By balance in the Treasury, agreeably to the general statement For balances due by sundry persons on moneys advanced to For balances due by sundry persons on accounts which origi- For arms and accoutrements sold to the State of South Caro- For amount of a Loan made by the Bank of North America, For the value of bills of exchange drawn by the Treasurer, on For the excess of the first half yearly dividend on the capital For amount received from sundry supervisors, on account of $973,905 75 5,629 88 4,702 82 4,240 00 118 00 400,000 00 156,595 56 545,902 89 2,000,000 00 2,000,000 00 8,028 00 208,942 81 For amount received from the Collectors of the Customs, on 3,443,070 85 $9,751,136 56 TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Register's Office, January 28, 1793. JOSEPH NOURSE, Register. In the expenditures for the quarter ending June 30, and September 30, 1792, are included warrants to the amount of four millions of dollars, which are drawn for the purpose of effecting the subscription of five thousand shares to the capital stock of the Bank of the United States, and to cover the Loan obtained in consequence thereof; two millions of dollars being drawn to effect the subscription, and two millions for the amount of the Loan; the bills of exchange drawn by the Treasurer, on which these transactions were predicated, have been cancelled at the Treasury. B.-General account of Income and Expenditure. DR. To nett amount of duties on imports and tonnage, and of fines, penalties, and for- $6,534,263 84 Total of receipts $4,771,342 43 Deduct this sum, received for duties on imports and tonnage, being included in the nett amount above charged 4,399,472 99 371,869 44 Loans.-Statement B, continued. DR.-Continued. To product of duties on spirits distilled within the United States for a half year, To product of duties on imports and tonnage, for the year 1792, as estimated To amount of moneys which came into the Treasury during the year 1792, from Total receipts, (including the balance in cash at the end of 1791,) as credited in said account $973,905 75 Deduct this sum, which was the balance in the Treasury at the end 208,942 81 $9,751,136 56 150,000 00 3,900,000 00 400,000 00 3,443,070 85 4,625,919 41 5,125,217 15 To proceeds of bills drawn and disposed of upon our Commissioners in Holland, on account of Foreign Loans, as per statement No. 3, reported to the House of Representatives the 3d instant, viz: To which add, for an error in stating the amount of interest which arose on the credit allowed to purchasers of bills, by the Banks of North America and New York 2,304,769 13 1,000 00 2,305,769 13 Deduct this sum, included in the receipts into the Treasury to the end of the year 1791, as per account of Receipts and Expenditures, reported to the House of Representatives the 10th November, 1792 361,391 34 Deduct also this sum, included in the receipts during the year 1792, per general account of Receipts and Expenditures herewith transmitted, marked A 545,902 89 907,294 23 1,398,474 90 $17,879,825 33 CR. By amount of expenditures to the end of the year 1791, as per account of Receipts and Expenditures to the end of that year, reported to the House of Representatives the 10th of November, 1792 Total debit side of said account By amount of expenditures during the year 1792, as per general account of Receipts and Expenditures herewith transmitted, marked A, viz: $3,797,436 78 Balance, being the excess of income beyond the expenditure, to the end of the year 1792 $9,751,136 56 8,967,692 05 5,114,696 50 $17,879,825 33 Loans. The foregoing balance is composed as follows: 1. Of cash in the Treasury, as per general account of Receipts and Expenditures, marked A2. Of cash in the Bank of the United States, and the Offices of Discount and Deposite of New York and Baltimore, per account rendered by the Bank herewith, marked A B 3. Of the proceeds of bills on Amsterdam, remaining in deposite in the Bank of North America, including the sum of $156,595 56, loaned without interest, which Loan is credited in the general account of Receipts and Expenditures 4. Of the proceeds of bills on Amsterdam, not yet received $783,444 51 605,883 08 177,998 80 614,593 02 5. Uncollected residue of duties on spirits distilled within the United States, viz: Total, as estimated $550,000 00 208,942 81 341,057 19 151,851 25 Deduct sums received into the Treasury, and credited in account of Receipts and Expenditures, marked A 6. Cash in hands of Collectors of Customs, per abstract of weekly returns NOTES. Places of deposite of the above mentioned cash, Nos. 1 and 2. 2,442,069 15 $5,116,897 00 1. Cash, being balance of Treasurer's account: Bank of United States, Philadelphia 3. Of this sum, $156,595 56 are considered as in deposite, by way of counterbalance to an advance made by the Bank for the use of the Department of War, for the purposes of the act passed the 3d of March, 1791, for raising and adding another regiment to the Military Establishment of the United States, and for making further provision for the protection of the frontiers. It has remained without final adjustment, from a doubt whether the funds, upon which the appropriations which comprehend the surplus of duties to the end of 1791 are bottomed, are fully sufficient. A sum of about $50,000 must depend on the existence of certain surplusses upon antecedent appropriations, which it is believed will not require the full sums appropriated; but the purposes of those appropriations not being yet finally satisfied, the real state of the business is not yet completely ascertained. An example of this exists in the case of a sum of $40,000, appropriated for paying off certain specie claims on the Quartermaster's Department, incurred during the late war. It is known that further claims exist, but not to what extent. There are several other cases attended with similar uncertainty. A recent examination leaves some doubt whether warrants can yet safely issue to wind up the transaction. 5. Whether the sum here stated as outstanding be correct, must in a degree depend on the accuracy of the estimated product of the duties. It will be observed that the product, as carried into the statement, was originally fixed by estimation; and even now the materials in possession of the Treasury, respecting a branch of revenue, for known reasons not yet reduced to perfect order, are unavoidably imperfect, and liable to some error. The estimate may exceed or fall short of the reality, and proportionally affect the outstanding balance. But, however this may turn out, it cannot affect the merits of the statement. The excess or deficiency of one side of the account would correspond with a like excess or deficiency on the other. The auxiliary statement, however, marked F, serves to show that there can be no material error in the estimate. 6 and 7. These two items are also liable to some degree of uncertainty. The cash returns of the Collectors not being all received up to the end of the year, and some disbursements which were to be made to that time not having been completed, the amount which was then in their hands cannot be pronounced with precision. The difference, however, which may appear upon a settlement of their accounts, cannot be material. In like manner, as monthly abstracts of bonds up to the end of the year have not yet been received from some ports, and it has been found necessary to supply the deficiency by a comparative estimate, the result may vary somewhat from the fact. But enough is ascertained to pronounce that the difference must be inconsiderable; and, in reference both to the cash and bonds in the hands of the Collectors, whatever difference may hereafter appear, is liable to the same remark as to the merits of the statement, which has been made in regard to the duties on distilled spirits. The differences in both cases must resolve themselves into the circumstance of the estimated amounts of the duties proving greater or less than the real amounts. A. HAMILTON, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, February 4, 1793. Secretary of the Treasury. NOTE.-Two or three accompanying Tables, not deemed necessary, have been omitted. LOANS. Loans. SIR: In pursuance of the first part of the order of the Senate of the 23d of January past, I have the honor to send, herewith, sundry statements, marked A, AB, B, B a, D, E, F, and I beg the permission of the Senate to add the copy of a letter dated yesterday, which served to transmit duplicates of the same documents to the House of Representatives, and which contains some explanations of them, a repetition of which here will be thereby rendered unnecessary. The document C, referred to in that letter, was also sent to the House of Representatives, but being of considerable length, a duplicate is not yet ready; and I did not think it advisable to detain the other papers till it was ready. The documents now transmitted will answer the whole of the inquiry contained in the first part of the order above referred to, except what regards a distribution of the expenditures under each head of appropriation, which is in preparation, and will be forwarded as soon as it can be ready. The situation in which I am placed renders further delay absolutely necessary to the fulfilment of the second part of the order. precedent; and the conclusions, from more full reflection, were, that the distinguishing of the Loans with reference to each act, might not only embarrass the business, in the first stages of negotiation, but might interfere with an application of the proceeds of the Loans in the most convenient and beneficial manner, according to circumstances. On these considerations, I abandoned my original intention, and, in my first instruction to Mr. Short, was silent on the point. These different positions of the subject in the mind, at different times, and what actually took place with regard to the first Loan, produced some confusion in the recollection of facts, and led me to assign as a cause what had been only a collateral circumstance, and to ascribe to the bankers intimations, or rather information, which I had received from other quarters. I submit this explanation of the matter to the candor of the Senate, and have the honor to be, with perfect respect, sir, your most obedient servant, ALEXANDER HAMILTON. The VICE PRESIDENT of the United States and President of the Senate. TREASURY DEpartment, February 5, 1793. SIR: By order of the President of the United States, I have the honor to transmit, herewith1. Copies of a power given by him to the Secretary of the Treasury for the time being, dated the 28th of August, 1790, for the negotiation of the Loans authorized by the laws of the 4th and 12th of August, 1790, and of certain instructions relative thereto, dated on the same day. the There is a point in my Letter of the 16th of January to the Senate, concerning which some explanation is requisite. I stated, as one motive to the joint negotiation of the Loans, under both acts, "an intimation from our bankers in Holland that a distinction might prove an embarrassment, being a novelty, the reason of which would not be obvious to the money-lenders." This was done 2. Copies of an authority founded upon from memory, without recurrence to documents, power of the President from me to William Short, and in a degree of hurry occasioned by my anxie- Esq., dated the 1st of September, 1790, and of ty for the speedy passing of the Appropriation bill, sundry letters from me to the said William Short, and, upon a revision, proves to be not accurate. of dates from the 29th of May, 1790, to the 31st The mistake arose in the following manner: My of December, 1792, inclusively, relating to the neoriginal idea was to maintain a separation be-gotiation and application of the above-mentioned tween the two acts. This will appear from my Loans. Letter of the 28th of August, 1790, to our bank- 3. Originals of sundry letters from William ers, in which I express a desire that they would Short to me, under dates from the 2d of Decemendeavor to place part of the first Loan upon one ber, 1790, to the 2d of November, 1792, inclusiveact, and another part upon the other act. But ly, relating to the same subject. they did not carry this idea into execution, for the reason assigned in their answer, now before the Senate, which is, that the subdivision proposed would, under the circumstances of the case, tend to excite speculations and doubts among the money-lenders. 4. Copy of an authority from me to Messrs. Wilhem and John Willinks, Nicholas and J. Van Staphorst, and Hubbard, bankers of the United States at Amsterdam, dated the 28th of August, 1790, relating to the first of the Loans made under the above-mentioned acts, and copies of sundry letters to the said bankers, of dates from the 28th of August, 1790, to the 31st of December, 1792, inclusively. But, prior to the receipt of their answer, I had made further inquiry, and had reflected more on the subject. The result of my inquiry was, that the money-lenders, having been accustomed to 5. Originals of sundry letters from the said banklend on the general credit of the Government bor-ers to me, of dates from the 25th of January, 1790, rowing, with a sort of general pledge of its reve- to the 5th of November, 1792. nues and resources, the attempt to bottom a Loan upon any particular law, might, as a novelty, occasion some hesitation and embarrassment among them, especially as they are known to be a description of men much influenced by habit and 6. Copies of sundry letters, of dates from the 18th of June to the 24th of September, 1792, inclusively, between G. Morris and W. Short, Esqs., having relation to the above subjects. The general power from the President to the Loans. Secretary of the Treasury, of the 28th of August, 1790, and the communications from William Short, Esq., who has been the only Commissioner, would, it is presumed, have fulfilled the terms of the resolution of the Senate of the 23d of last month, and are transmitted, pursuant to the request contained in that resolution. But the President has been pleased to direct the transmission of the other documents also, in the supposition that they will serve to throw light upon the general subject of that resolution. With perfect respect, I have the honor to be, sir, yours, &c., ALEXANDER HAMILTON. Secretary of the Treasury. The VICE PRESIDENT of the United States and President of the Senate. [NOTE. Of the papers referred to in this Report, none are now to be found, except those published with the Secretary's second Report, of the 13th February, 1793.] LOANS. was to be carried on through the person who in capacity of Minister, Charge des Affaires, or otherwise, then was, or thereafter might be charged with transacting the affairs of the United States, with such Prince or State. IV. That all payments, which have been made out of the proceeds of the Loans, have been made by the immediate and special order of Mr. Short, except those, upon the bills of the Treasurer for the moneys drawn to this country, and those to the money-lenders in Holland; which were made in course by our bankers, at the periods they respectively became due. This consequently embraces all the payments to France; the very last of which, though agreed for by Mr. Morris, in consequence of his having been employed for a special purpose by Mr. Short, was not, and could not, be completed, but by the same immediate and special direction of Mr. Short. It moreover appears, from the same papers, and more fully from the correspondence at large, now before the Senate, that except in the particular instance which has been just stated, with regard to Mr. Morris, there has been no other agency in the whole business, than that of Mr. Short, and of the bankers at Amsterdam and Antwerp, whom TREASURY DEPARTMENT, February 13, 1793. he necessarily employed as instruments in the neSIR: The next most important article of inqui-gotiations with the money-lenders, and in the rery involved in the resolutions of the House of Representatives of the twenty-third of January last, and in the observations which have been made respecting the conduct of this Department, relates to the Loans negotiated under the acts of the 4th and 12th of August, 1790. The papers which have been transmitted to the House by order of the President, disclose the following particulars I. That the immediate superintendence of the business of the Loans was confided to the Department of the Treasury, being naturally connected with it. This trust, besides the original instructions for regulating the execution of it, which have been communicated, was of course subject to such directions from time to time, as the President should think fit to give, or as occasion should require. A considerable latitude of discretion, nevertheless, from the very nature of the case, attended it; so as justly to leave on the head of this Department a complete responsibility in all instances, where special exceptions do not appear. II. That the first Loan which was obtained, was undertaken and completed by the agency of Wilhem and Jan Willink, and Nicholas and Jacob Van Staphorst, and Hubbard, who, both under the former and present Government, have been and are the bankers of the United States at Amsterdam. III. That with the single exception of the first Loan, William Short, Esq., then Chargé des Affaires at the Court of France, now resident Minister at the Hague, was constituted the sole agent of this Department, for carrying into effect the powers confided to it; with this qualification only, that if any negotiation with a Prince or State, to whom any part of the Debt to be discharged by the Loans, was due, should be requisite, the same ceipt and disbursement of the moneys borrowed. These, as already mentioned, were, at Amsterdam, the two houses of Wilhem and Jan Willink, and of Nicholas and Jacob Van Staphorst and Hubbard; at Antwerp, a Mr. G. De Wolf was the banker. It may not be without its uses to add, that the moneys proceeding from the Loans, have constantly remained in the hands of the respective bankers, till they have been paid over to the creditors; namely, the French treasury, or their bankers, the money-lenders or their representatives, the holders of the bills drawn from this country by the Treasurer. Neither Mr. Short nor Mr. Morris has ever had possession of a single guilder. The latter, indeed, has never even had power over one, excepting merely a sum of 105,000 guilders, by letters of mine, dated the 13th September last, placed at his disposal for paying at Paris, according to stipulation, the interest on the Debt due to foreign officers. The fact is, and it is so demonstrated by the correspondence already referred to, that I never wrote a line to Mr. Morris on the subject of the Loans or their proceeds, but in reference to the case just mentioned of the interest payable to foreign officers, in respect to which, local situation governed. One more circumstance only is necessary to be noticed in this place, with a view to the elucidation intended. It is this: that the last payment, though originating prior to the change in the political position of France of the 10th of August last, not having been consummated until the 6th of September following, fell of course under the disposition of those then in possession of the power of the nation. It could not but have been unexpected to me, that exception should be taken to the Report lately |