University of Virginia Library

TO PHILIP MAZZEI.[1]

My Dear Friend,—I have received two copies
of your favor of the 7th of December last, and three

of that of the 30th of November preceding. Having
neglected to bring with me from Virginia the cypher
concerted between you and the Executive, I still
remain ignorant of the paragraph in your last which
I suppose the best worth knowing.

The state of our affairs has undergone so many
vicissitudes since you embarked for Europe, and I
can so little judge how far you may have had intelligence
of them, that I am at a loss where I ought to
begin my narrative. As the present posture of them
is the most interesting, I shall aim at nothing further
at present than to give you some idea of that, referring
to past events so far only as may be necessary
to explain it.

The insuperable difficulties which opposed a general
conquest of America seemed as early as the year
1779 to have been felt by the enemy, and to have
led them into the scheme of directing their operations
and views against the Southern States only.
Clinton accordingly removed with the principal part
of his force from New York to South Carolina, and

laid siege to Charleston, which, after an honorable
resistance, was compelled to surrender to a superiority
of force. Our loss in men, besides the inhabitants
of the town, was not less than two thousand. Clinton
returned to New York. Cornwallis was left with
about five thousand troops to pursue his conquests.
General Gates was appointed to the command of the
Southern department, in place of Lincoln, who commanded
in Charleston at the time of its capitulation.
He met Cornwallis on the 16th of August, 1780,
near Camden, in the upper part of South Carolina
and on the border of North Carolina. A general
action ensued, in which the American troops were
defeated with considerable loss, though not without
making the enemy pay a good price for their victory.
Cornwallis continued his progress into North Carolina,
but afterwards retreated to Camden. The
defeat of Gates was followed by so general a clamor
against him, that it was judged expedient to recall
him. Greene was sent to succeed in command.
About the time of his arrival at the army, Cornwallis,
having been reinforced from New York, resumed his
enterprise into North Carolina. A detachment of
his best troops was totally defeated by Morgan with
an inferior number, and consisting of a major part of
militia detached from Greene's army. Five hundred
were made prisoners, between two and three hundred
killed and wounded, and about the like number
escaped. This disaster, instead of checking the
ardor of Cornwallis, afforded a new incentive to a
rapid advance, in the hope of recovering his prisoners.
The vigilance and activity, however, of
Morgan, secured them. Cornwallis continued his
pursuit as far as the Dan river, which divides North
Carolina from Virginia. Greene, whose inferior
force obliged him to recede this far before the
enemy, received such succors of militia on his entering
Virginia that the chase was reversed. Cornwallis,
in his turn, retreated precipitately. Greene
overtook him on his way to Wilmington, and attacked
him. Although the ground was lost on our
side, the British army was so much weakened by the
loss of five or six hundred of their best troops, that
their retreat towards Wilmington suffered little interruption.
Greene pursued as long as any chance of
reaching his prey remained, and then, leaving Cornwallis
on his left, took an oblique direction towards
Camden, which, with all the other posts in South
Carolina except Charleston and Ninety-Six, have, in
consequence, fallen again into our possession. His
army lay before the latter when we last heard from
him. It contained seven or eight hundred men and
large quantities of stores. It is nearly two hundred
miles from Charleston, and, without some untoward
accident, cannot fail of being taken. Greene has
detachments all over South Carolina, some of them
within a little distance of Charleston; and the resentments
of the people against their late insolent masters
ensure him all the aids they can give in re-establishing
the American Government there. Great progress
is also making in the redemption of Georgia.

As soon as Cornwallis had refreshed his troops at

Wilmington, abandoning his Southern conquests to
their fate, he pushed forward into Virginia. The
parricide Arnold had a detachment at Portsmouth
when he lay on the Dan; Philips had reinforced him
so powerfully from New York, that the juncture of
the two armies at Petersburg could not be prevented.
The whole force amounted to about six thousand
men. The force under the Marquis De La Fayette,
who commanded in Virginia, being greatly inferior,
did not oppose them, but retreated into Orange and
Culpeper in order to meet General Wayne, who was
on his way from Pennsylvania to join him. Cornwallis
advanced northward as far as Chesterfield, in
the county of Caroline, having parties at the same
time at Page's warehouse and other places in its vicinity.
A party of horse, commanded by Tarleton, was
sent with all the secrecy and celerity possible to surprise
and take the General Assembly and Executive
who had retreated from Richmond to Charlottesville.
The vigilance of a young gentleman who discovered
the design and rode express to Charlottsville
prevented a complete surprise. As it was, several
Delegates were caught, and the rest were within an
hour of sharing the same fate. Among the captives
was Colonel Lyon of Hanover. Mr. Kinlock, a
member of Congress from South Carolina, was also
caught at Mr. John Walker's, whose daughter he had
married some time before. Governor Jefferson had
a very narrow escape. The members of the Government
rendezvoused at Stanton, where they soon
made a House. Mr. Jefferson's year having expired,
he declined a re-election, and General Nelson has
taken his place. Tarleton's party retreated with as
much celerity as it had advanced. On the junction
of Wayne with the Marquis and the arrival of militia,
the latter faced about and advanced rapidly on Cornwallis,
who retreated to Richmond, and thence precipitately
to Williamsburg, where he lay on the 27th
ultimo. The Marquis pursued, and was at the same
time within twenty miles of that place. One of his
advanced parties had had a successful skirmish within
six miles of Williamsburg. Bellini has, I understand,
abided patiently in the college the dangers and inconveniences
of such a situation. I do not hear that
the consequences have condemned the experiment.
Such is the present state of the war in the Southern
Department. In the Northern, operations have
been for a considerable time in a manner suspended.
At present, a vigorous siege of New York by General
Washington's army, aided by five or six thousand
French troops under Count De Rochambeau, is in
contemplation, and will soon commence. As the
English have the command of the water, the result
of such an enterprise must be very uncertain. It is
supposed, however, that it will certainly oblige the
enemy to withdraw their force from the Southern
States, which may be a more convenient mode of
relieving them than by marching the troops from
New York at this season of the year to the southward.
On the whole, the probable conclusion of this
campaign is, at this juncture, very flattering, the
enemy being on the defensive in every quarter.

The vicissitudes which our finances have undergone
are as great as those of the war, the depreciation
of the old continental bills having arrived at
forty, fifty, and sixty for one. Congress, on the 18th
of March, 1780, resolved to displace them entirely
from circulation, and substitute another currency, to
be issued on better funds, and redeemable at a shorter
period. For this purpose, they fixed the relative
value of paper and specie at forty for one; directed
the States to sink by taxes the whole two hundred
millions in one year, and to provide proper funds for
sinking in six years a new currency which was not to
exceed ten millions of dollars, which was redeemable
within that period, and to bear an interest of five per
cent., payable in bills of exchange on Europe or hard
money. The loan-office certificates granted by Congress
are to be discharged at the value of the money
at the time of the loan; a scale of depreciation being
fixed by Congress for that purpose. This scheme
has not yet been carried into full execution. The
old bills are still unredeemed, in part, in some of the
States, where they have depreciated to two, three,
and four hundred for one. The new bills, which
were to be issued only as the old ones were taken in,
are consequently in a great degree still unissued; and
the depreciation which they have already suffered has
determined Congress and the States to issue as few
more of them as possible. We seem to have pursued
our paper projects as far as prudence will warrant.
Our medium in future will be principally specie. The
States are already levying taxes in it. As the paper

disappears, the hard money comes forward into circulation.
This revolution will also be greatly facilitated
by the influx of Spanish dollars from the Havannah,
where the Spanish forces employed against the
Floridas[3] consume immense quantities of our flour,
and remit their dollars in payment. We also receive
considerable assistance from the direct aids of our
ally, and from the money expended among us by his
auxiliary troops. These advantages, as they have
been and are likely to be improved by the skill of
Mr. Robert Morris, whom we have constituted minister
of our finances, afford a more flattering prospect
in this department of our affairs than has existed at
any period of the war.

The great advantage the enemy have over us lies
in the superiority of their navy, which enables them
continually to shift the war into defenceless places,
and to weary out our troops by long marches. The
squadron sent by our ally to our support did not
arrive till a reinforcement on the part of the enemy
had counteracted their views. They have been almost
constantly blocked up at Rhode Island by the
British fleet. The effects of a hurricane in the last
spring on the latter gave a temporary advantage to
the former, but circumstances delayed the improvement
of it till the critical season was past. Mr.
Destouches, who commanded the French fleet, nevertheless
hazarded an expedition into Chesapeake bay.
The object of it was to co-operate with the Marquis

de la Fayette in an attack against Arnold, who lay at
Portsmouth with about fifteen hundred British troops.
Had he got into the bay, and taken a favorable station,
the event would certainly have been adequate to our
hopes. Unfortunately, the British fleet, which followed
the French immediately from Rhode Island,
reached the capes of Virginia first. On the arrival of
the latter, a regular and fair combat took place. It
lasted for several hours, and ended rather in favor of
of our allies. As the enemy, however, were nearest
the capes, and one of the French ships had lost her
rudder, and was otherwise much damaged, the commander
thought it best to relinquish his object, and
return to his former station. The damage sustained
by the enemy, according to their own representation,
exceeded that of the French; and as their number of
ships and weight of metal were both superior, it does
great honor to the gallantry and good conduct of Mr.
Destouches. Congress, and indeed the public at
large, were so sensible of this, that their particular
thanks were given him on this occasion.

No description can give you an adequate idea of
the barbarity with which the enemy have conducted
the war in the Southern States. Every outrage which
humanity could suffer has been committed by them.
Desolation rather than conquest seems to have been
their object. They have acted more like desperate
bands of robbers or buccaneers than like a nation
making war for dominion. Negroes, horses, tobacco,
&c., not the standards and arms of their antagonists,
are the trophies which display their success. Rapes,

murders, and the whole catalogue of individual cruelties,
not protection and the distribution of justice,
are the acts which characterize the sphere of their
usurped jurisdiction. The advantage we derive from
such proceedings would, if it were purchased on other
terms than the distresses of our citizens, fully compensate
for the injury accruing to the public. They are
a daily lesson to the people of the United States of
the necessity of perseverance in the contest; and
wherever the pressure of their local tyranny is removed,
the subjects of it rise up as one man to
avenge their wrongs and prevent a repetition of them.
Those who have possessed a latent partiality for
them, as their resentment is embittered by their disappointment,
generally feel most sensibly their injuries
and insults, and are the foremost in retaliating
them. It is much to be regretted that these things
are so little known in Europe. Were they published
to the world in their true colors, the British nation
would be hated by all nations as much as they have
heretofore been feared by any, and all nations would
be sensible of the policy of abridging a power which
nothing else can prevent the abuse of.