TO B. FRANKLIN.
Office of Finance. October 27th, 1782.
Sir,
I do myself the honor to enclose the copy of a paper transmitted to me by the Governor of Virginia. The clothing there mentioned is a part of those supplies for the State of Virginia, which the Court of France have charged to the United States. You will recollect the discussions on the subject. It is with a very sincere desire to remove every disagreeable trace of them, that I have agreed to a proposition made me by the Governor of Virginia, in his letter dated in Council Chamber on the 23d of September last, of which the following is an extract. "The regulations you have entered into for clothing the continental army will render useless to the State a quantity of necessaries now in France, furnished by his Most Christian Majesty; as the terms we have them on, which I have before transmitted to you, are such as will make the payment easy to the United States, we shall be obliged to you to take them off our hands, and take the debt so far as they go to the States. You will have a copy of the invoice enclosed, by which you will see, that they will be useful and necessary for the army, which will, I hope, induce you to oblige the State." The enclosed referred to, is that above mentioned. I make no doubt, that the Court will choose to consider the whole of these supplies as advanced on the credit of the United States. And therefore there is so much the less objection to taking a part of the goods. As for the remainder, I think it better for Congress to adjust the matter with Virginia than to plague the King's Ministers with altercations about it.
I am, Sir, your most obedient and humble servant,
ROBERT MORRIS.