To George Washington from Ephraim Blaine, 10 April 1780
From Ephraim Blaine
Philadelphia 10th April 1780.
Please your Excellency,
It has not been in my Power to obtain a single Shilling of Mony from the Treasury-board; my people are so much Indebted, that their Credit is quite exhausted with the Country—my first Object was to procure Mony, to enable Mr Champion to keep up a supply of Beef-Cattle, his Son has been several Days here on that Business,1 this day I have obtained Orders on the Eastern States for a considerable Sum, which if Honored will enable him to purchase Beef sufficient to feed the Troops stationed in the Eastern States & Jersey up to the 1st of July—they have promised me an additional Sum, to secure some Contracts for Flour, which, with what I have on hand, will be equal to serve the Troops up to the 1st of August next, at which time if the new System takes place,2 and the Commissioners act with Spirrit supplies will be coming into the public Magazines—I shall return to Morris, the moment I obtain the Sums promised me by the Treasury-board, and dispose of the same, and give necessary directions to keep forwarding the Supplies3—your Excellency may be assured of my greatest exertions to keep up regular Supplies for the Support of your Army.
The Treasury being exhausted, my Agents greatly Involved, the delay of our Public finances, and the General change in the System of the Quartermaster & Commissary-General Departments, has made my Office, one of the most disagreeable, Man ever experienced—indeed nothing wou’d induce me to continue under present Appearances, but the Duty I owe my Country, & Regard to your Excellency, which ever shall be motives to command my best Services, & surmount every other Difficulty—I have the Honor to be with due Respect Your Excellency’s most Obedient & most Humble Servant
Eph: Blaine C.G.P.
N.B. I recd your Excellen[c]ies letter late last night,4 after writing the above, and have to inform you that a Quantity of salt Provisions is on its way, and at Trenton, and between two and three Hundred head of Cattle will be at Camp the middle of next week, I have not Obtain’d a return the Quantity of salt Provisions in the hands of my people but beleive three thoud Barrels the princaple part of which is ordered for Head Quarters, I have flour Plenty on the way to Trenton; and hope the salt Provisions will be sufficient to serve the troops till we can be supplied with Grass beef. remain &a &c.
Eph. Blaine C.G.P.
LS, DLC:GW. The postscript is in Blaine’s writing. The cover includes an undated notation: “Hon[ore]d by Gnl [William] Irvine.”
1. Connecticut delegate Oliver Ellsworth secured money for Henry Champion, Sr., that apparently was conveyed through Champion’s son “Capt. Champion” (see Ellsworth to Jeremiah Wadsworth, 15 April, in , 15:38–39; see also , 16:362–63, 367). Henry Champion, Jr., served as captain in the 3d Connecticut Regiment (see also GW to Champion, Sr., 12 April and 4 May, and Champion, Sr., to GW, 18 and 24 April).
2. Blaine is referring to the supply system adopted on 25 Feb. (see , 16:196–201; see also GW’s circular to the states, 26 March, and GW to Samuel Huntington, same date).
3. Blaine also wrote the Board of Treasury while in Philadelphia on this date: “It is not in my Power to delay the people that has been waiting for Mon[e]y in Town longer than this day, the Delay Mr Champion has met with will be of fatal Consequences, the supplies of Meat are nearly expended & not a single Bullock can come from the Eastward til this Gentlemans return & we are daily loseing Quantities of Wheat & Flour which has been contracted for & delivered into Mills this three Months past I beg that your Honorable Board wou’d inform me what I am to expect & enable me to give the necessary information to those Men who are so impatiently waiting” (DLC: Ephraim Blaine Letterbook; see also Blaine to the Board of War, 3 April, DLC: Ephriam Blaine Letterbook).
Azariah Dunham, superintendent of purchases for New Jersey, wrote Blaine from Morristown on 11 April: “We are and have been for several days past very Scarce of meat today not one barril in the Magazine & very few if any cattle on hand have sent for what salt pork & beef was not yet delivered which will not exceed two hundred barrils and have wrote by express to all the Contractors repeatedly to purchase and forward all their several districts will afford have seen some of them myself who all tell me the people have lost all confidence which they had in the money are determined to reallise what they have in the best manner they can, & retain their property in hand untill they are better Assured what they shall recive for it this added to the State having exerted & nearly exhausted itself already little can be expected here pray send forward a supply if in your power or I fear we shall experience a Distress something similar to what we had before have received several letters from his Excellency on the Subject of Supplies he seems much conc[e]rnd & allarmed.
“His Steward calls on me this morning for some good Spirits and some good white Sugar neither of which can be had here that I know of.
“Persons to whom I am indebted call on me by Scores and are really in the greatest distress I have no peace and do not wonder at it I find by my accounts that my purchases under Coll Wadsworth amounts to above a Million of pounds more than I have receiv’d … I must find a place of retreat from so many Severe Dunns” (DLC: Ephraim Blaine Papers; see also GW to Dunham, 5 April, and Dunham to GW, 6 April).
4. See GW to Blaine, 7 April.