N. York 7th Feby. 1785
My dear Sir,
I am very happy to in[form] you that your friend Dr. Cuttin[g] settled his affair with Congress t[o his] entire satisfaction.1 My Love [ ] please, to my excellent Nephew. [Tell] him that altho my finances, for want of remittances in this severe Season, prevents me from presently remitting to Mr. De Barthold his money, that it shall not be neglected when my remittances shall come. My love to you all - God bless you
& farewell,Richard Henry Lee2
Receiver's copy, Shippen Family Papers, Library of Congress.
1 Former Apothecary General John Brown Cutting had attempted the preceding September to settle his accounts with Edward Fox, commissioner for the Hospital Department, but in the process a box containing his vouchers fell overboard while being transported across the Delaware River damaging all and rendering some "absolutely illegible." When Fox first appealed to Congress in December for special instructions in handling the case, a committee chaired by Dr. Hugh Williamson recommended that Cutting's claims be denied because to settle accounts without adequate documentation "would deprive the U.S. of any kind of security against impositions." Cutting renewed his appeal, however, in a January 20 memorial to Congress and a second committee, chaired again by Williamson, took the more lenient position "that Mr. Cutting's general character is not only unimpeached, but he does not appear to have improved his estate, while he was charged with public property." Congress ordered this day that Cutting's cash account of $2,474 be settled. See JCC, 27:699, 28:14n, 42 - 44; and PCC, item 78, 6:251 - 75.
2 This day Lee also wrote a letter to an unidentified recipient, an extract of which was published in Robert F. Batchelder Autographs, catalog 13 (April 1976) item 126: "That [news] which is foreign is entirely confined to the quarrel between the Emperor and Holland. Blows had certainly been exchanged, but the winter intervening the better opinion is, that the negotiations in that season of inactivity in the field, will terminate the dispute amicably. For the sake of humanity it is to be wished. [Congress has been prevented] from going into the consideration of revenue matters - indeed there being no Treasury Officers since the resignation of Mr. Morris has been one cause of delay in this most important of all our concerns The trade between Great Britain & their W. Indies - the Territorial dispute about St. Croix, the detention of the Western Posts, and some other subjects of doubt will render it indispensable that we should send an Able, Honest, Conciliating Minister to the Court of London American refugees and Tories will keep the two Countries in perpetual hot water and prevent any amicable settlement between us. The presence of such a Minister as I have described will banish a Myriad of those Miscreants. When the Commissioners who are now treating with the Western Indians shall have finished we shall proceed in Congress to [sell] some part of that region that has been yielded to the U.S. by Virginia."