Page:Lewis Nicola to George Washington - 1787-05-22 - 0261.jpg

 (Among Gen. Washingtons Letters there is a remarkable answer to the following memoir, dated May 22.d 1782)

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The injuries the troops have received on their pecuniary right have been, & still continue to be too obvious to require particular detail, or to have escaped your Excellencies notice, tho your exalted station must have deprived you of opportunity of information relative to the severe distresses occasioned thereby. Tho doubtless the particular circumstances of the times have occasioned many of these injuries, yet we have great reason to believe they are not allowing to that cause, but often occasioned by schemes of economy in the legislatures of some States, & publick ministers, founded on unjust & iniquitous principles; and tho, as the prospect of publick affairs cleared up, the means of fulfilling engagements increased, yet the injuries, instead of being lessened, have kept pace with them. This gives us a dismal prospect for the time to come, & much reason to fear the future provision, promised to officers, and the setting & satisfying their & the men's just demands will be little attended to, when our services are no longer wanted, and that the recompense of all our toils, hardships, expence of private fortune &c during several of the best years of our lives will be, to those who cannot earn a livelyhood by manual labour, beggary, & that we who have born the heat & labour of the day will be forgot and neglected by such as reap the benefits without suffering any of the hardships.

It may be said that depreciations have been made up, but how has this been done? By depreciated paper money & certificates of such a nature as to be of little benefit to the original possessors, whose necessities have compelled them to part with those obligations to speculators for a small part of their value, never more, as far as I can learn, than one tenth, but often less.