From George Washington to John Mehelm, 13 March 1780
To John Mehelm
Hd Qrs Morris Town March 13th 1780
Sir
I have received Your Letter of the 9th Instant with the Extract from the Letter of the Board of War to which You refer. I think it not altogether unlikely that Mr Taylor, as well as some Others who were employed in the same way, has imposed on the public.1 The order he obtained for hides was in consequence of receipts produced for Shoes delivered chiefly if not wholly to the Virginia line. There was no deduction made from his claim that I recollect on account of the Work of the Soldiers. This appears highly equitable and it being conformable to the views of the Honorable Board I wish You, notwithstanding the Order which was given, to settle with Mr Taylor for any allowance to which the States may be intitled for the service of the Soldiers who worked with him & that he may receive Hides only in proportion to the Ballance.2 I Am sir Yr Most Obedt st.
Df, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. The Board of War had instructed Mehelm not to transact further hide business with Obediah Taylor because of Taylor’s suspected financial misconduct. In his letter to GW of 9 March, Mehelm reported these instructions as the reason for declining a pay order from Taylor.
2. Mehelm replied to GW from Readings Town, N.J., on 28 March: “I received your Excellencys letter of the 13 Inst. respecting Taylor’s order for Hides, but am doubtful the public Will be prevented of any allowance for the labour of the Virginia Soldiers, by a Stratagem he has made use of to get his order Accepted. Immediately upon finding that the board of War Insisted upon pay for Service of the Soldiers, and that I would not Issue the hides Until I had Wrote to, or waited upon your Excellency, he went up to New Windsor, to Major Hetfield C.H. for the State of N. York, got his order Accepted, and has Since sold it, I am Informed, for about two thirds the Value—but I am Inclined to think the hides are not yet Issued in payment of it. If so, perhaps a line from your Excellency to Mr Hetfield might yet prevent the Fraud—What makes me the more Anxious to bring Taylor to an Account is, that I am afraid, the Labour of the Virginia Soldiers is not the only Advantage he has had of the public; for Notwithstandg he has sold this Order for about two thirds Value, and one of Ten Thousand weight of hides he got paid in New York State some time ago, for about one third Value, so that the Speculaters upon them, I’m informed, have and will make about Ten Thousand pounds by them, yet he has purchased a Real Estate the other Day at Sixteen Thousand pounds which is more than he could make, Over and above supporting his Family, even with the Advantage of the Labour of the Soldiers, in the Course of two or three years without either pay or Commissions of the public & we in this Neighbourhood well know that about three years Since he was not Worth a Single Shilling—I am with beging pardon for troubling you so often with this Matter” (ALS, DLC:GW).