Benjamin Harrison to Virginia Delegates, 7 June 1783
Benjamin Harrison to Virginia Delegates
FC (Virginia State Library). In the hand of Thomas Meriwether. Addressed to “Virginia Delegates in Congress.”
In Council June 7th. 1783.
Gentlemen
I have rec’d. your favor by the last Post,1 and have no official Communications to make you. We are anxiously waiting for the definitive Treaty,2 some of our People can hardly persuade themselves that Peace is yet certain and our Merchants wish to Keep them in that Opinion.3 I beg the favor of you to send me the address of Congress &ca. the one sent me by your President was immediately forwarded to the Assembly4 without reading so that I dont know any of it’s Contents.
I am Gentlen. &c.
B. H.
2. The definitive treaty of peace was not received by Congress until 13 December 1783 (Pendleton to JM, 4 May 1783, n. 6; , XXV, 812).
3. If the merchants were able to do so convincingly, they could continue to buy staples for export at low prices and to charge high prices for imported goods, especially since the demand for them in Virginia was heavy. See Randolph to JM, 9 May, and n. 14; 24 May; JM to Randolph, 13 May, and n. 6; Pendleton to JM, 17 May; 2 June 1783, and n. 4.