Memorial of Abraham Lott, Treasurer, to the New-York Congress

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The Memorial of ABRAHAM LOTT, Treasurer of the said Colony, humbly showeth:

That by a law of the Legislature of this Colony, passed the 16th day of February, in the year 1771, one hundred and twenty thousand Pounds, in bills of credit, were ordered to be, and were accordingly emitted, and put out on loan; that the interest money arising therefrom should yearly be paid to the respective Loan-Officers, on the third Tuesday in April; and that one-tenth part of the principal sum should be paid in on the third Tuesday of April, in this present year 1776, and so on, one-tenth part annually, until the whole principal is paid off; which respective tenths are, by the said law, ordered to be annually sunk.

That the Memorialist has been informed by some of the Loan-Officers, they apprehend it will be impracticable, at this time, for the borrowers of the money to procure New-York currency to pay off the interest, and one-tenth of the principal sum borrowed, as none of that money now passes; and are totally at a loss how to act, whether to receive any money now current, or whether to insist on payment in the currency the law directs.

The Memorialist, therefore, in behalf of the Loan-Officers, as well as of himself, humbly requests the honourable Congress will be pleased to give it as their opinion, whether the Loan-Officers, and consequently himself, shall receive any money that now passes, current in this Colony, or whether payment must be insisted on in the money required by the said law.

And the Memorialist, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.

Treasury Office, New-York, March 7, 1776,