To George Washington from William Livingston, 19 December 1779
From William Livingston
Mount holly [N.J.] 19th Decr 1779
Dear Sir
I had the honour & the Mortification last Night of your Excellency’s Favour of the 16th instant.1 To find our Troops in want of Bread at the close of so glorious a Campaign; & to think of administring such cause of triumph & Exultation to the Enemy, & of Disgrace & Astonishment to all Europe, requires no uncommon fortitude to bear with any tolerable patience. I am perhaps the better enabled to support myself under it, as I have been gradually fortified against it, by having for some time past anticipated the dreadful Event; & the Measures which I thought naturally led to it having for some months given me daily and nightly Disquiet.
It is not my Disposition Sir to excuse myself from any trouble by which I can render my Country essential Service (whether in the immediate line of my Department or out of it) by a fruitless crimination of others; which tho’ it may ease the Stomach of the Satyrist by discharging his resentment, will not fill those of the Soldiery with Food. It is not by reproaching others, but by the most vigorous Exertions of our own, that we can now hope to feed, a meritorious, & too much-neglected Army. But notwithstanding this, every virtuous Citizen of America will think himself entitled to complain when after issuing in about twenty months (I have reason to think I speak from good Authority) to the Departments of the Commissary & Quarte[r] Master General above one hundred & thirty millions of Dollars, we are in the most perillous Predicament, & the Army on the Point of disbanding for the want of Supplies. I can not say that I am greatly disappointed having ever been apprehensive of this Disaster while I have seen the meanest officers in those Departments growing rich, without any other conceiveable means than by those of Fraud & peculation. It is therefore become indispensible, & absolutely so, to put those purchases into the hands of the respective States where the Supplies are furnished, to request their management of them, & to apply the Taxes raised, to this Effect, or such part however as may be necessary. Three or four purchasers or Contractors in this State could I am confident, supposing the appointment to be judicious, do more than the thirty or forty now employed. It gives me new Spirits to find that Congress is About adopting some thing similar to this plan; & our assembly, tho’ they have so long, I have reason to think Will not rise till they have put the matter on that footing with respect to this State—This however will be too slow in its operation to afford immediate relief to the Troops2—Had I recev’d your Excellency’s Letter but two hours sooner, I should immediately have laid it before the house—But They were just adjourned till Monday morning—when it came to hand I shall not fail therefore to urge them to morrow not to wait for the supplies collecting by the Commissioners lately appointed for that purpose, but to adopt by resolve more vigorous Measures than those Commissioners are authorized to carry into Execution & To prepare the way for this, I have not thought it any breach of Sabbath, to spend part of this day in colloquing with some of the leading Members, who promise me to exert every nerve in providing the most speedy & effectual remedy for our present Distress.3
ADf, NN: William Livingston Papers, Letterbook.
Livingston apparently directed the recipient’s copy of this letter to Moore Furman, deputy quartermaster for New Jersey then at Trenton. A letter from Livingston to Furman written at Mount Holly on 20 Dec. reads: “There is no occasion for sending an Express on purpose, but as you will probably have an Opportunity in three or four days I wish you would embrace the first in transmitting the Inclosed to his Excellency” (; see also Livingston to Furman, 21 Dec., in 3:276).
2. Livingston is referring to congressional resolutions adopted on 11 Dec. that included a call for “8000 barrels of flour” from “New Jersey, part of which to be furnished as soon as possible, to answer the immediate demands of the army” ( 15:1372; see also Samuel Huntington to Livingston, same date, in 14:261–62, and Livingston to the New Jersey General Assembly, 13 Dec., in 3:261–62). Livingston also wrote Huntington from Mount Holly on 13 Dec.: “your Favour of the 11th instant I had the honour to receive last night, & have this day transmitted it with the two Acts of Congress which it covered, to the Assembly. As soon as ever I shall be enabled to give your Excellency any Intelligence concerning their Success, I shall not fail to embrace the first opportunity for the purpose. But I am sorry to say that my Expectations on that Subject are not very sanguine” (DNA:PCC, item 68). Congress read Livingston’s letter on 15 Dec. ( 15:1382). For a related congressional measure to procure army supplies from New Jersey and other states, see 15:1377–78, and Huntington to Livingston, 14 Dec., in 14:268–69; see also 41–47.
3. The New Jersey General Assembly met on Monday, 20 Dec., and received GW’s letter “of the sixteenth Instant” to Livingston “stating the alarming Situation of the Army from the Want of Provisions, and earnestly requesting Supplies from this State.” The assembly immediately formed a five-member committee to consider the letter and “report thereon” (, 89).
The committee reported on 21 Dec. that “on Enquiry it is found that a considerable Quantity of Wheat, purchased in Virtue of a Law of this State, intitled, An Act to procure a Supply of Flour for the Use of the Army, hath not been manufactured and forwarded agreeably to the Design of said Law; Resolved, That the Governor be requested to acquaint General Washington with the Exertions of this State to procure a Supply of Flour heretofore, and also the Steps that are now taking for a further Supply. Resolved, That the Commissioners appointed in the Law for procuring Flour be directed to purchase all the Wheat that may be in their Power at the current Price, until a new Appointment shall take Place. Resolved, That the several Commissaries in this State be, and they hereby are directed to call on the Commissioners in their respective Districts for Returns of the Wheat by them procured, and the Places where the same is deposited; and the said Commissaries are hereby required forthwith to cause the same to be manufactured into Flour, and forwarded to the Army with the greatest Expedition” (N.J. Gen. Assembly Proc., 26 Oct.-26 Dec. 1779, 89–90; see also Circular to the States, 28 Aug.; Livingston to GW, 8 Oct., and notes 2 and 3 to that document; and 127–29). The house members agreed to these resolutions, carried them to the council for concurrence, and obtained a favorable reply that same date (see , 90–91, and , 37–38). For Livingston’s communication of these legislative actions, see his letter to GW of 21 December.