263
would be done, if the public paid the purchasers of them what they actually paid for them, and interest on that. But this is very far from being a general opinion; a very great majority being firmly decided that they shall be paid fully. Were I the holder of any of them, I should not have the least fear of their full payment. There is also @ difference between different species of certificates; some of them being receivable in taxes, others having the benefit of particular assurances, &c. Again, some of these certificates are for paper money debts. A deception here must be guarded against. Congress ordered all such to be re-settled by the depre- ciation tables, and a new certificate to be given in exchange for them, expressing their value in real money. But all have not yet been re-settled. In short, this isa science in which few in America are expert, and no person in a foreign country can be so.. Fo- reigners should therefore be sure that they are well advised, before’ , they meddle with them, or they may suffer. If you will reflect with what degree of success persons actually in America could speculate in the European funds, which rise and fall daily, you may judge how far those in Europe may do it nm the American funds, which are more variable from a variety of causes.
I am not at all acquainted with Mr. Daniel Parker, farther than having once seen him in Philadelphia. He is of Massachusetts, I be- lieve, and Jam of Virginia. His circumstances are utterly unknown to me. -I think there are few men m America, if there is a single one, who could command a hundred thousand pounds’ sterling worth of these notes, at their real value. At their nominal amount, this might be done perhaps with twenty-five thousand pounds ster- ling, if the market price of them be as Jow as when I left America.
I am with very great respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient humble servant, TH: JEFFERSON.
LETTER LXXXII. TO JOHN ADAMS. .
Paris, July 31, 1785 Dear Sir,
I was honored yesterday with yours of the 24th instant. When the first article of our instructions of May 7th, 1784, was under debate* in Congress, it was proposed that neither party should make the other pay, in their ports, greater duties, than they paid in the ports of the other. One objection to this was, its impracticabi-
