George Washington to Joseph Jones, 7 June 1781
To Joseph Jones
New Windsor 7th June 1781
Dear Sir,
Govr Rutlidge did me the favor to present me with your letter of the 31st Ulto, & on my return from Weathersfield I met your other favor of the 16th1—What with few aids at present, and a multi[plicit]y of business, my time has been so constantly occupied, that It has not been in my power to acknowledge the receipt of the above letters before, & now I must be hasty & indigested in my answers.
Hesitate not a moment to believe, that I am prompted by every motive which public duty—inclination—and private interest can dictate to afford every assistance in my power to the distressed States to the Southward—Virginia in particular—but to require Brick without straw was the complaint of old time2—My Letter to Congress of this date, gives you the number of Men which have joined the Army since the first of Jany, under the requisitions of October3—And the General return, sent to the Board of War by Govr Rutlidge, for the Month of May—in which all those recruits are included—all the Men composing the detachment of the Marquis la Fayette—the Garrison’s at Wyoming—Albany &ca are also included in the total of that return4—judge you therefore of my ability to afford, at this moment, effectual aid, from the remainder, to the Southward—especially when there are appearances of something serious upon the Northern Frontier of this State, from Canada.5
It is much the desire of the Govr of Virginia, as appears by his Letter of the 28th Ulto, that I should, in person, repair to that State6—it is also the expressed wish of many of my friends—and nobody I perswade myself can doubt my inclination to be immediately employed in the defence of that Country where all my property & Connexion’s are—but there are powerful objections to my leaving this Army, at this time, but neither time, nor prudence, will allow me to go into a detail of them on paper—one only I will name—which is—that no other person has power to command the French Troops which are now about to form a Junction with this Army. let it suffice for me to add, that I am acting on the great scale. that temporary evils must be endured where there is no remedy at hand—that I am not without hopes the tables may be turned—but these being contingent, I can promise no more than my utmost exertions7—and that I am with great truth & sincerety Dr Sir Yr Most Affecte Servt
Go: Washington
ADfS, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. See Jones to GW, 16 and 31 May; see also The Wethersfield Conference and Aftermath, 14 May–16 June, editorial note. South Carolina governor John Rutledge had arrived at headquarters on 5 June (see GW to John Mathews, 7 June, n.3).
2. In Exodus 5:6–17, Pharaoh punishes the enslaved Hebrews by ordering them to produce bricks without straw. GW had alluded to the same passage in a letter to Benjamin Harrison on 21 March.
3. See GW to Samuel Huntington, this date, postscript, and n.7 to that document. For the congressional requisitions to fill the Continental regiments, see Huntington to the States, 6 and 26 Oct. 1780, in , 16:153, 263; see also Huntington to GW, 26 Oct., n.1.
4. The return for May 1781 listed 3,817 infantry “PRESENT FIT FOR DUTY & ON DUTY” and 3,212 infantry rank and file “ON COMMAND & EXTRA SERVICE.” The report also indicated that 1,173 recruits had joined the army that month. Earlier returns showed 92 infantry recruits in January, 154 in February, 400 in March, and 828 in April (, 194–203, quotes on 202).
5. For the threat to the New York frontier, see James Clinton to GW, 16, 22–23, and 30 May; see also GW to Clinton, 28 May and 5 June. The threat soon abated (see GW to Clinton, 10 and 16 June).