Phila. June 26th. 1781
Sir,
We received your Excellencys Letter which you did us the honor to write the 22d Inst.
We are truely sensible of your Excellencys & the Councils inclination to support us in this place, We have only to regret that the means in your power have not hitherto been adequate to the purpose; but if the Tobacco which you put under Mr Keys direction, arrives safe, we shall be relieved from every Difficulty wch. we have for some time laboured under.
We have not seen Mr Mollohon, but have not the least doubt of his honoring Mr Keys Order.1
By Letters from the Marquis Fayette the 18th at Allens Creek2 22 Miles from Richmond (where Lord Cornwallis was then encamped) we are informed, that the Marquis having been joined, by Wayne, some Riflemen & Militia, and being informed that Cornwallis was marching towards Baron Steuben, He the Marquis by a forced March got between his Lordship & the Baron which obliged the former to change his rout and March to Richmond.
We are sorry that the 300 stand of Arms which were to be sent off last Tuesday by the board of War to Maryland, only goes this day, We are promissed that the others to the amount of 1500 including the 200 sent & the 300 shall soon follow, the pressing demands from Virga. has prevented our coming in for our share sooner.3 You may depend that we shall give every attention in our power to this object ’till it is fully obtained. Congress have not received any late information either from Europe or the West Indias.
We have the honor to be with the highest respect & Esteem, Sr, your Excs. most obedient Servants,
Daniel of St Thos Jenifer
Danl. Carroll
R. Potts
Receiver’s copy, Maryland State Papers (Red Books), Maryland Hall of Records Commission, Annapolis. Written by Jenifer and signed by Jenifer, Carroll, and Potts.
1 In its letter of June 22 the Maryland Council informed the delegates that Philip Key was currently transporting 230 hogsheads of tobacco to be sold in Philadelphia for their use and that Key had drawn an order on William Molohon of Philadelphia for £60 specie to be delivered to them. See Md. Archives, 45:483. See also the Maryland delegatesâ letter to Lee of May 28 (not in printed text), and their two letters of June 12, 1781.
2 Lafayette had sent Congress a copy of his June 18 report to Nathanael Greene under a brief covering letter of the same date, which was read on June 25. See JCC, 20:693; PCC, item 156, fols. 149 - 52; and Lafayette, Papers (Idzerda), 4:191 - 93.
3 For the effort to secure arms for Maryland, see Maryland Delegates to Lee, June 4, and Richard Potts to Lee, June 19, 1781, note 3.