shall be presented. The holy scriptures say that the love of money is the root of all evil, or something like it. The want of it is, I know by experience, the cause of a multitude of evils.

Congress has before them the affair of western territory, foreign arrangements, the civil list, and we may soon enter upon a peace military establishment. A requisition also to furnish such part of the deficiency of the eight millions requisition as, with the payments at the close of the last year, will make up three-fourths of the quotas on the several states, is on the tapis. Considerable progress has been made in the first; the second has received some discussion; but opinions are so various that I am suspicious we shall not soon come to a decision. The civil list will, I think, be in some measure reduced; but it is exceedingly difficult to remove officers, or lower salaries. It will be judged necessary, I believe, to establish for a time some troops, at suitable posts, in the western territory, and to keep up a few men to guard our public stores, but no standing army. A majority of Congress are for the requisition; but as the report provides that the several legislations may be admitted so as to model the sums called for, as that the one-half being paid in actual money, the other may be discharged by procuring discounts of interest with our domestic creditors; only taking care that the collection of money shall proceed, at least, in equal pace with the operations of discount. And, as the states to the southward of Pennsylvania have loaned but a small sum to the public, compared with the states to the northward, and as there is still a hankering after an impost, I am afraid that nine states will not be persuaded to embrace the report, in its present form. It is almost impossible to subdue prejudices, and destroy the influence of local attachments.

This requisition as alluded to in a late circular letter to the states, pressing them to an immediate collection of money is to prevent the loss of credit, which must attend the protest for non-payment of bills drawn on Holland by the Superintendent of Finance, which it seems had been protested for non-acceptance. I have my suspicions on this head; I don't believe that those bills will be protested for non-payment. However, if that letter should stimulate some of the very delinquent states into exertion, I should rejoice. Our State, in my opinion, has always been quite forward enough. Let more opulent and more extensive states take the lead.

Our State will receive a resolution before you will receive this letter, recommending to the several states to appoint their delegates to take their seats on the first Monday in November, annually, agreeably to the fifth Article of Confederation. This mode, I hope, will prevent great inconveniences.

A standing committee of qualifications is appointed, and the delegates of

Delaware have, agreeably to a report of that committee, been deemed disqualified to hold their seats. They were appointed twelve months last February, for the ensuing year.

If Congress should not adjourn by the first Wednesday in May, our qualifications to sit beyond that time may be called in question, and perhaps our seats may be vacated, although there is an act of the State, which I conceive would justify our sitting until we shall be relieved.

All the states excepting Delaware and Georgia are now represented in Congress, and it is expected that delegates from the first will soon be in Congress. I hope we shall be able to finish, or put the most important business in train, so that Congress may adjourn by the middle of May to the first Monday in November.

The Minister of France, a few days ago, laid before Congress an extract from a letter written 24th December, 1783, to the Chevalier La Luzerne by the Count de Vergennes, of which the following is, I believe a translation :

"His Majesty hath decided in a manner irrevocable, that the port of L'Orient shall be free; and that American navigators may actually consider it as such."

The edict of the King hath not, however, been published, because the intention of his Majesty being to give to this establishment all possible extension. The regulations must, after mature examination, be framed in such a manner that the advantages granted to the merchants of the United States, may not essentially prejudice our commerce and the revenues of the State.

The merchants of the United States may equally enjoy the liberty to frequent the ports of Marseilles and of Dunkirk, and they shall partake like other nations, of the franchises and privileges of the two places.

It is possible that France will give some indulgences to our trade to their West India islands. I am confident she will grant to our trade every privilege that is not incompatible with her views of naval aggrandizement. The report on foreign arrangements proposes commercial treaties with every power that is concerned with commerce. If this report succeeds, Britain thereby, and in consequence of measures which may be adopted by France, will be brought, I imagine, to see the error of her ways, and take up a more liberal line of commercial conduct. However this may be, by multiplying the avenues of trade, we shall always have some to resort to, if several of them should be obstructed.

Please to present my compliments to Mrs. Bowen and all friends.

I am with great consideration,

Your most humble servant,

WILLIAM ELLERY.

DAVID HOWELL TO DEPUTY Gov. Bowen.

ANNAPOLIS, April 12, 1784. DEAR SIR: -Your favors of January 13th and 26th, are before me, and I thank you for the information contained in them; and it shall be my endeavors to turn the same to public account. It gave me pleasure to learn that Gen. Greene had spent a week in Providence, and been suitably noticed by his old friends; too much attention can scarcely be paid to a character so meritorious. The Minister of France, who stopped here the last week on his way to Gen. Washington, in Virginia, laid a note before Congress containing information that His Most Christian Majesty had finally established port L'Orient a free port, and resolved to admit the Americans to the freedom of Dunkirk and Marseilles in common with other nations.

The paper No. 1 contains copy of the act of New Jersey, adopting the five per cent. impost. You will observe that, till the measure shall be adopted by all the states, they have declared all their ports free.

The paper No. 2 contains a copy of a report of a committee of Congress, on the suhject of an ordinance for collecting the impost recommendation, the 3d of February, 1781. The states are now generally astonished that they should ever have been led into such an error as to give Congress the vast and uncontrolable powers contained in this ordinance. Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina repealed their hasty grants, as did the lower house of Massachusetts. Georgia and Rhode Island never granted the request of Congress.

I have transmitted you the act of seven states, adopting the impost recommended the 18th day of April, 1783. Should some more comply and bring the measure near to a crisis, I expect that some states will repeal these acts as they did the former. Virginia, I am told, is divided nearly into two equal parties, on this measure; so that when one party gets the upper hand, an impost is granted; and when the other succeeds, the grant is revoked. Which will prevail in their next House is uncertain.

State imposts from two to two and a half per cent. have generally taken place; and, unless the meeting of the Cincinnati in Philadelphia, next month, strikes out some extraordinary political manœuvre, I expect that the last impost will share the fate of the first.

The paper No. 3 contains copy of the report of a committee of Congress, on a military establishment in time of peace. On this I need make no comment, unless it be to remark that, as the ordinance No. 2, shows you in what manner the impost was to have been collected, so the military peace establishment, No. 3, shows you to what use the money raised was to have been applied. I chose to put these two together, because it has long been

observed that imposts and excises, in the hands of the sovereign power and standing armies, have grown up together and yielded mutual support to each other.

I have enclosed also, in paper No. 4, copy of some notes on the establishment of a money mint and coinage for the United States. These votes were occasioned by a long letter on the subject, from the Superintendent of Finance, to Congress, a copy of which I sent to Mr. John Brown, when at Congress before, to which I beg leave to refer. Nothing can be brought to a close on this business before the recess proposed.

By the printed paper No. 5, you will see that Pennsylvania has opened her land-office and received of her citizens in payment, certificates of depreciation, Loan Office certificates, certificates for pay and commutation, commissaries, quartermasters and forage masters certificates, &c., &c. This must not only give relief to her citizens who are public creditors, but prove a great resource to the state.

By such means the states which have such vast tracts of wild land to dispose of may buy up the public securities, and eventually reduce their sister states to the condition of tributaries. These are the states, too, which so pertinaciously insist that the revenues to be derived from commerce should be thrown into common stock. Sure I am that if our State parts with its advantage in point of revenue from trade, it must soon succumb under its burdens and dwindle into insignificance.

I have sent you these papers to be laid before the honorable the General Assembly, at their meeting in May. I pray you to present herewith my most dutiful respects, and to assure them of my careful attention to their interests.

With perfect consideration, I have the honor to be, dear sir,
Your most obedient and very humble servant,

DAVID HOWELL.

P. S. Since writing the above, the door-keeper has brought me the report on paper No. 6, by which you will see that plans for a peace establishment are contracting to a less scale as the prospect of a Continental impost vanishes.

N. B.-I pray you to excuse inaccuracies and bad writing. I have not time, through hurry of business, to copy at present, and I hate it, if I had.

DAVID HOWELL TO DEPUTY Gov. Bowen.

ANNAPOLIS, April 19th, 1784.

You

DEAR SIR: -Your favor of 20th ult. came to hand only this day. observed that, at the time of writing, you must have had several letters on

their way to this place. I fear some have missed their way. I have acknowledged the receipt of all that have come to my hands.

I am glad to find that you approve of my conduct in transmitting the extracts from our Minister's letters. The State had a right to be acquainted with the sentiments of their agents in Europe on a subject of so great national importance, and it is a flattering circumstance that you have had it in your power to hold up some lights to your neighbors. People, so well disposed as the inhabitants of New England, only want information.

The letter written by the delegates of Massachusetts, which was published in Boston, has been taken into some of our papers this way. Had that letter been laid before their Assembly at the time it was received by their committee of correspondence, I cannot think that state would have granted an impost to Congress; but this letter was suppressed, and mutilated paragraphs (as I am told) of some hasty procured letters from our ministers in Europe, were offered to the House, and the measure was carried. I cannot find words strong enough to express my indignation at the base means, the intrigue, the chicanery, the deceit, the circumvention, the fetches, the side winds, the bye blows, the ambushes, the stratagems, the manoeuvring, the desultory attacks, the regular approaches, the canting and snivelling, as well as swearing and lying, and, in short, the total prostitution of every power and faculty of body and mind and office, to carry a point, which I need not name. I entirely approve of the proposal for raising the state impost. Had the proposal made last year by Massachusetts, for a Convention of the Eastern States taken place, state imposts on some uniform plan would have been adopted before now; but time and experience will reduce to system measures adopted in conformity to confederation. The states will all find imposts necessary, and common utility and convenience will finally induce a sufficient uniformity. The sentiments of the delegates of Massachusetts are now published to the world.

General Wadsworth, from Connecticut, and Mr. Paine, from New York, two valuable men now in Congress, are fully in principle against the five per cent. impost, and have given it as their decided and first opinion, in Congress and out, that that measure neither would, nor ought to be adopted, and that if universally adopted by the states and carried into effect, it would lay a foundation for the ruin of the liberties of the United States. Several other members are less sanguine than formerly; and I can assure you with great truth, as well as satisfaction, that the present members of Congress are generally disposed to adopt economy and good measures; but such is our state that three dissentients only can defeat any measure proposed. The voice and wishes of the people at large are, however, making their way into Congress, and I hope to see next November, a set of men in Congress equal to the worthies of 1775.