The decission of Congress respecting your Letter of April 12 which came to hand on the 4th of this month is herewith transmitted. The period of payment will perhaps be more distant than you wish; but I am at Liberty to assure you from the Superintendant of our Finances that it is his intention to take the earliest possible opportunity to close this business.(1) With much regard I am &c,
Signed James Lovell
Official
1 Upon the recommendation of the committee to which Lee's letter had been referred, Congress on September 12 ordered the payment of the balance of Lee's account for his expenses as a commissioner to Austria and Prussia-"forty-two thousand, one hundred and eighty-nine livres tournois . . . with interest at the rate of six percent per annum, from this day," which superintendent Robert Morris subsequently instructed Benjamin Franklin in France to pay. See JCC, 21:931, 955; PCC, item 105, fols. 318-19; Wharton, Diplomatic Correspondence, 4:361-63; and Morris, Papers (Ferguson), 3:280.