1. The enclosure was a copy of Trumbull’s letter to Samuel Huntington, written at Hartford on this date: “By the Desire of the Genl Assembly, I am again to Address you upon the Subject of the Debts due to our Cattle feeders & the Accounts of the purchasing Commissaries under the late Commissary General.

“These Debts are unpaid—& the unsettled State of the Commissarys Accounts is a Reason alledged for delaying Payment—The Commissarys are called upon to attend at Phila. to pass their Accounts—their Acco., Vouchers & every Document respectg them must be produced there—The Expence of transportg these Accounts & the Attendance of the Commissarys—if to be born by them are ruinous, if by the United States enormous & as it appears to us useless—We can conceive no Reason why an Officer of your Chamber of Accounts, with such Assistance as you may think proper to assign him in this State—or if we are so unhappy as to have no Persons worthy of this Confidence—from some other State, cannot as well examine these Acco. as at Phila.—to speak our Minds freely, we believe they may be adjusted much better here than they can be there—here the Business has been transacted, here is every Person who hath personal Knowlege of the Transactions—Frauds, Errors, Mistakes will be much easier detected where many Persons on the Spot are [ ] of Facts, & may readily be called to testify their Knowlege—at Phila. the Accounts with the Testimony of the Accomptants are all the Evidence may be expected—& should the Vouchers be suspected how can they investigate the Truth? the Witnesses to be called on are at three hundred miles Distance—Besides one of those Commissarys, Colo. Champion, is now at the Head of the purchasg Department of Provisions for your Army in this State—his Experience, his Ability & his unwearied Attention to his Business are such, & the Confidence placed in him by, & his Influence with that Class of our People who furnish the largest Supplies of Provisions are such, that his Presence at present & for the ensuing Sumer, is indispensably necessary & the Army mu[s]t inevitably suffer by his Absence—here he might attend to & close his Acco. & at same Time pay proper Attention to the Business of his Department—We intreat Congress to Believe that we wish for a Settlement of these & all other Accounts as ardently as they can do—& equally desire the same may be examined with the greatest Care & Accuracy—& speedily closed—The inevitable Delay, as well as the Inconvenience of attendg a Settlement at Phila. is our Motive for urging on a different, & as we conceive, a more expeditious & effectual Mode.

“It is no less disagreable than necessary for us again to desire the Attention of Congress to the Situation of some of their Creditors in this State—we mean those who have credited them with Beeves the past Year—They consist of our principal Farmers, upon whom we have depended for our Supplies for the Army—their Confidence in the States & Zeal for their Service have prompted them to advance their whole Stock upon Credit of your officers[.] By the Failure of stipulated Payments capital Mischiefs have ensued—they are unable to replace their Stocks—their Pastures are unfilled—hence no Supplies can be expected from them the current Year, unless speedy Payment is made—& they will besides be great Sufferers in their private Interests—Their Contracts being made for specific Sums of Continental Currency, which hath since the Time greatly depreciated, these if now litterally fulfilled, will fall far short of the Value contracted to be paid them, & which they would have received, had the Contracts on the Part of the Public been punctually complied with—These Persons are Men of Property & Influence in the Districts in which they reside, they have been among the most Zealous of the Friends of the U. States. they feel themselves suffering Injustice & Loss from the Failure of their Dependance on the public Faith—they will not sitt down contented to be told a principal Officer of yours, with whose Substitutes they contracted, is gone out of Office, & public Forms require that all Payments under him should be stopped untill all his Accounts are adjusted—they say they did not credit him but the united States whose Servant he was, & to whose Use the Articles they delivered him were applied—they consider his Contracts as yours, & a Failure of Performance on his Part, as a Breach of the public Faith plighted them by him—especially as they are fully persuaded that your Officers had proper Authority to sollicit Credit for you—& that they have not failed of fulfilling their Contracts by Reason of any Fraud or Misapplicaton of Monies entrusted & advanced to them, but solely because Congress have not enabled them to keep their Contracts—Hence not only the imediate Sufferers, but many others giving Credit & influenced by their Complaints neglect to exert themselves to raise & furnish the Article⟨s⟩ necessary to supply the Army—& turn their Attention to other Bran[c]hes of Business in which they hope to evade the Inconvenience complained of—The Consequences of their Policy is already severely felt—the Sufferings of your Army, which at any other Time it would have been in our Power to relieve, most clearly demonstrate this—& should these Creditors be neglected for any considerable Time longer, or held to receive the bare nominal Sum in Continental Currency agreed for under Expectation of speedy Payment last Year, it is hard to say what may be the Event—But it is our Duty to declare, that we cannot be answerable that it will be in our Power to furnish the Supplies expected from us by Congress, tho we shall certainly in all Events exert our utmost Endeavours for that Purpose” (DLC:GW).

2. GW replied to Trumbull from headquarters at Springfield on 14 June: “I was yesterday honored with your Excellencys letter of the 8th, inclosing a Copy of one to Congress. There is nothing I am so happy in as in complying with every request you make and motives of public utility would induce me to take any step which I conceived I could do with propriety to forward measures which in any manner affect the supplies of the Army. But in the present case the affair appears to me to stand upon a delicate footing and to relate to arrangements of such a nature as I have always cautiously avoided interfering in. I trust my scruples to your Excellency’s delicacy and I have no doubt on reconsideration, you will approve my declining to write to Congress on the subject in question.

“I thank your Excellency for the exertions you are making to give relief to our distresses. Every new circumstance proves more and more the necessity of exertion in the present crisis—and evinces how much we have to fear if a spirit of energy does not immediately and generally pervade the States.

“The Enemy still continue in the position they took at Elizabeth Town point and are in all probability waiting the arrival of Sir Henry Clinton to commence a vigorous operation somewhere. Our situation is as embarrassing as you can imagine. When they unite their force it will be infinitely more so. Time must unfold the result” (LS, in Richard Kidder Meade’s writing, Ct: Trumbull Papers; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; both the draft and the Varick transcript are dated 13 June).