Fish-kill, October 4, 1778.
Dear Sir: My public Letters to the President of Congress will inform you of the Wind that wafted me to this place; nothing more therefore need be said on that head.
Your Letter of the 8th. Ulto. contains three questions and answers, to wit: Can the Enemy prosecute the War? Do they mean to stay on the Continent? And is it our interest to put impediments in the way of their departure? To the first you answer in the Negative; to the second you are decided in opinion that they do not; And to the third, say, clearly No.
Much, my good Sir, may be said in favor of these answers; and some things against the two first of them. By way therefore of dissertation on the first, I will also beg leave to put a question, and give it an answer. Can we carry on the War much longer? certainly NO , unless some measures can be devised, and speedily executed, to restore the credit of our Currency, restrain extortion, and punish forestallers. 48
[Note:Forestallers were those who purchased merchandise or supplies before they came on the market and then advanced the prices. Under old English law this was a punishable offense. ]
Without these can be effected, what funds can stand the present expences of the Army ? And what Officer can bear the weight of prices, that every necessary Article is now got to? A Rat, in the shape of a Horse, is not to be bought at this time for less than £200; a Saddle under thirty or Forty; Boots twenty, and Shoes and other articles in like proportion. How is it possible therefore for Officers to stand this, without an increase of pay? And how is it possible to advance their Pay when Flour is selling (at different places) from five to fifteen pounds pr. Ct., Hay from ten to thirty pounds pr. Tunn, and Beef and other essentials, in this proportion.
The true point of light then to place, and consider this matter in, is not simply whether G. Britain can carry on the War, but whose Finances (theirs or ours) is most likely to fail: which leads me to doubt very much the infalibility of the answer given to your Second question, respecting the Enemy's leaving the Continent; for I believe, that they will not do it, while ever hope and the chapter of accidents can give them a chance of bringing us to terms short of Independance . But this you perhaps will say, they are now bereft of. I shall acknowledge that many things favor the idea; but add, that upon a comparative view of circumstances there is abundant matter to puzzle and confound the judgment. To your third answer, I subscribe with hand and heart. the opening is now fair, and God grant they may embrace the oppertunity of bidding an eternal adieu to our, once quit of them, happy Land. If the Spaniards would but join their Fleets to those of France, and commence hostilities my doubts would all subside. Without it, I fear the British Navy has it too much in its power to counteract the Schemes of France.
The high prices of every necessary. The little, indeed no benefit which Officers have derived from the intended bounty of Congress in the article of Cloathing, The change in the establishment, by which so many of them are discontinued. The unfortunate delay of this business, which kept them too long in suspence, and set a number of evil spirits to work. The unsettled Rank, and contradictory modes of adjusting it, with other causes which might be enumerated, have conspired to sour the temper of the Army exceedingly; and has, I am told, been productive of a Memorial, or representation of some kind, to Congress, 49 which neither directly, nor indirectly did I know,
[Note:This memorial from the field officers and captains of the Continental Army is dated Sept. 13, 1778, and was forwarded to Congress in a letter of September 22, signed by Cols. Daniel Morgan, Otho Holland Williams, and William Davies. The grievance was the exclusion of supernumerary officers from the Army through rearrangement, lack of half-pay and pensions, medical care, clothing, and other deficiencies. On October 20 Congress ordered it to lie on the table "until Congress have fully considered and determined on the report of the committee of arrangement." The original papers are in the Papers of the Continental Congress , no. 41, 7, fols. 191 -- 204. ]
[Note:Morris answered this letter from Washington (October 26): "the Petition you mention or Representation which I have not yet seen and never wish to see … it gave my Enemies (and who were so in some Degree for my earnest Support of the Claims of the Army heretofore) no small Cause of Triumph … It was by Procedures such as these that the good Fairfax made way for a crafty Cromwell and that he dismissed a tedious Wrangling Parliament and established a military Despotism. It is a melancholy Truth that when once Faction takes Possession of the human Heart Men are hurried into Extremes which make considerate People tremble. I will not do your Army the Injustice even to permit a Thought that they wish to get Rid of their General. But Sir their and your and our Enemies do not want the Confidence to say so and indeed to say they can prove it and to attempt that Proof from the Manner of procuring (Agitating as they term it) the Petition in Question. Certainly could such Ideas be inculcated it would answer their Views. It would also answer their Views to instill into the Army a Distrust of Congress and therefore I doubt not but the Enemies of both are assiduous in this Business." Morris's letter is in the Washington Papers in the Library of Congress. ]