Arthur Lee to Committee of Congress, 21 October 1780
Arthur Lee to Committee of Congress
RC (NA: PCC, No. 78, XIV, 375, 378).
Philadelphia Ocr 21st. 1780
Gentlemen1
I had the honor of receiv’g this day at 1 O C. P.M. a Note from you2 desiring a sight of my Expenditures on public Account, that you may be enabled to report the proper disposition of them for Liquidation
In conformity to your desire, I now send you the Accounts, & will wait upon you immediately if it suit your conveniency, with the Vouchers referrd to in them.3
I have the honor to be with the greatest respect Gentlemen Yr. most Obedt. Humble Servt
Arthur Lee
1. On 19 October, Congress appointed JM, Thomas Bee, and Abraham Clark (N.J.) a committee to report upon Lee’s letter to Congress of two days before, asking for “a full hearing at their bar upon the whole of the proceedings that concern my public conduct” while a U.S. commissioner in Paris (Jones to JM, 2 October 1780, n. 10; Journals of the Continental Congress, XVIII, 951–53). The postscript of this letter, not printed in the journal, reads as follows: “I have brought with me the original Vouch[ers,] to shew the manner of the expenditure in public supplies of the money entrusted to me particularly for the public use. These Vouchers I shall lay before Congress as soon as it is their pleasure to receive the[m]” (NA: PCC, No. 83, II, 302–3). This postscript is printed in , IV, 86, where the letter is misdated 7 October. After further debate, Congress decided to have the committee consider the postscript as well as Lee’s request in the main text of the letter (Journals of the Continental Congress, XVIII, 953–54). See Lee to Committee, 27 October, and Report of Committee on Lee’s letter, 1 December 1780.
2. Not found.
3. Some, at least, of these accounts and vouchers are in NA: PCC, No. 83, II, 580–606.