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States, and being solicitous to restrain or defeat the pernicious Effect
of such Conduct enacted that all Purchases of Wheat or Flour made
above the Quantity allowed should be deemed made for the Use of
the United States. The Representation of his Excellency General
Washington of the alarming Situation of the United States Army
received just before the Close of the Session, demonstrated the Neces-
sity of making the most vigorous Efforts to procure an immediate
and full Supply of Flour and induced them to make the Law from
whence it is apprehended such Mischiefs will result to our Ally.
Your Excellency must be sensible the Distress which occasioned the
above Representation was real, not fictitious; and we flatter our-
selves, you will concur with us in Opinion that the using every Means
in the Power of the State to obtain an immediate and full Supply of
Provisions for our distressed Army is highly conducive to the re-
ciprocal Advantage of united America and her Ally, and could alone
avert a Calamity replete with Evils too numerous to be recapitulated,
and of such Magnitude as cannot but be discerned. The General
Assembly could not hesitate about the Expediency, indeed Necessity
of employing their utmost Exertions to afford Relief, and the Infor-
mation communicated to them, that the French Agents had pur-
chased Wheat and Flour in this State, far exceeding the Quantity
permitted, rendered it the more necessary to make the Law general ;
for the Exception of Wheat and Flour purchased by the Agents of
France might have frustrated the Law, by exempting that Surplus
or Excess of Quantity from Seizure: another Good, we expect will
result from the Generality of the Law and a strict Execution of it ;
this State will be enabled to ascertain with Precision, the Surplus
Wheat and Flour, and detect the Persons to whose collusive Prac-
tices, the Distresses of the Army, may be in some Measure, if not
wholly attributed. We are well convinced that the primary and grand
Object of the Legislature was, to procure a full Supply for the Army,
with the utmost Expedition, and that every Thing else was to be
subservient to it, and we trust such Conduct must correspond with
the Feelings of your Excellency and meet with your Approbation
though it may interfere with your Plans of Operation; because it is
better the Marine of France should submit to a temporary Disap-
pointment, than that we should hazard the Disbanding of the Army
of the United States, by procrastinating the Supplies. We have
instructed the Commissioners to observe the Directions of the Law
and to seize all the Wheat and Flour purchased by the French Agent
and to take a particular Account of it, and have directed them not
to transport or send forward such Wheat and Flour until they receive
further Instructions. As soon as we have Assurances from Congress
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Liber C C
No. 22
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or his Excellency General Washington, that the Army has a full
Supply of Provisions, we shall order the Commissioners to restore
such a Part of the Wheat and Flour purchased by the French Agents,
as will make up the Quantity he was allowed to buy: until then, we
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p. 59
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