of the Council of Maryland. 183

[Mordecai Gist, Annapolis, to the Honble The President of the
Committee appted to take into consideration the requisition of
Major General Greene]

Sir It appears by the last returns of our Troops that the State
of Maryland want 1951 men to compleat their quota, agreeable to
the Establishment made by Congress the 2 1^st Ult. I beg leave to offer
you a few thoughts on a plan for raising them which I submit to
the consideration of the Committee with every Sentiment of defer-
ence and Respect.
Suppose the number of Inhabitants in the State to be 30,000, that
number divided into 2000 Classes will give 15 men to each. The
property in each of these Classes to be proportioned as equal as
possible and each Class call'd on to furnish One Man by a fix'd
period of time for the War: Otherwise to be subjected to a Draught,
every Recruit or substitute so furnished shou'd continue in his
Regiment as the representative of that Class during the War, and
in case of Death, Desertion &^ca the Class whose representative he
was, shall furnish another in his place on report of the Commanding
Officer who shall Transmit the name of such soldier specifying the
County he did belong to the Governor & Council of the State who
shall require the Lieutenant of such County to Order such Classes
to furnish another man within one month from the Date of such
requisition or become subject to a Draught as afs^d By this plan we
may always count upon 2000 men in the Field. Agreeable to the
present establishment Five Commissioncl Officers & Five Drums &
Fifes must remain in the State to Recruit, those will be constantly
employ'd in adding to the 2000 Draughts by voluntary Inlistments,
and in receiving such deficiencies as the Lieutenants of the Counties
may be call'd on for. it will also engage every man to be equally
Interested in the success of our Arms, or event of an Action, and
prevent the Iniquitous practice of furnishing bad men for the Army,
in whose services or Integrity no confidence can be placed. The
recent example of this practice and its consequences are evident in
the Recruits raised for the State Regiment, as the whole number
of Troops now in Service by virtue of the last Draught amount to
no more than 381 men, large numbers having Deserted immedi-
ately after the acceptance of the Bounty money & perhaps stand pro-
tected even by the Classes who furnished them
No abuses of this kind can happen when each Class are Obliged
to continue their representative in the Field as it will effectually
prevent the harbouring & concealing Deserters, give respectability
to our line & (I hope) general satisfaction to the good people of the
State
I shall feel myself happy if in this essay I have offerred any thing
worthy of your Approbation.

November
14
Brown Book
No. 3
Letter
No. 31