redit,
fruitfulness to our revenue, and activity to our operations. Among
those things, which, after the experience and example of other ages
and nations, I have been induced to adopt, is that of a national bank,
the plan of which I enclose. I mean to render this a principal pillar
of American credit, so as to obtain the money of individuals for the
benefit of the Union, and thereby bind those individuals more strongly
to the general cause by the ties of private interest. To the efficacy
of this plan, as well as to the establishment of a Mint, which would
also be of use, a considerable sum of money is necessary, and, indeed,
it is indispensably so for many other purposes.

Be not alarmed, Sir, from what I have said, with the apprehension
that I am about to direct solicitations to the Court of Versailles;
which, after the repeated favors they have conferred, must be
peculiarly disagreeable. On the contrary, as I am convinced that the
moneys of France will all be usefully employed in the vigorous
prosecution of the war, by her own fleets and armies, I lament every
sum which is diverted from them. Our necessities have indeed called
for her aid, and perhaps they may continue to do so. Those calls have
hitherto been favorably attended to, and the pressure of our
necessities has been generously alleviated; nor do I at all doubt that
future exigencies will excite the same dispositions in our favor, and
that those dispositions will be followed with correspondent effects.
But I again repeat my wish, at once to render America independent of,
and useful to her friends.

With these views, I have directed Mr Jay to ask a considerable sum
from the Court of Madrid, to be advanced us at the Havana, and brought
thence by us, if it cannot conveniently be landed here from Spanish
men-of-war.[34] I say _a considerable sum_, because, as I have
declared to him, I do not wish to labor under the weight of obligation
without deriving from it any real benefit; and because I consider the
advance of small sums rather as a temporary palliation than a radical
remedy. Our disorders are such, that the former can be of no use, and
it would be better to desist in a desultory defence, than to put on
the delusive appearances of a vigor we do not feel; for this lulls the
people into a dangerous security, and softens those hopes of the
enemy, which give duration and extent to the war. It is the disorder
of our finances, which have prevented us from a powe