To George Washington from Major General Nathanael Greene, 6 March 1780
From Major General Nathanael Greene
Morris Town March 6th 1780.
Sir,
Inclosed I send your Excellency a copy of my last letter to Congress, to which they have given no answer and which necessarily involves very important consequences.1
The affairs of the Quarter Master’s Department are so intimately connected with the operations of the Army: and the security, support and movements of the latter so dependant on the former, that I think it my duty to give your Excellency the earliest information of every change and embarrassment in it which may affect the service. This measure is necessary not only for the public welfare but for my own justification.
Altho’ I esteem it a peculiar misfortune to be reduced to the necessity of taking steps tending to my own justification, yet when I have not that support which was promissed me by the Committee of Congress when I engaged in the duties of the Office, and which was and still is necessary to the order and management of the business, I have nothing left but to point out the causes of the failure. And I trust when my conduct comes to be fully understood and the business of the department striped of vulgar prejudices and private enmity, it will be found to have been both prudently and honestly conducted. I shall not enter into a justification of all the detail of the business. I know it is too extensive for the wisdom of an Angel to guard against every imposition. I am not chargeable for such evils where the misfortune originates in the plan of the War and the state of the finances. Tho’ I cannot pretend to be responsible for the fidelity discretion and prudence of every agent employed in the lesser branches of business yet I presume the much greater part of every order are men of integrity and some of them are the first characters for business upon the Continent. One thing I will venture to affirm with confidence which is that every exertion has been made by all the Agents to promote the service in general and to fulfill your Excellency’s orders in particular as far as the means in their hands or their personal credit or influence could be extended for the purpose.
The crisis is now fast approaching when there will be a general stagnation of business as some of the Deputies have already left the department and others preparing to follow their example. Some have advertised to stop all purchases on the public account for want of money to fulfill the contracts, others will be reduced by necessity to do the like. Transportation cannot be kept up for want of money to pay those employed in that service, and even those teams which serve with the Brigades begin to refuse further service unless they are paid for the past. Thus we seem to be threatned with distress and ruin on every side. I shall continue to give every aid to the business in my power, but it must sink under it’s own weight unless it is better supported than it has been for months past. I am with great respect Your Excellency’s Most Obedient Servt
Nath. Greene Q.M.G.
LS, DLC:GW; copy, enclosed in GW to Samuel Huntington, 6–8 March, DNA:PCC, item 152; copy, DNA:PCC, item 169.
1. Greene enclosed a copy of his letter to Samuel Huntington dated at Morristown on 16 Feb.: “When I addressed Congress on the 12th of December I believed that from the nature of the application it would soon be honored with a reply; both with respect to myself and the general subject of it. In that representation I pointed out many of the embarrassments, which hung on my department. No expedients have yet been adopted to remove the difficulties, that then prevailed; and we have been daily plunging into new and more alarming distresses. I now find myself so harrassed, and the wheels of every branch of business so encumbered, that I know not on which side to turn for relief. My situation urges me once more to solicit the attention of Congress, and I am led to hope that this address will not lay unnoticed.
“It is needless for me to enter again into a circumstantial detail of my perplexities; as I have already represented them to Congress and the Commander in Chief in the most pointed terms. I am convinced that a view of the most material objects will impress a sufficient idea of our situation. The deepest causes of the evils that attend us have been a want of Cash and the disgust and dissatisfaction of the Agents on salary. These have laid the foundation of inumerable disorders & inconveniences; which have operated so extensively as to render the progress of the business utterly impracticable. Many of the most respectable Agents are urging to be released from Office; as they see no hope of discharging their duty, with satisfaction to the Army or with security and reputation to themselves. I have hitherto persuaded them to continue their exertions and to wait the event of my former application to Congress. They have waited, they have persisted in their endeavours, ’till their affairs have grown desperate, and till the people begin to get outrageous, & positively refuse further credit. Reduced to a condition no longer to be supported, they require a definitive answer to their propositions, or an immediate dismission from Office. To indulge them in the latter will embarrass the service and distress the Army: and I have no authority to satisfy them with respect to the former, till I am directed by Congress. The Agents think it hazardous to be loaded with such enormous debts without some special assurances of indemnification from the damages of a civil prosecution. They are liable to be prosecuted for all the debts they have contracted on public account. The costs of law suits in all these cases will be immense and tho’ it must ultimately fall upon the public yet the consequence of having their persons arrested, and their property attached will be an evil no less mortifying to their feelings than injurious to their interest. Was it in their power to stretch their credit to a still greater length, and were their emoluments ten times as considerable as they are the Agents could not be induced to subject themselves to such peculiar inconveniences. They are extremely desirous therefore of having the determination of Congress on this subject. The affair has come to a crisis, something must be done or they will be compelled to retire from the service, involved in debt and difficulty.
“The season is approaching that will require the supplies to be procured, & the preparations to be made for the ensuing Campaign—I see not the remotest prospect of obtaining the one or accomplishing the other. Our magazines are greatly deficient. Our Agents have not only expended their money, but have exhausted their influence and the patience and confidance of the Inhabitants. Every cord has been strained as hard as it will bear. On any sudden operation of the Enemy we shall be totally unprepared for the movement of the Army as we shall have neither agents or means any-ways equal to the occasion. I am persuaded that the inattention of Congress to my past representation, is owing to their not taking a comprehensive view of the nature and extent of this business. Measures not applied in a proper time, often defeat the purpose for which they are taken; and many inconveniences result from a delay which a seasonable attention might have prevented. For such is the provision necessary to be made and such are the state and resources of the Country, that when the proper season for taking measures is past, no exertions will recover the time & advantages that are lost and the bare attempt will create an accumulation of expences, as well as be productive of many embarrassing circumstances & disappointments to the service.
“I feel my situation peculiarly critical for want of advice, direction & support. I have no disposition to trouble Congress unnecessarily, but the state and circumstances of my department indispensably call for their attention. Though Congress may have particular reasons for not explaining themselves fully upon the propriety of continuing the present expensive arrangement of the Qr Mr General’s department, and the further provision for the ensuing Campaign; yet I concieve it must be their intention that we should not proceed; as they lay the necessity by witholding their instructions and not furnishing the means requisite to support the department in making those preparations. If this was not their Idea I presume they would not suffer the business to be immersed in difficulteis & confusion; out of which it can never be extricated. Whatever may be their conclusions, I must repeat my solicitations, that I may be so far favoured with an explanation of their views as to know what steps to persue.
“My Deputies and other Officers cannot be prevailed on to continue any longer in service, in the present disordered and neglected state of the department. This representation I trust is too important not to be deemed worthy the particular notice of Congress. I shall be obliged to consider it’s being unanswered as a full proof that it is their wish the Agents should all be dismissed and that all further provision for future operations be discontinued; and shall govern myself accordingly. I ever have thought and still think myself bound to accomodate my conduct to the views and wishes of Congress whether implied or expressed as far as the nature and circumstances of the trust committed to my care will admit” (DLC:GW).