The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...

Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2
to me last summer desiring I would officially pledge the United States as security for
certain sums due by his estate and which, not being exactly within the line marked out
for the creditors of emigrants, might not be allowed in liquidation, and she stated that
his honor and hers stood pledged, etc. You will readily conceive that I did not comply
with that request, but at the same time your goodness will feel that a flat denial would
add sorrow to distress. In this dilemma I informed her that it was inconsistent with the
dignity of governments to appear in such affairs; moreover, I had not any right to
dispose of the public property, but, as far as my own would go for her relief, she
might count on every aid in my power. Not to fatigue you with a long story, this
engagement ended by paying her in November last one hundred thousand livres when
the assignats were at par (or, indeed, for silver, under par) and when, by the obstacles
thrown in the way of all negotiations, it became to me an object of very serious
inconvenience. However, I had taken the engagement, and it was necessary to keep it
or break my word. When she was brought up to Paris she sent a person to me to
communicate her situation and that of her children, and to propose an advance of
credit to the amount of one hundred and fifty thousand livres in order to complete
some arrangements which they had imagined at Chavagnac. This advance I declined,
not only because the plan they had formed appeared to me unwise but because I had
not the money to dispose of. Being hard pressed for an opinion of consolatory nature
to those poor children, I authorized the person employed to assure them of my
conviction that the United States would take care of them. This I cannot doubt of, and
I flatter myself that they may all of them be yet united at some future day in our
hospitable regions, and that they will have cause to speak with gratitude of the bounty
of America.”
In August the new Minister from the United States to France arrived; his advent was
an inexpressible relief to Morris, and in the following letter, of August 14th, to Robert
Morris he gave vent to his feelings on the subject.
“Presenting my successor, which I did yesterday, to the Commissioners, has given me
more pleasure than any event for many months. As soon as the ceremonial is adjusted
for his reception, I shall be relieved from a burden which has pressed on my
shoulders, and which I am happier to be rid of than you can easily conceive. I am
preparing for my departure, but as yet can take no step, as there is a kind of
interregnum in the government and Mr. Monroe is not yet received, at which he grows
somewhat impatient. The intelligence you give me respecting myself is particularly
pleasing. I desired much to be recalled, but I would not ask it because I conceived my
honor concerned in seeing the thing through. My only remaining wish is that the
measure may be as useful to the United States as it is pleasing to me.”
After seeing his successor installed and disposing of his house at Paris, Mr. Morris’s
intention was to return at once to America; and with this object in view he sought, and
after much difficulty found, a sea-worthy ship to take himself and his effects across
the Atlantic. But events in Europe were so interesting at this moment, and promised
so much excitement and stir for the future, that he suddenly changed his plans, and
determined to stay at least another year in Europe and watch the great play enacting
on that stage. This year lengthened itself into quite four years before he embarked for
America.
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