To Benjamin Franklin from Chaumont, [before 10 December? 1780]
From Chaumont
AD: American Philosophical Society
[before December 10, 1780?]7
Si Mr De Vergennes faisoit difficulté de donner lordre, je Crois quil conviendroit pour l’y determiner, de lui dire, que jay des Droits Sur cet argent pour le Credit que jay donné à Madrid à Mr Jay, & que Vous aves absolument besoin du surplus puisqu’il ny aura plus d’argent en Caisse passé le 10— ce qui est vray & Conforme à ce que jay Ecrit à ce ministre.
7. The impending crisis of the 10th mentioned in the letter probably refers to Dec. 10, 1780, or Jan. 10, 1781. Chaumont did not receive any money from the French government, but on Jan. 20, 1781, it issued a decree permitting him to defer paying his creditors for a year. The day before, he had received 500,000 l.t. from America in payment for supplies he had sent. His financial difficulties continued, however, and he had to depend on more such decrees: Thomas J. Schaeper, France and America in the Revolutionary Era: the Life of Jacques-Donatien Leray de Chaumont, 1725–1803 (Providence, R.I., and Oxford, 1995), pp. 306–7.