Centinel 24

This number was appropriated to the investigation of that article of the last report of a committee of Congress, which informs us of a deficiency of Nineteen Millions of livres Specie, in the moneys entrusted to our Commissioners in France^ the principal of whom was the Honorable Benjamin Franklin the sanction of whose name has given such weight and success to the new constitution; but I shall be obliged to postpone the discussion of this subject in order to notice Mr. Morris's answer published in the Independent Gazetteer of this morning to my last number.

Mr. Morris, presuming upon the strength and continuance of those prejudices which his ingenuity and address had so successfully raised, and which for many years had blinded the public to his real principles and conduct, and enabled him to prosecute his schemes of profit and aggrandizement to an immense extent, without detection or jealousy, has now the effrontery to treat the serious, well founded charges of the Centinel, and a report of a committee of Congress, with supercilious contempt, and to suppose that his unsupported assertions in a matter where he is so deeply interested, will be implicitly believed by that public whose property, to the amount of millions, he was entrusted with above eleven years ago, and for which he has not yet accounted.

Mr. Morris says, "On the repeated slanders of my enemies, so far as they can affect myself, I look down with silent contempt; but as I have been lately honored with a high trust in the federal government, and as an attempt is made to wound the federal cause by attacks on my reputation and the conduct of those who appointed me to a seat in the senate, my attachment to that cause^ and my respect for my fellow citizens, lead me to inform them that I have lately been at New York for the purpose of bringing forward a settlement of my accounts with the United States, and they are now in a train of investigation, and that I shall do everything in my power to obtain a final settlement of them before the meeting of Congress under the new constitution. "

Is it slander to call upon a public officer to account for the disposition of millions of public money entrusted to him above eleven years ago? Or is it slander to denominate such a man a public defaulter? Can any reasonable or honest obstacle have so long delayed the settlement of his accounts, especially when we consider the abilities and accuracy of this man in accounts, and his persevering diligence and assiduity to business? Is it now probable that he really means to render his accounts, when we advert to the unsuccessful exertions of a series of the greatest characters in Congress to compel him to account, and who for more than eleven years have been baffled in all their virtuous and patriotic attempts by the predominant influence and the machinations of this man and his minions? What have become of the labors of Manhetm, where Mr. Morris retired at a gloomy and doubtful crisis of public affairs under the avowed pretence of preparing these very accounts for settlement? Where is the man besides Mr. Morris, who can thus act and preserve any character or confidence, or who with so serious and weighty a charge against him would continue to be preferred to the highest honors and trusts of his country, with the power of screening past delinquencies, and the opportunity of further speculations; or who would be supported and justified by so numerous and powerful a party?

As an instance of Mr. Morris's dangerous influence, and also of his reluctance to have his accounts, even as superintendent of finance, investigated, it may be observed that the public spirited men in Congress on the 21st of June, 1785, procured, with great difficulty, against the strenuous opposition and low subterfuges of Mr. Morris's friends and minions, a resolution of that honorable body to this effect, that three commissioners be appointed to examine the receipts and expenditures of the late superintendent of finance; but this resolution was the only consequence of this virtuous effort, for Mr. Morris has been able to prevent any Commissioners being appointed in pursuance of this resolution entered into above three years since. It is true that very lately the disinterested part of Congress, strengthened by the attacks made by the Centinel and others upon the- great public defaulters, and the consequent clamor of the people, have, against the secret inclination of a majority of Congress, obtained resolutions and appointments of officers to compel the public defaulters to account and restore the public moneys; but the efficacy of these resolutions and appointments entirely depends on the complexion of the Congress under the new constitution; for if the great public defaulters and their minions be elected, it would be ridiculous to suppose that they would countenance scrutiny into the conduct of themselves and patrons. Mr. Morris, sensible that if he can carry his creatures who are proposed as representatives in the new Congress, he may laugh at and really contemn any future attempts to call him to account, has, therefore, at the eve of the approaching decisive election promised to settle and account for the immense sums of public money that he received above eleven years ago, and even assures that he has been at New York lately on this business and that his accounts are in a train of investigation. But like the Manheim investigation promised as seriously eight or nine years ago, the present will prove to have no other existence than in the deception of the moment, and this train will be found delusive and without end.

My fellow citizens, suffer not yourselves to be thus continually imposed on by a man whose whole career in public life has been marked by delinquencies in money concerns; but make choice of such men to represent you as will secure your liberties and property. And as you are now well acquainted with the principles and views of Mr. Morris, you are enabled to form a proper opinion of Messrs. Fitssimons, Clymer, etc., who for ten years past have been the devoted instruments and partisans of Mr. Morris, and participators in his numerous speculations.