Circular to the States, 26 March 1780
Circular to the States
Head Quarters Morris Town March 26th 1780.
Sir
Your Excellency will have received I presume before this, a Transcript of an Act of Congress of the 25th of last Month calling on the several States for specific quantities of provision—Rum & Forage for the Army, and directing the Articles of supplies to be collected & deposited at such places in each of the States, as should be judged most convenient by me.1 In the case of a defensive war like ours, which depends almost wholly upon the movements & operations of the Enemy, it is difficult if not impracticable, to fix on places of deposit for Stores, which may not be rendered improper by subsequent events & all we can do upon such occasions is, to collect them where it shall appear from a comparative view of circumstances, that they will be probably secure and most likely to facilitate the purposes intended. I have considered the point with respect to the supplies required of Your State and I beg leave to inform Your Excellency, that it appears to me, they should be deposited at the following places—Viz.
Providence 18,621 Gallons of Rum.2 As to the beef—the time & place of delivery & the proportion from time to time3 must of necessity be governed by the occasional requisitions of the Commissary General, which must also be the case with respect to the Salt & it’s ultimate place of deposit: and as to the Hay—the collection of it to depend on those of the Quarter Master General, who will communicate his requisitions from time to time, as the probability of it’s being wanted shall make it necessary.4 I have the Honor to be with the greatest respect Yr Excellency’s Most Obedt st
Go: Washington
LS, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, addressed to Rhode Island governor William Greene, R-Ar; LS, in Harrison’s writing, addressed to Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., Ct: Trumbull Papers; LS, in Harrison’s writing, addressed to Caesar Rodney, state president of Delaware, PHarH: Pennsylvania Collection (Miscellaneous); LS, in Harrison’s writing, addressed to Maryland governor Thomas Sim Lee, MdAA: Brown Books; LS, in Harrison’s writing, addressed to Meshech Weare, state president of New Hampshire, Nh-Ar: Weare Papers; LS, in Harrison’s writing, addressed to New Jersey governor William Livingston, NN: Livingston Papers; LS (partially burned), in Harrison’s writing, addressed to New York governor George Clinton, N-Ar: Papers of George Clinton; LS, in Harrison’s writing, addressed to Joseph Reed, president of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council, PHi: Gratz Collection; LS (unknown recipient), advertised for sale in Paul C. Richards, catalog no. 11, March 1964, item 392; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. The docket of the draft indicates that this circular letter also was sent to Virginia governor Thomas Jefferson (for some content of this letter, which has not been found, see later in this source note). The Varick transcript includes distinctive elements of the different LS. Portions of this circular letter were incorporated into communications sent to North Carolina governor Richard Caswell on 7 April and to South Carolina governor John Rutledge on 15 April. For these two letters, see GW to Benjamin Lincoln, 15 April, n.8.
Undated memoranda in the writing of GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman—apparently meant to calculate the figures and shape the text presented in this circular letter—read: “1. The Quantity of Flour required is by the Estimate of the Commy Genl deficient near 100,000 Bbls.
“2d. Massachusetts furnishes no Hay or Grain Forage—there is necessarily a great consumption in that state. at least 2500 tons of Hay and 30,000 Bush. of Grain.
“3d. Salt of Connecticut appears very deficient. they ought to furnish 10,000 Bushs.
“4th. Hay of Connecticut deficient 2500 or 3000 ton. and they ought to furnish 60,000 Bushels of Grain. and 10000 Barrels flour.
“5. New York considering the probability of the Army laying in that state should furnish 100,000 Bushs. short forage and 3500 tons of Hay & 28,000 B. Flour [“28,960” is written beneath “28,000”].
“6. New Jersey for the foregoing reason should furnish 25000 Bbls flour—7500 tons of Hay and 100,000 Bushs. short forage.
“7. Pennsylvania by the estimate furnishes no Beef. she ought to give 5000 Cattle and an addition of 20,000 Bbls flour. she ought also to give 5000 tons of Hay and 300,000 Bushs. short forage, besides wintering a number of Horses.
“8. Delaware state can furnish 9,000 Bbls flour. adition 1000 Head Beef Cattle—and 2500 tons of Hay and 60,000 Bushs. Grain forage.
“9 Maryland Can furnish 40,000 Bbls flour—150,000 Bushels Grain forage—and 5000 Bushs salt.
“10. The Frontier of Virginia ought to furnish 10,000 Barrels flour for the use of the Western posts—400,000 Bushs. Grain forage.
“11. Considering the probability of the removal of the War to the southward North Carolina should be called on for 150,000 Bushs. Grain forage.
“12. The states of North and south Carolina being very temperate in climate the Cattle and Horses can be subsisted on green forage the greatest part of the Year.
“General Remark. There is no provision made for Green Forage in any of the states—The Cattle and Horses during all the moving part of the Campaign must subsist on this food, it being impossible to carry dry forage, except in small Quantities, with the Army. The Continental and state Agents in each state should [d]o the same both for Oeconomy and to accommodate the Business to the Nature of the service—The Agents in the respective states to be authorised to make such further provision in their respective departments as the service may require.
“It should be very explicitly stipulated that the Commy General should call upon the States for their live Cattle at such times and in such quantities as the service may require—otherwise the states may take upon themselves to send in their Cattle at such times as best suit themselves, which would occasion scarcity at one time and a superabundance at another” (DLC:GW; filed with documents dated 25 March 1780).
An undated table headed, in Harrison’s writing, “Places for depositing Stores & the proportion of each species to be collected at them respectively” includes figures for New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, which are incorporated into the LS sent to the executives of each state (DLC:GW; filed with documents dated 25 March 1780). The figures for Virginia are known only from this document. GW requested 878 barrels of flour at Petersburg, 300 barrels at Fredericksburg, and 100 barrels at Richmond, for a total of 1,278 barrels. He wanted 40,000 gallons of rum at Alexandria and 30,000 gallons each at Fredericksburg and Petersburg, for a total of 100,000 gallons. He asked for 150 tons of hay at Petersburg, 100 tons at Fredericksburg, 80 tons at Alexandria, and 70 tons at Richmond, for a total of 400 tons. Finally, GW desired 100,000 bushels of corn at Petersburg, 40,000 bushels each at Alexandria and Fredericksburg, and 20,000 bushels at Richmond, for a total of 200,000 bushels.
Livingston responded to GW’s circular letter when he wrote Azariah Dunham, superintendent of purchases for New Jersey, from Morristown on 17 April: “By a Letter from his Excellency General Washington to me he informs me that it appears to him that the supplies required from this state by the Act of Congress of the 25th February last should be deposited at the following places & in the proportions against each respectively … With respect to the Beef his Excellency observes that the time & place of Delivery & the proportion from time to time must of necessity be governed by the Occasional Requisitions of the Commissary General, which he adds must also be the Case with respect to the Salt & its ultimate place of deposit” (, 3:352–53; see also , 204, and GW to Samuel Huntington, this date, n.2).
For other responses to GW’s circular letter, see Reed to GW, 18 April; Clinton to GW, 24 April; Trumbull to GW, 5 May; and Maryland Council to GW, 10 July, DLC:GW. The circular sparked deliberations in the Delaware House of Assembly in early April and in the New Hampshire General Assembly on 20 April (see , 507–9, 511–12, 514, 516–17, and , 855–56).
1. GW is referring to Samuel Huntington’s letter to the states dated 26 Feb. (see , 14:446–47; see also Huntington to GW, 29 Feb., and n.2 to that document, and , 16:196–201).
2. The quantities and places changed in each letter. In his letter to Connecticut governor Trumbull, GW requested 10,000 gallons of rum each at Danbury and Hartford, and 48,558 gallons at New Fairfield, for a total of 68,558 gallons. He also wanted 200 tons of hay each at Danbury and Hartford, and 100 tons at Waterbury, for a total of 500 tons.
In his letter to Delaware president Rodney, GW requested that 3,055 barrels of flour, 500 tons of hay, and 18,662 bushels of corn be deposited at Wilmington.
Writing to Maryland governor Lee, GW requested 14,000 barrels of flour at Head of Elk and 3,000 barrels each at Baltimore and Georgetown, for a total of 20,000 barrels. He also desired 140 tons of hay at Head of Elk and 30 tons each at Baltimore and Georgetown, for a total of 200 tons. Finally, GW wanted 52,152 bushels of corn at Head of Elk and 2,000 bushels each at Baltimore and Georgetown, for a total of 56,152 bushels.
GW asked that New Hampshire president Weare provide 24,000 gallons of rum at “Charles Town No. 4” and 11,643 gallons at Portsmouth, for a total of 35,643 gallons.
Writing to New Jersey governor Livingston, GW asked that “Wallens’s” in Sussex County receive 10,000 barrels of flour. He also wanted 900 tons of hay at Morristown; 800 tons each at Wallens’s and Trenton; 400 tons at Rampo; 200 tons each at Princeton and “Van Vechtens on Rariton”; and 100 tons each at Hackettstown and Pittstown, for a total of 3,500 tons. Finally, GW asked for 10,000 bushels of corn at Morristown; 8,000 bushels at Wallens’s; 4,000 bushels at Ramapo; and 2,000 bushels each at Hackettstown, Pittstown, Princeton, and “Van Vechtens on Rariton,” for a total of 30,000 bushels. “Wallens’s” probably refers to the business or property of Joseph Wallens (Walling) at the village of Hamburg in Hardyston Township in northeastern Sussex County, but it may have been a reference to a location at or near the hamlet of Brick House in southwestern Montague Township, Sussex County, where members of the Wallen family lived for generations (see , 335, 367–68).
In his letter to New York governor Clinton, GW requested 5,969 barrels of flour at West Point, 4,000 barrels at Albany, 2,000 barrels at Fishkill Landing, and 1,000 barrels each at Fort Schuyler and Claverack, for a total of 13,969 barrels. GW additionally wanted 250 tons of hay at Fishkill and Fishkill Landing, 100 tons each at Albany and West Point, and 50 tons at Fort Schuyler, for a total of 500 tons. Finally, GW asked for 20,000 bushels of corn at Fishkill and Fishkill Landing, 6,000 bushels at Albany, 3,000 bushels at West Point, and 1,000 bushels at Fort Schuyler, for a total of 30,000 bushels (see also , 5:564–65).
GW instructed Pennsylvania president Reed: “I have considered the point with respect to the supplies required of Your State and I beg leave to inform Your Excellency, that it appears to me, they should be deposited at the following places—Easton—Reading—Lancaster—Esterton —York—Carlisle—Sunbury—Bedford—Ligonier & philadelphia. All the imported Rum & the Salt—and a Thousand Tons of the Hay & half the Corn required, to be collected at philadelphia—the remainder of the forage at the other places in proportion to the quantity of flour to be deposited at them.” The Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council considered GW’s communication on 11 April (see Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council to GW, 4 April, and the source note to that document).
GW again wrote Reed from Morristown on 12 April: “Since I had the Honor of addressing Your Excellency on the 9th Instant & of transmitting You at that time a Letter of the 26th Ulto on the subject of supplies to be furnished by Your State in consequence of the Act of Congress of the 25 of February—I have now maturely considered the point, with respect to the places at which they should be deposited; and I beg leave to inform You it appears to me, that they should be collected at the following places & in the proportions set against those respectively. …
“The Ultimate places of deposit of the Salt must be governed by the requisition of the Commissary General” (LS, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, PWacD: Sol Feinstone Collection, on deposit at PPAmP; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW). GW embedded a table in this letter delineating his requests for 20,000 barrels of flour at Easton; 13,500 barrels at Philadelphia; 2,400 barrels at Fort Pitt; 1,000 barrels at Sunbury; 800 barrels at Carlisle; 500 barrels each at Wyoming and Lancaster; 300 barrels each at Ligonier and Bedford; 200 barrels each at Estherton, Lebanon, and Reading; and 100 barrels at York, for a total of 40,000 barrels. GW wanted 7,000 gallons of rum at Fort Pitt, 4,000 gallons at Carlisle, 3,083 gallons at Philadelphia, 3,000 gallons at Sunbury, 1,500 gallons at Wyoming, 1,200 gallons at Lancaster, 1,000 gallons each at Estherton and Easton, 850 gallons each at Ligonier and Bedford, 560 gallons at Reading, 500 gallons at Lebanon, and 280 gallons at York, for a total of 24,823 gallons, which differs from the “24,423” given as the total in the table. GW also requested 470 tons of hay at Philadelphia; 200 tons each at Lebanon and Easton; 180 tons each at Lancaster and Reading; 150 tons at Fort Pitt; 80 tons at Carlisle; 60 tons at Sunbury; 40 tons each at Ligonier, Bedford, York, and Wyoming; and 20 tons at Estherton, for a total of 1,700 tons. Finally, GW asked for 70,000 bushels of corn at Easton; 68,500 bushels at Philadelphia; 14,000 bushels each at Lancaster and Reading; 10,000 bushels at Lebanon; 7,500 bushels at Fort Pitt; 4,000 bushels at Carlisle; 3,000 bushels at Sunbury; 2,000 bushels each at Ligonier, Bedford, York, and Wyoming; and 1,000 bushels at Estherton, for a total of 200,000 bushels (see also , 1st ser., 8:180). The Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council read GW’s letter on 17 April (see , 12:320–21).
GW asked Massachusetts president James Bowdoin, to whom no separate circular letter has been found, to provide 10,000 gallons of rum each at Boston and Springfield, and 175,628 gallons at Great Barrington, for a total of 195,628 gallons.
3. Harrison inadvertently omitted the previous two words in his LS to Greene.
4. The draft indicates that these remarks on hay are “peculiar” to the LS for Rhode Island.