To George Washington from Brigadier General Mordecai Gist, 15 December 1780
From Brigadier General Mordecai Gist
Annapolis 15 Decemr 1780
Dear sir,
Yesterday the General Assembly of this state pass’d an Act to call in the Continental & states money at Forty for One, and an order to give a better circulation to the New Currency no Continental money is to be issued in payment for any contract after the 20th March Next.1
The Tender Law is repealed2—a Bill from the House of Delegates for the Confiscation of British property is now before the senate and is generally believed will pass.3
They have Authorizd an Officer of Major Lees Legion to purchase sixty Two Horses for that Corps on the Credit of the state.4 Measures for compleating their quota and granting Supplies for the Army, I expect will be adopted Next Week.5
The post is Just setting out from this place wch Obliges me to write in haste.6 I have the Honor to be With perfect Respect & Esteem Yr Excellency’s Mo. Obdt Servt
M. Gist
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. See “An ACT for calling out of circulation the quota of this state of the bills of credit issued by congress, and the bills of credit emitted by acts of assembly under the old government and by the resolves of convention” (, chapter 5).
2. See “An ACT relating to loans in specie, tenders for debts and contracts in future, and the establishment of a bank for public purposes” (, chapter 28).
3. This legislation eventually passed as “An ACT to seize, confiscate, and appropriate, all British property within this state” (, chapter 45).
4. The resolution adopted on 2 Dec. authorized the purchase of “sixty dragoon horses for major Lee’s legion with the utmost dispatch” (, pp. 41, 43; see also , 45:232).
5. The Maryland legislature eventually passed “An ACT to raise the supplies for the year seventeen hundred and eight-one” and “An ACT to procure recruits” (, chapters 25 and 43).
6. GW expressed concern that recruits for the next campaign would fall short when he replied to Gist on 2 Jan. 1781 (MdHi: Gist Papers).