soon after their departure, from which it is feared they may have suffered.

The ship South Carolina, procured in Europe for the State after which she was named, was taken by three British ships, and carried into New York a few days ago. Besides the loss sustained by those interested immediately in her, her fitness for annoying our trade renders the capture a general misfortune.

The instructions referred to in your last favor, relative to a union of councils with our Ally, and to confiscated property, were not transmitted as you supposed. The first, I imagine, was intended to guard against any possibility of misconstruing a late incident.

I will comply with your desire as to the extract from Mr. Jefferson's observations as soon as possible, perhaps by the next post, but more probably by the succeeding one.

Mr. Ambler has not yet supplied me with answers to any of the queries. His apology is a satisfactory one, but I wish you to urge and assist his speedy compliance.

The lawyers, some of them at least, have, I hear, returned from Trenton, from which it is inferred that it only remains for the Court to frame and promulge its decree. My next will probably transmit the tenor of it. You have not, I hope, forgot your promise of the case agitated so much in Virginia. Mr. Pendleton's state of it has been received by Mr. Jones, and has increased my curiosity to see yours."

102

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, January 7, 1783.

Your favor of the twenty-seventh ultimo disappointed me by its silence as to the five per cent. The Governor's letter led us to hope that the subject would be resumed, and the arrival of yesterday's mail was awaited with a general anxiety on that account. Not a line, however, in any letter, public or private, touches on the subject. My last will, I hope, have led to some explanations on it. The official letter to the Governor will enclose a copy of the answer to the objections of Rhode Island, which was to have co-operated with the deputation to that State, if Virginia had not frustrated the whole plan by her defection.

The deputation from the army, which arrived here a few days ago, have laid their grievances before Congress. They consist of sundry articles, the capital of which are, a defect of an immediate payment, and of satisfactory provision for completing the work hereafter. How either of those objects can be accomplished, and what will be the consequence of failure, I must leave to your own surmises. I wish the disquietude excited by the prospect, was the exclusive portion of those who impede the measures calculated for redressing complaints against the justice and gratitude of the public.

The Resolution of the House of Delegates against restitution of confiscated effects is subject to the remark you make. The preliminary requisition of an acknowledgment of our independence, in the most VOL. I.-32

ample manner, seems to be still more incautious, since it disaccords with the Treaty of Alliance which admits the sufficiency of a tacit acknowledg mént.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, January 14, 1783.

DEAR SIR,

The deputies from the army are still here. The explanations which they have given to a committee on the topics of the memorial are of the most serious nature. I wish they could with propriety be promulged throughout the United States. They would, I am sure, at least put to shame all those who have labored to throw a fallacious gloss over our public affairs, and counteracted the measures necessary to the real prosperity of them.

The deliberations of Congress have been turned pretty much of late on the valuation of lands prescribed by the Articles of Confederation. The dif ficulties which attend that rule of apportionment seem, on near inspection, to be in a manner insuperable. The work is too vast to be executed without the intervention of the several States, and if their intervention be employed, all confidence in an impartial execution is at an end.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, January 28, 1783.

DEAR SIR,

The revival of Committees would be a ticklish experiment, and, I conceive, not admissible, but in the last necessity. Would not the circulation of a free and well-informed Gazette sufficiently counteract the malignant rumors which require some antidote? The preparation and circulation of such a paper would be a much more easy and economical task than the services which the other expedient would impose, if extended throughout the country; besides that it would produce other useful effects, and would be liable to no objections. The state of darkness in which the people are left in Virginia by the want of a diffusion of intelligence is, I find, a subject of complaint.

Yesterday was employed in agitating the expediency of a proposition declaring it to be the "opinion of Congress, that the establishment of general funds is essential for doing complete justice to the creditors of the United States, for restoring public credit, and for providing for the exigencies of the war." The subject was brought on by the memorial from the army. Such of the Virginia Delegates as concur in the opinion are put in a delicate situation, by the preamble to the late repeal of the impost by Virginia. Persuaded as I am, however, of the truth of the proposition, and believing as I do, that, with the same knowledge of facts which my station commands, my constituents would never have passed that act, and would now rescind it, my assent will

be hazarded. For many reasons, which I have not time to explain in cypher, it is my decided opinion that, unless such funds be established, the foundations of our independence will be laid in injustice and dishonor, and that the advantages of the Revolution dependent on the Federal compact will be of short duration.

We yesterday laid before Congress sundry papers transmitted by the Governor. The light in which the protest of inability to pay the annual requisition, compared with the repeal of the impost law, placed Virginia, did not, you may be sure, escape observation.

Pennsylvania continues to be visited by the consequences of her patronage of Vermont. A petition from the inhabitants of the territory, lately in dispute between her and Virginia, was yesterday read in Congress, complaining, among other grievances, of the interdict against even consultations on the subject of a new State within the limits of the former, and praying for the sanction of Congress to their independence, and for an admission into the Union.103

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, February 4, 1783.

DEAR SIR,

The subject (revenue) which my last left under the consideration of Congress has employed the chief part of the week. The generality of the members are convinced of the necessity of a conti