the vacant chair was filled by Mr. BOUDINOT. The distribution of the votes was as follows: For Mr. BOUDINOT, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland; for Mr. BLAND, Virginia, South Carolina; for Mr. RUTLEDGE, North Carolina; for Mr. NASH, New York. Massachusetts had no Delegate present but Mr. OSGOOD. Georgia was wholly unrepresented. As you were present at the last election, I need not recite to you the motives to the one in question.

A letter from Carmichael, dated the eighth of July, says, that the resolutions of Congress and the States against separate negotiations with the new British Ministry were exceedingly applauded at the Spanish Court; and that he had discovered that the Imperial and Russian Ministers had renewed an offer of their Courts to Spain. The silence of our other Ministers, in letters of later date, renders the latter article very doubtful.

A letter of the fifth of September, from Mr. Laurens, at Nantz, repeats his purpose to return to America; adding, that the risk of capture, and the advice of his friends, had led him to apply to the Court of London for a passport, via Falmouth and New York, to Philadelphia; that Lord Cornwallis had interested himself in his case, and that the passport was to be transmitted to him. It was uncertain whether he was to embark this fall or wait till the spring. Unless the embarkation from a British port was more 726* than I am aware, a direct passport from France would, in my view, have been more eligible.

* The key to this cipher has not been discovered.

The army, we are informed, by a letter from General Washington of the thirtieth ultimo, are going into their winter cantonments. Part of the British fleet, consisting of fourteen ships of the line, one of forty guns, seven frigates, and fourteen transports, sailed from New York on the twenty-fifth, supposed to be bound to the West Indies, and to have no troops. on board. Two vessels were despatched, it is said, for Charleston, immediately after the arrival of the last packet, for the purpose of countermanding the evacuation.

Mr. JONES has recovered rapidly within a few days past, and has once more got about.

Your favor of the twenty-sixth, past, was duly received yesterday. I am anxious for the new cipher which it promises, as well for my own use as yours, and for the same reasons. I conclude, from your silence as to my late communications in L—————l's cipher, that the key I sent you some time ago answered its purpose.

95

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, November 19, 1782.

I find, by your favor of the eighth, that your occupation with the Court has continued to be a bar to the completion of the cipher. It is very little missed, however, on my part, as yet; the scantiness of intelligence being still unremoved. We have, indeed, reports without stint, but they are often most frequent when they have least foundation. Such of them as have the best title to notice will be found in the

newspapers. The proceedings of Congress, for a week past, have been equally unproductive of epistolary matter. For one half of the time we have failed in making a house, and the remaining half has been spent on minute objects.

Colonel Bland set out on Friday last. He carried with him an official notification to Mr. Jefferson of his appointment. I wrote to the latter, informing him of an excellent passage, if he could be ready for it, in about a month, but urging a previous visit to this place as indispensable. Although, strictly speaking, such a visit may not be essential, since the commission and instructions referred to in his appointment are at the place of his destination, yet I wish him to be made sensible of the salutary information which may be added to them. Col. Bland also carried to the Governor an extract of a letter from General Irwin at Fort Pitt, which displays in full colors the avidity of the Western people for the vacant lands and for separate governments. On this subject, Richmond, I suppose, will afford better information. I take it for granted, that every material article of it with the steps taken by the Legislatures with respect to Western affairs in general, will fall within your correspondence.

The prospect derived from the impost of the five per cent. seems to be pretty thoroughly blasted by a unanimous and final veto by the Assembly of Rhode Island. This State by its Delegates, (who fully represent the aversion of their constituents to the impost,) voted in Congress that six millions of dollars were necessary for the year '83; that two millions were as much as the States could raise, and as ought to be required by Congress; and that applications for

loans in Europe ought to be relied on for the residue. And yet they absolutely refuse the only fund which could be satisfactory to lenders. The indignation against this perverse sister is increased by her shameful delinquency in the constitutional requisitions.

The tribunal erected for the controversy between Connecticut and Pennsylvania was, I hear, to be opened to-day. The judges who compose it are, Mr. Whipple, of New Hampshire, Mr. Arnold of Rhode Island, the Chief Justice and another gentleman of New Jersey, and Mr. C. Griffin, of Virginia. Mr. Rutledge, Mr. Jones, and General Nelson have declined the service. On the part of Pennsylvania, appear Mr. Wilson, Mr. Reed, Mr. Bradford, and Mr. Sergeant; Mr. Osborne assists in the capacity of Solicitor. On the part of Connecticut, are deputed Mr. Dyer, Mr. Root, and Dr. Samuel Johnson. The first and the last, I am told, are on the spot. It is supposed that the first object of Connecticut will be to adjourn the cause to a distant day, on the plea that many of their essential documents are beyond the Atlantic. In a national view, it is not, perhaps, advisable to invalidate the title of this State, however defective it may be, until a more important controversy is terminated. I will make the earliest communication of the issue of this trial. You will not forget a like promise which your letter makes with respect to the case lately decided by the Court of Appeals.96

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, November 26, 1782.

The Governor, in his letter to the Delegates of the eighth of the present month, after observing that the great scarcity of cash in Virginia will put it out of her power to comply with the demands of Congress, unless the Financier will accept tobacco in payment, desires us to sound the latter on that subject. We accordingly called on Mr. Morris, and, to our astonishment, were told that a proposition to this very effect, and to the amount of sixty thousand dollars, had been a considerable time lying before the Executive, that his agent had been instructed to allow the current price, and that he wished to have obtained the tobacco, because it could be immediately sent under a fortunate convoy to Holland, where its influence on public credit might be critical and important. Either, therefore, Mr. Morris must have been basely deceived by his agent, which can hardly be supposed, or the Governor must, in the first place, have rejected a fair offer, and in the next, imposed on us a very nugatory and awkward negotiation. As we concealed from the Superintendent that our inquiries originated with the Governor, he escaped the risk to which he had exposed his character with that Minister. I cannot pass over this circumstance without a lamentation on the obloquy which Virginia brings on herself by submitting to be eclipsed even by the feeble efforts of other States. The monthly lash of the Receiver's proclamation, which has roused so many other States into some degree of emulation,