 | CHAPTER IV History of Virginia |  |
3. Supplies and Credit.
Mr. Jefferson in a letter to Governor Henry on the subject
of the "convention prisoners," spoke of Virginia before the
Revolution as "the grain colony, whose surplus of bread used
to feed the West Indies and Eastern States and fill the colony
with hard money."[55]
For the same period he estimated the
value of wheat and Indian corn exported from the colony at
about one-half the value of the tobacco crop, 800,000 bushels
of wheat and 600,000 of Indian corn.[56]
It was owing to the inability of New England to supply
them with flour that the Saratoga prisoners, over 4,000 men,
were marched to Charlottesville in the dead of winter. Then,
in his testimony before the Committee of the House of Commons,
Joseph Galloway said that "Washington's army at
Valley Forge in 1778 was principally supplied with provisions
from Virginia and North Carolina by way of Chesapeake
Bay."[57]
Smollett, in his Continuation of Hume's History of
England, declared[58]
"that tobacco, Virginia's staple crop, was
the chief foundation of the credit of these states in Europe,"
and he mentions the immense importance of the trade of the
Chesapeake Bay with the West Indies, through which powder
and supplies of all kinds were obtained.[59]
It appears that the
object of the fleet of Sir George Collier, who, with General
Matthew, invaded Virginia in 1779, was to cut off this trade and
was constantly supplied provisions." But Clinton, who was
in tight quarters in New York, could not spare the troops for
long; so after a brief stay in Virginia, the expedition returned
to the place it went from, but, as we have seen, it did a vast
deal of damage. Sir George Collier lodged a protest with
Sir Henry Clinton that, in withdrawing the troops, he gave up
"the very best chance of starving Washington's army and
putting a stop to the war."[60] To cripple, if not to reduce Virginia,
became the cardinal object of the subsequent expeditions
of Leslie, Arnold and Phillips. The importance of
Virginia in furnishing supplies to Greene's army was testified
to by Washington, Jefferson, Greene, Sir Henry Clinton and
Lord Cornwallis. During the calamitous year of 1780, when
most of the states were very delinquent, Virginia overpaid
her quota by $4,081,368.[61] One of the most valuable aids to
the war was James Hunter's iron works at Fredericksburg.
James Mercer, one of the most influential and trusted citizens
of the town and State, said[62] in a letter addressed to the governor,
in April, 1781: "I am sure I need not tell you that it is
from Mr. Hunter's Works that every Camp Kettle has been
supplied for the continental and all other troops employed in
this State & to the Southward this year past—that all the anchors
for this State & Maryland & some for the continent
have been procured from the same works; that, without the
assistance of the Bar Iron made there, even the planters hereabout
& to the Southward of this place, wou'd not be able to
make Bread to eat."
Another of the institutions of Fredericksburg was the Gun
Factory, authorized by an ordinance of the convention, in
1772, and conducted by Colonel Fielding Lewis and Major
Charles Dick. The same gentleman, James Mercer, said in the
same letter in which he mentioned Mr. Hunter's Iron Works:
manufactory of arms is here—that without it, all our arms,
however so little injured wou'd be useless to us; besides the
number of new muskets & bayonets made there, renders that an
object worthy our preserving & the Enemy's destruction—To
this, however, I may add that there is not one spot in the State
so generally useful in our military operations—full one-third
of all new lines rendezvous here; all the troops from North
to South & South to North must pass through this town, where
wagons are repaired, horses shoed and many other &c, which
they cou'd not proceed on without. The troops get provisions
here to the next Stage & no place is so convenient to a very
extensive & productive Country for the reception of Grain
& other Articles of Provision."
The statement of the Board of Commissioners appointed to
fund the debt of the United States when Hamilton was secretary
of the treasury, shows that Virginia's claim for her advances
to the Continent during the entire war was $28,431,145.18.[63]
It appears that owing to the loss of vouchers and
books due to the British invasions, the commissioners allowed
only $19,085,981.51. On the other hand Massachusetts who
had lost very few papers was allowed $17,964,613.03, but as
the Federal Government during the war had advanced to Virginia
$869,000.51, and to Massachusetts $2,277,146.98, their
net contributions were respectively for Virginia $18,216,981.00
and for Massachusetts $15,687,466.05, so that Virginia's net
contribution exceeded that of Massachusetts by $2,529,514.95.
And yet, according to the report of the commissioners, Virginia
was made a debtor state to the amount of $100,879, while
Massachusetts was made a creditor state to the amount of
$1,248,801. One of the largest items in the Massachusetts claim
was $2,000,000 for the abortive expedition against the British
at Castine.
What the basis of the report was is shown in a letter of
Col. William Davies, the Virginia agent. During the war
to contribute one-sixth of the whole expense, but under
the Act of Congress, passed in 1790, population as of the census
of that year was taken as the measure and the quotient for Virginia
became 4- 266/294 and the quotient for Massachusetts
became 7- 105/294. This difference was made through the
great increase, since the peace in 1783, in the population of
Virginia. There was a great immigration into the Valley of
Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia. Now had the old rate
of equality been taken things would have appeared quite differently.
Virginia would have appeared as a creditor state
and Massachusetts as a debtor state.[64] The Federal Government
would have owed Virginia nearly $4,000,000, and Massachusetts
would have owed the Federal Government nearly six
million.
| CHAPTER IV History of Virginia | |