CHAPTER speculators. This same convention also recommended XXXVII. the redemption of all state issues, and the levying of 1777. taxes for the support of the war-a policy already adopted by Massachusetts and some other states.

The doings of the Springfield Convention being laid Nov. 22. before Congress, that body acknowledged the already excessive issues of paper, and earnestly recommended to the several states to raise by taxation, for the service of the ensuing year, five millions of dollars for the federal treasury, according to a provisional assignment of quotas. Congress also recommended to refrain from the further. issue of state bills of credit; to call in and redeem those already out exceeding one dollar in amount; and to provide for state expenses in future by taxes to be levied within the year. Three conventions were also proposedone for the eight northern states, another for Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, and a third for South Carolina and Georgia; to meet early the next year, for the purpose of fixing a new scale of prices, to be enacted and enforced by the several state Legislatures; the Continental commissaries to be authorized to seize goods at those prices when the holders of superfluous stocks refused to sell them.

Nov. 27.

A recommendation followed to make speedy sale of all property belonging to persons "who had forfeited the right to the protection of their several states," the proceeds to be invested in loan-office certificates. So far as forfeiture and sale were concerned, this recommendation was not unheeded. Acts already had been, or soon were passed, in most of the states, proscribing all wealthy absentees by name, and putting their property into the hands of trustees-the proceeds, after paying their debts, and making some provision for their families when resident, to be paid into the state treasuries. As a finan

XXXVII.

cial expedient, this procedure proved a complete failure; CHAPTER but it gratified party hatred, and served to enrich some speculators.

1777.

The disaffected, it was said, combined to give a preference to the old colonial paper money over that of revolutionary origin; and the states were advised to call in Dec. 3. and replace by their own, or by Continental bills, all circulating paper bearing date prior to the battle of Lexington.

The pressing wants of the soldiers occasioned a further recommendation to seize for the army's use all woolens, Dec. 31. blankets, stockings, shoes, and hats in the hands of any citizen of the United States for the purpose of sale, giving receipts for the same, and to inflict penalties on all who should attempt to evade such seizure; also, to authorize the Continental commissaries to seize, under similar receipts, all stock and provisions necessary for the army, "purchased up or engrossed by any person with a view of selling the same." For the restraint of persons "endeavoring, by every means of oppression, sharping, and extortion, to procure enormous gains," it was recommended to limit the number of retail traders, and to impose bonds upon them to observe all laws made for their regulation. Conscious of the arbitrary harshness of these recommendations, Congress, in the circular letter which proposed them, declared that "laws unworthy the character of infant republics are become necessary to supply the defects of public virtue, and to correct the vices of some of her sons."

The immediate occasion of this recommendation was a transaction at Boston, as to which Congress complained that, after their agent had agreed to purchase a certain quantity of clothing" at the most extravagant rate of ten to eighteen hundred per cent.," the sellers even then re

XXXVII.

CHAPTER fused to deliver the goods unless the money were first paid down, "thereby adding to extortion the crime of 1777. wounding the public credit," and "manifesting a disposition callous to the feelings of humanity, and untouched by the severe sufferings of their countrymen, exposed to a winter's campaign in defense of the common liberties of their country." It appeared, however, when this subject came to be investigated by the Massachusetts Legislature, that the prices asked were only the current rates, while the alleged refusal to deliver the goods unless paid for was flatly denied.

The root of the difficulty was the growing amount of expenditure, the increasing depreciation of the paper money, and the real scarcity of manufactured goods, especially clothing and blankets, occasioned by the interruption of commerce and the non-arrival of expected supplies from France. The outgoes from the federal treasury for the current year reached, in specie value, about twenty-five millions of dollars-a greater sum, by five millions, than the total expenditure of the two previous years. During those years, however, very large advances had been made by the states in paper money and otherwise, to an amount exceeding, perhaps, the whole expenditures from the federal treasury-advances which had burdened the states with very heavy debts, and which they had not been able to continue.

Warned by the events of the last winter, Howe kept his troops within a strongly fortified line, extending from the Delaware to the Schuylkill. Once, indeed, he marchDec. 10. ed out, and a skirmish ensued, which seemed likely to end in a general engagement; but the British army suddenly retired. They did not even attempt to forage without sending out very strong parties.

Determined to restrict the enemy within the narrowest

XXXVII.

possible limits, Washington established his winter quar- CHAPTER ters at Valley Forge, a piece of high and strong ground on the south side of the Schuylkill, about twenty miles 1777. from Philadelphia. The soldiers, to the number of eleven thousand, were quartered in log huts, arranged in streets like a city, each hut containing fourteen men. To facilitate such movements as might be necessary, a bridge was thrown across the Schuylkill; and, to prevent the country people from supplying Philadelphia with forage and provisions, bodies of light horse and militia were stationed at different points. With the same object in view, and to serve as a guard to the State of Delaware, the Maryland line, reduced now to fourteen hundred men, were stationed at Wilmington. The chief body of the horse was sent to Trenton; but Pulaski encountered great difficulties in finding either quarters for his men or forage for his horses.

The Pennsylvania Assembly, then in session at Lancaster, protested against this going into winter quarters; but the state of the army made it absolutely necessary. Such was the destitution of shoes that all the late marches had been tracked in blood—an evil which Washington had endeavored to mitigate, by offering a premium for the best pattern of shoes made of untanned hides. For want of blankets, many of the men were obliged to sit up all night before the camp fires. More than a quarter part of the troops were reported unfit for duty because they were "barefoot and otherwise naked." Even provisions failed; and on more than one occasion there was a famine in the camp. However reluctant to adopt such an expedient, Washington was obliged to subsist his army by sending out parties to seize corn and cattle wherever they could find them. Certificates were given for these seizures; but their payment was often long de

XXXVII.

CHAPTER layed, and when finally met, it was in the depreciated Continental bills, contrasting very unfavorably with the 1777. gold in which the British paid. Washington had complained loudly during the recent movements of the inefficiency of the quarter-master's department, left, by Mifflin's resignation, in total confusion, and without a head. This disorder was the more felt, because it appertained to that department to transport impressed supplies to the camp.

Washington addressed energetic remonstrances, not to Congress only, but to the states, and not without effect. The Convention, recommended by Congress, of delegates from the eight northern states, met at New Haven, and 1778. agreed upon a scale of prices, according to which proviJan. 8. sions and clothing were to be paid for by the army com

missaries. Some of the states attempted, by legislation, to enforce the New Haven scale of prices generally; but these attempts proved no more successful than former ones of the same sort. Recourse was also had, with the same object in view, to internal embargoes, which proved a great embarrassment to commerce.

The state authorities of Pennsylvania, though very sore at the loss of their capital, and dissatisfied at Washington's going into winter quarters, yet exerted themselves for the relief of the army by passing an act against forestalling, and another regulating the supply of wagons for transporting impressed provisions to camp-acts, however, which did not quite come up to the wishes and expectations of the commander-in-chief.

While Washington was exerting himself to the ut most to preserve the army from total disorganization, a project was on foot to remove him from the chief command. Several persons conspicuous in Congress and the army were more or less concerned in this movement;