Solomon Southwick to George Washington, 8 March 1781
From Solomon Southwick
Newport March 8th 1781
Sir,
I most heartily congratulate your Excellency on your Arrival in this Town;1 but am greatly mortified that a severe Fit of the Rheumatism, &c. has put it out of my Power to wait on your Excellency, in Person Mr John Gardner, the Bearer, is an Assistant Commissary of Ishues at this Post, who will execute any Orders in my Department,2 which your Excellency may please to give, that may be in his Power to comply with.3
We have in this Department about one Hundred Quintals of dry Fish, two Hundred Bushels Indian Corn, a few Boxes Soap & Candles, near Eight Hundred Bushels Salt, belonging to the Continent; & about one Thousand Barrels of Beef, procured as Part of this State’s Quota,4 but not yet tur⟨ned over⟩.
There is one Ishuing Store kept in Providence, under the Care of Capt. James Wallace,5 & one in this Town, under the Care of the above mentioned Mr John Gardner.
I should have wrote your Excellency sooner, had I not been in great Hopes of waiting on you personally by this time.
As I want to speak a few Words to your Excellency about a Matter which concerns the United States, the French Army, and myself; I should be extremely obliged to your Excellency, if you would be so kind as to call at my Quarters a few Minutes,6 any Day when most agreable, before your Excellency leaves the Town.7 I am with the greatest Deference and Esteem, Sir, Your Excellency’s most obdt humble Servant,
Soln Southwick, D.C.G. Is.
LS, DLC:GW.
1. See GW to Alexander Hamilton, 7 March, source note.
2. This word is written as “Departement” on the LS.
3. John Gardner (Gardiner; died c.1808) held local offices in Newport and was a partner in the firm styled Gardner & Dean at the time of his death (see the dissolution notice in Newport Mercury, 24 Sept. 1808)
4. Southwick probably refers to the congressional provision quota for beef adopted on 4 Nov. 1780 (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 12 Nov., and n.1 to that document).
5. James Wallace (c.1751–1820) served as captain lieutenant in a Rhode Island state regiment in 1776 and left the army in later 1777. A collection of his papers while deputy commissary general of issues, dated 4 Jan. 1778–6 Nov. 1779, is in RHi.
6. Southwick presumably means his home in Newport, subsequently moved from its original location on a street bordering the harbor (see , 492).
7. GW left Newport on 13 March 1781 (see his letter to William Greene, 12 March, postscript, and n.7). For Southwick’s likely concern, see his letter to GW, 13 March.