Tobias Lear to Samuel Hodgdon, 16 October 1792
Tobias Lear to Samuel Hodgdon
[Philadelphia] October 16th 1792
Sir,
I have had the honor of laying before the President the enclosed extract of a letter which you put into my hands for that purpose,1 and he has directed me to request that you would let him know the number & state of the arms & accoutrements which are under your care in this place, that he may be able to form a judgement whether it would be proper to spare the num[b]er wanted out of the public stores.
The President does not wish a formal return, but merely the number & their situation.2 with much respect & esteem I am Sir, Your most Obedt Servt
Tobias Lear.
ALS, NjMoHP; ALS (letterpress copy), DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DLC:GW.
1. The “extract of a letter” has not been identified.
2. Hodgdon, the current commissary of military stores, replied to Lear in a letter written from Philadelphia on 17 Oct.: “permit me to request you to inform the President that I have upwards of fourteen thousand new Arms under my care, & that every part of the Army is fully supplied. from this representation the President will judge of the propriety of sparing the number of Arms requested by the State of South Carolina.
“Nothing but Arms are mentioned in the requisition, nor indeed could we furnish Cartouch Boxes if requested, we have none on hand, every other Musket Accoutrement we have in abundance.
“The Arms if delivered, should value at fifty shillings, Pennsylvania Currency, each—a sum that would replace them in kind at a short notice” (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).
Lear responded to Hodgdon’s reply in a letter written later that same day informing him that the president “consents to your furnishing six hundred stand of Arms (the number applied for) out of the public Stores under your care, on the terms which you observe will replace them in kind at a short notice” (ViU). For further description of the arms supplied to South Carolina, see Lear to Hodgdon, 18 Oct., n.2.