t twelve millions, for which
no returns but that of gratitude and friendship are expected. These, I
hope, may be everlasting." But liquidation, though a necessary
preliminary to payment, is not payment, and does not preclude a
continuance of borrowing; and in August we find that Morris was still
pressing for more money, still drawing drafts, in happy forgetfulness of
his promises not to do so, and still keeping Franklin in anxious dread
of bankruptcy. By the same letter it appears that Morris had directed
Franklin to pay over to M. Grand, the banker, any surplus funds in his
hands! "I would do it with pleasure, if there were any such," said
Franklin; but the question was still of a deficit, not of a surplus.

December 14, 1782, finds Franklin still at the old task, preferring "the
application so strongly pressed by the Congress for a loan of
$4,000,000." Lafayette again helped him, but the result remained
uncertain. The negotiations for peace were so far advanced that the
ministers thought it time for such demands to cease. But probably he
succeeded, for a few days later he appears to be remitting a
considerable sum. Peace, however, was at hand, and in one respect at
least it was peace for Franklin as well as for his country, for even
Congress could no longer expect him to continue borrowing. He had indeed
rendered services not less gallant though less picturesque than those of
Washington himself, vastly more disagreeable, and scarcely less
essential to the success of the cause.

CHAPTER XIII

HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS: AN ADAMS INCIDENT

John Adams wielded a vivid and vicious pen; he neglected the Scriptural
injunction: "Judge not," and he set honesty before charity in speech.
His judgments upon his contemporaries were merciless; they had that kind
of truthfulness which precluded contradiction, yet which left a sense of
injustice; they were at once accurate and unfair. His strictures
concerning Franklin are an illustration of these peculiarities. What he
said is of importance because he said it, and because members of the
Adams family in successive generations, voluminous contributors to the
history of the country, have never divested themselves of the inherited
enmity toward Franklin. During Adams's first visit to France the
relationship between him and Franklin is described as sufficiently
friendly rather than as cordial. December 7, 1778, in a letter to his
cousin Samuel Adams, John thus described h