Southern States will soon be enabled to refund such sums as may be advanced to their poorer citizens.

I should deem it inexcusable on such an occasion as this to hint at political considerations. But for my own sake I must observe that I do not mean to draw on you any odium, in case you should decline a compliance with my wishes. This letter, therefore, is secret so long as you may choose that it should remain so; and you will communicate it to such persons only us you may think proper. It is directed to you from my opinion of your integrity and good dispositions towards your fellow-creatures.

Should my proposal be adopted, I will submit to your consideration whether an application to me on the subject would not be the proper method of requesting the plan, without taking notice of this letter. I am your sincere friend and humble servant,

To Robert Morris, Esq.

Reply to the above Letter.

ROBERT MORRIS.

PHILADA. 7th mo. 28th, 1781.

Esteemed Friend,-The subject matter of thy letter of the 23d inst. has been considered by those to whom it is directed and some others of our brethren who unite in judgment with us, that it is weighty and affecting.

Thy charitable sentiments, kindly expressed concerning us, we trust are not groundless, there having been in years past divers occasions on which our religious Society, affected with the sufferings of our fellowcreatures, have, without regard to the distinction of religious profession, manifested their benevolence; and on one memorable time, to the inhabitants of Charleston, South Carolina; so also to the inhabitants of our frontiers in the late Indian war, for whose relief a considerable sum of money was raised and distributed among them. And in the early commencement of these days of sorrowful calamity, a considerable contribution was likewise made amongst us for the people of New England, and was sent from hence and committed to the care of some of our brethren in that country, who with diligence and fatigue, in the midst of a cold winter, sought out the really indigent and distressed of all denominations, and handed them some seasonable relief.

The same benevolent principles, we hope, will continue to actuate us on future necessary occasions, with the same precaution we have ever observed in support of our testimony against war and anything tending to promote it; but the circumstances of the members of our Society are of late greatly changed, and their capacity for the exercise of benevolence much diminished, not only through the general calamity prevailing, but most particularly by the very oppressive laws which have been enacted in Pennsylvania, and the oppressive manner in which they have been frequently executed, to the impoverishment of many innocent and industrious inhabitants; so that there are divers instances of many families in city and country, who are already nearly stripped of

their substance. Thus the poor of our Society are greatly increased; and as we conceive it to be our duty, so it has always been our practice, not to leave our needy brethren to the relief of others.

The state, also, of our friends in the Carolinas, who, we apprehend, are reduced to great straits, hath lately claimed our particular attention, and we have sent them something considerable as a relief.

There are few among us who have been engaged in trade and business for some years past, and many have been obliged to borrow money for the support of their families, through the difficulty of collecting their debts, and the unjust advantage taken by some in the payment of them; and on consideration of thy requisition for lending a sum of money, we are united in judgment that we cannot comply with it.

We do not mention these things with a view to damp or extinguish that spirit of sympathy and compassion which humanity dictates and pity requires, but wish it to prevail among mankind in general.

We are, thy respectful Friends,
JOHN REYNELL,

OWEN JONES,
JAMES PEMBERTON,
SAMUEL EMLEN, Jr.
NICHOLAS WALN.

Note by J. F. Watson.-At this time of the British ravages in the Carolinas, many were the families from thence who sought refuge in Philadelphia and vicinity. Such was the liberality of Dr. James Logan to them, that he took the families of C. C. Pinkney and Thomas Pinkney, and Gov. Rutledge, to his mansion at Stenton, and there entertained them for six months. He gave also many cords of wood to others in the city.

XXI.-Papers relative to a forced Loan from the Provincial Treasurer. (Collected by J. F. WATSON.)

When the papers annexed were sent to J. F. Watson, it was on the presumption that they would prove the fact from whom Robert Morris, as Treasurer, received a large sum of specie, as mentioned in Delaplaine's Life of Morris, said to be from a gentleman of the Society of Friends, to afford relief to the army of Gen. Washington.

These papers show a receipt of money, indeed from a Quaker; but from the date it is manifest that they do not belong to the same recorded circumstance. Owen Jones's family have often told me that the apparent loan annexed was a coercive one. The gentlemen on the note called on him and said, they must have his money as Provincial Treasurer, for the purposes of the Revolution. He said he could not so

I have heard it vaguely stated that it was Abel James; so J. P. Norris also heard it hinted.

grant it. They then told him they intended to do it by force, if they must; but if he would take all their bonds, they would make it a personal borrow, in case the revolution should miscarry.

The letter annexed, since received from Bishop White, who first told the facts to Mr. Delaplaine, explains, as I think, the truth of the case to which he refers.

The original signatures of so many worthy men are deserving of themselves of preservation.

John Morton, there named, is the signer of the Declaration of Independence.

June 10th, 1775.

Sir, Please to pay (on sight) to Messrs. Samuel Mifflin and Andrew Caldwell, the sum of six thousand Pounds, and take their receipt for the same; being the sum of money borrowed by us on bond of you, for public use.

To Mr. OWEN JONES, Provincial Treasurer.

JOHN MORTON,
GEO. Ross,

THOS. MIFFLIN.
CHAS. HUMPHREYS,
THOS. WILLING,
JAMES WILSON,
B. FRANKLIN,
CHAS. THOMSON,
JOHN DICKINSON.

Please pay Andrew Epplé twenty-four hundred pounds, part of the within order.

To Owen Jones, Esq.

SAMUEL MIFFLIN,
ANDREW Caldwell.

Received, June 12th, 1775, of Owen Jones, Esq., twenty-two hundred pounds, for Messrs. Samuel Mifflin and Andrew Caldwell.

£2,200.

ANDREW EPPLE.

Please pay Andrew Epplé thirty-eight hundred pounds, balance due on the order he delivered you.

To Owen Jones, Esq.

June 14th, 1775.

SAMUEL MIFFLIN,
ANDREW CALDWELL.

Received, June 14th, 1775, from Owen Jones, Esq., three thousand eight hundred pounds, for Messrs. Samuel Mifflin and Andrew Caldwell. £3,800.

ANDREW EPPLE. Philadelphia, Feb. 17, 1826.

Bp. White presents his compliments to Mr. Watson, and informs him, with confidence, that the two facts referred to in his letter, cannot refer to the same transaction.

The loan specified was on the 10th of June, 1775, which was a few days before Gen. Washington was vested with the command of the army. He repaired immediately to Massachusetts, and was for a long time there and in the State of New York, before the war was brought to the vicinity of this city.

The fact related by Mr. Delaplaine was after the retreat of the Congress to Baltimore, which took place near the end of the year 1776, when Lord Cornwallis was on his march through Jersey. period when Continental money was rapidly depreciating. of June, 1775, it was not yet issued.

This was a On the 10th

At the last mentioned period, Mr. Morris was not in Congress, or in any public station. When the incident referred to took place, he transacted the commercial business of Congress, and was a member of that body.

From the narrative, it appears that when the two gentlemen met, Mr. Morris was on his way from his counting-house or office to his dwelling. At the time in question in the manuscript, the two places were contiguous in Penn street, with about fifteen feet between the doors; but in the next year, he had moved into Front street, between Walnut street and the bridge; and the place of his transacting business was on the bank, a little higher up.

It appears from the narrative, that the two gentlemen were in the habits of commercial business with one another. This had never been the case, as is here believed, of Mr. Morris with Mr. Owen Jones; who must have been known to the other as a very respectable citizen, and a prominent member of the Society of Friends; but there was no analogy in their respective occupations.

The anecdote, as given by Mr. Delaplaine, was communicated to him by the writer of this, who distinctly remembers the circumstances, as received from the mouth of Mr. Morris, a year or two before his decease.

On review of the above, the thought occurs that there has not been sufficient stress laid on the kind of money demanded by Mr. Morris of his friend. It was hard money, then very scarce, and necessary for the obtaining of information of the movements of the enemy in Jersey. In June, 1775, such money would not have been more effective than the paper money of the province then current.

XXII.-An Account of Robert Morris's Drafts on Benjamin Franklin. [From the original manuscript in the handwriting of Charles Thomson, presented by his nephew John Thompson, Esq., to Mr. John F. Watson.]

The state of facts is as follows:

In 1779 and 1780, when the enemy invaded the Southern States, Congress having no money nor means of raising any, fell upon the measure of drawing bills on the ministers in Europe, and directed their ministers at the Courts of Versailles, Madrid and the Hague, to apply

to the respective Courts for loans of money to pay the bills drawn upon them.

All the bills drawn by Mr. H. L. were taken up and paid by Mr. F. Mr. Jay obtained a small sum of money from the Court of Spain; but not being supplied with a sum equal to the amount of the bills drawn, he was under the necessity of protesting a considerable sum. These were afterwards taken up and paid by Dr. F. Bills for the payment of interest were also drawn upon Mr. F. This obliged him to make such frequent application to the Court of France, that the Minister of Finance complained that his plans were deranged, and that the money granted by his Court was applied to other purposes than the immediate support of the war. And when it was ascertained that Congress depended on a provision of the Court for the payment of interest bills, the Minister disclaimed that promise, and in express terms declared that no more money could be advanced for that purpose. After repeated applications by Dr. F. and Mr. J. Laurens, who, in the beginning of 1781, was sent as a special minister, to represent to that Court this state of our affairs, the Court was induced to grant the U. S. out of their own funds, a considerable sum, and to borrow from the States General a further sum for the U. S. for the express purpose of discharging the bills accepted by Dr. F., for procuring clothing and necessaries for the army, and for the immediate purposes of the ensuing campaign. And Dr. F. was told in plain and express terms, that if Congress drew any more bills on him, they must find means to enable him to pay them; for that the Court would not advance any money for that purpose. Thus Congress were prevented from drawing interest bills. With a view of providing a fund to answer this purpose, and to enable them to pay the interest of all the domestic debt, as well as to lay a foundation for a credit abroad, Congress, in the spring of 1781, recommended the duty of five per cent. on imports and prizes; and from a fond hope that the States would comply with the requisition, they ventured to continue drawing bills for the next year; and in the fall of that year, called upon the States for eight millions, for the service of 1782. The Superintendant entered upon the administration of the finances, and with the aid obtained from France, supported the expense of the operations of the army in the campaign of 1781, and the reduction of Cornwallis.

The quotas of the States came in so slow, that every aid obtained from France, with what was paid in by the States, was scarce sufficient for the immediate subsistence and clothing of the army, and support of our minister abroad and other unavoidable expenses in the year 1782; so that in September, 1782, Congress was under the necessity of stopping the drawing of any more bills for interest. Still, however, Congress entertained a hope that the duty of five per cent. on imports would be granted for the purposes abovementioned.