Note 36 — THE CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN ADAMS.
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In another letter, which Mr Adams afterwards wrote to Mr Samuel Adams, he says the account of the Commissioners' expenses here given is "exaggerated," and "put much too high," owing to his having been but a short time in Paris, and not being accurately informed on the subject. See this letter hereafter, dated February 14th, 1779, in the present volume.
By a letter from Mr Arthur Lee, dated May 9th, 1778, containing a transcript from the banker's books, it appears, that from December, 1776, to March, 1778, a period of fifteen months, Silas Deane received on his private account, $20,926; Arthur Lee, $12,749; and Dr Franklin, $12,214. See Arthur Lee's Correspondence, Vol. II. p. 159, where the above sums are stated in livres, and they are here reduced to dollars by the rule practised at that time, of allowing five livres and eight sols to the dollar. The fractions are omitted in the reduction. It must be observed, that the above payments are not a specification of the amounts actually received for the period in question, because the Commissioners may have had other expenses for which they afterwards drew on the banker, but these sums may serve as a tolerably correct indication of their expenses, and were probably intended as such by Mr Lee. At this time no fixed salary was allowed, but Congress resolved that all expenses should be paid, and that such an additional compensation should be granted, as might afterwards be deemed expedient by Congress.
On the 1st of June, 1778, Mr Lee wrote to Congress; "I am of opinion, with our colleague, Mr Adams, that it would be better for the public, that the appointment of your public Ministers were fixed, instead of being left at large, and their expenses indefinite. From experience, I find the expense of living in that character cannot well be less than three thousand pounds sterling a year, ($13,333) which I believe is as little as is allowed to any public Minister beyond the rank of consul." Arthur Lee's Correspondence, Vol. II. p. 165.
The original mode of paying Ministers abroad continued, however, till October 4th, 1779, when Congress,
Resolved, That each of the Ministers Plenipotentiary, be allowed at the rate of two thousand five hundred pounds sterling ($11,111) per annum; and each of their Secretaries at the rate of one thousand pounds sterling ($4,444) per annum, in full for their services and expenses respectively.
"That the salary of each of the said officers be computed from the time of leaving his place of abode to enter on the duties of his office, and be continued three months after notice of his recall." Secret Journals, Vol. II. p. 272.
The salaries continued fixed at the above sums during the remainder of the revolution, and till May 7th, 1784, when the salary of Ministers was reduced to $9000, and that of Secretaries to $3000 per annum.