MS (NHi:Samuel Osgood Papers, MS 2149); addressed: “The Honorable / The Board of Treasury— / Office Secy of Congress—”; endorsed: “of the Amt. of Bills forwarded / to Europe on D Franklin / Messrs. Adams Jay & Laurens.”

This account is derived from the bills that JA received from Fizeaux, Grand & Co. on 24 May and sent to Thomas Barclay in an express of 3 June (to Barclay, 24 and 28 May, both above). Barclay wrote to JA on 25 June, below, acknowledging receipt of the bills and indicating that he had sent the resulting account to the superintendent of finance, Robert Morris. The account as received by Morris has not been found, but the MS printed here is a copy of Barclay’s account presumably made by a clerk in Morris’ office. It was probably sent to the Board of Treasury sometime early in 1785, for Samuel Osgood, in whose papers the MS is located, was not appointed to the Board until 25 Jan. ( JCC , 28:18). Essentially the same information included by Barclay here also appears in Foreign Ledgers, Public Agents in Europe, 1776–1787 (DNA, RG 39, Microfilm, Reel 2, f. 384).

This erroneous account has not been found.

Below the signature, in the same hand that copied Barclay’s letter, is a response to a query apparently made to Morris, possibly by the board for use during their deliberations, as well as excerpts from Morris’ 12 May 1783 letters to JA, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay in which the superintendent indicated the amount of the bills drawn on each man and, in the letter to JA, on Laurens (Morris, Papers , 8:25–27, 32–33). The most relevant passage with regard to this account of bills drawn on JA and Laurens is the following:

Also, on the address page, in a different hand, are figures for bills of exchange drawn by Morris on the Paris banking firm of Le Couteulx & Co. and mentioned by Morris in his letters to the firm of 12 April and 25 July 1783 (Morris, Papers , 7:698–699; 8:341).

RC and enclosure (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency John Adams Esqr.”

This is the final extant letter from Jenings to JA. It marked the end of a correspondence that began with Jenings’ letter of 10 March 1779 and comprised more than two hundred letters over the next five years (vol. 8:7–10). There is no indication as to why the correspondence suddenly ceased, but it may have stemmed in part from JA’s reluctance to be involved in the increasingly public dispute between Jenings and Henry Laurens.

The enclosure was a broadside of the report of the “GRAND COMMITTEE … appointed to prepare and report to Congress, the arrears of interest on the national debt, together with the interest and expences for the year 1784” (Evans, No. 18837; JCC , 26:186–196). Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, it was presented to Congress on 5 April and, after being debated and revised, was adopted on 28 April ( JCC , 26:185, 313). For the report as drafted by Jefferson, and an account of the revisions made during the debates, see Jefferson, Papers , 7:65–80. Jenings apparently received the broadside from Arthur Lee, his second cousin, with whom he had corresponded in the past (vol. 8:11). On the broadside, in Lee’s hand, are revisions made in the course of the debates that included, at the bottom of the first page, the “Estimate of the nation1. Debt reported by the Super Intendt. of F for 1784.” The figures were taken from the “Estimate of the Public Debt” and the “Estimate of Arrearages of Interest on the Public Debt” prepared by the register of the treasury, Joseph Nourse, and included in an 18 Oct. 1783 letter from Nourse to Robert Morris. Nourse’s letter and his estimates were submitted to Congress by Morris on 21 Oct. (Morris, Papers , 8:629–633). It is unclear why Lee had reservations about revealing its contents because, with the indicated revisions, it was not substantially different from the version approved by Congress, which was itself published in broadside form (Evans, Nos. 44605, 44606). JA does not refer to the document in any of his extant letters.