James Madison Papers

To James Madison from John Mercer, 19 December 1804 (Abstract)

§ From John Mercer

19 December 1804, Paris. “I have this day drawn on the Department of State, at thirty days sight, the following Bills; viz.

—in favr. of Mallet frères & Co.— the sum of $.1,300.—
—to order, ditto, 2,000.—
—to order, ditto, 2,262.60
Currcy: of U. S. A. $.5,562.60

—in all, Five thousand, Five hundred & Sixty-two dollars, sixty Cents, being the amount of the ballance due upon my a/c. as one of the Commissioners under the Convention of the 30th. of April, 1803, as per a/c. inclosed.1

“Except for the first Credit in the a/c. the dollar is calculated at five ⟨l⟩ivres, because it is uncertain at what exchange the Bills will be negociated. Whatever difference this circumstance may make, will be settled when the exchange shall be known. I have postponed this step untill the day before I leave Paris.”2

RC, two copies, and enclosure (DNA: RG 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, entry 119, France, Convention of 1803 [Spoliation], Correspondence). First RC 1 p.; in a clerk’s hand, signed by Mercer; docketed by Wagner as received 25 Mar. For enclosure, see n. 1.

1Mercer enclosed an account (1 p.) showing the amount due him for salary as $5,839.49, part of which had been paid on 12 July 1803 out of funds advanced by Livingston and Monroe, and the balance of which was settled by the above drafts.

2For Mercer’s departure for Italy, see Isaac Cox Barnet to JM, 24 Dec. 1804.

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