The New York Journal, And Daily Patriotic Register

To the PUBLIC.

I received the following letter.

SIR,

HAVE received your letter of this day, and shall reply to it as far as in my power.

The original papers of which you request copies are not in my possession, they are, I believe, lodged with the board of treasury.

The whole of the business respecting the prizes has been submitted to Congress, and I now enclose to you a copy of their Act of 11th October, 1787, relative to it ; from this you will readily perceive, that having nothing more to do in this business, than to comply with the directions contained in that act, several of the matters in your letter are improperly addressed to me.

The Alliance's proportion of the monies paid to Mr. Jefferson, was livres, 81752-16-7 this sum I have divided agreeably to the Acts of Congress ; and for the amount of your share, I shall, as I am directed, give you an order on William Edgar, Esq. of this city, who I presume will pay it immediately, as I have heard of no complaints on that head.

I am ready to adjust any claim you may have for pay, or for gun men and money, and such claim being properly supported, I shall issue you a certificate for the amount in like manner as to other public creditors.

Having in a conversation sometime since informed you that I should ask Capt. Jones for an account of any articles which might have been taken from the Serapis before she was sold, it is proper I should mention why I have not done it.

At that time it was my intention to have brought those articles and such as were sold at Boston, into the general division, and in that case I must have required a particular account of them, but since the Act of Congress abovementioned, I have nothing to do but to distribute the money paid to Mr. Jefferson, and shall therefore not interfere in any other business respecting the prizes.

I have, &c.

(Signed)
BEN. WALKER.

Office of Accounts, Marine Department, November 8, 1787.

Capt. Landais.

The following are copies of the enclosed resolves.

In CONGRESS. October 11, 1787.

ON a report of the committee to whom had been committed a report of the board of treasury on a letter of the 18th July, from Capt. J. P. Jones, together with a report of the commissioners of accounts for the marine department, relative to a division of the prize money, of the Bonhomme-Richard and Alliance, and the charges of Capt. Jones for recovering the same.

Resolved, That the quotas assigned to the several ships which were under the command of Capt. J. P. Jones in Europe, by direction of the court of France. be confirmed, and considered as valid, and that a distribution of the prize money be made amongst the crew of the said ships, separately, agreeable to such quotas.

Resolved, That the monies paid by Capt. Jones into the hands of the honorable Mr. Jefferson, be distributed by the board of treasury, as soon as may be, among the captors, agreeable to the division thereof. under the direction of the court of France.

In the foregoing letter Mr. Walker says, that the original papers of which I request copies are not in his possession, &c. But that gentleman don't say that they were ; and when they were in his possession, I had taken in his office, to his knowledge, some extracts out of them, that he took the paper upon which they were written, and kept it by which I was deprived of those extracts, and prevented from examining and taking copies of those other papers.

In the next paragraph Mr. Walker says, that " several of the matters in my letter are improperly addressed to him :"—But in the same paragraph he says that " he encloses to me a copy of the acts of Congress." I was absolutely ignorant of them till then, therefore it was not an impropriety to address several of those matters in my letter to him, it was but a mistake as I thought then that he had yet the whole management of the prize money distribution, and of all the arrangement relative to it, and accordingly mentioned those matters as I had formerly spoken to him about them, and particularly of the unprecedented act of deducting from the sales of the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough, the expenses incurred in Holland, for refitting those ships, and the feeding and keeping the prisoners the e.

In the following paragraph Mr. Walker says, that the Alliance's proportion of the monies paid to Mr. Jefferson, was livres,8.752 6,73 but he don't even say how much was paid to Mr. Jefferson, in the whole, although amongst the several matters I addressed to him, I properly claimed of him a minute account of my share; and Mr. Walker must be mistaken in allotting me for my share of that money but 1582 77 9oths dollars, in specie, as the two ninetieths, which is the proportion I am to have of 81752,16,73, amount 1649 milled dollars, 66 10ths

Mr. Walker says that " he is ready to adjust my claim for pay, guns and men money, and issue me certificates therefore as to other creditors." I am not in the same predicament with those creditors ; the law made in the year 1784 to pay them in certificates, is not applicable to me, without retropsecting to the year 1782, when the hon. Congress, by their resolve approved the steps that the Superintendant of Finance had taken in my case, and that gentleman having previously wrote to me officially that he would put the amount of the sum owing to me by the United States for my pay, &c. at my credit on account current, which implies ready money. I cannot in justice to myself receive therefore certificates, as I have already said in a former paper, and I am therefore compelled by dint of power to loose the whole of it.

It is not my fault if Mr. Walker did not ask of Capt, J. P. Jones an account of the articles which were taken from the Serapis, as I desired him in proper time to do it.

In the preamble preceding the foregoing Resolves, the pretended charges of Capt. J. P. Jones for recovering the prize money is mentioned, but there is nothing said in the resolves relative to those charges ; and it appears to me that Congress could not allow those pretended charges to be taken out of the other captors money, without doing them the most manifest injury : considering first, their own resolve of the 1st November 1785, wherein it is explicitly said, " that the said Capt. J. P. Jones shall receive the commission usually allowed in such cases," (which is 5 per cent) " out of the money which he shall receive as agent for the prizes, in full compensation or his services and expenses." 2dly. The report thereabouts of the Commissioner of accounts for the marine department. 3dly. That in Capt. J. P. Jones's letter of the 25th May, 1784, to Marshal de Castries (included in the papers which were in Mr. Walker's office) he said, " I had the honor to present a letter from the Chevalier de la Luzerne, mentioning that part of my business in Europe is to collect materials for forming a system for the future marine of America, you had my Lord the goodness to promise me copies of every thing respecting the government and manner of supporting the Marine of France, and I shall esteem it a great favor if you would now give your orders in consequence." By which it appears that he was partly sent, and said there by order of Congress, or for his own satisfaction, to have those materials, and therefore his charges ought to be paid by the United States, or to his own cost. 4thly. The following, viz. " December 20th. 1785.on motion of Mr. Lang that the Board of Treasury call on Capt. Jones to make a distribution of the prize money referred to the said Board to report." Copy entered in the Resolve book of the Board of Treasury."

(Signed)
S. OSGOOD.

By which it appears that Capt. J. P. Jones received the prize money before that time, but since deposited in Mr. Jefferson's hands apartof it, and the other part, to the best of my remembrance, amounting to above 12,000 dollars, he kept and enjoyed ever since, whiln the other captors have received but a trifling part of their due and but lately.

But there is no mention made in the two resolves of Congress about that money which Capt. J. P. Jones kept of the prize money ; I could wish, since it was the pleasure of the Hon. Congress to elect and trust Capt. J. P. Jones with the recovering of the prize money, it had been the pleasure also of the Hon. Congress to order C . J. P. Jones, or his bondsmen to deposit that money, with the other to be shared between him and other captors according to their decision.

PETER LANDAIS.