Report of the Committee on a Letter of Nathanael Greene, [13 January 1784]
Report of the Committee on a Letter of Nathanael Greene
[13 January 1784]
The Committee consisting of Mr. Williamson Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Read to whom was refer’d a Letter of the 3rd of Novr. 1783 from Majr. Genl. Green to the President of Congress beg leave to report
That it appears to your Committee that Genl. Green, during his command in the Southern Department, besides the sume of 38,591 60/90 Dlrs. which had been advanced to him of the old paper Emissions, has expended in travelling and for the support of his family the Sum of 10,017 36/90 Dlrs.
That the sum allowed him by the US for his extra Expences during that Period as commanding in a separate Department was 5972 20/90 Dlrs.: hence it appears that his Expences have exceeded his Allowance by the sume of 4045 16/90 Dlrs. besides the Paper money refer’d to which at the then current state of Depretiation was of small Value. On which your Committee submit the following Resolve.
That in consideration of the high Price of all the necessaries of Life in the southern States, while Majr. Genl. Green commanded in that Department, his Account be credited with the sum of four Thousand and fourty five Dlrs. and sixteen ninetieth of a Dlr. together with the Sum of Thirty eight Thousand five hundred and ninety one Dlrs and sixty ninetieths of a Dlr. of the old Paper Emissions as an allowance for Extra Expences above the Sums to which he was entitled as a Majr. Genl. commanding in a separate department.
MS (DLC: PCC, No. 19, ii); in the hand of Hugh Williamson; endorsed: “No. 42 Report of a Committee on Genl. Green’s Accots: [And, in Charles Thomson’s hand:] Delivered Jany 13. 1784. Entd. Read. Passed April 6. 1784.”
This was the first committee to which TJ was appointed. , xxv, 809, note, makes the erroneous statement that Greene’s letter of 3 Nov. 1783 (in DLC: PCC, No. 155) was referred to the committee consisting of Williamson, TJ, and Read on 13 Dec. 1783 at Annapolis; actually the reference was made at Princeton on 4 Nov. 1783, though the Journals contain no mention of the fact (see Committee Book, DLC: PCC, No. 186). Greene was then in Princeton (, xxv, 788); TJ must have seen him, as he did Washington, but his letters contain no reference to such a meeting. As the endorsement indicates, the report of the committee was approved by Congress 6 Apr. 1784, with the addition of a paragraph reimbursing Greene to the extent of ⅌329 6s. 3d. Virginia currency, “which appears by the affidavit of Major William Pierce, late aid-de-camp to General Greene, to have been stolen from the trunk of Major Pierce, while the public money was in his custody” (same, xxvi, 198–9).