paying Mr. Deane any Money until he should have accounted for the Sums which he had received in Paris, & pointed particularly at those Sums which he had received of Mr. de Beaumarchais & of Mr. Grand after he knew of his being superceded in Office & of the appointment of a Commissioner to succeed him, of which Mr. A Lee takes particular notice in his vindication - the amount of the former you are informed of, that of the latter is upward of £1700 Sterling including all his draughts on the Banker, I say without effect for no support was given to my motion, or so slender a one as not to bring on a question - I think nevertheless, I did my duty & that hereafter I shall be applauded.
Congress had determined that the Commissioners & other Agents should respectively adjust their accounts with a person to be appointed for that purpose in France, a measure which I was averse from, yet all things considered, it admitted much good reason in favor of it.4 After this determination I was called out on the business abovementioned - at my return, I found the Resolve for "discharging Mr. Deane from further attendance on Congress," this, inasmuch as no provision is made for his Voyage to France nor for his expences there, leaves the adjustment of his accounts optional with him. You will see the Resolves in a few days extended in the printed Journals or perhaps in MS. by the next Post, at present I am in all that embarrassment which attends moving from one House to another & being called off by Committees &c. I began this Note at 6 this Morning âtis now past eleven, I must fly to Congress where somewhat very Interesting is to be brought on the tapis, permit me therefore to take leave with repeated assurances of being with very great Esteem & Respect Dear sir, Your obliged & obedt. servt,
Henry Laurens
Receiverâs copy, Chamberlain Collection, Boston Public Library.
1 Not found.
2 Leeâs August 1 letter is in the William Gilmore Simms Collection of Laurens Papers, no. 31, MHi microfilm; and Lee, Letters (Ballagh), 2:98 - 100. In it Lee acknowledged receipt of two letters from Laurens dated July 16 and 20, which also have not been found.
3 See John Fellâs Diary, August 6, 1779, note 3.
4 On August 6 Congress had ordered that the "several commissioners, commercial agents and others in Europe entrusted with public money" submit their accounts and vouchers to the Board of Treasury and that a "suitable person be appointed by Congress to examine the said accounts in Europe, and certify his opinion thereon previous to their beig transmitted." JCC, 14:928 - 39. For the election of Joshua Johnson to this position, see John Fellâs Diary, September 29, 1779.
The prospect that Johnson might receive this appointment was immediately anticipated by Lee, and in his August 21 response to this letter from Laurens he voiced his opposition to Johnson. "The appointment of a person to settle the accounts in france may be a wise or a wicked measure as happens to be the person appointed for the purpose," Lee explained. "Send a man from here vested with proper power, and let him be skilful in business, firm, and of unimpeachable integrity - in no manner whatever concerned with any of the parties having accounts to settle. . . . Observe if attempts are not made to have a Mr. Johnson Merchant in Nantes to settle these accounts. The very circumstance of his having been already proposed by Deane for their purpose is an argument why he ought not." Lee, Letters (Ballagh), 2:131 - 32.