Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/188

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LETTER XIV. TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Williamsburg, December 10,1779.

SIR,

I take the liberty of putting under cover to your Excellency, some letters to Generals Phillips and Reidezel, uninformed whe ther they are gone into New York or not, and knowing that you can best forward them in either case.

I also trouble you with a letter from the master of the flag in this State, to the British commissary of prisoners in New York, trusting it will thus be more certainly conveyed than if sent to Mr. Adams. It is my wish the British commissary should return his answer through your Excellency, or your commissary of priso ners, and that they should not propose, under this pretext, to send another flag, as the mission of the present flag is not unattended with circumstances of suspicion ; and a certain information of the situation of ourselves and our allies here, might influence the mea sures of the enemy.

Perhaps your commissary of prisoners can effect the former method of answer.

I enclose to you part df an Act of Assembly ascertaining the quantity of land, which shall be allowed to the officers and soldiers at the close of the war, and providing means of keeping that country vacant which has been allotted for them.

I am advised to ask your Excellency s attention to the case of Colonel Bland, late commander of the barracks in Albemarle. When that gentleman was appointed to that command, he attend ed the Executive here, and informed them, he must either de cline it, or be supported in such a way as would keep up that respect which was essential to his command ; without, at the same time, ruining his private fortune.

The Executive were sensible he would be exposed to great and unavoidable expense : they observed, his command would be in ^department separate from any other, and that he actually re lieved a Major General from the same service. They did not think themselves authorised to say what should be done in this case, but undertook to represent the matter to Congress, and, in the mean time, gave it as their opinion that he ought to be allowed a decent table. On this, he undertook the office, and in the course of it incurred expenses which seemed to have been unavoidable, unless he would have lived in such a way as is hardly reconcile-