University of Virginia Library

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.[1]

Dear Sir,—Mr. Webb being detained till this
morning, I enclose the gazette of it. You will find a
singular extract from Lord North's budget. The
speech was delivered on the eleventh of March. It
must have been Mr. Ross's contract, therefore, and
not Mr. Morris's, which supplied this article. I am
just told that the Senate have put their veto on the
resolutions of the House of Delegates against the latter.
If an existing law, however, prohibits the exportation,
and one branch of the Legislature protests
against the authority of Congress to dispense with it,
the Executive will scarcely suffer the tobacco to
be exported. * * * The proviso in the resolutions
in favor of the contract of the State agents,
furnishes, I find, a copious topic for anti-Virginian
critics. It is inconsistent with the laws of the
State—with the ordinances of Congress—with the
treaty with France—with gratitude to our allies—for
tobacco to be shipped to New York, by Mr. Morris,
for the advantage of the United States; but if the

identical tobocco be shipped by Mr. Ross, for the advantage
of Virginia, the inconsistency is done away
in the eyes of the House of Delegates of Virginia.