taken, if, for the animal
sub-sistence of the troops hitherto, we are not principally indebted to
the genius and exertions of Hawkins, during the very short time he
lived after his appointment to that department, by your board. His
eye immediately pervaded the whole state; it was reduced at once to
a regular machine, to a system, and the whole put into movement and
animation by the _fiat_ of a comprehensive mind. If the Commonwealth
of Virginia cannot furnish these troops with bread, I would ask of the
commissariat, which of the thirteen is now become the grain colony? If
we are in danger of famine from the addition of four thousand mouths,
what is become of that surplus of bread, the exportation of which used
to feed the West Indies and Eastern States, and fill the colony with
hard money? When I urge the sufficiency of this State, however, to
subsist these troops, I beg to be understood, as having in contemplation
the quantity of provisions necessary for their real use, and not as
calculating what is to be lost by the wanton waste, mismanagement, and
carelessness of those employed about it. If magazines of beef and
pork are suffered to rot by slovenly butchering, or for want of
timely provision and sale; if quantities of flour are exposed by the
commissaries entrusted with the keeping it, to pillage and destruction;
and if, when laid up in the Continental stores, it is still to be
embezzled and sold, the land of Egypt itself would be insufficient
for their supply, and their removal would be necessary, not to a more
plentiful country, but to more able and honest commissaries. Perhaps,
the magnitude of this question, and its relation to the whole state,
may render it worth while to await, the opinion of the National Council,
which is now to meet within a few weeks. There is no danger of
distress in the mean time, as the commissaries affirm they have a great
sufficiency of provisions for some time to come. Should the measure of
removing them into another State be adopted, and carried into execution,
before the meeting of Assembly, no disapprobation of theirs will bring
them back, because they will then be in the power of others, who will
hardly give them up.

Want of information as to what may be the precise measure proposed by
the Governor and Council, obliges me to shift my ground, and take up the
subject in every possible form. Perhaps they have not thought to remove
the troops out of this State altogether, but to some