To George Washington from John Jay, 31 January 1779
From John Jay
Philadelphia 31st Jany 1779
Sir
Congress, agreeable to Your Excellency’s Recommendation, have directed the Commissary, and Quarter-Master General to pay such of the Accounts, mentioned in Governor Clinton’s Letter, as he shall certify1—And by their Act of the 30th Inst., of which the enclosed is a copy, have consented to Your Excellency’s Return to Camp.2
The Opinion of Congress, respecting the continuation of the Committee of Conference, is, as yet, undetermined—To me it appears proper, as well as necessary, that until they become dissolved, by making a Report on the several Matters committed to them, they should consider an epistolary correspondence with your Excellency on those Subjects to be as much within the Line of their Appointment as personal conferences.
There are several Acts of Congress, of which I ought to have sent You Copies, & application has several [times]3 been made to the Secretary’s Office for them. I am now informed that the Clerks, instead of delivering them to me, have left them with Your Excellency—These Irregularities will, I hope, be in future avoided. I have the Honor to be with the greatest Respect & Esteem, Your Excellency’s most Obt & Hble Servt
John Jay—Presidt
LS, DLC:GW; LB, DNA:PCC, item 14.
1. Jay is referring to the recommendation that GW had made in his first letter to Jay of 29 Jan., enclosing an extract from George Clinton’s letter to GW of 29 Dec. 1778. For Congress’s resolution of 30 Jan. directing Q.M. Gen. Nathanael Greene and Commissary Gen. Jeremiah Wadsworth to pay the accounts of the New York inhabitants from whom provisions and forage had been taken for the army’s use during the fall of 1777, see , 13:124–25; see also John Jay to Greene, 1 Feb., , 3:205–6.
2. The enclosed copy of this act is in DLC:GW (see also , 13:125).
3. The word within square brackets is supplied from the letter-book copy.