To James Madison from Edmund Randolph, 1 March 1783
From Edmund Randolph
RC (LC: Madison Papers). Unsigned but in Randolph’s hand. Cover addressed by him to “The honble James Madison jr. esq of congress Philadelphia.” Docketed by JM, “March 1st. 1783.”
Richmond. March 1. 1783.
My dear friend
Being here on business, I can not inspect your figures of feby. 18. The drift of them is, however, seen, and I have already met the sentiments half way, by an adherence to my opinion of the necessity of reviving the impost.1
A dangerous combination has been formed for counterfeiting tobacco notes and Morris’s notes.2 It extends, like the mountains of America, from south to North. We may hope, that this mint, which has been already been opened with success, will soon be suppressed by the activity of a zealous whig, of genuine honesty. The executive have patronized the measures, which he had adopted for a complete detection.
What renders this scheme of villainy, more perilous, is that it is probable, some of the inspectors have been associated in it; and they, by furnishing marks, weights numbers and names, can always with truth inform the holders of these counterfeits, that such tobacco is to be found in the Warehouses; & yet refuse to deliver the tobacco, when the exporter demands it on these bad notes.3
I am told, that the executive have taken a definitive step with respect to the recruiting money. All sums, which have been collected beyond the mountains, are to be retained for the purpose of inlisting; which General Muhlenberg expects may be carried on rapidly. What has been collected below that line, is to be paid into the treasury and from thence distributed into the hands of the different recruiting officers.4
My letter of last week miscarried in its journey from my house to the post office, and will therefore go by this post.5
1. JM to Randolph, 18 Feb. 1783, and n. 1. By “figures” Randolph probably meant the encoded portion of that letter which he was unable to decipher because he had not brought the key to Richmond. He had gone there to meet his father’s creditors. See Randolph to JM, 1 Feb. 1783, n. 5. For his belief that Congress should revive the impost amendment, see his letters of 1, 7, and 22 Feb. 1783 to JM.
2. An owner of tobacco, upon depositing it in a public warehouse, received from the inspector a certificate, note, or receipt, recording the weight of, the distinguishing marks on, and the type of tobacco in, each hogshead. This certificate was negotiable and could be used in payment of taxes. If convicted of issuing fraudulent certificates, an inspector was fined, removed from office, and disbarred from holding any government position in the future. Possibly as a result of the “dangerous combination” to which Randolph referred, the Virginia General Assembly on 28 June 1783 enacted a comprehensive statute which replaced those penalties with “death as in case of felony, without benefit of clergy” and precisely defined the legal form of a printed tobacco note. This law also repeated the provision of earlier legislation making counterfeiting of tobacco notes a capital crime ( , May 1783, p. 98; , IX, 157, 159–60, 502–5, 519; X, 76, 275, 481–82, 508; XI, 94–98, 205–46, and esp. 222, 241–42).
For the promissory notes of Robert Morris, see IV, 104, n. 1; 361, n. 42; V, 85; 92; 271; 430; 431, n. 4. No Virginia statute provided for the punishment of counterfeiters of those notes. See Randolph to JM, 15 Mar. 1783.
,3. The phrase “south to North” signified that the “dangerous combination” principally included one or more of the inspectors of tobacco in public warehouses in Henrico County and, to the northward, about a dozen residents of Caroline County ( , III, 466). The inspector most involved was probably Robert Price (d. 1826), who resigned his office at Byrd’s warehouses on or about 16 April 1783 (ibid., III, 466; , III, 22, 245; Henrico County Court Records, Will Book 7, p. 7, microfilm in Va. State Library). He seems to have been the inspector whom Randolph called “the cornerstone of the villainy” (Randolph to JM, 29 Mar. 1783). The “zealous whig” was Colonel Samuel Temple (d. 1813), a planter, justice of the peace, and militia officer of Caroline County. From 1792 to 1795 he served in the Virginia General Assembly as senator from the district which included that county (T[homas] E. Campbell, Colonial Caroline: A History of Caroline County, Virginia [Richmond, 1954], pp. 259, 266, 274, 348; , pp. 38, 41, 43, 45; Augusta B. Fothergill and John M. Naugle, comps., Virginia Tax Payers, 1782–87, p. 125; Caroline County Court Records, Will Book 19, pp. 35–36, microfilm in Va. State Library). For Governor Harrison’s support of Temple’s measures and for more comment by Randolph on the “scheme,” see Randolph to JM, 15 Mar.; 29 Mar. 1783, and n. 4.
4. For General Muhlenberg, see Harrison to Delegates, 7 Feb., and n. 3. For “the recruiting money,” see , V, 93, n. 9; 169; 313; Randolph to JM, 22 Feb. 1783, and n. 7. Recruits were needed west of the Blue Ridge Mountains because of the threat of raids by Indians in Montgomery and Washington counties ( , III, 456, 457–58; , III, 223, 226, 227). On 1 April 1783 the Council of State advised Governor Harrison to direct the recruiting officers “beyond the blue ridge” to stop “further enlistments of Soldiers for the Continental Service” and “to call into the Treasury the recruiting money collected” there (ibid., III, 238). See also Delegates to Harrison, 8 Apr. 1783, ed. n.