Certification of Bills, [8 August 1784]
Certification of Bills
Press copy of DS5 and copy: College of William and Mary Library
[August 8, 1784]6
I do hereby Certify whom it may concern, that the following Certificates of Money, due from the Treasury of the United States of America, to the following Officers, have been by them lodged in my Hands,7 Viz:—
| Dollars | ||
| To Major Genl DuPortail, |  |
One dated 24 Novr. 1781. for 5,255: |
| One dated 4 Novr 1783. for 9960: | ||
| One dated 4 Novr. 1783 for 3047 58/90ths. | ||
| To Col. Gouvion. | |
One dated 24 Novr. 1781. for 3262. 89/90ths. |
| One dated 4 Nov. 1783 for 1161 24/90ths | ||
| One dated 4 Nov. 1783. for 4500.— | ||
| To Genl Laumoy | |
One dated 16 Jan 1782 for 3835.— |
| One dated 4 Nov. 1783. for 6000.— | ||
| One dated 4 Nov. 1783. for 2006. 18/19ths |
All bearing Interest at 6 per Cent, and signed, by Joseph Nourse, Register, and which are to remain in my Office, or in the Office of the Consul of the said States, until duly exchanged for others.—8
Given at Passy this 8th. Day of Augt. 1784
B Franklin
Minister Plenipotentiary from the
United States of America.—
Notation by Thomas Jefferson: Copy of Dr. Franklin’s receipt for certificates. These were delivered to me, and by me inclosed to Jas. Millegan (by Mr. Otto) and instead thereof I gave to the parties those I had received from Millegan viz Duportail 15967 15/90 D. Gouvion 7994 84/90 D Laumoy 10,283 33/90 D all dated Nov. 16. 17849
5. In WTF’s hand.
6. The day Jean-Baptiste de Gouvion, one of the officers named in this certificate, sent his servant to BF to collect a letter that BF had promised that morning to write to Robert Morris: Gouvion to BF, Aug. 8, 1784 (APS). The letter was probably intended to cover this certification.
7. On Oct. 10, 1783, Congress ordered Robert Morris to settle the accounts of the three officers mentioned below: Gouvion, Duportail (XXIII, 93–4), and Laumoy (XXIII, 160n). Unable to advance cash, Morris issued treasury certificates for the balance owed, and the three men were given passage back to France on the General Washington, which sailed c. Nov. 8, 1783. In April, 1784, in response to another resolution of Congress dated Jan. 22, warrants for payment were issued to Gouvion and his fellow engineers. The paymaster general, however, refused to release the funds until the treasury certificates that had already been issued to the men were returned and the new payments deducted. As the Frenchmen were no longer in America, a compromise appears to have been reached whereby the certificates would be lodged in BF’s office until new ones could be issued: Morris Papers, VIII, 617, 627–7, 646n, 677–8; IX, 294–5, 362, 876.
8. The replacement certificates did not arrive until June, 1785. Knowing that BF would soon be leaving for America, Comptroller of the Treasury James Milligan sent the new treasury certificates to TJ along with a copy of this certification: Jefferson Papers, VIII, 87–8.
9. TJ’s letter to Milligan, enclosing the original treasury certificates obtained from BF, is dated June 17, 1785. It was delivered by Louis-Guillaume Otto, who left Paris shortly thereafter to assume his role as the newly appointed chargé d’affaires in the United States: Jefferson Papers, VIII, 227; Giunta, Emerging Nation, 11, 659.