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[Council to Honble The General Assembly]
The various and important Matters contained in the Several
Resolutions of Congress, the Letters from General Washington, the
Superintendant of Finance, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
received since your Adjournment, which we have the Honor of laying
before you, together with strong Appearances of a Change having
taken Place, on the Part of the Enemy, in the System of conducting
the War, and the evident Necessity of providing against the Effects
of this Change, have induced us to convene you so much earlier
than the Time to which both Houses stood adjourned. The Letters
of the Superintendant of the Finances, and more particularly, the
Letter from His Excellency the Commander in Chief, so powerfully
manifest the absolute Necessity of a Compliance with the Requisitions
of Congress of the second of November last, making not only all the
Plans of the former, which have been approved of by Congress, for
restoring public Credit, and introducing into every Department the
most rigid Economy, the Effects of which have already been so
salutary; but the very Existence of the Army, to depend upon this
Compliance, that nothing is left for us to say upon this Subject more
than to lament that our present Supply Bill, although extremely
burthensome to the People, brings nothing into the Treasury, or
nothing in Comparison with what the People pay and the Demands
of the State; Indeed it does not appear that Congress will derive the
smallest Aid from it, the Distresses of our Trade having destroyed all
Demand for the specific Articles, which must either remain in the
Counties where they are collected until they waste away upon our
Hands, or be sent to Market at an Expence for Transportation, equal
to, if not beyond their whole Value. The Damages sustained by the
Citizens on the Bay Shores, and the Interruption given to our domes-
tic, as well as foreign Trade, since the last Session, will evince more
than any Reasons we can urge, the Necessity of immediately adopting
the most effectual Measures for the internal Defence of the State. The
great Number of Captures made by the Vessels of the Enemy, on
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May 7
Liber No. 78
p. 347
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every Part of the American Coast, the Blocking up of the Delaware
and the Chesapeake Bays, indicate too clearly that the Change in the
System of conducting the War has already began to operate. You
will observe from the Letter Mr Morris to the Intendant, that all the
accounts of the Army are to be setled up to the End of the last year,
that Congress take upon themselves the whole Business of feeding,
cloathing and paying the Army for the present, and succeeding years,
for which Purposes they have called upon the States for sufficient
Supplies; and that partial Advances made by the States to their
Officers or Men for pay due after the Commencement of the present
Year, will not be admitted as Charges against the United States,
nor suffered to be deducted out of the Pay of those receiving the
Advances. In Consequence of those Regulations, we take the Liberty
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p. 348
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