XLIII CHAPTER tificates, amounted to nineteen millions and a half of specie dollars. To meet this large sum, the yet unpaid 1781. requisitions of the last year were counted on for nine millions, and three installments of the six million requisition lately made for an additional four millions and a half The exchange of the outstanding "old tenor' for bills of the new emission, if completed, would put three millions two hundred thousand dollars into the federal treasury. Half a million in commissary certificates was reckoned on as the produce of the outstanding paper money requisi tions. Half a million more was hoped for as the produce of a proposed federal duty of five per cent. on all imports. Such an impost, as a fund toward paying the interest and principal of the public debt, had been recommended by a convention of the New England states, held at Hartford the preceding autumn. This proposition had been Feb. 3. approved by Congress; the states had been called upon to make the necessary grant of authority; some of them had already complied, and the consent of the rest was confidently expected. The greater part of this expected income failed to be realized. The new tenor" scheme did not answer the expectation of its projectors. Several of the states declined altogether to adopt it. In those which did, as the old paper continued to depreciate, the new suffered a corresponding decline. Taught by experience, "the inefficiency of all attempts to support the credit of paper money by compulsory acts," Congress recommended the repeal May 22. of any laws which might still be in force making paper bills of any sort a legal tender. At the same time, the states were informed that, as the expenses of the campaign had been calculated in "solid coin," the requisition must be met in that or its equivalent. So far from being such an equivalent, the "new tenor" had sunk to XLIII. tour for one; and as its further issue must be attended CHAPTER with heavy loss, Congress advised to stop it. After a good deal of discussion, it had been determined, 1781. early in the year, to abandon the old system of boards and committees, and to put foreign affairs, war, marine, and finance, each under a single head. The first filled of these departments was that of finance, the appointment being accepted by Robert Morris, on the express condition that all transactions should be in specie value. Thus rejected by the government, its creator, the paper money, of which upward of a hundred millions in cld tenor still remained outstanding, declined in value more rapidly than ever. The local paper currencies, to which Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and especially Virginia, had recently made great additions, partook of a similar decline. The paper fell to a hundred, a hundred and twenty-five, two hundred, and presently five hundred for one. Speculators were willing to buy any kind of goods with it at any price, and a large amount was sent from Philadelphia to Boston to be so invested, of which the Bostonians loudly complained. The decline of the paper was so rapid that nobody was willing to hold it for a day. Finally it sank to a thousand for one. The soldiers in camp combined not to take it, and before the end of the year it dropped entirely out of circulation. Washington's circular letter obtained some supplies from New England. Morris made a contract with Pennsylvania, by which he agreed to furnish all the "specifics" required of that state, in value a million of dollars or more, on the credit of certain taxes which the Assembly had imposed. But as yet, impressment of provisions still continued the main resource for supporting the army. Morris could only obtain a little money by selling bills on Franklin, for which it was hoped the French court would CHAPTER enable him to provide. A few of these bills constituted XLIII. the only thing in the nature of cash with which it was. 1781. possible to furnish Greene. Shortly after the arrival of Cornwallis in Virginia, a frigate from the Count de Grasse, the new French admiral in the West Indies, brought information that he might speedily be expected on the American coast with a pow„ne 25. erful fleet. The French army marched from Newport, where it had lain idle for eleven months, to join Washington in the Highlands. Washington and Rochambeau both wrote to the admiral, pressing him to bring addiJuly. tional troops. The combined ariny, moving from the Highlands, encamped within twelve miles of King's Bridge. These movements, and especially an intercepted letter from Washington to Rochambeau, containing allusions to a projected attack on New York, had occasioned the order to Cornwallis to send troops to that city. The arrival of three thousand Hessians had caused the countermand of those orders, and the direction to Corn. wallis, already mentioned, to occupy some strong and central position in Virginia. Aug. Another French frigate presently arrived with information that De Grasse would sail directly for the Chesa peake. His stay must of necessity be short; Washing ton's ranks were still very thin; Rochambeau was op posed to an attack on New York, as too great an undertaking for the force at their disposal; it was finally reAug 17. solved to take advantage of De Grasse's promised aid to strike a blow at Cornwallis in Virginia. Orders were sent to La Fayette to take up a position to cut off the retreat of the British army into North Carolina. At the same time, every effort was made to conceal from Clinton the change of plan, and to keep up the idea that an attack on New York was still intended. XLIII. The French troops, and a division of the American CHAPTER army under Lincoln, crossed the Hudson at King's Ferry, and moved off through New Jersey toward the head 1781 of the Chesapeake; but, to deceive Clinton, ovens were built near the southern waters of New York harbor, as though a large body of troops were to be stationed there. Ignorant of their precise destination, but not well pleased at this long southern march, the New England troops, as they passed through Philadelphia, exhibited some signs of dissatisfaction. It was thought that a small payment in specie would restore their good humor; but Morris, who had already strained his credit to the utmost, was totally destitute of money. Rochambeau advanced him $20,000 from the French military chest, on a promise of repayment by the first of October. At this critical moment Laurens landed at Boston, on his return from Aug. 28 France, with a large supply of clothing, arms, and ammunition, and, what was still more acceptable, half a million of dollars in cash. Besides a loan of four millions of livres, $740,740, to take up the bills already drawn upon him, Franklin had obtained from the French court, before Laurens's arrival, a subsidy of six millions of livres, $1,111,111, to be appropriated principally to the purchase of supplies for the army, but partially, also, to the payment of outstanding acceptances, or such additional bills as might be drawn. The downright and positive manner of Laurens in demanding money was by no means pleasing to the French minister; but Vergennes agreed to guarantee a loan in Holland for the benefit of the United States to the amount of ten millions of livres more, $1,851,851. In communicating to Congress these acceptable favors, the French embassador seriously remonstrated against the practice of drawing bills without any previous provision CHAPTER to take them up-a practice highly embarrassing to the XLIL French treasury, and totally inconsistent with financial 1781. regularity. It was also intimated that the state of the French finances was such as to make the repetition of any such aid as the present entirely out of the question. While Washington was thus furnished with the means of operating with energy and decision, Greene also had again taken the field. His successes had strengthened the hands of the North Carolina Whigs. Abner Nash, the governor of that state for the last two years, had been succeeded by Thomas Burke. A law was passed for compelling the counties to fill up the vacancies in the regi ments of the line. Measures were taken for keeping two thousand militia in the field by means of a monthly draft. Horses were sent to Greene to remount his cavalry; and great efforts were made to buy or borrow arms, of which there was a lamentable deficiency. Three hundred horses were also received from Virginia, impressed by Jeffer son's orders, to save them from falling into the hands of the British. An offer had also been made of militia; but Greene declined it, desiring the state rather to fill up her empty Continental ranks. Jug. 22. The heat having somewhat abated, Greene marched up the Wateree to Camden, crossed that river and the Congaree also, and, being joined by the militia of the upper districts under Pickens, approached the British army, which retired before him down the Santee. Marion also joined Greene's army with his partisan corps. A large mounted party of the enemy, sent out to forage, was sur2pt. 8. prised near Eutaw Springs, and many of them made pris oners. Those who escaped gave the alarm. Colonel Stuart, to whom Rawdon, on his departure for England, had relinquished the command of the British army, formed his troops in an oblique line across the road, in which |