Oliver Phelps to George Washington, 2 May 1781
From Oliver Phelps
Boston May 2d 1781
Sir
I had the honor to receive the day before yesterday your Excellency’s favour of the 16th Ulto—I am sorry that Mr Blaine should have made any possitive assurances, that the State of Massachusetts would furnish a regular supply of beef Cattle, which have turned out so greatly to your disappointment.1
On my appointment I informed the Commissary-General, that I could not engage him more than sixty head by the week, and at the same time informed him, that as I had no fund for supplies but the specific tax laid on the several towns, I could make him no possitive assurances2—The beef required, and money in lieu thereof, has been paid in but very slowly by the towns, the weight of other taxes, almost intollerable, and the raising the new Recruits, who have on an average received two hundred dollars in specie as a bounty; rendered it impossible for them to raise the beef3—However, knowing that the army must suffer, were the supplies to stop, I exerted myself as much as possible, for their support, and involved myself in debt untill I could move no further—I therefore made a representation of my embarressments to his Excellency the Governor of this State near seven weeks ago, and on the meeting of the General Court did the same to them—A Committee was appointed to examine the state of my department, and provide a remedy if possible; fortunately for me your Excellencys letter reached me at the time they were considering the matter, and I laid the same before them—A temporary supply has been afforded me4—I expect to forward fifty head of Cattle by the 5th Instant, and am not without hopes, that the number required of us will be sent forward in future.
All the beef which I have received, since my appointment, would not be sufficient to fill 2500 Barrels out of this I have been obliged to supply the several Issuing stores within the Commonwealth I have salted at Springfield 800 Barrels, four or five hundred of which has been delivered over to Mr Tuckerman the assistant of Colo. Hatch—the residue delivered to the Issuing Commissy there.
The greatest part of the beef salted at Barrington has been I am informed, sent to the Northward, by whose order I know not.5 I have also been obliged to send a drove or two of live Cattle to Albany, for the relief of the western Garrisons—I have had ⟨no⟩ orders from Mr Blaine in the matter, yet could wish to know how to conduct myself in future in this Respect.
Your Excellency may depend on that as far as the utmost exertions can be extended, nothing on my part shall be wanting to forward the supplies required; If Cash can be procured there will be no difficulty; provisions of every kind being plentier & cheaper than at the opening of the last Campaign.6 I have the honor to be your Excellencys most Obedient and very humble servant
Oliver Phelps
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. GW had written Phelps from headquarters at New Windsor on 16 April: “From the representation of the Commissary General of Purchases, I was led to beleive, that the State of Massachusetts would furnish a regular supply of Beef Cattle, which with our other resources, would be competent to all our exigencies, & put us beyond the reach of contingency in this Article—but we have been greatly disappointed, Our salted Provisions, which were laid up in the Garrison are exhausted, And the Army is again on the brink of distress.
“I must therefore take occasion, thro’ you, to urge the State to an immediate compliance with the requisitions of Congress—& request you will furnish weekly the number of Cattle called for by the Commissary at the Army, And also concert effectual Measures with the State, to keep up a regular supply thro the Campaign, without which we must again be reduced to the same or greater distresses than we have already experienced” (Df, in David Humphreys’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; see also Ephraim Blaine to GW, 23 March). Congress had called for 385 head of cattle weekly from Massachusetts (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 16 Sept. 1780, and n.2 to that document, and , 18:828–29).
2. Phelps wrote Ephraim Blaine, commissary general of purchases, soon after the Massachusetts legislature selected him as superintendent of purchases on 30 Jan. 1781 (see Phelps to GW, 4 Feb., and notes 3 and 4 to that document).
3. For the recruiting act passed in Massachusetts to fulfill the state quota after congressional reorganization of the army, see Benjamin Lincoln to GW, 25 Dec. 1780, and n.2 to that document; see also General Orders, 1 Nov. 1780.
4. On 24 April 1781, the Massachusetts Senate appointed a three-member committee “to enquire into and report what further measures can be taken to bring the delinquent Towns into a Compliance with the requisitions of this Court for Beef, and to consider of the accounts of Oliver Phelps … & provide ways & means for enabling him to discharge the Debts he has contracted on account of Government and for Supplying the Army with Beef in future.” The senate, on 25 April, directed “that the Letter from Oliver Phelps Esqr. handed in with the Governor’s Message of the 16th inst. be Committed to the joint Committee appointed yesterday.” On 26 April, the Massachusetts House of Representatives directed committees to settle accounts related to beef, and the legislature subsequently approved a measure for receiving “Money of the old emission” from Phelps that he had been given in lieu of beef. The legislature adopted a resolution on 30 April to pay Phelps from the public treasury “£10,000 new Emission to enable him to comply with the requisitions of Genl Washington & the Comissary General of the Army.” Another resolution passed on the same date authorized Phelps “to issue his Executions against the Treasure[r]s of the Towns Delinquent in furnishing the Article of Beef” (; see also , p. 426). For the type of money given Phelps, see Philip Schuyler to GW, 12 March 1780, and notes 3 and 4 to that document.
5. For the barrels of salted beef transported from Great Barrington, Mass., to Claverack, N.Y., see GW to James Clinton, 12 April.
6. GW decided on a concerted response to problems securing provisions from New England states (see his letters to William Heath, 8 and 9 May, both MHi: Heath Papers).