51To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 30 September 1791 (Washington Papers)
Mr Short has delivered to me within these few Days your favor of the twenty eighth of July. I cannot express to you what I felt on reading it. The View which it gives of our prosperity as a Nation swelled my Bosom with Emotions which none can know but those who have experienced them. The wonderful Change which has been effected in our Affairs by the Operation of the general Government has...
52To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 3 October 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
I am favored with yours of the twenty sixth of July for which I pray you to accept my thanks. I mentioned to you from London that Mr. Walpole had been offered the Place of Envoy extraordinary to the United States which he had refused. I took Care to avoid any sort of Intercourse with the Government while I was there and of Course could not possess any minute Information worthy of your Notice....
53To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 6 November 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the Liberty of writing this Letter to make you acquainted with the Bearer of it Monsieur de Cormeré Brother to the late Monsieur de Favras. Mr. de Cormeré has been in the finance of this Country and is well acquainted with that Subject. He has lately published a short Work on the Relations of Commerce proper for the french Islands of which I have sent you a Copy. He is now going to S....
54To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 7 November 1791 (Jefferson Papers)
Enclosed you will find some Hints relative to Coins Currency Weights and Measures . The Consideration of those Things has occurred to me at different Intervals for the last twenty Years of my Life, and I have frequently determined to begin a pretty extensive Enquiry and as frequently abandoned the Idea. Indeed my other occupations will not afford the Time. You who have thought on the Subject...
55To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 27–31 December 1791 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 12 Sepr last reached me a few Days ago. In the Proposition of S[chweizer] J[eannerett] & Co: I saw the Means of saving Somewhat to the United States without incurring the Odium of a Payment in depreciated Paper but from the Moment a Determination to pay in Value is adopted I heartily and entirely approve of the Rejection of their Offer. Before the Receipt of your Letter, Mr...
56To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 4 February 1792 (Washington Papers)
I wrote to you on the twenty seventh of December but there were many Things which I did not write, and some of them I will now communicate. At the Close of the Session of the first national Assembly a Coalition was brought about between the Jacobins and the quatre vingt neufs. It is proper to explain these Terms. The Jacobins, so called from their Meeting at a Convent or Church of that Name,...
57To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 17 March 1792 (Washington Papers)
I had the Honor to write to you on the fourth of last Month. Two Days after, I was informed that you had nominated me as Minister to the Court of France, but the latest Advices from America, which come down to the tenth of January, shew that the Senate had not then made their Decision. Be that Decision what it may, I shall ever gratefully esteem and acknowlege this Mark of Confidence from the...
58To Alexander Hamilton from Gouverneur Morris, 21 March 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
A Vessel just going to New York presents me an Opportunity of saying that I thank you for your Exertions to effect my Appointment. I know you too well my good Friend to make long Speeches on that Subject. I shall acknowlege the Services of my Friends properly on proper Occasions and till then be silent. In patronizing this Appointment you have incurred more Trouble than you was perhaps aware...
59To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 21 March 1792 (Washington Papers)
Yesterday I was informed that the Senate had agreed to your Nomination of diplomatic Servants. If I know my own Heart this Intelligence is far less agreable to me on my own Account than on that of the Public. I am sure that a Rejection, from whatever Cause it may have arisen, would have been attributed to Disunion in our Councils. I find that the King of France has appointed to the Office of...
60To Alexander Hamilton from Gouverneur Morris, 6 April 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
A friend ask’d me some Days ago to calculate for him the true Value of our public funds. I did so and you will find in answer to the Queries No: 1. 2. & 3 the result of my first Enquiries. But my Mind being once in this Train I determined on greater Accuracy at the Expence of a little more Attention, and the Questions I propounded to myself with the Answers are contained in the enclosed Paper...
61Enclosure: [From Gouverneur Morris], [6 April 1792] (Hamilton Papers)
Qu: 1. In what Time will an Annuity of 8 pay 100. Int: at 6 p %. Ansr. 23.7913 Years or 23 Years 288 Days. Qu: 2. What is the present Value of an Annuity of 8 for 23.7913 Years Int: at 4 p %. Ansr. 121.3342 Qu: 3. What principal Sum will in ten Years amount to 121.3342 Int: at 4 p %. Ansr. 81.96914 Qu: 4. In What Time will a quarterly Payment of 2 pay 100. Int: at 1¼ p % quarterly. Ansr:...
62To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 6 April 1792 (Washington Papers)
I receive this Instant your favor of the twenty eighth of January and I do most sincerely thank you for the Informations which you have been so kind as to communicate. Beleive me I know how to value the friendship by which they were dictated. I have always thought that the Counsel of our Enemies is wholesome, tho bitter, if we can but turn it to good Account & In order that I may not fail to...
63To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 6 April 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the Honor to receive (this morning) your favor of the twenty third of January with its Enclosures, excepting the Cypher which seems accidentally to have been omitted in making up your Dispatches, or perhaps it has been put by Mistake in the Letter directed to Mr. Short which at Mr. Johnsons Request I have taken Charge of. I shall deliver it as speedily as may be, intending to make my...
64To Alexander Hamilton from Gouverneur Morris, 10 April 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
I din’d the Day before Yesterday tête a tête with the Russian Minister Count Woranzow who is a very sensible and well inform’d Man. In the Course of an Interesting Conversation after Dinner your Name was Mention’d and he exprest a Desire to see your various Reports to Congress. These he means to transmit to his Brother who is the Minister of Commerce in Russia in Order to undeceive him with...
65To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 10 April 1792 (Washington Papers)
There is an Idea in your Letter of the Twenty eighth of January which upon second thought I find it my Duty to examine because altho it cannot now affect me yet it may perhaps have some Influence on Mr Pinckney’s Mission. At any Rate I wish you to be perfectly well acquainted with the leading Features of the british Administration. The Thing I allude to is the Cause which has been assigned for...
66To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 10 April 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I beg Leave to enclose the procés verbal of the late assassination at Stockholm. The last Advices from thence give Hopes of the King’s Recovery but from the Nature of the Wound his state must for a long Time be precarious. Conjecture as is usual in such Cases wanders very far but it would seem to be the Consequence of a pretty general Combination among the Nobles of Sweden to restore their...
67To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 25 April 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the Honor on the tenth Instant to mention to you the Assassination of the King of Sweden. He is since dead of his Wounds. You will find by the public Prints that France declares War against the young King of Hungary and we are of Course to expect an immediate Invasion of the Austrian Netherlands. I am told that this Court notwithstanding their Guarantee of that Country to the House of...
68To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 9 June 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of the twenty ninth of April is just receivd. Previously thereto I had (unluckily) employd the Young Man you mention as my Cook. I did this on Mr. Short’s Recommendation of his Integrity and because he had been in your Service. He is very grateful to you for the Offer you make him which he says he will accept of if I turn him away but he hopes I will not and wishes rather to continue in...
69To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 10 June 1792 (Washington Papers)
private My dear Sir, Paris 10 June 1792. Altho I have been above a Month in this City I have not been able untill within a Day or two to make up my Mind as to the Sentiments of the Person mentiond to you in mine of the twenty first of March, or rather I could not obtain that Certainty which was needful before I could properly mention them to you. I can now venture to assure you that by coming...
70To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 10 June 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I have the Honor to acknowlege your favors of the tenth of March and twenty eighth of April. My last was of the 25th of April. As Mr. Short remaind here untill the second Instant and was better acquainted with the current Transactions I relied on him for the Communication of them. He inform’d you that we obtain’d an Interview with Mr. de Mourier on the fifteenth of May. In this Interview he...
71To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 17 June 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the Honor to write to you (No. 1) on the tenth Instant. The Ministry is chang’d rather sooner than I expected that is to say as to the Totality. Messieurs Servan, Roland, and Claviere were dismissed by Mr. de Mouriez. He filld the Places of the two former with his particular Friends and as this Step was decisive and would certainly bring on very serious Quarrels it was suppos’d that he...
72Enclosure: Gouverneur Morris to William Short, 28 June 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Paris, June 28, 1792. “Yours of the eighteenth is just come to Hand & I have but an Instant to reply to it. The Changes of Administration and other Circumstances have prevented me from setling with the Commissaries. It will soon be done. I see in the Gazette that the Assembly has authorized the minister of the Marine to concert with me the Means of supplying their Colonies out of the Debt...
73To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 1 July 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
According to your orders I sit down to render this Day a State of my Account which will be but short because I shall charge at present no Contingencies. There are some such which will come in my next Account and which would be stated this Day, but as I have not yet got into the House which I hired immediately after my Arrival and which I have daily been in the Hope of entring, my Papers and...
74Enclosure: Gouverneur Morris to William Carmichael, 3 July 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Two Days ago I saw Mr. Le Couteulx, who told me that his friend had made application to the Spanish Court to obtain an assignment on the Debt from the United States in discharge of a Debt due to him; and that Mr. Gardoqui said the United States owed Spain above a Million of Dollars, being in part for advances made in America. This assertion struck me, and as I had formerly some knowledge of...
75Enclosure: Gouverneur Morris to William Short, 5 July 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Paris, July 5, 1792. “I wrote to you on the twenty eighth and have since receiv’d yours of the same Date. I call’d on the Minister the Day before yesterday and he promis’d me to come to a Settlement of the Accounts in a few Days and to adjust at the same Time the Object of the late Decree. As the Affair is now left to the Responsability of the Executive I presume they will not longer delay it...
76Enclosure: Gouverneur Morris to William Short, 6 July 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Paris, July 6, 1792. “The above is Copy of what I wrote yesterday. After the Post was gone I receivd a Letter from the Minister of the Marine praying an Interview in order to adjust the Business which he says was entamé in your Time.…” LC (extract), Gouverneur Morris Papers, Library of Congress. Jean de Lacoste served as Minister of Marine from March 15 to July 21, 1792.
77Enclosure: Gouverneur Morris to William Short, 9 July 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Paris, July 9, 1792. “I wrote to you a Note on the sixth mentioning the Application of the Minister of the Marine. I have not heard from him since. Probably he is collecting the Accounts for I told the Minister of foreign Affairs that I must have the past Accounts settled before I could undertake any Thing new. At any Rate I shall soon get this Business done unless there be another Over Set in...
78To Thomas Jefferson from Gouverneur Morris, 10 July 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the Honor to write to you (No. 3) on the first Instant. On the seventeenth of the last Month I mention’d the Plans then in Contemplation and gave a short View of the existent State of things. I did not communicate those Events which have since taken Place, because you will find the most ample Details in the several Gazettes. On Saturday the seventh a Farce was acted in the Assembly in...
79Enclosure: Gouverneur Morris to William Short, 16 July 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Paris, July 16, 1792. “… I wrote to you on the ninth and it appears that while I was writing the Ministry resign’d to a Man. This Measure is connected with Circumstances which are not generally known and it was entirely unexpected. I did not know it till about seven oClock in the Evening for I had been at Home till six and then went by Appointment to the Minister of the Marine who was with the...
80Enclosure: Gouverneur Morris to William Short, 23 July 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
Paris, July 23, 1792. “I am favord with yours of the seventeenth.… The History you give of DeWolf proves clearly that his Hopes outrun his Judgment. You are however in a Position to see clearly and I am persuaded that however he may deceive himself he cannot deceive you. It appears to me a fortunate Thing that he cannot undertake for large Sums because his Operations will only stimulate the...