To George Washington from Major General Nathanael Greene, 3 April 1780
From Major General Nathanael Greene
Philadelphia 3d April 1780
Sir
This will be accompanyed with a letter in answer to that of your Excellencys of the 26th Ultimo.1 Your Excellencys letter to me and the Answer I have given are both laid before Congress, with a request if they have any prospect of giving me such supplies of money, as will enable me to provide for the march of the Troops to the Southward, or to put the Army in motion, that they give me notice thereof, that I may communicate the same to your Excellency.2
I have always made it a rule, never to promise more, than I had a good prospect of performing. At present things are in the most disagreeable train; and I am much afraid there will be great difficulty in supporting the Army in the most favorable positions, and utterly impracticable to put them in motion. Could the Treasury furnish the means, the business might be done at this time on better terms, according to the state of the money, and with more dispach, than it ever has been, since I have been in the Department.
The taxes has a favorable affect upon all Orders of men. Every body is willing to serve the Army, or furnish supplies, if they could but receive payment. But without payment nothing can be done. Credit in the critical state of our Money is not to be expected. Many of those that have trusted the public largely are in a manner ruined. The complaints of the injured are loud and numerous; and however they may be put off now, they will be heard by and by.3
The new system for regulating the Quarter Masters department, is now debating before Congress, and as the members are generally unacquainted with the nature of the business, I am perswaded it will pass.4 I foresee the disagreeable consequencs that it will produce; and have only one consolation upon the matter; which is it will open a door for me to get out of the Department.5
I have advised many Members of Congress to send a committee of the best informed Members of their body to Head Quarters; and there with the Heads of the Departments and such General Officers as it may be necessary to consult in the business, fix upon a plan properly adapted to the service, and the nature of the Country. But I am perswaded it will have no effect, as I am convinced the plan now before the Congress, is connected with other designs, of a private and personal Nature.6
I am very unwell; and almost incapable of business; but never had more of it [to] do. As soon as the Congress decide upon the great point, I shall return to Camp, when I will give your Excellency a more full, and particular history, of the politicks of the City, and the public bodies.7
It is said the Irish rebellion is at an end, and the people ready to join the Ministry in support of all [it]s measures.8 The Holker Ship arrived yesterday from St Estatias in 15 Days;9 and brings accounts of the arrival of 12 Sail of French men of War, and of their blocking up St Lucia. She also brings some European news, respecting the British fleet, taking and carrying into Port, several Duch vessels bound to a French Port. I think little credit is to be given to the last article of intelligence. Should the late plan of finance fail,10 and the States prove tardy in providing supplies for the support of the Army,11 I cannot conceive how your Excellency is to keep the Army to gether, or cover the Country from the Enemies ravages; and yet I have heard a project started for the purpose, as the last resort.
We have no news from the Southard but many are under great apprehensions for the City and Army.12 I wish no capital misfortune may attend us in that Quarter.
Major Lee is orderd to the Southard with his flying party; and is not a little mortified at the order.13
I see by your Excellencys letter of the 31st to the President, that the Spannish fleet has met with a crush before Gibraltar; and that the Savages upon our Frontiers are begining to ravage the Country and Massacre the Inhabitants again.14 I wish we may not have more business this Campaign, than we have hands to execute it.
Please to make my respectful compliments to Mrs Washington, and the Gentlemen of the family. I am with great respect Your Excellencys Most Obedient humble Ser.
Nath. Greene
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Greene means his letter to GW of 2 April.
2. Greene is referring to a letter that he wrote Samuel Huntington, president of Congress, while Greene was in Philadelphia on this date: “The decayed state in which the business of my Department has fallen for want of money to support it, obliges me to trouble your Excellency with the mention of some particulars which have not usually passed under the immediate notice of Congress, but which, from a combination of circumstances, seem at present to require their attention and direction.
“The supplies of money afforded to the Department for many months past have been very inadequate to the extensive services required of it. These supplies have latterly been growing more and more scanty, ’till at length they have become too small to extend to any business of consequence. The Credit of the Department and the continual hope of new resources, have ’till very lately preserved some degree of motion in the business; but as that hope diminished the credit also failed, and we are now reduced to a condition too feeble to effect the requisite service to the public, and at the same time are exposed to the just complaints of a vast number of people whom we have been instrumental in injuring by failing to comply with the contracts we have made in behalf of the public. Many of these violated contracts are for articles which came to the public use months ago at prices far below the present value, or in other words, when money was of far greater value than it is at present; and I am credibly informed that there are divers instances in which persons thus disappointed have been obliged to suffer their effects to be sold to pay their taxes to the very fund which owed them the money at the time; and of many other instances in which the certificates or vouchers for debts contracted by the Agents of the public, have been sold at a large discount. Under such circumstances it would be unreasonable to expect farther credit, except on terms of disadvantage to the public too great to be engaged in.” Greene then detailed problems securing teamsters, maintaining horses, and procuring wagons—each essential if the quartermaster department was to fulfill its responsibility for supplying and moving the army (, 5:498–501).
3. GW’s warrant book for 14 April indicates a payment of $10,000 to Greene “for the purpose of his department” (Revolutionary War Warrant Book 5, 1780–1783, DLC:GW, ser. 5). For a subsequent partially successful appeal for additional funds for the quartermaster’s department, see Greene to GW, 3 May.
4. Debate over a reorganization plan for the quartermaster’s department resulted in a decision to send a committee to headquarters to consider alternatives (see Greene to GW, 28 March, and notes 3 and 5 to that document; see also Greene to GW, 31 March, and notes 6 and 7 to that document, and GW to Samuel Huntington, this date, source note).
5. For Greene’s earlier proposals to resign as quartermaster general, see his letters to Huntington, 12 Dec. 1779 and 13 Jan. and 16 Feb. 1780, in , 5:164–69, 265, 391–93.
6. See n.4 above.
7. Greene returned to Morristown late on 10 April. He wrote Jeremiah Wadsworth from that place on 11 April: “The ⟨Congress⟩ are as great a set of ⟨rascal⟩ as ever got together. The ⟨Board⟩ of ⟨Treasure⟩ are ⟨worse⟩ than the former. …
“I think our officers are verging to somthing like ⟨revolt⟩. It is publicly said at ⟨Philadelphia⟩ that ⟨Congress⟩ have no longer the ⟨confidence⟩ of ⟨people⟩ and that there is nothing else left to save ⟨state⟩ from being no more a ⟨nation⟩” (words shown in angle brackets originally rendered in numeric code; , 5:517–19; see also Greene to Alexander McDougall, 15 April, in , 5:520–21).
8. For changing political sentiments in Ireland during this period, particularly a decline in calls for Irish independence, see , 201–49. See also GW to William Livingston, 10 March, n.5; and General Orders, 16 March, and notes 1 and 3 to that document.
9. The Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia) for 4 April printed a notice under the heading “PHILADELPHIA, April 4” that reads: “Yesterday the brig Holker … arrived at this port in thirteen days from St. Eustatia.”
10. Congress had adopted new financial legislation on 18 March (see Philip Schuyler to GW, 12 March, and notes 3 and 4 to that document).
12. For recent intelligence on the British expedition against Charleston, S.C., see councils of war, 27 March and 1 April; see also John Laurens to GW, 14 March, and John Mathews to GW, 24 March.
13. See GW to the Board of War and to Henry Lee, Jr., or the Officer Commanding His Corps at Burlington, N.J., both 30 March; see also Lee to GW, 10 and 21 April, and GW to Lee, 13 April.
14. GW mentioned these topics in his letter to Samuel Huntington of 28 March.