James Madison Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-04-02-0176

To James Madison from Joseph Jones, 1 July 1782

From Joseph Jones

RC (LC: Madison Papers). Undocketed and cover missing.

Fredericksburg 1st. July 1782

Dr. Sr.

I have no Letter from you by this Post. expecting to receive from Mr. Ross a duplicate of the Bill which fell into the hands of the Robbers1 and forward it to you this week I came to Town to day but have no letter from him. Col. Monroe writes me he promised to send it. my friend Griffin will therefore be obliged to wait longer than I intended and hoped he would.2 Mr Ross was also to have sent me a further draft on Philaa. for my present supply if I went forward wch. it was my intention to do abot. the middle of this month or the 20th. at furthest.3

Be kind enough to have the enclosed advertisement inserted twice or thrice in the Packet and inform Mr. Solomon of it that in case Cyrus is apprehended he may receive him and have him confined untill I come up or give directions abot. him. he was seen in the City since my departure.4

I must refer you to our friend Randolph for the News of Richmond who is on the Spot and can give it you truly. We have a report here that a large fleet had passed the Capes Steering Eastward and it is said to be fren[ch,] but the story is so vague I regard it not.5 Mr. He[nry] and Col. Lee have left the Assembly wch. is still sitting.6 something has been done for recruiting t[he] Army but what I cannot certainly inform you. it is expected it will bring men into the field.7 we heard great complaints before I left Phila: of the scarsity of mony in this State,8 they were well founded and increase every day. If there is not a real scarsity those who possess the money lock it up which produces all the inconveniences of a scarsity. should I pay you a visit I shall find it difficult to procure cash sufficient for my expences.9

Yr. friend & Servt

Jos: Jones.

2James Monroe’s letter to his uncle, Joseph Jones, has not been found. For Jones’s debt to Cyrus Griffin, see Jones to JM, 25 June 1782.

3See Jones to JM, 8 and 16 July 1782. Jones resumed his seat in Congress on 5 September 1782 (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXIII, 547).

4“Solomon” was Haym Salomon (Expense Account, 20 March 1782, n. 2). No advertisement for Jones’s runaway slave Cyrus has been found in the Pennsylvania Packet or any other Philadelphia newspaper.

5For a similar report, see Charles Campbell, ed., Bland Papers, II, 84. Perhaps the basis of the rumor was the departure on 28 June from Hampton Roads of a convoy of about fifteen vessels loaded with flour and other food for the French West Indies (Acomb, Journal of Closen description begins Evelyn M. Acomb, trans. and ed., The Revolutionary Journal of Baron Ludwig von Closen, 1780–1783 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1958). description ends , pp. 206–7). On the other hand, the Virginia Gazette description begins Virginia Gazette, or, the American Advertiser (Richmond, James Hayes, 1781–86). description ends of 29 June 1782 printed a report, already several days old, that British ships bearing three thousand troops from New York to Charleston had been sighted “south of the capes.”

8See, for example, Pendleton to JM, 15 April 1782, and n. 4.

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