ted drafts of Congress have placed you; and for this
purpose I shall endeavor to procure for you, for the next year, the same
aid that I have been able to furnish in the course of the present. I
cannot but believe, sir, that Congress will faithfully abide by what it
now promises you, that in future no drafts shall be made upon you unless
the necessary funds are sent to meet them."

Such a letter, though only gratitude could be felt for it, must have
stung the sensitiveness of Franklin, who had already a great national
pride. Nor was the pain likely to be assuaged by the conduct of
Congress; for that body had not the slightest idea of keeping the
promises upon which de Vergennes expressed a reliance perhaps greater
than he really felt. It is not without annoyance, even now, that one
reads that only two days after the French minister wrote this letter,
Congress instructed Franklin to do some more begging for clothes, and
for the aid of a fleet, and said: "With respect to the loan, we foresee
that the sum which we ask will be greatly inadequate to our wants."

December 2, 1780, Franklin acknowledges "favors," a conventional phrase
which seems sarcastic. These tell him that Congress has resolved to draw
on him "bills extraordinary, to the amount of near $300,000." These were
doubtless what led to the foregoing correspondence with de Vergennes. In
reply he says that he has already engaged himself for the bills drawn on
Mr. Laurens, and adds: "You cannot conceive how much these things
perplex and distress me; for the practice of this government being
yearly to apportion the revenue to the several expected services, any
after demands made, which the treasury is not furnished to supply, meet
with great difficulty, and are very disagreeable to the ministers."

A short fragment of a diary kept in 1781 gives a painful vision of the
swarm of bills:--

"Jan. 6. Accepted a number of loan office bills this day, and every
day of the past week.

"Sunday, Jan. 7. Accepted a vast number of loan office bills. Some
of the new drafts begin to appear.

"Jan. 8. Accepted many bills.

"Jan. 10th. Informed that my recall is to be moved for in Congress.

"Jan. 12th. Sign acceptation [qu. "of"? mutilated] many bills. They
come thick.

"Jan. 15th. Accepted above 200 bills, some of the new.

"Jan. 17th. Accepted many bills.

"Jan. 22d. M. Grand informs me that Mr. Williams has drawn