To John Jay from Charles Thomson, 18 September 1784
From Charles Thomson
Philadelphia Sept 18. 1784
Dear Sir,
I should have answered your letter ^of 12 Aug.^ much sooner, had I not from the tenor of it flattered myself with the hopes of seeing you here in a very short time. I wish exceedingly to see and converse with you not only on the subject of your acceptance but on the general State of our Affairs. There is at present no person whose business or whose duty it is to attend to matters of national Concern. The Committee of the States have in my opinion very unwarrantably separated,1 and though the Chairman has written to the several States to send on a delegate to form a Committee at Philadelphia,2 I have
little hopes of their meeting. The Superintendant of Finance is busy in winding up his Affairs so as to quit his Office;3 and as to the department of foreign affairs our Ministers abroad are left wholly to themselves without the least information of what is passing here. And the several States seem to be acting as if there was nothing beyond their respective bounds which claimed their attention or deserved their notice. Our public credit is again verging to a precipice4 and the seeds of jealousy and internal commotion seem to be springing up while at the same time I am far from thinking we are far ^secure^ from the insidious designs of our late enemy, or the deep rooted jealousy of our Southern neighbour. Yet gloomy as the prospect appears it only wants a little common sense, & common attention ^in the states^ to brighten the scene, to ensure public tranquility & private happiness and to render our situation enviable; and on your acceptance I greatly rely for these purposes.—
The enclosed letter came by Mrs. Montgomery5 & was sent to me to be forwarded. Be pleased to make my most respectful compliments to Mrs. Jay and accept the assurance of the unfeigned affection of Dear Sir Your friend & Servt
Cha Thomson
ALS, NNC (EJ: 7683); C, DLC: Thomson (EJ: 12592). Enclosed letter from Dorcas Montgomery to SLJ not found.
1. The Articles of Confederation by Art. IX provided for a Committee of the States, composed of one member from each state, which should have only such powers, in the recess of Congress, as Congress by the advice of nine states might vest in them. It was first called into existence on 29 May 1784, convening on 4 June, but confined itself to routine matters. It was effectively dissolved by the departure of several of its members, preventing a quorum. See Thomson to Thomas Jefferson, 1 Oct. 1784, , 7: 431–34, wherein the secretary deplores “this invisibility of a foederal head.” , 27: 474–77 (29 May 1784); 561–64 (4 June); see also Edmund C. Burnett, The Continental Congress (New York, 1941), 607–12.
2. Samuel Hardy, Chairman of the Committee of the States, to Certain States, 19 Aug. 1784, , 27, 636–37; , 21: 781. Hardy (c. 1758–85), delegate from Virginia, 1783–85, had been elected chairman on 4 June 1784. , 27: 561.
3. A congressional ordinance of 28 May 1784 vested the powers of the superintendent of finance in a three-man board of treasury, to be formed by or before 10 Nov. 1784. , 27: 469–71. For Robert Morris’s resignation, dated 1 Nov. 1784, see , 27: 653 (1 Dec. 1784); and , 9: 583–97.
4. The reference is probably to the foreign debts, the interest and installment payments of which Congress soon found it necessary to default on. Moreover, not all the bills of exchange Robert Morris had drawn against foreign loans had yet been completely covered. Thomson was probably also concerned about the failure of the states to make sufficient payments on tax requisitions or to ratify the impost of 1783, the import tax that was intended to raise funds to pay the national debt. See E. James Ferguson, The Power of the Purse: A History of American Public Finance, 1776–1790 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1961), 220–24; , 9: xxxiv, xxxvi–xxxvii, xxxix, 76–78, 307–19, 485–87, 490–92, 587.