To George Washington from Thomas Jefferson, 8 June 1793
From Thomas Jefferson
[Philadelphia] June 8. 1793.
Th: Jefferson has the honor to inclose to the President a letter from our bankers, at Amsterdam stating a balance due them on the foreign intercourse fund Apr. 2. of 13,225 florins equal to about 5,300 Dollars.1 this being communicated for the information of the President, the following explanation is necessary. independent of the fund on which this balance appears, the bankers had in their hands 50,000 Doll. for the Algerine negociations.2 for this reason Th: J. had not thought it proper to call on their Treasury for any part of the 40,000 D. of this year, merely to increase the dead mass in the hands of the bankers.3 when Capt. Cutting went, with powers to Colo. Humphreys to draw the Algerine money, Th: J. sent by him also to mister Pinckney bills for between 17. & 18,000. Doll. these would of course turn the balance in our favor about 12,000 Doll. independantly of the Algerine fund, & before that could be drawn out. this remittance, at the rate of 10,000 D. the quarter, will last to about the middle of July. Th: J. is therefore now looking out for 10,000. D. in good bills, to be remitted to the bankers in time for a fresh supply.4
AL, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; AL (letterpress copy), DLC: Jefferson Papers; LB, DNA: RG 59, George Washington’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.
1. For the enclosed letter, see Willink, Van Staphorst & Hubbard to Jefferson, 4 April 1793, , 25:490.
2. In section 3 of “An Act making certain appropriations therein specified,” 8 May 1792, Congress appropriated $50,000 “to defray any expense which may be incurred in relation to the intercourse between the United States and foreign nations,” and authorized GW to borrow the money if necessary. It was understood that this money would be applied to the cost of negotiating the release of the American seamen held captive by Algiers (., 284–85). On this appropriation see Richard O’Bryen to GW, 8 Jan. 1792, source note, and note 1; see also Jefferson to John Paul Jones, 1 June 1792, , 24:3–10.
3. For the annual appropriation of $40,000 for the diplomatic expenses of the State Department, see “An Act providing the means of intercourse between the United States and foreign nations,” 1 July 1790, ., 128–29. For Jefferson’s earlier report on these appropriations, see Jefferson to GW, 18 April 1793.
4. For the appointment of David Humphreys as the U.S. commissioner to negotiate with Algiers, see GW to the Dey of Algiers, 21 Mar. 1793, and note 1. For Nathaniel Cutting’s appointment as Humphreys’s secretary during these negotiations, his authority to draw money from the U.S. funds held by Willink, Van Staphorst & Hubbard, and his role as courier to Thomas Pinckney, U.S. minister to Great Britain, see Jefferson to Pinckney, 20 Mar., to Willink, Van Staphorst & Hubbard, 20 Mar., and to Humphreys, 21 Mar. 1793, , 25:410–11, 413–14, 420–22.