That account commences in February, 1777, and ends the 27th day of March, 1778, three days before my leaving Paris. It will show, that the whole amount of the monies received by the commissioners, was 3,753,250 livres, and their expenditures 4,046,988 livres, 7 sols, and by the general state of the account delivered the 12th of October, it appears for what those expenditures were made. After deducting the sums paid, for large contracts for supplies, &c. which are particularised, there will be left 219,250 livres, 1 sol, 11 deniers, equal to L9644. 8. 7-1/2 sterling, for the commissioners' expenses, for almost fifteen months, and for small purchases, and for a variety of services not possible to be particularised, without the accounts at large. I might with safety rest this whole sum on the score of the commissioners' expenses for this space of time, and support it on Mr Lee's letter to Congress, in which he says, that Mr Adams and himself were fully convinced, that they could not live at Paris under L3000 sterling, (or about 70,000 livres) each annually. Had the commissioners expended at that rate, from February, 1777, to March, 1778, the whole of the sum would be no more than a sufficiency to supply their expenses; but this was not the case. The commissioners, in the whole, received out of it the sum of 115,480 livres, 5 sols, 6 deniers, for their expenses and private disbursements, as will appear by the account enclosed; of this, Dr Franklin received 27,841 livres, Mr Lee 52,039 livres, 5 sols, 9 deniers, and myself 35,600 livres. It is true, at the same time, that Mr Lee had in his hands the whole of the money received from Spain, which he disposed of without the interference of the other commissioners. I appeal to the honorable gentlemen in Congress, then present, and perfectly well acquainted with our mode and style of living, to inform Congress on which of the commissioners the greatest expense of providing for and entertaining the Americans, who visited them at Paris, or who escaped from prison in England, and applied for relief, fell. I lay this general state before Congress, to convince them how very far I was from being prodigal of the public monies, and that the accounts delivered, general as they are, are sufficient to exculpate me from every charge of peculation or extravagance. My future reputation and fortune depend much on my mercantile character in these transactions, and I rely on the justice of Congress to prevent its being any longer undeservedly sported with, vilified and abused. Under the load of calumny and abuse I have for some months sustained, I have had this consolation, that the services I had rendered my country had been long since sensibly felt by her, and that they would one day be acknowledged, but when returning to the character of a private citizen in the mercantile line, I cannot sit down easy under imputations injurious to my private character.