To Thomas Jefferson from Jacob Gerrit Diriks, 2 July 1788
From Jacob Gerrit Diriks
Paris, “Audessus des Bains des Dames Palais Royal,” 2 July 1788. Since interview with TJ this morning, M. Tegelcan says he can furnish 4,000 to 5,000 guilders on the loan office certificate from Congress “If Your Excellency would be so kind as to testify, that the Bills are good and will be paid with the Interest … in one or two Years.” Is much in want of cash, and begs TJ to grant this favor to convince Tegelcan “that he has nothing to fear, and that the Loan office certificates are Solide.”
RC (DLC); endorsed.
Diriks (1752–1805) was a Dutch Patriot who had served in Surinam under his father, an artillery officer in the Dutch army, and had occupied various posts in the Pennsylvania Line and in the Continental Army during 1777–1778, being pursued by the ill health that had come upon him in Surinam; in 1787 he served as colonel of the Patriot forces in Gelderland and, upon the triumph of the Stadtholder, escaped to France, where he was made a captain in the French army on the day before the present letter was written (communication from H. Hardenberg, The Hague, 23 July 1956).