[On the reverse of the foregoing letter is the answer.] NORWICH, April, 3rd, 1780. SE, I have consulted with Col° Dyar, Col° Pitkin, Col Root, & Capt Mumford upon the matters within mention. Wee are all of opinion that a permit cannot be granted to Capt Spencer, &c., as prayd for in the within. application, consistent with the law & former resolutions in similar cases. But wee all are of opinion a permit ought to be granted to Mr Rogers to remove his stock. I am, in behalf of myself & the rest of the Council present, Your Excellencies humble servt. To his Excellency Gov' TRUMBull. W MATTH GRISWOLD. Indorsed: 3 April, 1780. Answer to Capt Spencer's & Mr Rogers's Applications for permits. Former negatived; the latter granted. 4th inst. GEORGE CLINTON* TO JONATHAN TRUMBULL. POUGHKEEPSIE, May 1st, 1780. SIR,I have been honored with your Excellency's dispatch of the 10th March last and its enclosures some time since. Considering the embarrassed state of our public finances, and the unsurmountable difficulties which would attend the reducing them to order by any ordinary means, I cannot but approve the system adopted by your State; by which a due regard is paid to the public interest and individuals will sustain as little loss in this as by any other mode that could be devised and the pub-` lic credit fixed on a more solid basis in future. I have the pleasure of assuring your Excellency that most of *For notice of George Clinton, see 7 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. ii. p. 57 n. —- Eds. the gentlemen of this State whom I have had an opportunity of conversing with on the subject approve the measure. I am fully persuaded, Sir, that your conduct towards Mr Jones has been strictly consistent and proper. If the repeated notifications which your [Excellency ?] sent into the British lines did not reach him it is his misfortune. Mr Jones must be sensible that we cannot controul the enemy's officers within their lines; if they have kept from him information regularly conveyed and in which he was so much interested, it is to them he must apply for redress. Your Excellency will be pleased to accept my thanks for the trouble you have taken in this business and I shall be obliged in having the paroles of all the gentry forwarded to me when a convenient opportunity presents. I have the honor to be, with great respect and esteem, Your Excellency's most obedient servant. His Excellency Governor TRUmbull. GEO CLINTON. Indorsed: 1st May, 1780. His Excel Gov' Clinton. Answer to mine 10th March ult. de Act of Finance. Judge Jones, Gentlem of N. York paroles, recd 14th inst. NATHANAEL GREENE† TO JONATHAN TRUMBULL. MORRISTOWN, 7th May, 1780. SIR, -The alarming crisis to which the state of our public affairs are drawing, for want of money to support the great departments of the army, is really distressing to every man who feels himself interested in the happiness and independence of these States. The Quarter Master's Department has been supported principally upon credit for six months past; the credit and influence. * Judge Thomas Jones, of New York, the Loyalist historian. He was a prisoner of war in Connecticut, and was exchanged for General Silliman. - EDS. ↑ For notice of General Greene, see 7 Mass Hist. Coll., vol. 11. p 270 n. of the officers are now exhausted; the demands of the service are numerous, and press hard for great exertions, especially in the article of transportation; the garrison at West Point, which is of such vast importance to these States, as well for keeping up a communication between the eastern and western States, as for a necessary check to prevent the enemy's penetrating the country, is now in the utmost danger of being evacuated for want of provision to support the troops, and which cannot be got on from the State of Connecticut, (where there are now three thousand barrels laying) for want of cash to pay the transportation, all which is essentially necessary for the supply of the troops of the garrisons at West Point and the posts in the vicinity of it : This is, therefore, to request your Excellency to grant an order for such sums of money to Mr Nehemiah Hubbard, D. Q. M. Gen' of your State, as will enable him to get on the provision to the place of consumption. The continental Treasury is empty, and no hopes of relief is or can be expected from that quarter, however pressing the necessity. I see nothing therefore but certain ruin, unless the State interposes its good offices and prevents the fatal misfortune. I wish your Excellency to be fully perswaded that every fact here is truely stated, and that the necessity is not less pressing than described. Political bodies are often too tardy in their measures for the emergencies of war. I wish we may not be precipitated into some terrible misfortune on this account. If your Excellency cannot afford us some immediate relief, I shall have only to lament the fatal consequences. I have the honor to be, with great respect, Your Excellency's most obedient, hum. servt. His Excellency Governor TRUmbull. Indorsed 7th May, 1780. Nath" Green, Esq", Q. M. G., de Transportation. Necessity. Money, recd 14th inst. OLIVER ELLSWORTII TO JONATHAN TRUMBULL. PHILADELPHIA, May 9th, 1780. SIR, -Your Excellency will probably before the receipt of this have been informed of the death of the honorable Don Juan Demarelles, the Spanish gentleman of distinction that resided at this place. He died after a short illness the 28th of April at Morristown, to which place he had accompanied the Minister of France to pay their respects to the General & army. His remains were there interred with the honors of war, and his funeral rites have been also here celebrated this day in the French chappel, with very great respect & a lasting requiem sung to his soul. This gentleman during his residence here appeared zealously attentive to the political interests & views of this country, as well as his own, & waited with impatience to see the ties between the two countries indissolubly formed by a ratification of treaties of amity & commerce, which he expected would take place on the arival of our Minister at the Court of Spain. Much anxiety prevails here to know the fate of Charlestown, from which there are no accounts to be depended on later than the 9th of April, nor does it appear from the papers published in New York to the 3a of this month, that any accounts have been received there later than ours. In addition to the other troops that had been before detached from the main army & sent to General Lincoln, the Delaware regiment & the Maryland line went on a few days agoe, & will arive it is hoped in season to support the country, should the enemy be so fortunate as to gain a temporary advantage. There are very circumstantial accounts from New York, transmitted to General Washington, that Paul Jones is on this coast with a small squadron of five ships, & had lately chased some vessels into the Hook, & that a 74 gun ship & some frigats were preparing at New York to go in quest of him. This may be true, it is unknown to Congress where he is. Several vessels have arived in this river from St Eustatia as late as the 23a of April, but bring no material intelligence in addition to what was here before, except that the two formidable fleets in the West Indies were both out of port, & that a very busy & important campaign was expected in that quarter. No official information has been very lately received by Congress from Europe; but from the current of publications on that side the water, & especially the English papers, it does not appear that any power has yet been found sufficiently uninformed to join Great Britain in her wicked & romantick attempts of reducing to obedience what she yet stiles her rebelious colonies. And as she cannot obtain assistance she seems willing to have it beleived that she stands in need of none; & accordingly goes on with a shew & pretensions of being sufficient for all things of herself; much perhaps as a merchant sometimes on the eve of bankruptcy makes an uncommon parade of wealth & business, in order to keep up the delusion till chance may have had time to atchieve something in his favour. The comparison however fails in this respect, that it is no secret to the world that the circumstances of Great Britain are bad, & that the minds of her wisest men are filled with consternation. She is ready to be crushed with the weight of her own debt, which is accumulating upon her by the whole expence of the war, & for which she is already mortgaged to pay forever an annual interest of seven millions sterling. Her revenues being fully charged with the interest, it is impossible for her ever to reduce the principal but by a sponge or revolution; & as impossible for her to go on |