Lieutenant Colonel Udny Hay to George Washington, 25 March 1781
From Lieutenant Colonel Udny Hay
Poughkeepsie [N.Y.], 25th March 1781
Sir,
I have enclosed an extract of a Letter from me to Mr Jelles Fonda, on the Subject of supplying the Oneida Indians, about which I some time agoe wrote your Excellency, and should not have taken the liberty of again troubling you, had not some disputes arose, between Mr Fonda and me, respecting the value of the small species therein mentioned.1 I have spoke to General Schuyler, who agrees with me in opinion that an Order from your Excellency, desiring me to leave the matter to the determination of the Commissioners for Indian affairs, will be sufficient, as will more fully appear by the enclosed resolve of Congress, which I also take the liberty to Transmit.2
Had I not been seized with a small fit of Sickness, I should have done myself the Honor of waiting on your Excellency in Person, on this and some other subjects.
I shall be happy in receiving an answer by the Bearer, as I propose setting off for Albany as soon as my health will possibly permit.3 I am, with sentiments of Respect, Your Excellency’s most Obedt and very Humble Servant,
Udny Hay
ALS, DLC:GW. Hay addressed the cover to GW at New Windsor.
1. Hay enclosed an extract from a letter he had written Jelles Fonda, a major in the Tryon County, N.Y., militia, while at Albany on 28 July 1780: “You are to supply them [Indians] in any way you think proper, but so as no Complaints shall arise from them, for doing which, you shall have the price stipulated by the State for a Quantity of Beef and Flour, equal to what they would have expended at one pound of each pr Day, their Number and the time they are supplied to be ascertained in such way as the Commissioners of Indian affairs shall direct, with the Current price allowed for transporting the same twelve miles, and the pay given an Assistant Commissary of Issues; You shall likewise be allowed for the small Species, generally given with Beef and Flour, according to a Certificate from the D.C. General of Issues, what he generally issues of such Species” (DLC:GW). For the earlier correspondence, see Hay to GW, 9 Aug., and n.2 to that document. For recent efforts to supply the Oneida and other Indians, see Board of War to GW, 17 Feb. 1781, and n.2 to that document; see also GW to the Board of War, 23 March, and n.13. On 6 Sept., Congress ordered “the commissioners of Indian affairs for the northern department” to settle Fonda’s “demands” that arose from his contract with Hay for supplying “the friendly Indians who have retreated to the neighborhood of Schenectad[y] for protection, and to make such equitable allowance for the articles for which no prices are ascertained in the contract as they shall think reasonable” (, 21:939–40).
2. Hay enclosed a congressional resolution adopted on 24 March 1779 that authorized “the Commissioners of indian affairs in the northern Department” to provide provisions for “the Oneidas and other friendly indians” (DLC:GW; see also John Jay’s second letter to GW, 24 March 1779, and n.1 to that document).
3. GW replied to Hay from New Windsor on 27 March: “I have just received your Letter of the 25th Inst. On the subject of which I have to observe that, it was my intention The Indians in question should be supplied with the same Ration which is issued to our Troops; but you will now be pleased to leave the determination of this Matter to the Commissioners of Indian affairs, agreeably to the Resolution of Congress of the 24th of March 1779” (Df, in David Humphreys’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW).