where I arrived on the 15th of May, 1783.

* His ostensible character was to be that of a merchant, his
real one that of agent for military supplies, and also for
sounding the dispositions of the government of France, and
seeing how far they would favor us, either secretly or
openly. His appointment had been by the Committee of Foreign
Correspondence, March, 1776.

On the 6th of the following month, I was appointed by the legislature
a delegate to Congress, the appointment to take place on the 1st of
November ensuing, when that of the existing delegation would expire. I
accordingly left home on the 16th of October, arrived at Trenton, where
Congress was sitting, on the 3rd of November, and took my seat on the
4th, on which day Congress adjourned, to meet at Annapolis on the 26th.

Congress had now become a very small body, and the members very remiss
in their attendance on its duties, insomuch that a majority of the
states, necessary by the Confederation to constitute a House, even for
minor business, did not assemble until the 13th of December.

They, as early as January 7, 1782, had turned their attention to the
monies current in the several states, and had directed the Financier,
Robert Morris, to report to them a table of rates, at which the foreign
coins should be received at the treasury. That officer, or rather his
assistant, Gouverneur Morris, answered them on the 15th, in an able and
elaborate statement of the denominations of money current in the several
states, and of the comparative value of the foreign coins chiefly in
circulation with us, He went into the consideration of the necessity of
establishing a standard of value with us, and of the adoption of a money
unit. He proposed for that unit, such a fraction of pure silver as
would be a common measure of the penny of every state, without leaving
a fraction. This common divisor he found to be 1/1440 of a dollar, or
1/1600 the crown sterling. The value of a dollar was, therefore, to be
expressed by 1440 units, and of a crown by 1600; each unit containing
a quarter of a grain of fine silver. Congress turning again their
attention to this subject the following year, the Financier, by a letter
of April 30,1783, further explained and urged the unit he had proposed:
but nothing more was done on it until the ensuing year, when it was
again taken up, and referred to a committee, of which I was a member.
The general views of the Fin