s this, the Emperor and king of Prussia
are at actual war. All this together has produced this effect, that
France, England, the Emperor, Spain, Russia at least, are borrowing
money, and there is not one of them that we can learn, but offers
better interest than the United States have offered. There can be no
motive then but simple benevolence to lend to us.

Applications have been frequently made to us by Americans, who have
been some time abroad, to administer the oath of allegiance to the
United States, and to give them certificates that they have taken such
oaths. In three instances we have yielded to their importunity; in the
case of Mr Moore, of New Jersey, who has large property in the East
Indies, which he designs to transfer immediately to America,--in the
case of Mr Woodford, of Virginia, a brother of General Woodford, who
has been sometime in Italy, and means to return to America with his
property,--and yesterday, in the case of Mr Montgomery, of
Philadelphia, who is settled at Alicant, in Spain, but wishes to send
vessels and cargoes of his own property to America. We have given our
opinions to these gentlemen frankly, that such certificates are in
strictness legally void, because there is no act of Congress that
expressly gives us power to administer oaths. We have also given two
or three commissions by means of the blanks with which Congress
intrusted us, one to Mr Livingston, and one to Mr Amiel, to be
Lieutenants in the navy, and in these cases we have ventured to
administer the oaths of allegiance. We have also, in one instance,
administered the oath of secrecy to one of our Secretaries, and
perhaps it is necessary to administer such an oath, as well as that of
allegiance, to all persons whom we may be obliged in the extensive
correspondence we maintain to employ. We hope we shall not have the
disapprobation of Congress for what in this way has been done, but we
wish for explicit powers and instructions upon this head.

There are, among the multitude of Americans who are scattered about
the various parts of Europe, some, we hope many, who wish to take the
oath of allegiance, and to have some mode prescribed by which they may
be enabled to send their vessels and cargoes to America with safety
from their own friends, American men of war, and privateers. Will it
not be practicable for Congress to prescribe some mode of giving
registers of ships, some mode of evidence to ascertain the property of
cargoes,