onvince our bankers, that there was no power on this side the Atlantic
which could accede to this proposition, or give it any countenance. They
at length, therefore, but with difficulty, receded from this ground, and
agreed to enter into conferences with the brokers and lenders, and to
use every exertion to clear the loan from the embarrassment in which
this speculation had engaged it. What will be the result of these
conferences, is not yet known. We have hopes, however, that it is not
desperate, because the bankers consented yesterday, to pay off the
capital of fifty-one thousand florins, which had become due on the first
day of January, and which had not yet been paid. We have gone still
further. The treasury board gives no hope of remittances, till the new
government can procure them. For that government to be adopted, its
legislature assembled, its system of taxation and collection arranged,
the money gathered from the people into the treasury, and then remitted
to Europe, must extend considerably into the year 1790. To secure our
credit then, for the present year only, is but to put off the evil day
to the next. What remains of the last loan, when it shall be filled up,
will little more than clear us of present demands, as may be seen by the
estimate enclosed. We thought it better, therefore, to provide at once
for the years 1789 and 1790 also; and thus to place the government at
its ease, and her credit in security, during that trying interval.
The same estimate will show, that another million of florins will be
necessary to effect this. We stated this to our bankers, who concurred
in our views, and that to ask the whole sum at once would be better than
to make demands from time to time, so small, as that they betray to
the money-holders the extreme feebleness of our resources. Mr. Adams,
therefore, has executed bonds for another million of florins; which,
however, are to remain unissued till Congress shall have ratified
the measure that this transaction is something or nothing, at their
pleasure. We suppose its expediency so apparent, as to leave little
doubt of its ratification. In this case, much time will have been saved
by the execution of the bonds at this moment, and the proposition will
be presented here under a more favorable appearance, according to the
opinion of the bankers. Mr. Adams is under a necessity of setting out
to-morrow morning, but I shall stay two or three days longer, to attend
to and encou