To George Washington from Brigadier General Thomas Nelson, Jr., 28 November 1779
From Brigadier General Thomas Nelson, Jr.
York [Va.] Novr 28th 1779.
My Dear General
Your kind favor of the 26th of last Month, by some means, reach’d me only a few days ago.1 I am greatly oblig’d by your concern for my Health, which is perfectly restor’d.
The confinement absolutely necessary for a Member of Congress who pays the attention he ought to the great concerns of this Continent, is tottally inconsistant with my Constitution. It was with reluctance that I left Congress at the time I did, but my disorder brought on, and encreas’d by a Sedantery life, compel’d me to do so.2 I am never so well as when I take upon me the Soldier. It may be ask’d why I do not engage seriously in that line? Believe me when I tell you that I have often lamented my not taking the field with you at the Commencement of this War. And there is a punctilio at this time that prevents it. To enter in a subordinate rank would not suit my own feelings & to take rank of the Worthy Officer who had born the brunt of the War would wound his feelings & shew a want of generosity in myself.3
You have heard before this day of our misfortune before Savannah. The disappointment was increas’d by our great certainty of success. Some of our Allies who suffer’d in that affair are now in this Town in a very sickly condition indeed.4 The Fendant, one of the seven Ships that were to winter in this Bay,5 is arrivd with about 300 land forces: The others, it is imagin’d have born away for the West Indies. Count De Estaing is certainly gone to Europe.6
Our Assembly has been sitting some time, and about a fortnight ago appointed a Committee of Ways & Means to consider of measures for complying with the requisitions of Congress as well as to support our own Credit.7 I think I may venture to say, there will be not the least doubt of both being effected by Taxes & Loans. Congress may rely on her quota of Money from this State, which I hope will quickley restore her Credit. Never was America in more danger than at this time. The Continental Treasury exhausted; Internal Commotions in some of the States. Differences in Congress respecting the back Territory claim’d by Virginia, which, I fear, will be attended with serious consequences. It was determind yesterday to put all the Officers & Soldiers who are Citizens of this Commonwealth upon the same footing with those in the Virginia line.8 A Motion has been made to give the same quantity of Land to the Officers & Soldiers belonging to those States that have no back Territory as is provided for our Troops, but to my great sorrow it faild—I think it would have been but just; and I am sure it would have been politic. The Injury done to America if those Troops should quit the Service, will be as great as if the Virginia line should quit it, for altho, I may not think those States have the least claim upon our back Lands yet I think the Officers & Soldiers should all be upon an equal footing, having renderd equal Services; and to compel the States so circumstanc’d to purchase these Lands for their Troops is subjecting them to a burden which they ought not to bear. I distinguish between the Citizens of those States & the Troops; the former cannot upon any principle of justice insist upon that Country being thrown into the common stock towards defraying the expences of the War, but the latter may complain of great injustice done them, when they see such a difference made between them & their fellow Soldiers who have all engag’d in the general defence of the States.9 Accept my sincere wishes for a continuance [of] your Health, an object in which no one thinks himself more interested than your Friend and Obedt Servt
Thos Nelson Jr.
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. GW’s letter to Nelson of 26 Oct. has not been found.
2. Elected to Congress as a delegate from Virginia on 10 Dec. 1778, Nelson presented his credentials in Philadelphia on 18 Feb. 1779 (see 13:195). He attended sessions until 22 April and subsequently resigned (see 13:499–500, 14:861–62).
3. Nelson had declined appointment as colonel of the 2d Virginia Regiment in August 1775 and later served as brigadier general in the Virginia militia.
4. American and French operations against Savannah, begun in early September, ended following a disastrous repulse on 9 October. Official notice of this defeat and the allied withdrawal came to GW in a letter of 10 Nov. from Samuel Huntington.
5. The French ship Fendant carried seventy-four guns.
6. After withdrawing his fleet from Savannah, Vice Admiral d’Estaing dispersed his ships on different assignments and sailed to France, where he arrived in early December (see 237–44).
7. Nelson, who then sat in the Virginia House of Delegates, is referring to the selection of “a Committee of Ways and Means” on 10 Nov. (, 64; see also John Parke Custis to GW, 12 Dec., and n.10). The seven-member committee included Nelson, who reported several measures to raise funds to the delegates on 10 Dec., including £1,500,000 “from the sales of the sequestered British estates;” a £6 tax “per poll … on all slaves above the age of twelve years, except such as are exempted on account of age or infirmities by the tax law of the last session of Assembly;” and a £3 tax “per poll … on all the free male persons above the age of twenty one years within this state, except the officers of the line or navy soldiers or sailors, engaged in the service of this commonwealth or of the United States; and also those who have been or shall be exempted from the payment of levies by the county courts” (, 102–3). The Virginia legislature eventually proposed and adopted modified funding bills. See , 112 and 124, and [Hening], 10:165–72; see also 2:598–613.
8. See Thomas Jefferson to GW, this date, and n.2 to that document.
9. Back-country issues came to the attention of the Virginia House of Delegates on 13 Nov. in the form of “a letter from the delegates representing the commonwealth in Congress, enclosing some proceedings of that body on the subject of certain claims by the Indiana and Vandalia companies to unappropriated lands within the territory of this commonwealth” (, 68; see also Virginia Delegates to the Virginia House of Delegates, 2 Nov., in 14:148–49). The delegates then decided on that same date to send a remonstrance to “the American Congress, firmly asserting the rights of this commonwealth to its own territory, complaining of their having received petitions from certain persons, stiling themselves the Indiana and Vandalia companies, upon claims which not only interfere with the laws and internal policy, but tend to subvert the government of this commonwealth, and introduce general confusion, and expressly excepting and protesting against the jurisdiction of Congress therein, as unwarranted by the fundamental principles of the confederation” (, 68–69; see also 2:549–50). The delegates approved a remonstrance on 10 Dec., and the senate subsequently concurred (see , 103–4, 111; see also 2:595–98). Congress read this remonstrance on 28 April 1780 ( 16:398). For earlier consideration of these issues in Congress, see John Fell’s diary, 14 Sept. 1779, in 13:493; Samuel Huntington to the States, 30 Oct., in 14:134–35; and 15:1063–65, 1226–30; see also Gouverneur Morris to the Public, published 4 Sept., in 13:453–55, and William Churchill Houston to Robert Morris, 2 Oct., and North Carolina Delegates to Richard Caswell, 4 Nov., in 14:9–12, 150–52.