XXXIX. CHAPTER Reed made his appearance, followed presently by a few horsemen of the city cavalry, who had mustered for the 1779. preservation of the peace. A man and a boy of the mob were killed, and many others severely wounded. The citizens turned out and patrolled the streets, but it was several days before order was restored. Prosecutions were commenced on both sides; but, disregarding the insinuation that it favored the mob, the Assembly terminated all proceedings by an act of oblivion. To attempt any longer to deny or to disguise the depreciation was useless; a convention of the five Eastern Oct. 20. states, held at Hartford, proposed a new regulation of prices on the basis of twenty for one; and they advised a convention at Philadelphia, at the commencement of the year, for the general adoption of this scheme. Congress Nov. 19. approved this proposal, but urged the states to adopt the regulation at once, without waiting for a convention. The expenditures of the quarter-master's and commissary's departments, swelled by the continued depreciation to an enormous nominal amount, began to raise a great clamor. The officers employed in those departments were paid by a commission on their expenditures, and Greene and Wadsworth, and their subordinates, were loudly accused of extravagance and mismanagement, and of growing rich at the public expense. Some of the subordinate officers were incapable; others were dishonest; but the heads of the departments could not justly be held responsible for the conduct of officers not appointed by themselves. Congress expressed full confidence in the integrity and abilities of Greene and Wadsworth; but Wadsworth insisted on resigning, and Ephraim Blane was chosen in his place. It was only with great reluct ance that Greene consented to serve a little while longer. He complained, in a letter to Washington, of the irksome XXXIX. ness of an ungracious office, which opened no avenue to CHAPTER distinction, and which he had accepted only to relieve the commander-in-chief from being himself obliged to perform 1779. its duties. "Who ever heard," he asked, "of a quartermaster general in history?" Yet to feed and quarter an army is often far more difficult than to conduct its military movements, and in the American service, especially, required no small amount of executive talent. Before the end of the year the remainder of the two hundred millions of Continental bills was issued, and "the press was stopped." The depreciation now stood at thirty for one. Washington, who saw no other means for feeding his army, doubted the expediency of the stoppage; and, as we shall see in the next chapter, an attempt was soon made to revive it in a new form. The sums called for from the states came in very slowly. As a means of meeting their immediate necessities, Congress adopted the delicate expedient of selling bills of exchange, at long dates, on Jay and Laurens, to be met by the produce of loans to be obtained in Spain and Holland. The frigate in which Jay sailed, dismasted in a storm, had put into Martinique for repairs, and Jay was still detained at that island. Laurens had not embarked at all. These bills were sold for paper at the rate of twenty-five for one, the purchaser being required to lend an additional amount equal to the purchase money. The total expenditures of the year reached the amount of one hundred and sixty millions of dollars. One hundred millions of this were new issues, the remainder the produce of loans, bills sold, and taxes; but the whole specie value did not exceed ten millions-a very decided falling off from the expenditures of the preceding years, indicative of the diminishing resources of Congress. The only provision for the year ensuing, besides the CHAPTER unpaid balance of the sixty-five millions of paper already XXXIX. called for, was a further call for fifteen millions month1779. ly, to commence with February. Georgia, being in posOct. 6. session of the enemy, was excused from this contribution. The efforts at naval warfare on the part of the Americans were by this time a good deal diminished. Several of the Continental vessels had been captured or lost; others, for want of funds, remained on the stocks uncompleted. The vigilance of the British squadron had greatly diminished the number of privateers. Several armed vessels, however, public and private, still kept the seas; and a part of the money obtained in France was expended in fitting out cruisers in the French ports. Of all the American naval commanders, none became so distinguished as John Paul Jones, a Scotsman by birth, but, when the war began, a resident in America, and one of the first officers commissioned in the Continental navy. Appointed to command the Ranger of eighteen guns, he had made himself formidable in the British seas, and had even ventured at descents on the Scotch coast. He presently received the command of a mixed French and American squadron, fitted out in France, but under American colors, of which the heaviest vessel, a forty-two gun ship, was called the Bon Homme Richard. While cruising with this squadron, Jones encountered a fleet of merchant ships from the Baltic, convoyed by a heavy frigate and another vessel. One of the most desperate engageSept. 24. ments recorded in the annals of naval warfare ensued. In spite of the misbehavior of one of Jones's captains, both the British ships were taken; the larger one by boarding from the Bon Homme Richard, which was in a sinking condition at the time, and which went down the day following, in consequence of damages received in the action. CHAPTER XL. FINANCES AND THE ARMY. SOUTH CAROLINA SUBDUED. XL. Jan. CONGRESS commenced the new year with very anx- CHAPTER ious deliberations on the all-important subject of finance. Delegates had been appointed from several states to the 1780. proposed Convention at Philadelphia; but the meeting was postponed, to give time for the other states to make similar appointments. Such, however, was the rapid depreciation of the paper, as speedily to destroy all hopes of any regulation of prices. It soon reached forty for one. The commissaries, greatly in debt, had neither money nor credit, and starvation began to stare the soldiers in the face. To support his army, Washington was again obliged to resort to the harsh expedient of levying contributions on the surrounding country. Each county was called upon for a certain quantity of flour and meat; but, as the civil authorities took the matter of supply in hand, for which certificates were given by the commissaries, on the appraisement of two magistrates, the use of force did not become necessary. In the present unstable state of the currency, the plan Feb. 25. was adopted of calling upon the states for "specific supplies"-beef, pork, flour, corn, hay, tobacco, salt, rum, and rice to be credited at certain fixed prices to the states by which they were furnished. The commissaries, for immediate use, instead of money received draughts XL. CHAPTER on the state treasuries for portions of their unpaid quotas of the requisitions heretofore made. 1780. The states were advised to repeal all laws making the old bills a legal tender. Congress offered to receive gold and silver at the rate of forty for one in discharge of the unpaid state quotas. A plausible scheme was also adopted, which seemed to promise a moderate supply to the federal treasury; and, at the same time, the drawing in and canceling of the outstanding bills of credit, the rapid depreciation of which kept the currency in a complete state of derangement, and operated as a great obstacle to all commercial transactions. As the bills came in, in payment of the fifteen millions monthly already called for, they were to be canceled; but, for every twenty dollars so canceled, one dollar was to be issued in "new tenor," bearing interest at five per cent., and redeemable in specie within six years; these new bills to be guaranteed by the confederacy, but to be issued on the credit of the individual states in proportion to their payments of the old tenor; each state to provide for redeeming its own issues at the rate of a sixth part yearly, and to receive to its own use six tenths of the new issue, the other four tenths to belong to Congress. This process, if fully carried out, would substitute for the outstanding two hundred millions of old bills ten millions in "new tenor," of which six would go to the states paying in the bills, and four to the federal treasury. While a better, and, it was hoped, a stable currency would thus be provided in place of the old tenor, the states would be furnished with means to purchase "the specifics" demanded by Congress. The federal treasury, also, would be moderately supplied, without the necessity of imposing new taxes. The holders of commissary certificates for supplies fur |