Short being still on his travels, and
vexatious questions having arisen in connection with the Dutch loans,
Mr. Jefferson determined to intrust their settlement to Calvert, and,
accordingly, the young man set out for Amsterdam with scarce a day's
notice of his journey. His embassy concerned the refusal of our bankers
in Amsterdam (into whose hands Congress had placed all monies) to pay
bills for the redemption of our captives, and the medals which Mr.
Jefferson had contracted should be struck off for the foreign officers
who had engaged in the revolution. This refusal placed the American
Minister in a most embarrassing position. To his demands the Holland
bankers replied that Congress had appropriated the money in their charge
solely to the payment of the interest on the Dutch loan through the year
1790. As a failure to pay the interest on the loan would have been fatal
to the credit and standing of the infant republic in the eyes of Europe,
it was evident to Mr. Jefferson that a new loan would have to be set
going to defray the new debts. This delicate and difficult project (for
our credit was none of the best and the old loan had not all been taken
up) he intrusted to Calvert, and so quickly and satisfactorily did the
young man execute his commission that he was back again in Paris by the
end of the month with reports highly gratifying to the American
Minister.
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