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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

CIRCULAR-LETTER TO THE COUNTY LIEUTENANTS - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 3 (Notes on Virginia I, Correspondence 1780-1782) [1905]

Edition used:

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 3.

Part of: The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols.

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CIRCULAR-LETTER TO THE COUNTY LIEUTENANTS

v. s. a.

In Council. January 19th, 1781.

Sir,

—The invasion of our Country by the enemy at the close of the last Session of Assembly their pushing immediately to this place the Dispersion of the Public Papers which for the purpose of saving them necessarily took place and the injury done at the printing office have been so many causes operating unfortunately to the delay of transmitting you the Acts of Assembly which required immediate execution. The principal of these, the Law for recruiting the Army, having been framed on the Idea that the Militia of the several Counties would be quiet at Home has been peculiarly retarded by the necessity we were under of calling Militia from almost every County. We have seized the earliest moment possible of discharging those of as many Counties as could be, in order that this important Law may be put into a course of execution. It is now enclosed to You. Your duty till the new levies shall be ready to march from the County being precisely pointed out by the Act, I shall take up the subject from that point only. New London, Staunton, Winchester, Fredericksburg and Chesterfield Courthouse are appointed for the rendezvous of the levies. You are at liberty to send them to any of these places, but as they are ultimately to proceed to Chesterfield Courthouse, I would recommend to you to consider this in your choice of rendezvous. At each of these places an officer will attend from the tenth Day of March next for the Purpose of receiving them. You will send them under the charge of an officer who being enabled by the Act itself to provide means of Transportation is hereby authorized to apply for subsistence to any Commissary Commissioner or other Person, Principal or Subordinate having Public Provisions in their Possession and on Failure to obtain a sufficiency in that way he is to impress it, giving certificates to the Persons from whom he shall impress it, and returning to the Auditors a List of such Certificates specifying the Party’s name, Article, Price and Date. Let this Officer be furnished with a proper Certificate from you that he is appointed to this Duty which he is to send to the Auditor’s with his list that they may be satisfied with his authority. I enclose you two blank Calenders in which you will insert the names and descriptions of your levies delivered to the Officer who will be appointed by us to receive them as directed by the Act of Assembly: the one of these he will sign and leave as a Voucher to You, the other should be signed by yourself or the Officer delivering the men for you and left in the hands of the receiving officer. On the close of your Draught I must desire a return of your Militia and as the Law obliges the Captains to make exact returns to you at every General muster, I am to require that from these you make always an exact return to the Executive, that we may have a constant knowledge of the actual strength of your Militia. Notwithstanding the requisition I made you six months ago for a return of your Militia you have not been pleased to comply with it, an Inattention which cannot be justified on any principle of military Subordination and which cannot again pass unnoticed. A very dangerous practice having been introduced by the enemy of laying under Paroles the whole country through which they are at any Time able to March and thereby attempting to disarm its future opposition, has rendered it necessary for Government to take up and reprobate the Idea that any citizen may thus cancel his Duties to his Country. I enclose you a number of proclamations on this subject, and desire that you will put one into the Hand of every Captain in your County with orders to read it at the Head of his Company at every private muster during the present Year.

Such is the present aspect of the enemy towards this Country that no Foresight can predict the moment at which your Militia will be called into active Duty. Let me exhort you therefore and through you your Officers and men to consider that moment as if now come that every man who has or can procure a Gun have it instantly put into the best order a Bayonet fitted to it, a Bayonet belt, Cartouche Box, Canteen with its strap, Tomahawk, Blanket and knapsack. Some of these articles are necessary for his own safety and some for his Health & Comfort. The constant exhausture of the Public Stock of these Articles by calls from all Quarters renders it vain for the Militia to expect to be supplied from thence when they come into the Field, and nothing is so easy as for every man to have them prepared while quiet and at Home. The cartouche box with a leather Flap, a wooden canteen with its strap and a knapsack of thick linen (the better if plaid) are what may be had in any man’s family and there are few neighborhoods which do not afford artificers equal to the repair of a Firelock and furnishing it with a Bayonet. Let me then again to entreat you, Sir, not only to give out in General Orders to Your Captains that these preparations be instantly made but see yourself as far as possible that your orders be carried into execution. The soldiers themselves will thank you when separated from Domestic Accommodation they find through your attention to their happiness provided with conveniences which will administer to their first wants. When you order them into service it will be proper that you order them to bring these things with them. Consider also the sending a waggon with every seventy five men as a standing rule and that the Officer who attends to lay in Provisions for the men on the road always return to the Auditors a list of the certificates he gives stating the name, Article Price and Date in separate columns. These are circumstances always necessary and as in the first hurry of an Invasion when it is necessary to write an infinity of Letters and give a multiplicity of orders, it is not practicable then to enter into these details, I wish now to lay them down to you as standing rules which may save the necessity of repeating them in future on every special occasion. I must request you to make diligent enquiry and search your county for any Public Arms or Accoutrements in the Hands of Individuals to collect them together and make report of them to me.