Arthur Lee to Robert Morris, 26 September 1783

Copy Princeton.
Sepr. 26 1783

Sir,

Mr. Silas Deane in his Accounts against the U.S. says that – “Congress by their Secret & Commercial Committee contracted with Silas Deane Esqr. to embark for France as the political & commercial Agent of the 13 then U. Colonies & instructed him to purchase for & on account of sd. U.C. Woolens & other Merchandise to the amount of forty thousand pounds stlg. also Cloathing, Arms, Ammunition &c sufficient for an Army of 25000 Men, as may be seen by the Contracts & Instructions of the 19 of Feby. & 2d March 1776, for which purchases it was stipulated & agreed to allow the sd. Silas Deane Esqr. a commission of 5 pr Ct. independent of his Charges in making the purchases – it was at the same time agreed, that, as the sd. S. Deane Esqr. besides the commercial transactions entrusted to him, was commissiond. & authorizd to act as the political Agent of the sd. 13 Colonies, his expences shoud be paid, & an adequate &
honorable compensation made him by Congress for his time.”1

The Committee have endeavord, in vain, to find among the Papers of Congress the Contracts & Instructions referrd to by Mr. Deane, & as the Committee are desirous of doing that Gentleman the justice of reporting them to Congress if they exist, they will be obligd to you Sir, for any information you can give them, of the reality of those Contracts & Instructions, or where they are to be found.2

I have the honor to be &c &c

A Lee

NOTES:

Transcription, Papers of Continental Congress, item 54, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

1 For this prefatory statement to Silas Deane’s accounts, see PCC, item 54, fols. 69 – 70.

2 In his October 4 response to Lee, Morris enclosed a copy of Deane’s February 19, 1776, contract with the Secret Committee (PCC, item 54, fols. 11 – 12), and explained that he presumed that Deane’s instructions would be on file in the office for foreign affairs. For both Deane’s contract with the Secret Committee and March 2, 1776, instructions from the Committee of Secret Correspondence, see these Letters, 3:313 – 15, 320 – 23.

Silas Deane had been attempting to secure a settlement of his accounts as Continental agent in France since December 1778, and had renewed this effort in March 1782 when he wrote to both the president of Congress and to Thomas Barclay, the commissioner for settling Continental accounts in Europe. In response to this appeal from Deane, now widely regarded as an apostate since the publication of his correspondence urging negotiations with the North ministry in October 1781, Barclay had forwarded Deane’s accounts to the secretary for foreign affairs, who had submitted them to Congress, which in turn has assigned them to a committee consisting of Lee, George Clymer, and Eliphalet Dyer in September 1782. Although the committee had taken no action on the
accounts, it was “Revived” on April 23, 1783 (with John Lewis Gervais replacing Clymer), and “Renewed” on July 23 (James McHenry and Stephen Higginson replacing Dyer and Gervais, with Elbridge Gerry later replacing Higginson). See PCC, item 54, fols. 49 – 52, item 79, 1:476 – 77, item 103, fols. 207 – 8, item 185, 3:41, item 186, fols. 54, 97, 113; and these Letters, 13:481 – 84, 18:195 – 96n.3.

Lee had finally written a letter to Morris on August 24 (not found)
requesting the Deane accounts in the treasury office, which the
superintendent sent to the committee on the 29th. PCC, item 54, fol. 5. For the continuation of the committee’s work with Deane’s
accounts, see Lee to James Milligan, October 4, and to Morris,
October 9, 1783.