and cryptically his opinions-to keep a watchful eye on the tide of popular opinion-and in all events to aim chiefly at bringing off his own dear self in a whole skin, I thank God I am no politician! From the time it first pleased my fellow-citizens to raise me into the political world, I have neglected no opportunity of rendering them the best services within the compass of my poor abilities and of obtaining information of the transactions on that great theatre. I am now soon to retire to my little cottage. I shall do it with a cheerful mind and a clear conscience as to my official conduct; but not without great anxiety for the fate of my country.

Avarice, ambition, or the lust of power and all the baser passions, are so much more active and prevalent than the virtues, with which they stand contrasted, that it is not strange to see the government of this world commonly in the hands of the vilest men in it. "There is," says an excellent writer, "in every human society, an effort continually tending to confer on one part the height of power and happiness and to reduce the other to the extreme of weakness and misery." And whoever contemplates the different kingdoms, empires and states throughout the world, the nature of the governments and the condition of the people, will be affected, if capable of feeling, with the wretchedness of his fellow-men, and will be constrained to drop a sympathetic tear over the ruins of human nature.

"Ye gods! what havoc does ambition make among your works!" The United States furnish the world with a rare instance of freedom, and a wise system of political constitution happily calculated to secure it. But, alas! How restless are many of our rulers to engross more power? How easily are the people imposed upon and duped out of their rights? What artifice, what management have already taken place in our public affairs. I cannot however, close this dull and gloomy letter without making one consolating remark, and in that I am warranted—that the seasonable and firm stand made by Rhode Island against the all-grasping hand of power, in the case of duties, has saved the United States! And I should be wanting, as well in duty to the State, as to my own feelings, if I should neglect to inform them that they have the thanks of thousands of the wisest and best men in the Union for their conduct. The Journals of our proceedings at Trenton, are not yet printed. I hope the ordinance, which has been published in the newspapers, establishing the permanent residence of Congress near the falls of Delaware, and the temporary residence in this city, will meet with the approbation of the State. Should the commissioners to be appointed to erect the federal buildings make an advantageous purchase of soil, the sale of lots, it is expected, will reduce the sum appropriated to that use.

As I voted against the resolution of Congress, which puts all the letters received from our foreign ministers under an injunction of secrecy, by the

yeas and nays, which, by the way, are not published in our Journals, I have a right to offer that as an apology to the State for not sending forward an account of the contents of such letters as have been received since I left Congress last summer. Such parts of them, however, as are thought necessary to answer a certain purpose will be sent forward to the states, but under the strict injunctions of secrecy.

I pray your Excellency to be assured of my constant attention to the interests of the State, and of the great respect and esteem,

With which I have the honor to be, your Excellency's

Most obedient and very humble servant,

DAVID HOWELL.

WILLIAM ELLERY TO Gov. GREENE.

NEW YORK, Jan. 28th, 1785.

I have received your Excellency's letter, enclosing a copy of the mode of making Parmesan cheese, which was transmitted to your lady by Dr. Franklin, for which be pleased to accept my thanks.

Since the arrival of Congress at this city, we have attempted much business, but only a little has been completed. The most important affairs are in the hands of a grand committee : such as a proposal to empower Congress to regulate the trade of the United States; to form a requisition for the present year; to frame and establish a mint; an application to Congress from the state of Massachusetts, for an explanation of that article of the treaty of peace which respects bona fide debts, &c.

After repeated efforts to choose Commissioners for the Treasury, Messrs. Samuel Osgood, of Massachusetts; Walter Livingston, of this state; and John L. Jervaise, of Charleston, South Carolina, are at last elected.

Before this letter reaches you, you will have heard and seen the resolution of Congress relative to a federal town. Nothing but the loss of time attending the vibrations of Congress; the retardment of public business, and many other pernicious consequences resulting from the unsettled state of Congress, would have induced me to come into that measure, at a time when the great demands against the public are unsatisfied. We have not been able as yet to appoint commissioners to carry that resolution into execution, and I cannot conjecture when it will be done, for some members are opposed to the measure and will throw every obstruction in the way in their power, in order to defeat it, so that the federal town may be yet considered as in the air. If one should be erected, I should suppose that the banks of the delaware would be preferred by our State to those of the Potomac, and I trust that the adjournment to this city, as it has brought my colleague and me nearer to our constituents, and, by increasing the busi

ness of our packet boats, will throw some money into the State, will not be disagreeable.

We have received letters from our ministers abroad, which I dare not remark upon, because with regard to them we are under an injunction of secrecy. Paragraphs taken from those letters are transmitted to the Executives of each State, to be laid before the respective legislatures, under an injunction of secrecy. I supposed their being thus transmitted, and after the vote had passed desired, that the House would declare their sense, whether anything more was meant than to prevent copies thereof being taken and published. The House did not do it, but several members said that that was their intention. I think, in a time of peace, nothing should be kept secret in which the people at large are interested; and in republics especially, secrecy is very apt to beget suspicion.

Your Excellency knows my opinion with regard to the impost. I trust that nothing but the last necessity will induce our State to embrace it in its present form, if at all. It is probable that this State will not come into it, and if it should not, I think we ought not to be scared into it, by the inefficacious acts of Connecticut. If the report of the committee on the motion for empowering Congress to regulate trade by laying duties thereon, to be collected by the states and applied to their own use, should substantially correspond with the motion, we shall agree to it; because a uniformity of duties will prevent a variety of interests, and because I expect a handsome sum may be collected from such of the maritime powers as have disclosed very illiberal commercial principles.

We have not received a line from our commissioners for treating with the Indians, since the treaty at Fort Schuyler. I wish we could get the western territory under sale; but it will take time to do this. In the mean time, I hope that the people will be content to pay the interest of the public debt by direct taxation, and not be hurried by their impatience into measures which may prove pernicious to their liberty.

I am, with sentiments of the highest respect,

Your Excellency's most obedient servant,

WILLIAM ELLERY.

DAVID HOWELL TO Gov. GREENE.

NEW YORK, February 9th, 1785.

SIR: In pursuance of the instructions of the honorable the General Assembly, their delegates have moved in Congress that the contractors for ox teams in 1781, should be paid their balance out of the last requisition. This motion is yet in the hands of a committee. It is our expectation to obtain a resolution authorizing the State to pay these balances out of the

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requisition for the current year, the last requisition having been otherwise appropriated. And, indeed, this is all that Massachusetts could obtain for their contractors. A great deal of business lies before Congress in the hands of committees and in reports. It is easy to perceive that the tardiness of the delegates in assembling at Trenton, together with the adjournment to this city, must have prevented us from the expected dispatch of public business. I have the pleasure, however, to observe that eleven states are now on the floor, and that a good degree of harmony prevails.

A grand committee has been appointed and instructed to report a requisition on the states for the supplies of the current year.

Mr. Morris has returned his commission to Congress in a letter dated September 30th, and ceased to act in his official character. His account of receipts and expenditures, during his administration, in detail, has not been laid before Congress as yet, but we are informed it is now at the press in Philadelphia. The chairman of our grand committee has written to him for information as to what arrangements he has taken for paying the interest due in Europe; what payments have been made, or measures taken to make payments by the several states, on the requisitions of last April; and what moneys remain in the treasury, or elsewhere, not specially appropriated?

This is all the accounts I am able to give of the state of the treasury, excepting that the state of Virginia, in the course of the last year, as I am informed by her delegates now in Congress, has paid into the treasury of the United States more than four hundred thousand dollars in real money. I hope this will at least justify an opinion hereafter advanced, that the delinquencies of the states was not so much owing to want of energy in the Federal Government, as to want of energy in the government of the particular states, and a real want of resources, or of the power to render them productive.

The happy return of peace and plenty to the states will, it is hoped, produce similar effects throughout the Union and restore public credit. The Hon. John Lewis Gervaise, of South Carolina, the Hon. Samuel Osgood, of Massachusetts, and the Hon. Walter Livingston, of this state, have been elected Commissioners of the Board of Treasury. The latter is present and ready to accept. The two former have not had time, since the notification of their election, to return an answer.

Congress have ordered all their public offices to be removed from Philadelphia to this city. The portraits of the King and Queen of France, are also to be brought here.

The City Hall has been given up to the use of Congress and their offices by the Corporation of the city, excepting the room in which the Mayor's Court

is holden; and I presume it is unnecessary to mention that the members can be accommodated in the best manner-but that the expenses of living here are greater than at any other place where I have attended in Congress.

We wait with impatience the result of the negotiations opened with the Indians, as the western lands are in great demand, and frequent applications are made for grants. It is expected that Congress, before they rise, will be enabled to open their land office, and to establish some government in the western wilderness.

I am sorry to observe that the southern states do not seem disposed to cede their claims over the mountains to Congress. North Carolina has even repealed her act of cession, after the example of Connecticut. Happily it is out of the power of New York and Virginia to repeal theirs. The agents for Massachusetts and New York have agreed on the judges to constitute a federal court to decide on their interfering claims to vacant lands. This court is to be holden in the city of Williamsburg, in Virginia, next June.

The New York land office is open to all the citizens of the United States. Forty-two petitioners are to have six miles square at one shilling per acre, to be paid in any kind of securities for liquidated debts due from the United States, or from the state of New York. Their land office, their impost, their confiscated estates, &c., will enable this state to establish funds sufficiently productive to pay all debts. I am informed, and that in a manner satisfactory to me, that the bill for granting an impost to Congress, will be rejected by a majority in the Legislatures of the states, which are now in session. As this measure has not been adopted by the state of Georgia, and as the supplementary funds, the only security in the system for the domestic creditors have not been effectually complied with in more than one or two states, I have given it as my opinion here that our State would not resume the consideration of that subject till all the other states should have substantially complied. And, indeed, in that event, of which I see no probability, it might perhaps be for the honor of the State not to fall in with that measure last of all and only on the most violent compulsion.

In consequence of a motion made in Congress by an advocate for a revenue in the hands of Congress, a committee has been appointed to report the measure necessary to be taken on the subject of the recommendations of April 18th, 1783, for the impost, &c. As Congress has been pleased to appoint me chairman of the committee, and to join with me two members who are not friendly to the revenue system, it would seem that a change of the financeering system may not be far off. But as this subject has not been drawn into discussion in the present Congress, I have no authority to announce the probability of such an event.