The Supply of provisions to recruit and refresh our Enemies I count the least pernicious.

The intercourse between the Country & the Town has produced all the consequences foreseen by many in the beginning of the Winter. Interesting to this State & within the reach of its Assistance that I think it my duty to mention them. It would be much beyond the Limits of a Letter to ennumerate them & indeed in Matters of a general Concern it would be fruitless for a general Evil can only be cured by a general Remedy. I am now attending the Committee of Congress for the Reform & Re-establishment of the Army an Herculean Work I do assure you in which Difficulties daily occur tho' I hope not insurmountable. 1778 The expectation of seeing you at Lancaster has prevented my continuing our Autumn Correspondence. 5 Jay's March 17 reply to this letter is in Jay, Papers (Morris), 1:468.ĭear Sir Camp at Valley Forge Feby 1. John Jay Esqr., Chief Justice of the State of New York, Poughkeepsie.' 1 Morris was a member of the Committee at Camp, for which see their Minutes of Proceedings, February 2-7, 1778. Jay & beleive me yours (5) Gouv Morris RC (NNC). I shall write to him by this opportunity if I can find time to send a long letter which indeed I owe him. You will observe this is Proclamation Hay they tell me hath been sold in some Places at £20 Proc per Ton. Breakfast and Supper each 7/6 Dinner l0/ one nights Hay for one Horse 7/6 Oats per Quart 1/ Tody per Bowl 10/ Rum per Gill 7/6 Wine per Bottle from 30/ to 40/ and the like. At Taverns take as a specimen the following Rates. To that Great Wheel 'a thousand Petty Spokes and small annexments are mortized and adjoined' I earnestly intreat you and my other Friend fortia opponere Pectora to that fatal System of Limitation which if carried into Execution would be downright Ruin and in the ineffectual Attempt will carry us to the bring of it.(4) York Town and its Neighbourhood altho near ninety Miles from Philadelphia already considers our Money almost as Waste Paper. For Heaven's Sake my dear Friend exert yourself strenuously in the great leading Business of Taxation. Next Campaign I beleive we shall banish these troublesome Fellows. But I have seen Fort George in the Summer of 1777. Heu miseros! The Skeleton of an Army presents itself to our Eyes in a naked starving Condition out of Health out of Spirits. Just before the Reduction of the Forts the Enemy balanced exactly upon the Point of quitting the City & a Straw would have turned in either scale. Sir William they have certainly got a most damnable Phisician. O this State is sick even unto the Death and in The free, open and undisturbed Communication with the City of P_(3) debauches the Minds of those in its Vicinage with astonishing Rapidity. The Continental C_ & C_ (2) have both depreciated but in the Hands of the almighty Architect of Empires the Stone which the Builders have rejected may easily become Head of the Corner. The mighty Senate of America is not what you have known it.

Our Sentiments on this Occasion are so perfectly coincident that I will not enlarge. Opportunities have been neglected last Campaign which were truly Golden ones but omnipotent Fatality had it seems determined that the American Capital should fall. Congress have sent me here in Conjunction with some other Gentlemen to regulate their Army and in Truth not a little Regulation hath become necessary.(1) Our Quarter Master and Commissary Departments are in the most lamentable Situation. Archives, 16:508, 534-35.ĭr Jay Camp Valley Forge 1st Feby. 2 Although no response by Governor Johnson to Lewis' request for aid has been found, some efforts by the Maryland Council of Safety to assist Captain Nicholson are described in Md. See JCC, 10:67 and Lewis to Thomas Johnson, January 27, 1778. Lewis had taken leave to visit his family in Baltimore and conduct some business for the Marine Committee. Lewis, who had been granted eight days leave of absence from Congress on January 20, was back in Congress by February 9, when he signed a letter from the Committee of Commerce to the Commissioners at Paris. 1 See also Marine Committee to James Nicholson, January 28, 1778. Nicholson of the Frigate Virginia, has applyed to me as a member of the Marine Committee, pointing out the necessity he is under of having a Tender, in order to reconnitre the Bay before he proceeds down with the Frigate.(1) He informs me that there is now at Annopolis armed boats belonging to this state, under your Excellency's directions, and prays that one of the largest might be lent for that purpose he intends to embrace the first fair wind to proceed with the Frigate to Sea, and which Congress has very much at Heart.(2) I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedt Humbl Servt.

Avowed quartermaster