loan, without laying and
appropriating taxes for the payment of the interest, and there has
never been an instance of their failing one day, in that payment. The
Emperor and Empress have good credit, because they use it little, and
have hitherto been very punctual. This country is among the lowest, in
point of credit. Ours stands in hope only. They consider us as the
surest nation on earth for the repayment of the capital; but as the
punctual payment of interest is of absolute necessity in their
arrangements, we cannot borrow but with difficulty and disadvantage.
The moneyed men, however, look towards our new government with a great
degree of partiality, and even anxiety. If they see that set out on the
English plan, the first degree of credit will be transferred to us. A
favorable occasion will arise to our new government 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 everything 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 to 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.

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