nt of asserting this ground to
themselves. The transfer of the French debt, public and private,
to Amsterdam, is certainly desirable. An act of the new government,
therefore, for opening a loan in Holland for the purpose, laying taxes
at the same time for paying annually the interest and a part of the
principal, will answer the two valuable purposes, of ascertaining the
degree of our credit, and of removing those causes of bickering and
irritation, which should never be permitted to subsist with a nation,
with which it is so much our interest to be on cordial terms as with
France. A very small portion of this debt, I mean that part due to the
French officers, has done us an injury, of which those in office in
America cannot have an idea. The interest is unpaid for the last three
years; and these creditors, highly connected, and at the same time
needy, have felt and communicated hard thoughts of us. Borrowing, as we
have done, three hundred thousand florins a year, to pay our interest
in Holland, it would have been worth while to have added twenty thousand
more, to suppress those clamors. I am anxious about every thing which
may affect our credit. My wish would be, to possess it in the highest
degree, but to use it little. Were we without credit, we might be
crushed by a nation of much inferior resources, but possessing higher
credit. The present system of war renders it necessary to make exertions
far beyond the annual resources of the State, and consume in one year
the efforts of many. And this system we cannot change. It remains, then,
that we cultivate our credit with the utmost attention.

I had intended to have written a word to your Excellency on the subject
of the new constitution, but I have already spun out my letter to an
immoderate length. I will just observe, therefore, that according to
my ideas, there is a great deal of good in it. There are two things,
however, which I dislike strongly, 1. The want of a declaration of
rights. I am in hopes the opposition in Virginia will remedy this,
and produce such a declaration. 2. The perpetual re-eligibility of the
President. This, I fear, will make that an office for life, first, and
then hereditary. I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to
Europe. I am ten thousand times more so, since I have seen what they
are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries, which may not
be traced to their king, as its source, nor a good, which is not derived
from t