XXXIX. CHAPTER unpaid balance of the sixty-five millions of paper already called for, was a further call for fifteen millions month1779. ly, to commence with February. Georgia, being in posOct. 6. session of the enemy, was excused from this contribution. The efforts at naval warfare on the part of the Americans were by this time a good deal diminished. Several of the Continental vessels had been captured or lost; others, for want of funds, remained on the stocks uncompleted. The vigilance of the British squadron had greatly diminished the number of privateers. Several armed vessels, however, public and private, still kept the seas; and a part of the money obtained in France was expended in fitting out cruisers in the French ports. Of all the American naval commanders, none became so distinguished as John Paul Jones, a Scotsman by birth, but, when the war began, a resident in America, and one of the first officers commissioned in the Continental navy. Appointed to command the Ranger of eighteen guns, he had made himself formidable in the British seas, and had even ventured at descents on the Scotch coast. He presently received the command of a mixed French and American squadron, fitted out in France, but under American colors, of which the heaviest vessel, a forty-two gun ship, was called the Bon Homme Richard. While cruising with this squadron, Jones encountered a fleet of merchant ships from the Baltic, convoyed by a heavy frigate and another vessel. One of the most desperate engageSept. 24. ments recorded in the annals of naval warfare ensued. In spite of the misbehavior of one of Jones's captains, both the British ships were taken; the larger one by boarding from the Bon Homme Richard, which was in a sinking condition at the time, and which went down the day following, in consequence of damages received in the action. CHAPTER XL. FINANCES AND THE ARMY. SOUTH CAROLINA SUBDUED. ARRIVAL OF A FRENCH AUXILIARY FORCE. TOTAL DE- CONGRESS commenced the new year with very anx- CHAPTER XL. Jan. ious deliberations on the all-important subject of finance. Delegates had been appointed from several states to the 1780. proposed Convention at Philadelphia; but the meeting was postponed, to give time for the other states to make. similar appointments. Such, however, was the rapid depreciation of the paper, as speedily to destroy all hopes of any regulation of prices. It soon reached forty for one. The commissaries, greatly in debt, had neither money nor credit, and starvation began to stare the soldiers in the face. To support his army, Washington was again obliged to resort to the harsh expedient of levying contributions on the surrounding country. Each county was called upon for a certain quantity of flour and meat; but, as the civil authorities took the matter of supply in hand, for which certificates were given by the commissaries, on the appraisement of two magistrates, the use of force did not become necessary. In the present unstable state of the currency, the plan Feb. 25 was adopted of calling upon the states for "specific supplies"-beef, pork, flour, corn, hay, tobacco, salt, rum, and rice to be credited at certain fixed prices to the states by which they were furnished. The commissaries, for immediate use, instead of money received draughts XL. CHAPTER on the state treasuries for portions of their unpaid quotas of the requisitions heretofore made. 1780. The states were advised to repeal all laws making the old bills a legal tender. Congress offered to receive gold and silver at the rate of forty for one in discharge of the unpaid state quotas. A plausible scheme was also adopted, which seemed to promise a moderate supply to the federal treasury; and, at the same time, the drawing in and canceling of the outstanding bills of credit, the rapid depreciation of which kept the currency in a complete state of derangement, and operated as a great obstacle to all commercial transactions. As the bills came in, in payment of the fifteen millions monthly already called for, they were to be canceled ; but, for every twenty dollars so canceled, one dollar was to be issued in "new tenor," bearing interest at five per cent., and redeemable in specie within six years; these new bills to be guaranteed by the confederacy, but to be issued on the credit of the individual states in proportion to their payments of the old tenor; each state to provide for redeeming its own issues at the rate of a sixth part yearly, and to receive to its own use six tenths of the new issue, the other four tenths to belong to Congress. This process, if fully carried out, would substitute for the outstanding two hundred millions of old bills ten millions in "new tenor," of which six would go to the states paying in the bills, and four to the federal treasury. While a better, and, it was hoped, a stable currency would thus be provided in place of the old tenor, the states would be furnished with means to purchase "the specifics" demanded by Congress. The federal treasury, also, would be moderately supplied, without the necessity of imposing new taxes. The holders of commissary certificates for supplies fur. XL. nished to the army complained very loudly of being call- CHAPTER ed upon to pay Continental taxes while those certificates were still undischarged. A new impulse was given to 1780. the depreciation of the paper by a resolve of Congress, May 26 that commissary certificates might be received at their nominal value in payment of all Continental taxes. This, in fact, was making so much addition to the already superfluous currency. The same severe winter that arrested the West Tennessee emigrants on their voyage up the Cumberland, froze the Hudson and the harbor of New York. Kniphausen was greatly alarmed for the safety of the city, thus deprived of all the advantages of its insular situation. The garrison and inhabitants, cut off from their usual supplies by water, experienced a great scarcity of fuel and fresh provisions. The whole population was put under arms. It was now that the "Board of Associated Loyalists" was formed, of which Franklin, late royal governor of New Jersey, released by exchange from his tedious confinement in Connecticut, was made president. Washington, however, was in no condition to undertake an attack, and the winter passed off with a few skirmishes. Washington's entire force scarcely exceeded ten thou sand men, a number not equal to the garrison of New York; and even of these a considerable part were militia draughts, whose terms of service were fast expiring. Congress had called upon the states to fill up their quotas by Fel & draughts or new enlistments, so as to constitute an army of thirty-five thousand men. Though only scantily and partially complied with, this requisition led to a new dif ficulty. Recruits could only be obtained by very large bounties, much to the chagrin of the old soldiers enlisted for the war, who saw the service of new comrades paid for at exorbitant rates, while they failed to receive, even CHAPTER in depreciated paper, the moderate stipend for which they had engaged. XL. 1780. There existed, also, another source of complaint. Massachusetts and other states had recognized the depreciation of the currency by making a provision for their soldiers accordingly. This act of justice had not yet been imitated by Pennsylvania. The soldiers of that line and some others complained loudly of this inequality. ConApril 10. gress passed a resolution that, as soon as the state of the finances would allow, the deficiency of pay occasioned by depreciation should be made up to all the troops. But this resolution, however satisfactory in itself, afforded no immediate relief. May A new system was under consideration for the commis sary's and quarter-master's departments, drawn up by Sherman, Mifflin, and Pickering, which Greene denounced, in his private letters, as impracticable, and as intended to embarrass the army-a denunciation which seems to have grown out of the mere fact that Mifflin was concerned in it. After a warm struggle in Congress, this scheme, and, indeed, the whole organization of the army, was referred to a committee, of which Schuyler was chairman, appointed to visit the camp, and, in conjunction with Washington, vested with very extensive powers. In a report sent to Congress shortly after their arrival in camp, this committee represented "that the army was five months unpaid; that it seldom had more than six days' provisions in advance, and was on several occasions, for sundry successive days, without meat; that the army was destitute of forage; that the medical department had neither sugar, tea, chocolate, wine, nor spirits; and that every department was without money, or even the shadow of credit." While the prospect was thus gloomy at the north, the |