soon began to scour Europe in quest of money.
First they applied to Franklin, and "seemed to
think it his duty as minister for the United States
to support and enforce their particular demands."
But the foreigners, probably not understanding
these separate autonomies, did not relish these
requisitions, and Franklin found that he could do
nothing. On the contrary, he was hampered in
effecting loans on the national credit; for these
320 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
state agents, hurrying clamorously hither and
thither, gave an impression of poverty and injured
the reputation of the country, which, indeed, was
already low enough upon the exchanges without
any such gratuitous impairment.
February 19, 1780, there was an application
from John Paul Jones for money for repairs on
his ships. Franklin approved keeping the vessels
in serviceable condition, but added: "Let me
repeat, for God s sake be sparing, unless you
mean to make me a bankrupt, or have your drafts
dishonored for want of money in my hands to pay
them."
May 31, 1780, he complains that he has been
reproached by one of the congressional agents
whose unauthorized drafts he had refused. He
has been drawn upon by Congress, he says, for
much more than the interest, which only he had
agreed to furnish, and he has answered every
demand, and supported their credit in Europe.
" But if every agent of Congress in different parts
of the world is permitted to run in debt, and draw
upon me at pleasure to support his credit, under
the idea of its being necessary to do so for the
honor of Congress, the difficulty upon me will be
too great, and I may in fine be obliged to protest
the interest bills. I therefore beg that a stop
may be put to such irregular proceedings." It
was a reasonable prayer, but had no effect. Frank
lin continued to be regarded as paymaster-general
for the States in Europe.
FINANCIERING 321
We next hear of his troubles in paying the bills
which Congress, according to its usual custom,
was drawing upon Jay. They sent Jay to Spain,
and told him to borrow money there ; and as soon
as they had got him fairly at sea, they began
drawing drafts upon him. He soon found him
self, as he said, in a "cruel situation," and the
torture of mind which he endured and the respon
sibility which he assumed are well known. He
courageously accepted the bills, trusting to Provi
dence and to Franklin, who seemed the agent of
Providence, to arrange for their payment. Frank
lin did not fail him. One of Jay s earliest letters
to Franklin said: "I have no reason as yet to
think a loan here will be practicable. Bills on
me arrive daily. Be pleased to send me a credit
for the residue of our salaries." Five days later:
"Bills to the amount of 1100,000 have arrived.
A loan cannot be effected here." And so on.
In April, 1781, his appeal became pathetic: "Our
situation here is daily becoming more disagreeable
from the want of our salaries; to be obliged to
contract debts and live on credit is terrible. I
have not to this day received a shilling from
America, and we should indeed have been greatly
distressed, had it not been for your good offices."
An American minister without resources to pay
his butcher and his grocer, his servant and his
tailor, presented a spectacle which moved Frank
lin to great efforts I In plain truth, Jay and
his secretary, Carmichael, were dependent upon
322 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Franklin for everything; they not only drew on
him for their salaries to pay daily household ex
penses, but they sent him lists of the bills accepted
by them for the "honor of Congress," and which
they had no means of paying. It was fortunate
that these two men were willing to incur such
peril and anxiety in behalf of this same "honor of
Congress," which otherwise would soon have been
basely discredited; for that body itself was su
perbly indifferent on the subject, and did not
pretend to keep faith even with its own agents.
Thus matters continued to the end. Congress
pledged itself not to draw bills, and immediately
drew them in batches. Jay could report to Frank
lin only scant and reluctant promises won from
the Spanish court; and small as these engagements
were, they were ill kept. Perhaps they could not
be kept; for, as Jay wrote, there was "little coin
in Egypt," the country was really poor. So the
end of it always was that Franklin remained as
the only resource for payments, to be made week
after week, of all sorts of sums ranging from little
bills upon vessels up to great totals of $150,000
or $ 230, 000 upon bankers demands. Such was
the burden of a song which had many more woeful
stanzas than can be repeated here.
By way of affording some sort of encouragement
to the French court, Franklin now proposed that
the United States government should furnish the
French fleet and forces in the States with provi
sions, of which the cost could be offset, to the
FINANCIERING 323
small extent that it would go, against French
loans. It seemed a satisfactory arrangement, and
France assented to it.
At the same time he wrote to Adams that he
had "long been humiliated with the idea of our
running about from court to court begging for
money and friendship, which are the more with
held the more eagerly they are solicited, and
would perhaps have been offered if they had not
been asked. The proverb says, God helps them
that help themselves; and the world too, in this
sense, is very godly." This was an idea to which
he more than once recurred. In March, 1782,
in the course of a long letter to Livingston, he
said: "A small increase of industry in every
American, male and female, with a small diminu
tion of luxury, would produce a sum far superior
to all we can hope to beg or borrow from all our
friends in Europe." He reiterated the same views
again in March, and again in December, and
doubtless much oftener. 1 No man was more ear
nest in the doctrine that every individual Ameri
can owed his strenuous and unremitting personal
assistance to the cause. It was a practical as
well as a noble patriotism which he felt, preached,
and exemplified ; and it was thoroughly character
istic of the man.
What was then the real financial capacity of
the people, and whether they did their utmost in
the way of raising money to support the Revolu-
1 Franklin s Works, vii. 404 ; viii. 236.
324 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
tion, is a question about which it is easy to express
an opinion, but difficult to prove its accuracy by
convincing evidence. On the one hand, it is true
that the strain was extreme and that much was
done to meet it; on the other hand, it is no less
true that even beneath this stress the national
prosperity actually made a considerable advance
during the war. The people as a whole gathered
money rather than impoverished themselves. In
the country at large the commercial instinct fully
held its own in competition with the spirit of
independence. There was not much forswearing
of little luxuries. Franklin said that he learned
by inquiry that of the interest money which was
disbursed in Paris most was laid out for "super
fluities, and more than half of it for tea." He
computed that 500,000 were annually expended
in the States for tea alone. This sum, "annually
laid out in defending ourselves or annoying our
enemies, would have great effect. With what
face can we ask aids and subsidies from our
friends, while we are wasting our own wealth in
such prodigality? "
Henry Laurens, dispatched as minister to the
Hague in 1780, was captured on the voyage and
carried into England. But this little incident
mattered not at all to the Congress, which for
a long while cheerfully drew a great number of
bills upon the poor gentleman, who, held in the
Tower of London as a traitor, was hardly in a
position to negotiate large loans for his fellow
FINANCIERING 325
"rebels." In October, 1780, these bills began
to flutter down upon Franklin s desk, drawn by
a sort of natural gravitation. He felt " obliged
to accept them," and said that he should "with
some difficulty be able to pay them, though these
extra demands often embarrass me exceedingly."
November 19, 1780, he wrote to de Vergennes
announcing that Congress had notified him of
O O
drafts to the amount of about 1,400,000 livres
(about 8280,000). The reply was: "You can
easily imagine my astonishment at your request
of the necessary funds to meet these drafts, since
you perfectly well know the extraordinary efforts
which I have made thus far to assist you and
support your credit, and especially since you can
not have forgotten the demands you lately made
upon me. Nevertheless, sir, I am very desirous
of assisting you out of the embarrassed situation
in which these repeated drafts of Congress have
placed you ; and for this purpose I shall endeavor
to procure for you, for the next year, the same
aid that I have been able to furnish in the course
of the present. I cannot but believe, sir, that
Congress will faithfully abide by what it now
promises you, that in future no drafts shall be
made upon you unless the necessary funds are
sent to meet them."
Such a letter, though only gratitude could be
felt for it, must have stung the sensitiveness of
Franklin, who had already a great national pride.
Nor was the pain likely to be assuaged by the
326 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
conduct of Congress; for that body had not the
slightest idea of keeping the promises upon which
de Vergennes expressed a reliance perhaps greater
than he really felt. It is not without annoyance,
even now, that one reads that only two days after
the French minister wrote this letter, Congress
instructed Franklin to do some more begging for
clothes, and for the aid of a fleet, and said:
"With respect to the loan, we foresee that the
sum which we ask will be greatly inadequate to
our wants."
December 2, 1780, Franklin acknowledges "fa
vors," a conventional phrase which seems sarcas
tic. These tell him that Congress has resolved
to draw on him "bills extraordinary, to the
amount of near 8300,000." These were doubt
less what led to the foregoing correspondence with
de Vergennes. In reply he says that he has
already engaged himself for the bills drawn on
Mr. Laurens, and adds: "You cannot conceive
how much these things perplex and distress me;
for the practice of this government being yearly
to apportion the revenue to the several expected
services, any after demands made, which the trea
sury is not furnished to supply, meet with great
difficulty, and are very disagreeable to the min
isters."
A short fragment of a diary kept in 1781 gives
a painful vision of the swarm of bills :
" Jan. 6. Accepted a number of loan office bills this
day, and every day of the past week.
FINANCIERING 327
" Sunday, Jan. 7. Accepted a vast number of loan
office bills. Some of the new drafts begin to appear.
" Jan. 8. Accepted many bills.
" Jan. 10th. Informed that my recall is to be moved
for in Congress.
" Jan. 12th. Sign acceptation [qu. " of " ? mutilated]
many bills. They come thick.
k * Jan. 15th. Accepted above 200 bills, some of the
new.
4 Jan. 17th. Accepted many bills.
" Jan. 22d. M. Grand informs me that Mr. Williams
has drawn on me for 25,000 livres ; . . . I order pay
ment of his drafts.
" Jan. 24th. A great number of bills.
" Jan. 26th. Accept bills."
February 13 he writes a general begging and
stimulating letter to de Vergennes. He says that
the plain truth is that the present situation in the
States "makes one of two things essential to us
a peace, or the most vigorous aid of our allies,
particularly in the article of money. . . . The
present conjuncture is critical; there is some dan
ger lest the Congress should lose its influence over
the people, if it is found unable to procure the
aids that are wanted; " and in that case the oppor
tunity for separation is gone, "perhaps for ages."
A few days later he was "under the necessity of
being importunate for an answer to the applica
tion lately made for stores and money." De
Vergennes replied, in an interview, that Franklin
must know that for France to lend the 25,000,000
328 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
livres asked for was "at present impracticable."
Also his excellency mentioned other uncomfortable
and distasteful facts, but concluded by saying that
the king, as a "signal proof of his friendship,"
would make a free gift of 6,000,000 livres, in
addition to 3,000,000 recently furnished for inter
est drafts. But the French court had at last so
far lost confidence in Congress that in order to
make sure that this money should be applied in
aid of the army, and not be vaguely absorbed
by committees, a stipulation was inserted that it
should be paid only upon the order of General
Washington. This was a trifle insulting to Con
gress, and made trouble; and it seems that ulti
mately the sum was intrusted to Franklin.
Almost immediately afterward he extorted from
Necker an agreement that the king of France
would guaranty a loan of 10,000,000 livres, if it
could be raised in Holland; and upon these terms
he was able to raise this sum. Trouble enough
the possession of it soon gave him; for the de
mands for it were numerous. Franklin needed
it to keep himself solvent in Europe; Congress
greedily sought it for America; William Jackson,
who was buying supplies in Holland, required
much of it there. Franklin was expected to re
peat with it the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
2,500,000 livres he sent to the States in the
same ship which carried John Laurens. 2,200,000
Laurens disposed of in purchasing goods; 1,500,-
000 were sent to Holland to be thence sent to the
FINANCIERING 329
States in another ship, so as to divide the risk.
But while he thus took care of others, he himself
was drawn upon by Jackson for 50,000; and at
the same time he was expected to provide for all
the bills accepted by Laurens, Jay, and Adams,
and now rapidly maturing. He sent in haste to
Holland to detain the 1,500,000 livres in transitu.
"I am sorry," he said, u that this operation is
necessary; but it must be done, or the conse
quences will be terrible."
Laurens and Jackson, however, in Holland, had
been actually spending this sum, and more. "I
applaud the zeal you have both shown in the
affair," said the harassed doctor, "but I see that
nobody cares how much I am distressed, provided
they can carry their own points." Fortunately
the money still lay in the hands of the banker,
and there Franklin stopped it; whereupon Jack
son fell into extreme rage, and threatened some
sort of a "proceeding," which Franklin said would
only be exceedingly imprudent, useless, and scan
dalous. "The noise rashly made about this mat
ter " by Jackson naturally injured American credit
in Holland, and especially rendered unmarketable
his own drafts upon Franklin. In these straits
he journeyed to Paris to see Franklin, represented
that his goods were on board ship; that they
were articles much needed in America; that they
must be paid for, or else relanded and returned,
or sold, which would be a public disgrace. So
Franklin was prevailed upon to engage for the
330 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
payment, and was "obliged to go with this after-
clap to the ministers," a proceeding especially
disagreeable because, as he said, "the money was
to be paid for the manufactures of other countries
and not laid out in those of this kingdom, by
whose friendship it was furnished." He was at
first "absolutely refused," but in time prevailed,
and "hoped the difficulty was over." Not at all!
After all this exertion and annoyance, the officers
of the ship said she was overloaded, and turned
out a large part of the goods, which were accord
ingly put into two other ships ; and then Franklin
was offered the option of buying these two vessels,
of hiring them at a freight scarcely less than their
value, or of having the goods again set on shore.
He was now "ashamed to show his face to the
minister," and was casting about for resources,
when suddenly he was surprised by new demands
to pay for the goods which he had every reason
to believe had already been paid for. This pro
duced such a dispute and complication that the
goods remained long in Holland before affairs
could be arranged, and the final settlement is not
clearly to be made out.
In the spring of 1781 John Adams was in
Holland, and of course Congress was drawing
bills upon him, and equally of course he had not
a stiver with which to meet them. He had
"opened a loan," but so little had fallen into the
opening that he was barely able to pay expenses ;
BO, still of course, he turned to Franklin: "When
FINANCIERING 331
they [the bills] arrive and are presented I must
write to you concerning them, and desire you to
enable me to discharge them." He added that it
was a "grievous mortification to find that America
has no credit here, while England certainly still
has so much." Apparently the pamphlet in which
Franklin had so convincingly shown that the re
verse of this should be the case had not satisfied
the minds of the Dutch bankers.
In July, 1781, came a broad hint from Robert
Morris : " I will not doubt a moment that, at your
instance, his majesty will make pressing represen
tations in support of Mr. Jay s application, and
I hope that the authority of so great a sovereign
and the arguments of his able ministry will shed
auspicious influence on our negotiations at Ma
drid." This fulsome language, intended of course
to be read to de Vergennes, imposed the gratify
ing duty of begging the French minister to second
American begging in Spain.
In the same month Franklin wrote to Morris
that the French were vexed at the purchasing of
goods in Holland, and would not furnish the
money to pay for them, and he actually suggested
a remittance from America! "Otherwise I shall
be ruined, with the American credit in Europe."
He might have had some motive besides patriotism
in thus uniting himself with the credit of his
country; for he had been warned that the consul s
court in Paris had power even over the persons of
foreign ministers in the case of bills of exchange.
332 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
September 12, 1781, he announces triumph
antly that "the remittances . . . which I re
quested are now unnecessary, and I shall finish
the year with honor," notwithstanding "drafts on
Mr. Jay and on Mr. Adams much exceeding what
I had been made to expect."
He was now informed that Congress would not
draw upon other ministers without providing
funds, but that they would continue to draw on
him "funds or no funds," an invidious distinction
which "terrified" him; for he had been obliged
to promise de Vergennes not to accept any drafts
drawn later than March, 1781, unless he should
have in hand or in view funds sufficient to pay
them. But before long he began to suspect that
Congress could outwit the French minister. For
so late as January, 1782, bills dated prior to the
preceding April were still coming; and he said:
"I begin to suspect that the drawing continues,
and that the bills are antedated. It is impossible
for me to go on with demands after demands."
The next month also found these old bills on
Laurens still coming in. Congress never let the
ministers know how many bills it was drawing,
perhaps fearing to discourage them by so appall
ing a disclosure. Franklin now wrote to Adams :
"Perhaps from the series of numbers and the
deficiencies one may be able to divine the sum
that has been issued." Moreover, he reflects that
he has never had any instructions to pay the
acceptances of Jay and Adams, nor has had any
FINANCIERING 333
ratification of his payments; neither had he "ever
received a syllable of approbation for having done
so. Thus I stand charged with vast sums which
I have disbursed for the public service without
authority." The thought might cause some anx
iety, in view of the moral obliquity manifested by
Congress in all its financial dealings.
In November, 1781, came a long letter from
Livingston; everything was wanted; but espe
cially the States must have money ! December
31, a day that often brings reflection on matters
financial, de Vergennes sent a brief warning;
1,000,000 livres, which had been promised, Frank
lin should have, but not one livre more under any
circumstances; if he had accepted, or should ac
cept, Morris s drafts in excess of this sum, he
must trust to his own resources to meet his obliga
tions. Accordingly on January 9, 1782, he wrote
to Morris: "Bills are still coming in quantities.
. . . You will see by the inclosed letter the situa
tion I am at last brought into. ... I shall be
able to pay till the end of February, when, if I
can get no more money, I must stop."
Ten days later he writes to Jay that his solicita
tions make him appear insatiable, that he gets no
assurances of aid, but that he is "very sensible"
of Jay s "unhappy situation," and therefore man
ages to send him -130,000, though he knows not
how to replace it. In the sad month of March,
1782, Lafayette nobly helped Franklin in the
disagreeable task of begging, but to little purpose ;
334 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
for at length there seemed a general determination
to furnish no more money to the States. The
fighting was over, and it seemed reasonable that
the borrowing should be over likewise.
In February, 1782, Franklin says that Mr.
Morris supposes him to have a sum " vastly greater
than the fact," and has "given orders far beyond
my abilities to comply with." Franklin was re
garded as a miraculous orange which, if squeezed
hard enough, would always yield juice! It could
not have been reassuring, either, to have one of
the American agents at this time ask to have
150,000 livres advanced to him at once; espe
cially since the frankly provident gentleman based
his pressing haste upon the avowed fear that, as
business was going on, Franklin s embarrassments
in money matters were likely to increase.
February 13, 1782, Livingston wrote a letter
which must have excited a grim smile. He com
forts himself, in making more "importunate de
mands," by reflecting that it is all for the good
of France ! which thought, he says, may enable
Franklin to "press them with some degree of dig
nity." Franklin s sense of humor was touched.
That means, he says, that I am to say to de Ver-
gennes: "Help us, and we shall not be obliged to
you." But in some way or another, probably not
precisely in this eccentric way, he so managed it
that in March he wheedled the French government
into still another and a large loan of 24,000,000
livres payable quarterly during the year. March 9
FINANCIERING 335
he informs Morris "pretty fully of the state of our
funds here, by which you will be enabled so to
regulate your drafts as that our credit in Europe
may not be ruined and your friend killed with
vexation."
He now engaged to pay all the drafts which
Jay should send to him, so that Jay could extri
cate himself honorably from those dread engage
ments which had been giving that harassed gentle
man infinite anxiety at Madrid. Some of his
acceptances had already gone to protest; but
Franklin soon took them all up. By the end of
March he began to breathe more freely; he had
saved himself and his colleagues thus far and
now he hoped that the worst was over. He wrote
to Morris: "Your promise that after this month
no more bills shall be drawn on me keeps up my
spirits and affords me the greatest satisfaction."
By the following summer the accounts between
France and the States were in course of liquida
tion, and Franklin called the attention of Living
ston to the fact that the king practically made
the States a further present "to the value of near
two millions. These, added to the free gifts be
fore made to us at different times, form an object
of at least twelve millions, for which no returns
but that of gratitude and friendship are expected.
These, I hope, may be everlasting." But liquida
tion, though a necessary preliminary to payment,
is not payment, and does not preclude a continu
ance of borrowing; and in August we find that
336 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Morris was still pressing for more money, still
drawing drafts, in happy forgetfulness of his
promises not to do so, and still keeping Franklin
in anxious dread of bankruptcy. By the same
letter it appears that Morris had directed Franklin
to pay over to M. Grand, the banker, any surplus
funds in his hands! "I would do it with plea
sure, if there were any such," said Franklin; but
the question was still of a deficit, not of a surplus.
December 14, 1782, finds Franklin still at the