To George Washington from Henry Laurens, 31 August 1778
From Henry Laurens
[Philadelphia] 31st Augt [1778]
Sir
Yesterday I had the honor of writing to Your Excellency by Captain Josiah Stoddard who was so obliging as to take upon him the safe conduct of 500 Guineas to be lodged in Your Excellencys’ hands for public service.
Be pleas’d Sir to receive here inclosed an Act of Congress of the present date for engaging in Confederal Service for three Years or during the War such of the drafts of the Militia as are at present incorporated in the Battalions of the respective States.1
If twenty dollars bounty shall be found insufficient to accomplish the purpose intended by the Act Your Excellency will be pleas’d to signify to Congress what sum will in Your Excellencys’ opinion be necessary. I have the honor to be &c.
LB, DNA:PCC, item 13. A note on the letter-book copy indicates that this letter was carried “by [William] Jones.”
1. The resolution of 31 Aug. appropriated $120,000 in Continental money, which GW was directed “to cause … to be paid into the hands of such trusty, active, and discreet officers as he shall think proper to appoint to recruit for the quota of the respective states, in proportion to the number of men not engaged for three years, or during the war, which each State shall have in the field” (, 11:854).