Aug. 23, 1783.
* * * * I would take this opportunity also of calling your attention to
concurrent resolutions of the Legislature, respecting the garrisoning
of the Western posts in this State, which, by the provisional treaty,
are to be evacuated by the British. These resolutions were in the tenor
of instructions to our delegates, and were immediately transmitted to
them; but as I have not been favored with any official information of
the result, I submit it to you whether some report on a subject so
interesting to the State, may not be necessary for the satisfaction
of the Legislature. From informal communications made to me by the
Commander-in-Chief, I have reason to believe, that he has directions
from Congress for garrisoning those posts with continental troops,
and that he is making arrangements for that purpose. But as you will
observe, that as it was the sense of the Legislature, that those posts
should have been garrisoned by the State, an explanation on the subject
becomes the more necessary; and it is now for this reason alone, I
would request, that you would be pleased to favor me with a particular
detail of the motives which influenced the determination of Congress on
this occasion. For it will readily be perceived, that should Congress,
at this late day, accede to the propositions made by the State, it
might be impracticable to carry them into execution, especially, as I
have not ventured, in the state of uncertainty in which I was left,
to incur the expense which the necessary preparations for the purpose
would have required * * *
Geo. Clinton.