Jefferson wants to quit the Virginia governorship, 1780

Letters like this, to Gen. Edward Stevens on 12 September 1780, show the dismal condition of the Virginia militia during Jefferson's second term:

"Your letters of Aug 27 & 30th are now before me. The subsequent desertions of your militia have taken away the necessity of answering the question of how they shall be armed? On the contrary as there must now be a surplus of arms I am in hopes you will endeavor to reserve them as we have not here a sufficient number...."

The following day, Jefferson expressed his frustration with the job of Virginia governor to Richard Henry Lee:

"The application to the duties of the office I hold so excessive, and the execution of them after all so imperfect, that I have determined to retire from it at the close of the present campaign. I wish a successor to be thought of in time who, to sound Whiggism, can join perseverance in business and an extensive knoledge of the various subjects he must superintend."

Washington: "Unless Congress...act[s] with more energy...our case is lost."

On May 31, 1780, General Washington wrote Joseph Jones, Virginia congressional representative and James Monroe's uncle, about his fears of the weakness of the American government: 

“Certain I am, unless Congress speak in a more decisive tone, unless they are vested with powers by the several States competent to the great purposes of war, or assume them as matter of right, and they and the States respectively act with more energy than they have hitherto done, that our case is lost. We can no longer drudge on in the old way. By ill timing the adoption of measures, by delays in the execution of them, or by unwarrantable jealousies, we incur enormous expenses and derive no benefit from them. One State will comply with a requisition of Congress ; another neglects to do it; a third executes it by halves ; and all differ either in the manner, the matter, or so much in point of time, that we are always working up hill ; and, while such a system as the present one or rather want of one prevails, we shall ever be unable to apply our strength or resources to any advantage.

"This, my dear Sir, is plain language to a member of Congress; but it is the language of truth and friendship. It is the result of long thinking, close application, and strict observation. I see one head gradually changing into thirteen.”