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BOSTON: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, UNVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., AS A YOUTHFUL SOLDIER IN THE OLD FRENCH WAR. 1. His Modest Confidence at Twenty-two A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 1. He was a Book Farmer COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION. 1. The only Extant Letter to his Wife IN RETIREMENT AFTER THE REVOLUTION. 1. His Consideration for his Aids PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 1. Virtue and Happiness 1. Farms too large PREFATORY.THE CHARACTER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, I THINK I knew General Washington intimately and thoroughly; and were I called on to delineate his character, it should be in terms like these. His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order; his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke; and, as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion. Hence the common remark of his officers of the advantage he derived from councils of war, where, hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was best; and certainly no general ever planned his battles more judiciously. But if deranged during the course of the action, if any member of his plan was dislocated by sudden circumstances, he was slow in readjustment. The consequence was that he often failed in the field, and rarely against an enemy in station, as at Boston and York. He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was naturally irritable and high-toned; but reflection and resolution had obtained a firm and habitual ascendency over it. If ever, however, it broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath. In his expenses he was honorable, but exact; liberal in contributions to whatever promised utility; but frowning and unyielding on all visionary projects and all unworthy calls on his charity. His heart was not warm in its affections; but he exactly calculated every man’s value, and gave him a solid esteem proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, deportment easy, erect, and noble; the best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen on horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation, his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither copiousness of ideas nor fluency of words. In public, when called on for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, and embarrassed. Yet he wrote readily, rather diffusely, in an easy and correct style. This he had acquired by conversation with the world, for his education was merely reading, writing, and common arithmetic, to which he added surveying at a later day. His time was employed in action chiefly, reading little, and that only in agriculture and English history. His correspondence became necessarily extensive, and, with journalizing his agricultural proceedings, occupied most of his leisure hours within doors. On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular destiny and merit of leading the armies of his country successfully through an arduous war for the establishment of its independence; of conducting its councils through the birth of a government, new in its forms and principles, until it had settled down into a quiet and orderly training, and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the world furnishes no other example. To DOCTOR WALTER JONES, January 2,1814. WORDS OF WASHINGTON.YOUTH.1. RULES WRITTEN FOR HIS HOWN GUIDANCE IN HIS FOURTEENTH YEAR. EVERY action in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those present. In the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming noise, nor drum with your fingers or feet. Be no flatterer; neither play with any one that delights not to be played with. Read no letters, books, or papers in company; but when there is a necessity for doing it, you must ask leave. Come not near the books or writings of any one so as to read them, unless desired, nor give your opinion of them unasked; also, look not nigh when another is writing a letter. Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another, though he were your enemy. When you meet with one of greater quality than yourself, stop and retire, especially if it be at a door or any strait place, to give way for him to pass. Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive. In visiting the sick, do not presently play the physician, if you be not knowing therein. Undertake not to teach your equal in the art himself professes; it savors of arrogancy. When a man does all he can, though it succeeds not well, blame not him that did it. Being to advise or reprehend any one, consider whether it ought to be in public or in private, presently or at some other time, in what terms to do it; and in reproving show no signs of choler, but do it with sweetness and mildness. Take all admonitions thankfully, in what time or place soever given; but afterwards, not being culpable, take a time or place convenient to let him know it that gave them. Mock not, nor jest at anything of importance; break no jests that are sharp-biting, and if you deliver anything witty and pleasant, abstain from laughing thereat yourself. Wherein you reprove another be unblamable yourself; for example is more prevalent than precepts. Use no reproachful language against any one, neither curse, nor revile. Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any. In your apparel, be modest, and endeavor to accommodate nature, rather than to procure admiration; keep to the fashion of your equals, such as are civil and orderly with respect to times and places. Play not the peacock, looking everywhere about you to see if you be well decked, if your shoes fit well, if your stockings sit neatly, and clothes handsomely. Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company. Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for it is a sign of a tractable and commendable nature; and in all causes of passion admit reason to govern. Be not immodest in urging your friend to discover a secret. Utter not base and frivolous things amongst grave and learned men; nor very difficult questions or subjects among the ignorant: nor things hard to be believed. Speak not of doleful things in time of mirth, nor at the table; speak not of melancholy things, as death, and wounds, and if others mention them change, if you can, the discourse. Tell not your dreams but to your intimate friend. Be not tedious in discourse; make not many digressions, nor repeat often the same manner of discourse. Be not angry at table, whatever happens, and if you have reason to be so, show it not; put on a cheerful countenance, especially if there be strangers, for good-humor makes one dish of meat a feast. Set not yourself at the upper end of the table; but if it be your due, or that the master of the house will have it so, contend not, lest you should trouble the company. Let your recreations be manful, not sinful. Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience. 1746. 2 Sparks’s Writings of Washington, 412. 2. A SURVEYOR AT SIXTEEN. SINCE you received my letter of October last I have not slept above three or four nights in a bed, but, after walking a good deal all the day, I have lain down before the fire upon a little hay, straw, fodder, or a bearskin, whichever was to be had, with man, wife, and children, like dogs and cats; and happy is he who gets the berth nearest the fire. Nothing would make it pass off tolerably but a good reward. A doubloon is my constant gain every day that the weather will permit of my going out, and sometimes six pistoles. The coldness of the weather will not allow of my making a long stay, as the lodging is rather too cold for the time of year. I have never had my clothes off, but have lain and slept in them, except the few nights I have been in Frederictown. To A FRIEND, March, 1748. 2 Sparks, 419. AS A YOUTHFUL SOLDIER IN THE OLD FRENCH WAR.1. HIS MODEST CONFIDENCE AT TWENTY-TWO. THE command of the whole forces is what I neither look for, expect, nor desire; for I must be impartial enough to confess it is a charge too great for my youth and inexperience to be intrusted with. Knowing this, I have too sincere a love for my country to undertake that which may tend to the prejudice of it. But if I could entertain hopes that you thought me worthy of the post of lieutenant-colonel, and would favor me so far as to mention it at the appointment of officers, I could not but entertain a true sense of the kindness. I flatter myself, that, under a skilful commander, or man of sense (whom I most sincerely wish to serve under), with my own application and diligent study of my duty, I shall be able to conduct my steps without censure, and in time render myself worthy of the promotion that I shall be favored with now. To RICHARD CORBIN, of the Governor of Virginia’s 2. HE WILL HAVE JUST PAY OR NO PAY. GIVING up my commission is quite contrary to my intention. Nay, I ask it as a greater favor than any amongst the many I have received from your Honor to confirm it to me. But let me serve voluntarily; then I will, with the greatest pleasure in life, devote my services to the expedition without any other reward than the satisfaction of serving my country; but to be slaving dangerously for the shadow of pay, through woods, rocks, mountains,—I would rather prefer the great toil of a daily laborer, and dig for a maintenance, provided I were reduced to the necessity, than serve upon such ignoble terms; for I really do not see why the lives of his Majesty’s subjects in Virginia should be of less value than of those in other parts of his American dominions, especially when it is well known that we must undergo double their hardship. To the GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, May 18, 1754. 3. COLONIAL OFFICERS MUST STAND UPON THE SAME FOOTING AS BRITISH OFFICERS. I HOPE Captain Mackay will have more sense than to insist upon any unreasonable distinction because he and his officers have commissions from his Majesty. Let him consider, though we are greatly inferior in respect to advantages of profit, yet we have the same spirit to serve our gracious King as they have, and are as ready and willing to sacrifice our lives for our country’s good. And here, once more and for the last time, I must say, that it will be a circumstance which will act upon some officers of this regiment beyond all measure, to be obliged to serve upon such different terms, when their lives, their fortunes, and their operations are equally, and, I dare say, as effectually exposed, as those of others, who are happy enough to have King’s commissions. To the GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, June 10, 1754. 4. HARDSHIPS Of THE SERVICE. I WAS out last winter from the 1st of November till some time in January; and notwithstanding I had a good tent, was as properly prepared, and as well guarded, in every respect, as I could be against the weather, yet the cold was so intense that it was scarcely supportable. I believe out of the five or six men that went with me, three of them, though they were as well clad as they could be, were rendered useless by the frost, and were obliged to be left upon the road. To WILLIAM FAIRFAX, of the King’s Council in Virginia, 5. THE DISPUTES WITH GENERAL BRADDOCK. THE General, from frequent breaches of contract, has lost all patience; and, for want of that temper and moderation which should be used by a man of sense upon these occasions, will, I fear, represent us in a light we little deserve; for, instead of blaming the individuals, as he ought, he charges all his disappointments to public supineness, and looks upon the country, I believe, as void of honor and honesty. We have frequent disputes on this head, which are maintained with warmth on both sides, especially on his, as he is incapable of arguing without it, or giving up any point he asserts, be it ever so incompatible with reason or common sense. To WILLIAM FAIRFAX, June 7, 1755. 2 Sparks, 77. 6. HE GIVES GENERAL BRADDOCK GOOD ADVICE. IN the letter which I wrote you from George’s Creek, I acquainted you, that, unless the number of wagons was retrenched, and the carriage-horses increased, we should never be able to see Fort Duquesne. This, in two days afterwards (which was about the time they got to the Little Meadows, with some of their foremost wagons and strongest teams), they themselves were convinced of; for they found that, besides the extreme difficulty of getting the wagons along at all, they had often a line of three or four miles in length; and the soldiers guarding them were so dispersed, that, if we had been attacked either in front, centre, or rear, the part so attacked must have been cut off, or totally routed, before they could be sustained by any other corps. At the Little Meadows a second council was called, (for there had been one before,) wherein the urgency for horses was again represented to the officers of the different corps, and how laudable a further retrenchment of their baggage would be, that the spare ones might be turned over for the public service. In order to encourage this, I gave up my best horse, which I have never heard of since, and took no more baggage than half my portmanteau would easily contain. It is said, however, that the number reduced by this second attempt was only from two hundred and ten or twelve to two hundred, which had no perceivable effect. The General, before they met in council, asked my private opinion concerning the expedition. I urged him, in the warmest terms I was able, to push forward, if he even did it with a small but chosen band, with such artillery and light stores as were necessary; leaving the heavy artillery, baggage, and the like, with the rear division of the army, to follow by slow and easy marches, which they might do safely, while we were advanced in front. As one reason to support this opinion, I urged, that, if we could credit our intelligence, the French were weak at the Fork at present, but hourly expected reinforcements. This advice prevailed. . . . We set out with less than thirty carriages, including those that transported the ammunition for the howitzers, twelve-pounders, and six-pounders, and all of them strongly horsed; which was a prospect that conveyed infinite delight to my mind, though I was excessively ill at the time. But this prospect was soon clouded, and my hopes brought very low indeed, when I found that, instead of pushing on with vigor, without regarding a little rough road, they were halting to level every mole hill, and to erect bridges over every brook, by which means we were four days in getting twelve miles. To his brother, JOHN A. WASHINGTON, June 28, 1755. 7. THE CONSEQUENCES. WE were attacked by a party of French and Indians, whose number, I am persuaded, did not exceed three hundred men; while ours consisted of about one thousand three hundred well-armed troops, chiefly regular soldiers, who were struck with such a panic that they behaved with more cowardice than it is possible to conceive. The officers behaved gallantly, in order to encourage their men, for which they suffered greatly, there being near sixty killed and wounded, a large proportion of the number we had. The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and were nearly all killed; for I believe, out of three companies that were there, scarcely thirty men are left alive. Captain Peyrouny, and all his officers down to a corporal, were killed. Captain Polson had nearly as hard a fate, for only one of his was left. In short, the dastardly behavior of those they call regulars exposed all others that were inclined to do their duty to almost certain death; and at last, in despite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary, they ran, as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to rally them. The General was wounded, of which he died three days after. Sir Peter Halket was killed in the field, where died many other brave officers. I luckily escaped without a wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me. Captains Orme and Morris, two of the aides-de-camp, were wounded early in the engagement, which rendered the duty harder upon me, as I was the only person then left to distribute the General’s orders, which I was scarcely able to do, as I was not half recovered from a violent illness that had confined me to my bed and a wagon for above ten days. To his MOTHER, July 18, 1755. 2 Sparks, 87. 8. A COMMANDING OFFICER SHOULD HAVE THE WERE I to accept the command of the Virginia troops after Braddock’s defeat, I should insist upon some things which ignorance and inexperience made me overlook before, particularly that of having the officers appointed, in some measure, with my advice and with my concurrence. It appears to me strange that a commanding officer should not have this liberty, when it is considered how much the conduct and bravery of an officer influence the men, how much a commanding officer is answerable for the behavior of the inferior officers, and how much his good or ill success, in time of action, depends upon the conduct of each particular one, especially, too, in this kind of fighting, where, being dispersed, each and every one of them has a greater liberty to misbehave than if he were regularly and compactly drawn up under the eyes of his superior. On the other hand, how little credit is given to a commander, who, after a defeat, in relating the cause of it, justly lays the blame on some individual whose cowardly behavior betrayed the whole to ruin! How little does the world consider the circumstances, and how apt are mankind to level their vindictive censures against the unfortunate chief, who perhaps merited least of the blame! Does it not appear, then, that the appointing of officers is a thing of the utmost consequence, a thing that requires the greatest circumspection? Ought it to be left to blind chance, or, what is still worse, to partiality? Should it not be left to a man whose life, and, what is still dearer, whose honor, depends on their good) behavior? To WARNER LEWIS, of the Virginia Legislature, 9. MILITIA MUST SUBMIT TO DISCIPLINE. I SEE the growing insolence of the soldiers, and the indolence and inactivity of the officers, who are all sensible how limited their punishments are, compared with what they ought to be. In fine, I can plainly see, that under the present establishment we shall become a nuisance, an insupportable charge to our country, and never answer any one expectation of the Assembly. And here I must assume the freedom to express some surprise that we alone should be so tenacious of our liberty as not to invest a power, where interest and policy so unanswerably demand it, and whence so much good must consequently ensue. Do we not know that every nation under the Sun finds its account therein, and that, without it, no order or regularity can be observed? Why then should it be expected from us, who are all young and inexperienced, to govern and keep up a proper spirit of discipline without laws, when the best and most experienced can scarcely do it with them? If we consult our interest, I am sure it loudly calls for them. I can confidently assert that recruiting, clothing, arming, maintaining, and subsisting soldiers, who have since deserted, have cost the country an immense sum, which might have been prevented, were we under restraints that would terrify the soldiers from such practices. To the GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, October 11, 1755. 10. ADVICE TO SUBALTERN OFFICERS. REMEMBER that actions, and not the commission, make the officer, and that more is expected from him than the title. Do not forget that there ought to be a time appropriated to attain knowledge, as well as to indulge in pleasure. And as we now have no opportunities to improve from example, let us read for this desirable end. Bland’s and other treatises will give the proper information. January 8, 1756. 2 Sparks, 123. 11. HIS LOYALTY TO BRITAIN. I HUMBLY humbly conceive, where we can pattern after our mother country upon as easy terms as pursuing plans of our own, that we should at least pay that deference to her judgment and experience. To the GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, April 16, 1756. 12. HIS COMPASSION FOR THE VICTIMS OF INDIAN OUTRAGE. THE supplicating tears of the women and moving petitions of the men melt me into such deadly sorrow, that I solemnly declare, if I know my own mind, I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy, provided that would contribute to the people’s ease. To the GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, April 19, 1756. 13. AGAINST SWEARING IN CAMP. COLONEL WASHINGTON has observed that the men of his regiment are very profane and reprobate. He takes this opportunity to inform them of his great displeasure at such practices, and assures them that, if they do not leave them off, they shall be severely punished. The officers are desired, if they hear any man swear, or make use of an oath or execration, to order the offender twenty-five lashes immediately, without a court-martial. For the second offence he will be more severely punished. August, 1756. 2 Sparks, 167. 14. THE CURSE OF UNDISCIPLINED MILITIA ENLISTED FOR SHORT TERMS. THE waste of provision they make is unaccountable; no method or order in being served or purchasing at the best rates, but quite the reverse. Allowance for each man, as in the case of other soldiers, they look upon as the highest indignity, and would sooner starve than carry a few days’ provision on their backs for conveniency. But upon their march, when breakfast is wanted, they knock down the first beef they meet with, and, after regaling themselves, march on till dinner, when they take the same method, and so for supper, to the great oppression of the people. Or, if they chance to impress cattle for provision, the valuation is left to ignorant and interested neighbors, who have suffered by those practices, and, despairing of their pay, exact high prices, and thus the public is imposed upon at all events. I might add, I believe, that, for the want of proper laws to govern the militia (I cannot ascribe it to any other cause), they are obstinate, self-willed, perverse, of little or no service to the people, and. very burdensome to the country. Every individual has his own erode notions of things, and must undertake to direct. If his advice is neglected, he thinks himself slighted, abused, and injured; and, to redress his wrongs, will depart for his home. These, sir, are literally matters of fact, partly from persons of undoubted veracity, but chiefly from my own observations. To the GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIAN, November 9, 1756. 15. THE SERVICE EXPECTED OF HIM. I HAVE been posted for twenty months past upon our cold and barren frontiers, to perform, I think I may nay, impossibilities; that is, to protect from the cruel incursions of a crafty, savage enemy a line of inhabitants of more than three hundred and fifty miles in extent, with a force inadequate to the task. By this means I am become in a manner an exile, and seldom informed of those opportunities, which I might otherwise embrace, of corresponding with my friends. To A MERCHANT in London, April 15, 1757. 16. BOUNTY-JUMPING IS THE OLDEN TIME. YOUR HONOR may observe by the enclosed list of deserters, all of whom have left the regiment since the last return, and after having received their clothes, arms, and bounty money, how prevalent still it that infamous practice among the dastardly drafts, especially at this garrison, where I indulge them in everything but idleness, and in that I cannot, the nature of the work requiring the contrary. Lenity, so far from producing its desired effects, rather emboldens them in these villanous acts. To the GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, September 17, 1757. A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.1. HE WAS A BOOK FARMER. IN my last, among other things, I desired you would send me, besides a small octavo volume, the best system now extant of agriculture. Since then I have been told that there is one, lately published, done by various hands, but chiefly collected from the papers of Mr. Hale. If this is known to be the best, pray send it, but not if any other is in higher esteem. To ROBERT CARY, in London, June 12, 1759. 2. HE DESIRES TO VISIT LONDON. THE longing desire, which for many years I have had, of visiting the great metropolis of that kingdom is not in the least abated. To the same, and same date. 2 Sparks, 331. 3. HIS TASTE IN DRESS. I WANT neither lace nor embroidery. Plain clothes, with gold or silver buttons, if worn in genteel dress, are all that I desire. I have hitherto had my clothes made by one Charles Lawrence. Whether it be the fault of the tailor, or of the measure sent, I cannot say; but certain it is my clothes have never fitted me well. I therefore leave the choice of the workman to you. I enclose a measure, and, for a further direction, I think it not amiss to add, that my stature is six feet; otherwise rather slender than corpulent. To RICHARD WASHINGTON, in London, October 20, 1761. 4. THE CAREFUL PLANTER. I PERCEIVE you bring the shortness of some of the bundles of the tobacco shipped in the “Bland” to account for the lowness of the price. That some of the tobacco was small, I shall not undertake to dispute; but at the same time I must observe that it was clean and neatly handled, which I apprehended would have rendered the other objection of very little weight. As to stemming my tobacco, ill the manner you recommend, I would readily do it if the returns would be equivalent to the trouble, and loss of the stem; and of this I shall be a tolerable judge, as I am at no small pains this year to try the quality with the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of tobaccos, and shall at the same time find out the difference between a hogshead of leaf and a hogshead of stemmed tobacco. By comparing the loss of the one with the extra price of the other, I shall be able to determine which is the best to pursue, and follow that method which promises the most certain advantages. To ROBERT CARY AND COMPANY, London, 5. THE WEIGHT OF WHEAT IN WASHINGTON’S DAY. YOU were saying that the standard for wheat in Philadelphia was fifty-eight pounds, and at Lancaster sixty pounds. I have taken some pains to inquire, likewise, into this matter, and am informed that fifty-eight is a much more general weight than the other all over Pennsylvania and Maryland (where their wheat is better than ours can be, till we get into the same good management), and Colonel Tucker’s miller, a man from the northward upon high wages, whom I saw whilst I was last below, assured me that very few bushels, out of the many thousands of wheat which he receives for Colonel Tucker, reach fifty-eight pounds. However, that you may not think I have other motives than those declared for mentioning these things, I shall only observe that, as you are sensible by my present contract I am not restricted to weight, but obliged only to deliver clean wheat, and as good as the year and seasons will generally admit of, I will nevertheless, in order to remove every cause of dispute which can possibly arise, fix the weight, if it is agreeable to you, at fifty-eight pounds per bushel, and to be paid a penny for every pound over that weight, and deduct a penny for every pound it is under. To Messrs. CARLYLE AND ADAM, Merchants, Alexandria, 6. HE WILL HAVE HIS RIGHTS. TOBACCO, I well perceive, for a year or two past, has fallen in its value. From what causes I shall not take upon me to determine; and I am not so extravagant as to believe that my own and Master Custis’s crops should fetch their usual prices, when other good tobacco met with abatements. But I am really selfish enough to expect that we ought to come in for a part of the good prices that are going, from a belief that our tobacco is of a quality not so much inferior to some that still sells well, and that so considerable a consignment, when confined in a manner to one house, as ours is, would lay claim to the best endeavors of the merchant in the sales, and in the return of goods; for many articles of which I pay exceeding heavily, another thing I cannot easily account for, unless it is on a presumption that they are bought at very long credits, which by no means ought to be the case. For, where a person has money in a merchant’s hands, he should doubtless have all the benefits that can result from that money; and in a like manner, where he pays interest for the use of the merchant’s, should he be entitled to the same advantages; otherwise it might well be asked, For what purpose is it that interest is paid? Once, upon my urging a complaint of this nature, you wrote me, that the goods ought to be sent back, and they should be returned upon the shopkeeper’s hands in cases of imposition; but a moment’s reflection points out the inconveniences of such a measure, unless the imposition be grossly abusive, or we could afford to have a year’s stock beforehand. How otherwise can a person who imports bare requisites only submit to lie a year out of any particular article of clothing, or necessary for family use, and have recourse to such a tedious and uncertain way of relief as this, when possibly a tradesman would deny the goods and consequently refuse them? It is not to be done. We are obliged to acquiesce in the present loss, and hope for future redress. These, gentlemen, are my sentiments, fully and candidly expressed, without any design, believe me, of giving you offence; but, as the selling of our tobaccos well, and the purchasing of our goods upon the best terms, are matters of the utmost consequence to our well-doing, it behooves me to be plain and sincere in my declarations on these points, previous to any change of measures, that I may stand acquitted of the imputation of fickleness, if I am at last forced to a discontinuance of my correspondence with your house. To ROBERT CARY AND COMPANY, London, 7. HIS GENEROSITY TO A FRIEND. HAVING once or twice of late heard you speak highly of the New Jersey College, as if you had a desire of sending your son William there (who, I am told, is a youth fond of study and instruction, and disposed to a studious life, in following which he may not only promote his own happiness, but the future welfare of others), I should be glad, if you have no other objection to it than the expense, if you would send him to that college as soon as convenient, and depend on me for twenty-five pounds a year for his support, so long as it may be necessary for the completion of his education. If I live to see the accomplishment of this term, the sum here stipulated shall be annually paid; and if I die in the mean time, this letter shall be obligatory upon my heirs or executors, to do it according to the true intent and meaning hereof. No other return is expected, or wished, for this offer, than that you will accept it with the same freedom and good-will with which it is made, and that you may not even consider it in the light of an obligation, or mention it as such; for, be assured, that from me it will never be known. To WILLIAM RAMSAY, January 29, 1769. 2 Sparks, 360. 8. HIS OPPOSITION TO THE STAMP ACT. AT a time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom, it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke, and maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors. But the manner of doing it, to answer the purpose effectually, is the point in question. That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, to use arms in defence of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my opinion. Yet arms, I would beg leave to add, should be the last resource, the dernier ressort. We have already, it is said, proved the inefficacy of addresses to the throne, and remonstrances to Parliament. How far, then, their attention to our rights and privileges is to be awakened or alarmed, by starving their trade and manufactures, remains to be tried. To GEORGE MASON, April 5, 1769. 2 Sparks, 361. 9. HE RESENTS AN INDIGNITY. SIR, your impertinent letter was delivered to me yesterday. As I am not accustomed to receive such from any man, nor would have taken the same language from you personally, without letting you feel some marks of my resentment, I would advise you to be cautious in writing me a second of the same tenor. But for your stupidity and sottishness you might have known, by attending to the public gazette, that you had your full quantity of ten thousand acres of land allowed you, that is, nine thousand and seventy-three acres in the great track, and the remainder in the small tract. But suppose you had really fallen short; do you think your superlative merit entitles you to greater indulgence than others? Or, if it did, that I was to make it good to you, when it was at the option of the Governor and Council to allow but five hundred acres in the whole, if they had been so inclined? If either of these should happen to be your opinion, I am very well convinced that you will be singular in it; and all my concern is, that I ever engaged in behalf of so ungrateful a fellow as you are. But you may still be in need of my assistance, as I can inform you that your affairs, in respect to these lands, do not stand upon so solid a basis as you may imagine, and this you may take by way of hint. To A MAJOR who had served under him in the French War, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION.1. THE ONLY EXTANT LETTER TO HIS WIFE. MY DEAREST,—I am now set down to write to you on a subject which fills me with inexpressible concern, and this concern is greatly aggravated and increased, when I reflect upon the uneasiness I know it will give you. It has been determined in Congress that the whole army raised for the defence of the American cause shall be put under my care, and that it is necessary for me to proceed immediately to Boston to take upon me the command of it. You may believe me, my dear Patsy, when I assure you, in the most solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity, and that I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven years. But as it has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose. You might, and I suppose did, perceive, from the tenor of my letters, that I was apprehensive I could not avoid this appointment, as I did not pretend to intimate when I should return. That was the case. It was utterly out of my power to refuse this appointment, without exposing my character to such censures as would have reflected dishonor upon myself and given pain to my friends. This, I am sure, could not, and ought not, to be pleasing to you, and must have lessened me considerably in my own esteem. I shall rely, therefore, confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return safe to you in the fall. I shall feel no pain from the toil or the danger of the campaign; my unhappiness will flow from the uneasiness I know you will feel from being left alone. I therefore beg that you will summon your whole fortitude, and pass your time as agreeably as possible. Nothing will give me so much sincere satisfaction as to hear this, and to hear it from your own pen. My earnest and ardent desire is, that you would pursue any plan that is most likely to produce content, and a tolerable degree of tranquillity; as it must add greatly to my uneasy feelings to hear that you are dissatisfied or complaining at what I really could not avoid. As life is always uncertain, and common prudence dictates to every man the necessity of settling his temporal concerns while it is in his power, and while the mind is calm and undisturbed, I have, since I came to this place (for I bad not time to do it before I left home) got Colonel Pendleton to draft a will for me, by the directions I gave him, which will I now enclose. The provision made for you in case of my death will, I hope, be agreeable. I shall add nothing more, as I have several letters to write, but to desire that you will remember me to your friends, and to assure you that I am, with the most unfeigned regard, my dear Patsy, your affectionate G.W. To MARTHA WASHINGTON, June 18, 1775. 3 Sparks, 2. 2. CARE FOR POOR NEIGHBORS DURING HIS ABSENCE FROM HOME. LET the hospitality of the house with respect to the poor be kept up. Let no one go hungry away. If any of this kind of people should be in want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them to idleness; and I have no objection to your giving my money in charity to the amount of forty or fifty pounds a year, when you think it well bestowed. What I mean by having no objection is, that it is my desire it should be done. You are to consider that neither myself nor wife is now in the way to do those good offices. GENERAL WASHINGTON to LUND WASHINGTON, 1775. 3. THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR. I UNDERSTAND that the officers engaged in the cause of liberty and their country, who by the fortune of war have fallen into your hands, have been thrown indiscriminately into a common jail appropriated for felons; that no consideration has been had for those of the most respectable rank, when languishing with wounds and sickness; and that some have been even amputated in this unworthy situation. Let your opinion, sir, of the principle which actuates them be what it may, they suppose that they act from the noblest of all principles, a love of freedom and their country. But political principles, I conceive, are foreign to this point. The obligations arising from the rights of humanity and claims of rank are, universally binding and extensive, except in case of retaliation. These, I should have hoped, would have dictated a more tender treatment of those individuals whom chance or war had put in your power. Nor can I forbear suggesting its fatal tendency to widen that unhappy breach which you, and those ministers under whom you act, have repeatedly declared your wish is to see forever closed. My duty now makes it necessary to apprise you that, for the future, I shall regulate all my conduct towards those gentlemen who are or may be in our possession, exactly by the rule you shall observe towards those of ours now in your custody. If severity and hardship mark the line of your conduct, painful as it may be to me, your prisoners will feel its effects. But if kindness and humanity are shown to ours, I shall with pleasure consider those in our hands only as unfortunate, and they shall receive from me that treatment to which the unfortunate are ever entitled. I beg to be favored with an answer as soon as possible, and am, sir, your very humble servant. To LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GAGE, August 11, 1775. 4. HIS SECOND LETTER ON THE SAME SUBJECT. SIR,—I addressed you, on the 11th instant, in terms which gave the fairest scope for that humanity and politeness which were supposed to form a part of your character. I remonstrated with you on the unworthy treatment shown to the officers and citizens of America, whom the fortune of war, chance, or a mistaken confidence had thrown into your hands. Whether British or American mercy, fortitude, and patience are most pre-eminent; whether our virtuous citizens, whom the hand of tyranny has forced into arms to defend their wives, their children, and their property, or the mercenary instruments of lawless domination, avarice, and revenge, best deserve the appellation of rebels, and the punishment of that cord which your affected clemency has forborne to inflict; whether the authority under which I act is usurped or founded upon the genuine principles of liberty,—were altogether foreign to the subject. I purposely avoided all political disquisition; nor shall I now avail myself of those advantages which the sacred cause of my country, of liberty, and of human nature give me over you; much less shall I stoop to retort and invective; but the intelligence you say you have received from our army requires a reply. I have taken time, sir, to make a strict inquiry, and find it has not the least foundation in truth. Not only your officers and soldiers have been treated with the tenderness due to fellow-citizens and brethren, but even those execrable parricides, whose counsels and aid have deluged their country with blood, have been protected from the fury of a justly enraged people. Far from compelling or permitting their assistance, I am embarrassed with the numbers who crowd to our camp, animated with the purest principles of virtue and love to their country. You advise me to give free operation to truth, and to punish misrepresentation and falsehood. If experience stamps value upon counsel, yours must have a weight which few can claim. You best can tell how far the convulsion, which has brought such ruin on both countries, and shaken the mighty empire of Britain to its foundation, may be traced to these malignant causes. You affect, sir, to despise all rank not derived from the same source with your own. I cannot conceive one more honorable than that which flows from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free people, the purest source and original fountain of all power. Far from making it a plea for cruelty, a mind of true magnanimity and enlarged ideas odd comprehend and respect it. What may have been the ministerial views which have precipitated the present crisis, Lexington, Concord, and Charlestown can best declare. May that God to whom you then appeal judge between America and you! Under his providence those who influence the counsels of America, and all the other inhabitants of the United Colonies, at the hazard of their lives, are determined to hand down to posterity those just and invaluable privileges which they received from their ancestors. I shall now, sir, close my correspondence with you, perhaps forever. If your officers, our prisoners, receive a treatment from me different from that which I wished to show them, they and you will remember the occasion of it. To the same, August, 1775. 3 Sparks, 65. 5. THREE PARAGRAPHS FROM HIS ORDERS TO GENERAL ARNOLD FOR THE GUIDANCE OF THAT OFFICER IN CANADA. IF Lord Chatham’s son* should be in Canada, and in any way should fall into your power, you are enjoined to treat him with all possible deference and respect. You cannot err in paying too much honor to the son of so illustrious a character, and so true a friend to America. Any other prisoners who may fall into your hands yon will treat with as much humanity and kindness as may be consistent with your own safety and the public interest. Be very particular in restraining, not only your own troops, but the Indians, from all acts of cruelty and insult, which will disgrace the American arms and irritate our fellow-subjects against us. You will be particularly careful to pay the full value for all provisions, or other accommodations, which the Canadians may provide for you on your march. By no means press them or any of their cattle into your service, but amply compensate those who voluntarily assist you. For this purpose you are provided with a sum of money in specie, which you will use with as much frugality and economy as your necessities and good policy will admit, keeping as exact an account as possible of your disbursements. As the contempt of the religion of a country by ridiculing any of its ceremonies, or affronting its ministers or votaries, has ever been deeply resented, you are to be particularly careful to restrain every officer and soldier from such imprudence and folly, and to punish every instance of it. On the other hand, as far as lies in your power, you are to protect and support the free exercise of the religion of the country, and the undisturbed enjoyment of the rights of conscience in religious matters, with your utmost influence and authority. To COLONEL BENEDICT ARNOLD, 1775. 3 Sparks, 86.
6. HE REITERATES ONE OF HIS COMMANDS. I ALSO give it in charge to you to avoid all disrespect of the religion of the country and its ceremonies. Prudence, policy, and a true Christian spirit will lead us to look with compassion upon their errors without insulting them. While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the Judge of the hearts of men, and to him only in this case they are answerable. To the same, same date. 3 Sparks, 91. 7. RETALIATION. WHATEVER treatment Colonel Allen receives, whatever fate he undergoes, such exactly shall be the treatment and fate of Brigadier Prescott, now in our hands. The law of retaliation is not only justifiable in the eyes of God and man, but absolutely a duty, which in our present circumstances we owe to our relations, friends, and fellow-citizens. To LIEUTENANT-GENERAL HOWE, December 18, 1775. 8. ON THE PURITAN CELEBRATION OF GUY FAWKES DAY. AS the Commander-in-Chief has been apprised of a design formed for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the effigy of the Pope, he cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be officers and soldiers in this army so void of common sense as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this juncture, at a time when we are soliciting and have really obtained the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as brethren embarked in the same cause, the defence of the general liberty of America. At such a juncture and in such circumstances, to be insulting their religion is so monstrous as not to be suffered or excused; indeed, instead of offering the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy success over the common enemy in Canada. Orderly Book, November 5, 1775. 3 Sparks, 144. 9. HE EXHORTS TO PERSERVANCE. I AM very sorry to find by several paragraphs that both you and General Montgomery incline to quit the service. Let me ask you, sir, when is the time for brave men to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not? Should any difficulties that they may have to encounter at this important crisis deter them? God knows, there is not a difficulty that you both very justly complain of which I have not in an eminent degree experienced, that I am not every day experiencing; but we must bear up against them, and make the best of mankind as they are, since we cannot have them as we wish. To MAJOR-GENERAL SCHUYLER, December 24, 1775. 10. HIS DIFFICULTIES WHILE INVESTING BOSTON. SEARCH the volumes of history through, and I much question whether a case similar to ours is to be found; namely, to maintain a post against the flower of the British troops for six months together, without powder, and then to have one army disbanded and another to be raised within the same distance of a reinforced enemy. It is too much to attempt. What may be the final issue of the last manœuvre, time only can unfold. I wish this month was well over our heads. The same desire of retiring into a chimney-corner seized the troops of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, so soon as their time expired, as had wrought upon those of Connecticut, notwithstanding many of them made a tender of their services to continue till the lines could be sufficiently strengthened. We are now left with a good deal less than half-raised regiments, and about five thousand militia, who only stand engaged to the middle of this month, when, according to custom, they will depart, let the necessity of their stay be ever so urgent. Thus, for more than two months past, I have scarcely emerged from one difficulty before I have been plunged into another. How it will end, God in his great goodness will direct. I am thankful for his protection to this time. We are told that we shall soon get the army completed, but I have been told so many things which have never come to pass that I distrust everything. To JOSEPH REED, January 4, 1776. 3 Sparks 225. 11. A MILITARY AXIOM. EXPERIENCE teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession. To the PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS, January 11, 1776. 12. HIS DEFERENCE TO PUBLIC OPINION. YOU cannot render a more acceptable service, nor in my estimation give me a more convincing proof of your friendship, than by a free, open, and undisguised account of every matter relative to myself or conduct. I can bear to hear of imputed or real errors. The man who wishes to stand well in the opinion of others must do this, because he is thereby enabled to correct his faults or remove the prejudices which are imbibed against him. For this reason, I shall thank you for giving me the opinions of the world upon such points as you know me to be interested in; for, as I have but one capital object in view, I could wish to make my conduct coincide with the wishes of mankind as far as I can consistently; I mean, without departing from that great line of duty which, though hidden under a cloud for some time, from a peculiarity of circumstances, may nevertheless bear a scrutiny. To JOSEPH REED, January 14, 1776. 3 Sparks, 237. 13. HIS ANXIOUS HOURS BEFORE BOSTON. THE reflection on my situation, and that of this army, produces many an unhappy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep. Few people know the predicament we are in, on a thousand accounts; fewer still will believe, if any disaster happens to these lines, from what cause it flows. I have often thought how much happier I should have been, if, instead of accepting the command under such circumstances, I had taken my musket on my shoulder and entered the ranks, or, if I could have justified the measure to posterity and my own conscience, had retired to the back country and lived in a wigwam. If I shall be able to rise superior to these and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies; for surely, if we get well through this month, it must be for want of their knowing the disadvantages we labor under. Could I have foreseen the difficulties which have come upon us, could I have known that such a backwardness would have been discovered among the old soldiers to the service, all the generals upon earth should not have convinced me of the propriety of delaying an attack upon Boston till this time. To the same, same date. 3 Sparks, 238. 14. SHORT-TERM MILITIA NOT TRUSTWORTHY. THE account given of the behavior of the men under General Montgomery is exactly consonant to the opinion I have formed of these people, and such as they will exhibit abundant proofs of in similar cases whenever called upon. Place them behind a parapet, a breastwork, stone-wall, or anything that will afford them shelter, and, from their knowledge of a firelock, they will give good account of the enemy; but I am as well convinced as if I had seen it, that they will not march boldly up to a work, nor stand exposed in a plain. To the same, January 31, 1776. 3 Sparks, 277. 15. THE EVILS OF SHORT TERMS OF SERVICE. THE cost of marching home one set of men, bringing in another, the havoc and waste occasioned by the first, the repairs necessary for the second, with a thousand incidental charges and inconveniences which have arisen, and which it is scarce possible either to recollect or describe, amount to nearly as much as the keeping up a respectable body of troops the whole time, ready for any emergency, would have done. To this may be added, that you never can have a well-disciplined army. To bring men to be well acquainted with the duties of a soldier requires time. To bring them under proper discipline and subordination not only requires time, but is a work of great difficulty, and, in this army, where there is so little distinction between the officers and soldiers, requires an uncommon degree of attention. To expect, then, the same-service from raw and undisciplined recruits as from veteran soldiers, is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen. Men who are familiarized to danger meet it without shrinking; whereas troops unused to service often apprehend danger where no danger is. Three things prompt men to a regular discharge of their duty in time of action; natural bravery, hope of reward, and fear of punishment. The two first are common to the untutored and the disciplined soldier; but the last most obviously distinguishes the one from the other. A coward, when taught to believe that, if he breaks his ranks and abandons his colors, he will be punished with death by his own party, will take his chance against the enemy; but a man who thinks little of the one, and is fearful of the other, acts from present feelings, regardless of consequences. Again, men of a day’s standing will not look forward; and from experience we find that, as the time approaches for their discharge, they grow careless of their arms, ammunition, and camp utensils. Nay, even the barracks themselves have felt uncommon marks of wanton depredation, and lay us under fresh trouble and additional expense in providing for every fresh set, when we find it next to impossible to procure such articles as are absolutely necessary in the first instance. To this may be added the seasoning which new recruits must have to a camp, and the loss consequent thereupon. But this is not all. Men engaged for a short and limited time only have the officers too much in their power; for, to obtain a degree of popularity in order to induce a second enlistment, a kind of familiarity takes place which brings on a relaxation of discipline, unlicensed furloughs, and other indulgences incompatible with order and good government; by which means the latter part of the time, for which the soldier was engaged, is spent in undoing what you were aiming to inculcate in the first. To the PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS, February 9, 1776. 16. THE TORIES PLYING FROM BOSTON. ALL those who took upon themselves the style and title of government-men in Boston, in short, all those who have acted an unfriendly part in this great contest, have shipped themselves off in the same hurry, but under still greater disadvantages than the King’s troops, being obliged to man their own vessels, as seamen enough could not be had for the King’s transports, and submit to every hardship that can be conceived. One or two have done, what a great number ought to have done long ago, committed suicide. By all accounts, there never existed a more miserable set of beings than these wretched creatures now are. Taught to believe that the power of Great Britain was superior to all opposition, and, if not, that foreign aid was at hand, they were even higher and more insulting in their opposition than the regulars. When the order issued, therefore, for embarking the troops in Boston, no electric shock, no sudden explosion of thunder, in a word, not the last trump, could have struck them with greater consternation. They were at their wits’ end, and, conscious of their black ingratitude, they chose to commit themselves, in the manner I have above described, to the mercy of the waves at a tempestuous season, rather than meet their offended countrymen. To JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON, March 81, 1776. 17. CHAPLAINS. THE honorable Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a chaplain to each regiment, the colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure chaplains accordingly, persons of good characters and exemplary lives, and to see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary, but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts that every officer arid man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country. Orderly Book, July 9, 1776. 12 Sparks, 401. 18. HE MAINTAINS THE DIGNITY OF HIS POSITION. ABOUT three o’clock this afternoon I was informed that a flag from Lord Howe was coming up, and waited with two of our whale-boats until directions should be given. I immediately convened such of the general officers as were not upon other duty, who agreed in the opinion that I ought not to receive any letter directed to me as a private gentleman; but if otherwise, and the officer desired to come up to deliver the letter himself, as was suggested, he should come under a safe-conduct. Upon this, I directed Colonel Reed to go down and manage the affair under the above general instruction. On his return he informed me that, after the common civilities, the officer acquainted him that he had a letter from Lord Howe to Mr. Washington, which he showed under a superscription, “To George Washington, Esq.” Colonel Reed replied that there was no such person in the army, and that a letter intended for the General could not be received under such a direction. The officer expressed great concern, said it was a letter rather of a civil than military nature, that Lord Howe regretted he had not arrived sooner, that he (Lord Howe) had great powers. The anxiety to have the letter received was very evident, though the officer disclaimed all knowledge of its contents. However, Colonel Reed’s instructions being positive, they parted. After they had got some distance, the officer with the flag again put about, and asked under what direction Mr. Washington chose to be addressed; to which Colonel Reed answered, that his station was well known, and that certainly they could be at no loss how to direct to him. The officer said they knew and lamented it, and again repeated his wish that the letter could be received. Colonel Reed told him a proper direction would obviate all difficulties, and that this was no new matter, this subject having been fully discussed in the course of the last year, of which Lord Howe could not be ignorant; upon which they parted. I would not upon any occasion sacrifice essentials to punctilio; but in this instance, the opinion of others concurring with my own, I deemed it a duty to my country and my appointment to insist upon that respect which, in any other but a public view, I would willingly have waived. Nor do I doubt, but, from the supposed nature of the message, and the anxiety expressed, they will either repeat their flag, or fall upon some mode to communicate the import and consequence of it. To the PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS, July 14, 1776. 19. FARKAGUT ANTICIPATED. TWO ships, the Phoenix of forty-four guns, and the Rose, of twenty, ran by our batteries on the 12th, exhibiting a proof of what I had long most religiously believed; and that is, that a vessel, with a brisk wind and strong tide, cannot, unless by a chance shot, be stopped by a battery, unless you can place some obstruction in the water to impede her motion within reach of your guns. To JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON, July 22, 1776. 20. PRIVATE PROPERTY TO WAR-TIME. THE burning of houses where the apparent good of the service is not promoted by it, and the pillaging of them at all times and upon all occasions, are to be discountenanced and punished with the utmost severity. In short, it is to be hoped that men who have property of their own, and a regard for the rights of others, will shudder at the thought of rendering any man’s situation, to whose protection he has come, more insufferable than his open and avowed enemy would make it; when by duty and every rule of humanity they ought to aid, and not oppress, the distressed in their habitations. The distinction between a well-regulated army and a mob is the good order and discipline of the former, and the licentious and disorderly behavior of the latter. Men, therefore, who are not employed as mere hirelings, but have stepped forth in defence of everything that is dear and valuable, not only to themselves, but to posterity, should take uncommon pains to conduct themselves with the greatest propriety and good order, as their honor and reputation call loudly upon them to do it. To MAJOR-GENERAL PUTNAM, August 26, 1776. 21. THE PLAGUE OF MILITIA. THE dependence which the Congress have placed upon the militia has already greatly injured, and I fear will totally ruin our cause. Being subject to no control themselves, they introduce disorder among the troops whom we have attempted to discipline, while the change in their living brings on sickness; this causes an impatience to get home, which spreads universally, and introduces abominable desertions. In short, it is not in the power of words to describe the task I have to perform. Fifty thousand pounds would not induce me again to undergo what I have done. To JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON, September 22, 1776. 22. THE SAME SUBJECT. WHILE the only merit an officer possesses is his ability to raise men, while those men consider and treat him as an equal, and, in the character of an officer, regard him no more than a broomstick, being mixed together as one common herd, no order nor discipline can prevail; nor will the officer ever meet with that respect which is essentially necessary to due subordination. To place any dependence upon militia is assuredly resting upon a broken staff. Men just dragged from the tender scenes of domestic life, unaccustomed to the din of arms, totally unacquainted with every kind of military skill, (which is followed by want of confidence in themselves when opposed to troops regularly trained, disciplined, and appointed, superior in knowledge and superior in arms), are timid, and ready to fly from their own shadows. Besides, the sudden change in their manner of living, particularly in their lodging, brings on sickness in many, impatience in all, and such an unconquerable desire of returning to their respective homes, that it not only produces shameful and scandalous desertions among themselves, but infuses the like spirit into others. Again, men accustomed to unbounded freedom and no control cannot brook the restraint which is indispensably necessary to the good order and government of an army without which licentiousness and every kind of disorder triumphantly reign. To bring men to a proper degree of subordination is not the work of a day, a month, or even a year; and, unhappily for us and the cause we are engaged in, the little discipline I have been laboring to establish in the army under my immediate command is in a manner done away by having such a mixture of troops as have been called together within these few months. To the PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS, September 24, 1776. 23. PLUNDERING BY OFFICERS AND MEN. FOR the most atrocious offence, one or two instances only excepted, a man receives no more than thirty-nine lashes; and these perhaps, through the collusion of the officer who is to see it inflicted, are given in such a manner as to become rather a matter of sport than punishment; but, when inflicted as they ought to be, many hardened fellows who have been the subjects have declared that, for a bottle of rum, they would undergo a second operation. It is evident, therefore, that this punishment is inadequate to many crimes it is assigned to. As a proof of it, thirty or forty soldiers will desert at a time, and of late a practice prevails of the most alarming nature, and which will, if it cannot be checked, prove fatal both to the country and army; I mean the infamous practice of plundering. For, under the idea of Tory property, or property that may fall into the hands of the enemy, no man is secure in his effects, and scarcely in his person. In order to get at them, we have several instances of people being frightened out of their houses, under pretence of those houses being ordered to be burnt, and this is done with a view of seizing the goods; nay, in order that the villany may be more effectually concealed, some houses have actually been burnt to cover the theft. I have, with some others, used my utmost endeavors to stop this horrid practice; but under the present lust after plunder, and want of laws to punish offenders, I might almost as well attempt to move Mount Atlas. I have ordered instant corporal punishment upon every man who passes our lines or is seen with plunder, that the offenders (nay be punished for disobedience of orders; and I enclose to you the proceedings of a court-martial held upon an officer who, with a party of men, had robbed a house a little beyond our lines of a number of valuable goods, among which (to show that nothing escaped) were four large pier looking-glasses, women’s clothes, and other articles, which, one would think, could be of no earthly use to him. He was met by a major of brigade, who ordered him to return the goods, as taken contrary to general orders, which he not only refused to do, but drew up his party and swore that he would defend them at the hazard of his life; on which I ordered him to be arrested and tried for plundering, disobedience of orders, and mutiny. For the result, I refer to the proceedings of the court, whose judgment appeared so exceedingly extraordinary that I ordered a reconsideration of the matter, upon which, and with the assistance of fresh evidence, they made a shift to cashier him. I adduce this instance to give some idea to Congress of the current sentiments and general character of the officers who compose the present army; and to show how exceedingly necessary it is to be careful in the choice of the new set, even if it should take double the time to complete the requisite number. To the same, same date. 4 Sparks, 115. 24. THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD OFFICERS. I EARNESTLY recommend to you to be circumspect in your choice of officers. Take none but gentlemen; let no local attachments influence you; do not suffer your good-nature, when an application is made, to say yes, when you ought to say no; remember that it is a public, not a private cause, that is to be injured or benefited by your choice; recollect, also, that no instance has yet happened of good or bad behavior in a corps in our service, that has not originated with the officers. Do not take old men, nor yet fill your corps with boys, especially for captains. To COLONEL GEORGE BAYLOR, January 9, 1777. 25. THE KIND OF MEN HE WISHED FOR HIS GUARD. I WANT to form a company for my guard. In doing this I wish to be extremely cautious, because it is more than probable that, in the course of the campaign, my baggage, papers, and other matters of great public import, may be committed to the sole care of these men. This being premised, in order to impress you with proper attention in the choice, I have to request that you will immediately furnish me with four men of your regiment; and, as it is my further wish that this company should look well and be nearly of a size, I desire that none of the men may exceed in stature five feet ten inches, nor fall short of five feet nine inches, sober, young, active, and well made. When I recommend care in your choice, I would be understood to mean men of good character in the regiment, that possess the pride of appearing clean and soldierlike. I am satisfied there can be no absolute security for the fidelity of this class of people, but yet I think it most likely to be found in those who have family connections in the country. You will therefore send me none but natives, and men of some property, if you have them. I must insist, that, in making this choice, you give no intimation of my preference of natives, as I do not want to create any invidious distinction between them and the foreigners. To COLONEL ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD, April 13, 1777. 26. OFFICERS BREAKING THEIR PAROLB. OF late several of our officers have broken their paroles and stolen away. This practice, ignominious to themselves, dishonorable to the service, and injurious to the officers of sentiment and delicacy, who remain behind to experience the rigors of resentment and distrust on their account, cannot be tolerated, whatever be the pretence. I have made a point of sending those back who have come under my observation; and I must desire you will do the same toward those who fall under yours. To BRIGADIER-GENERAL McDougall, May 23, 1777. 27. THE TERRIBLE WINTER AT VALLEY FORGE. FOR some days past there has been little less than a famine in camp. A part of the army has been a week without any kind of flesh, and the rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not been ere this excited by their suffering to a general mutiny and dispersion. Strong symptoms, however, of discontent have appeared in particular instances; and nothing but the most active efforts everywhere can long avert so shocking a catastrophe. Our present sufferings are not all. There is no laid for any adequate relief hereafter. All the magazines provided in the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, and all the immediate additional supplies they seem capable of affording, will not be sufficient to support the army more than a month longer, if so long. Very little has been done at the eastward, and as little to the southward; and whatever we have a right to expect from those quarters must necessarily be very remote, and is, indeed, more precarious than could be wished. When the before-mentioned supplies are exhausted, what a terrible crisis must ensue, unless all the energy of the continent shall be exerted to provide a timely remedy! Impressed with this idea, I am, on my part, putting every engine at work that I can possibly think of to prevent the fatal consequences which we have so much reason to apprehend. I am calling upon all those whose stations and influence enable them to contribute their aid upon so important an occasion; and, from your well-known zeal, I expect everything within the compass of your power, and that the abilities and resources of the State over which you preside will admit. To GOVERNOR GEORGE CLINTON, February 16, 1778. 28. HIS COURTESY TO A CAPTIVE ENEMY. YOUR indulgent opinion of my character, and the polite terms in which you are pleased to express it, are peculiarly flattering; and I take pleasure in the opportunity you have afforded me of assuring you that, far from suffering the views of national opposition to be imbittered and debased by personal animosity, I am ever ready to do justice to the merit of the man and soldier, and to esteem where esteem is due, however the idea of a public enemy may interpose. You will not think it the language of unmeaning ceremony if I add that sentiments of personal respect, in the present instance, are reciprocal. Viewing you in the light of an officer contending against what I conceive to be the rights of my country, the reverses of fortune you experienced in the field cannot be unacceptable to me; but, abstracted from considerations of national advantage, I can sincerely sympathize with your feelings as a soldier, the unavoidable difficulties of whose situation forbade his success; and as a man, whose lot combines the calamity of ill health, the anxieties of captivity, and the painful sensibility for a reputation exposed, where he most values it, to the assaults of malice and detraction. As your aid-do-camp went directly to Congress, the business of your letter to me had been decided before it came to hand. I am happy that their cheerful acquiescence in your request prevented the necessity of my intervention. To LIEUTENANT-GENERAL BURGOYNE, March 11, 1778. 29. TO GET GOOD SERVICE, GOVERNMENTS MUST COMPENSATE IT JUSTLY. THE difference between our service and that of the enemy is very striking. With us, from the peculiar, unhappy situation of things, the officer, a few instances excepted, must break in upon his private fortune for present support, without a prospect of future relief. With them, even companies are deemed so honorable and so valuable that they have sold of late from fifteen to twenty-two hundred pounds sterling; and I am credibly informed that four thousand guineas have been given for a troop of dragoons. You will readily determine how this difference will operate; what effects it must produce. Men may speculate as they will; they may talk of patriotism; they may draw a few examples from ancient story of great achievements performed by its influence; but whoever builds upon them as a sufficient basis for conducting a long and bloody war will find himself deceived in the end. We must take the passions of men as nature has given them, and those principles as a guide which are generally the rule of action. I do not mean to exclude altogether the idea of patriotism. I know it exists, and I know it has done much in the present contest. But I will venture to assert that a great and lasting war can never be supported on this principle alone. It must be aided by a prospect of interest, or some reward. For a time it may, of itself, push men to action, to bear much, to encounter difficulties; but it will not endure unassisted by interest. To JOHN BANISTER, Delegate in Congress, April 21, 1778. 30. PREJUDICE AGAINST THE ARMY UNFOUNDED. AMONG individuals the most certain way to make a man your enemy is to tell him you esteem him such. So with public bodies; and the very jealousy which the narrow politics of some may affect to entertain of the army, in order to a due subordination to the supreme civil authority, is a likely means to produce a contrary effect; to incline it to the pursuit of those measures which they may wish to avoid. It is unjust, because no order of men in the Thirteen States has paid a more sacred regard to the proceedings of Congress than the army; for without arrogance or the smallest deviation from truth it may be said that no history now extant can furnish an instance of an army’s suffering such uncommon hardships as ours has done, and bearing them with the same patience and fortitude. To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lie on, without shoes (for the want of which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet), and almost as often without provisions as with them, marching through the frost and snow, and at Christmas taking up their winter quarters within a day’s march of the enemy, without a house or hut to cover them till they could be built, and submitting without a manner, is a proof of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarce be paralleled. To the same, same date. 5 Sparks, 329. 31. THANKSGIVING FOR THE ALLIANCE WITH FRANCE. IT having pleased the Almighty Ruler of the Universe to defend the cause of the United American States, and finally to raise us up a powerful friend among the princes of the earth, to establish our liberty and independency upon a lasting foundation; it becomes us to set apart a day for gratefully acknowledging the Divine goodness and celebrating the important event which we owe to his Divine interposition. The several brigades are to be assembled for this purpose at nine o’clock to-morrow morning, when their chaplains will communicate the intelligence contained in the Postscript of the Pennsylvania Gazette of the 2d instant, and offer up thanksgiving, and deliver a discourse suitable to the occasion. At half after ten o’clock a cannon will be fired, which is to be a signal for the men to be under arms; the brigade inspectors will then inspect their dress and arms and form the battalions according to the instructions given them, and announce to the commanding officers of the brigade that the battalions are formed. The commanders of brigades will then appoint field-officers to the battalions, after which each battalion will be ordered to load and ground their arms. At half past eleven a second cannon will be fired as a signal for the march, upon which the several brigades will begin their march by wheeling to the right of platoons, and proceed by the nearest way to the left of their ground by the new position; this will be pointed out by the brigade inspectors. A third signal will then be given, on which there will be a discharge of thirteen cannon; after which a running fire of the infantry will begin on the right of Woodford’s, and continue throughout the front line; it will then be taken upon the left of the second line and continue to the right. Upon a signal given, the whole army will huzza, Long live the King of France! the artillery then begins again and fires thirteen rounds; this will be succeeded by a second general discharge of the musketry in a running fire, and huzza, Long live the friendly European, Powers! The last discharge of thirteen pieces of artillery will be given, followed by a general running fire, and huzza, The American States! From the Orderly Book, May 6, 1778. 5 Sparks, 355. 32. HIS PATIENCE UNDER MISREPRESENTATION. MY enemies take an ungenerous advantage of me. They know the delicacy of my situation, and that motives of policy deprive me of the defence I might otherwise make against their insidious attacks. They know I cannot combat their insinuations, however injurious, without disclosing secrets which it is of the utmost moment to conceal. But why should I expect to be exempt from censure, the unfailing lot of an elevated station 1 Merit and talents, with which I can have no pretensions of rivalship, have ever been subject to it. My heart tells me that it has been my unremitted aim to do the best that circumstances would permit; yet I may have been very often mistaken in my judgment of the means, and may in many instances deserve the imputation of error. To HENRY LAURENS, January 31, 1778. 5 Sparks, 504. 33. HE CONSOLES LAFAYETTE FOR THE PUBLIC CENSURE OF THE FRENCH FLEET. EVERYBODY, sir, who reasons will acknowledge the advantages which we have derived from the French fleet, and the zeal of the commander of it; but, in a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude. Every man will speak as he thinks, or, more properly, without thinking, and consequently will judge of effects without attending to the causes. The censures which have been levelled at the officers of the French fleet would more than probably have fallen on a much higher degree upon a fleet of our own, if we had one in the same situation. It is the nature of man to be displeased with everything that disappoints a favorite hope or flattering project; and it is the folly of too many of them to condemn without investigating circumstances. To the MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, September 1, 1778. 34. COLONEL AARON BURR OVER DELICATE. YOU, in my opinion, carry ideas of delicacy too far when you propose to drop your pay, while the recovery of your health necessarily requires your absence from the service. It is not customary, and it would be unjust. To LIEUTENANT-COLONEL AARON BURR, October 26,1778. 35. HE WILL BE OBEYED. I AM sorry that any officer should be so far lost to all sense of honor and duty as to talk of resigning because he has not marched with the corps to which he belongs. I would have you inform any of those who talk at this rate that if they leave their post or command before they are regularly drawn off or relieved, or shall directly or indirectly cause any soldier to do the like, they shall be punished, as far as martial law will extend, without favor or mitigation. It is true that officers who conceive they are to go when and where they please are better out of the service than in it, but they will not be indulged under the present circumstances. The troops who have marched eastward are no more going into winter quarters than those at Bedford or Fredericksburg, and may as likely march back as forward. This is not said to quiet the clamors of those officers with you, but to show that it is their duty to attend to the command assigned them, and not to look to the duty others are performing, without knowing the principle or design of it. To BRIGADIER-GENERAL SCOTT, October 27,1778. 36. WINTER CAMPAIGNS. IN general, winter campaigns are destructive to troops, and nothing but pressing necessity and the best state of preparation can justify them. To MAJOR-GENERAL SCHUYLER, November 20, 1778. 37. WASHINGTON INTRODUCES LAFAYETTE TO FRANKLIN. SIR,—The Marquis de Lafayette, having served with distinction as Major-General in the army of the United States for two campaigns, has been determined, by the prospect of a European war, to return to his native country. It is with pleasure that I embrace the opportunity of introducing to your personal acquaintance a gentleman whose merit cannot have left him unknown to you by reputation. The generous motives which first induced him to cross the Atlantic; the tribute which he paid to gallantry at the Brandywine; his success in Jersey, before he had recovered from his wounds, in an affair where he commanded militia against British grenadiers; the brilliant retreat by which he eluded a combined manœuvre of the whole British force in the last campaign; his services in the enterprise against Rhode Island,—are such proofs of his zeal, military ardor, and talents, as have endeared him to America, and must greatly recommend him to his prince. Coming with so many titles to claim your esteem, it were needless for any other purpose than to indulge my own feelings, to add that I have a very particular friendship for him. To BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, American Minister in France, 38. THE CONDUCT OF GENERAL GATES. I DISCOVERED very early in the war symptoms of coldness and constraint in General Gates’s behavior to me. These increased as he rose into greater consequence; but we did not come to a direct breach till the beginning of last year. This was occasioned by a correspondence, which I thought made rather free with me, between Generals Gates and Conway, which accidentally came to my knowledge. . . . After this affair subsided, I made a point of treating General Gates with all the attention and cordiality in my power, as well from a sincere desire of harmony as from an unwillingness to give any cause of triumph to our enemies, from an appearance of dissension among ourselves; I can appeal to the whole army and to the world, whether I have not cautiously avoided every word or hint that could tend to disparage General Gates in any way. I am sorry his conduct to me has not been equally generous, and that he is continually giving me fresh proofs of malevolence and opposition. It will not be doing him injustice to say that, besides the little, underhand intrigues which he is frequently practising, there has hardly been any great military question in which his advice has been asked that it has not been given in an equivocal and designing manner, apparently calculated to afford him an opportunity of censuring me on the failure of whatever measure might be adopted. When I find that this gentleman does not scruple to take the most unfair advantages of me, I am under a necessity of explaining his conduct to justify my own. This, and the perfect confidence I have in you, have occasioned me to trouble you with so free a communication of the state of things between us. I shall still be as passive as a regard to my own character will permit. To the PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS, April 14, 1779. 39. HOW TO FIGHT INDIANS. I BEG leave to suggest, as general rules that ought to govern your operations, to make rather than receive attacks, attended with as much impetuosity, shouting, and noise as possible; and to make the troops act in as loose and dispersed a way as is consistent with a proper degree of government, concert, and mutual support. It should be previously impressed upon the minds of the men, whenever they have an opportunity, to rush on with the war-whoop and fixed bayonet. Nothing will disconcert and terrify the Indians more than this. To MAJOR-GENERAL SULLIVAN, May 31,1779. 40. UPON THE SLANDERS OF THE PERSON CALLED GENERAL CHARLESS LEE. THE motives which actuate this gentleman can better be accounted for by himself than by me. If he can produce a single instance in which I have mentioned his name, after his trial commenced, where it was in my power to avoid it, and, when it was not, where I have done it with the smallest degree of acrimony or disrespect, I will consent that the world shall view my character in as disreputable a light as he wishes to place it. What cause there is, then, for such a profusion of venom as he is emitting upon all occasions, unless by an act of public duty, in bringing him to trial at his own solicitation, I have disappointed him and raised his ire; or he conceives that, in proportion as he can darken the shades of my character, he illuminates his own;—whether these, I say, or motives still more hidden and dark govern him, I shall not undertake to decide; nor have I time to inquire into them at present. If I had ever assumed the character of a military genius and an officer of experience; if, under these false colors, I had solicited the command I was honored with; or if, after my appointment, I had presumptuously driven on, under the sole guidance of my own judgment and self-will, and misfortunes, the result of obstinacy and misconduct, not of necessity, had followed, I should have thought myself a proper subject for the lash, not only of his, but of the pen of every other writer, and a fit object for public resentment. But when it is well known that the command we in a manner forced upon me, that I accepted it with the utmost diffidence, from a consciousness that it required greater abilities and more experience than I possessed to conduct a great military machine, embarrassed as I knew ours must be by a variety of complex circumstances, being, as it were, but little more than a mere chaos; and when nothing more was promised on my part than has been most inviolably performed,—it is rather grating to pass over in silence charges which may impress the uninformed, though others know that these charges have neither reason nor truth to support them, and that a plain and simple narrative of facts would defeat all his assertions, notwithstanding they are made with an effrontery which few men do, and, for the honor of human nature, none ought to possess. If this gentleman is envious of my station, and thinks I stand in his way to preferment, I can assure him, in most solemn terms, that the first wish of my soul is to return to that peaceful retirement and domestic ease and happiness from whence I came. To this end all my labors have been directed, and for this purpose hare I been more than four years a perfect slave, endeavoring, under as many embarrassing circumstances as ever fell to one man’s lot to encounter, and with as pure motives as ever man was influenced by, to promote the cause and service I had embarked in. To PRESIDENT REED, July 29, 1779. 6 Sparks, 310. 41. HE INVITES LADIES TO DINNER. DEAR DOCTOR,—I have asked Mrs. Cochran and Mrs. Livingston to dine with me to-morrow; but am I not in honor bound to apprise them of their fare? As I hate deception, even where the imagination only is concerned, I will. It is needless to premise that my table is large enough to hold the ladies. Of this they had ocular proof yesterday. To say how it is usually covered is rather more essential; and this shall be the purport of my letter. Since our arrival at this happy spot we have had a ham, sometimes a shoulder of bacon, to grace the head of the table; a piece of roast beef adorns the foot; and a dish of beans, or greens, almost imperceptible, decorates the centre. When the cook has a mind to cut a figure, which I presume will be the case to-morrow, we have two beefsteak pies or dishes of crabs in addition, one on each side of the centre dish, dividing the space, and reducing the distance between dish and dish to about six feet, which without them would be near twelve feet apart. Of late he has had the surprising sagacity to discover that apples will make pies; and it is a question if, in the violence of his efforts, we do not get one of apples, instead of having both of beef-steaks. If the ladies can put up with such entertainment, and will submit to partake of it on plates once tin but now iron (not become so by the labor of scouring), I shall be happy to see them. To DOCTOR JOHN COCHRAN, Surgeon-General, August 16, 42. COIN DEBTS HE WILL NOT RECEIVE IN DEPRECIATED PAPER. I HAVE considered the matter in every point of view in which my judgment enables me to place it, and am resolved to receive no more old debts (such, I mean, as were contracted and ought to have been paid before the war) at the present nominal value of the money, unless compelled to do it, or it is the practice of others to do it. Neither justice, reason, nor policy requires it. The law undoubtedly was well designed. It was intended to stamp a value upon, and to give a free circulation to, the paper bills of credit; but it never was, nor could have been, intended to make a man take a shilling or sixpence in the pound for a just debt, which his debtor is well able to pay, and thereby involve himself in ruin. I am as willing now as I ever was to take paper money for every kind of debt, and at its present depreciated value for those debts which have been contracted since the money became so; but I will not in future receive the nominal sum for such old debts as come under the above description, except as before specified. The fear of injuring, by any example of mine, the credit of our paper currency, if I attempted to discriminate between the real and nominal value of paper money, has already sunk for me a large sum. To LUND WASHINGTON, August 17, 1779. 6 Sparks, 321. 43. HIS REGARD FOR LAFAYETTE. YOUR forward zeal in the cause of liberty; your singular attachment to this infant world; your ardent and persevering efforts, not only in America, but since your return to France, to serve the United States; your polite attention to Americans, and your strict and uniform friendship for me,—have ripened the first impressions of esteem and attachment which I imbibed for you, into such perfect love and gratitude as neither time nor absence can impair. This will warrant my assuring you that, whether in the character of an officer at the head of a corps of gallant Frenchmen, if circumstances should require this, whether as a major-general commanding a division of the American army, or whether, after our swords and spears have given place to the ploughshare and pruning-hook, I see you as a private gentleman, a friend and companion, I shall welcome you with all the warmth of friendship to Columbia’s shores; and, in the latter ease, to my rural cottage, where homely fare and a cordial reception shall be substituted for delicacies and costly living. This, from past experience, I know you can submit to; and if the lovely partner of your happiness will consent to participate with us in such rural entertainments and amusements, I can undertake, in behalf of Mrs. Washington; that she will do everything in her power to make Virginia agreeable to the Marchioness. My inclination and endeavors to do this cannot be doubted, when I assure you that I love everybody that is dear to you, and consequently participate in the pleasure you feel in the prospect of again becoming a parent, and do most sincerely congratulate you and your lady on this fresh pledge she is about to give you of her love. To the MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, Paris, September 30, 1779. 44. UNCOMFORTABLE HEAD-QUARTERS. I HAVE been at my present quarters since the first day of December, and have not a kitchen to cook a dinner in, although the logs have been put together some considerable time by my own guard. Nor is there a place at this moment in which a servant can lodge with the smallest degree of comfort. Eighteen belonging to my family, and all Mrs. Ford’s, are crowded together in her kitchen, and scarce one of them able to speak for the colds they have caught. I have repeatedly taken notice of this inconveniency to Major Gibbs, and have as often been told that boards were not to be had. I acquiesced, and believe you will do me the justice to acknowledge that it never has been my practice to involve the public in any expense which I could possibly avoid, or derive benefits which would be inconvenient or prejudicial to others. To share the common lot, and participate the inconveniences which the army, from the peculiarity of our circumstances, are obliged to undergo, has with me been a fundamental principle; and, while I conceived this to be the case universally, I was perfectly content. That it is not so, I appeal to your own observation; though I never intended to make the remark, nor should I have done it but for the question which involuntarily drew from me the answer, which bas become the subject of your letter. Equally opposed is it to my wishes and expectation that you should be troubled in matters respecting my accommodation, further than to give the necessary orders and furnish materials, without which orders are nugatory. From what you have said, I am fully satisfied that the persons to whom you intrusted the execution of the business are alone to blame; for certain I am, they might by attention have obtained, equally with others, as many boards as would have answered my purposes long ere this. Far, very far is it from me to censure any measure you have adopted for your own accommodation, or for the more immediate convenience of Mrs. Greene. At all times I think you are entitled to as good as circumstances will afford, and, in the present condition of your lady, I conceive that no delay could be admitted. I should therefore with great willingness have made my convenience yield to hers, if the point had lain there. To MAJOR-GENERAL GREENE, January 22, 1780. 45. WASHINGTON TO THE DAUGHTER OF DR. FRANKLIN. DEAR MADAM,—I should have done myself the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of the letter you did me the favor to write on the 26th of December, at the moment of receipt, had not some affairs of a very unusual nature, which are too recent and notorious to require explanation, engaged my whole attention. I pray you now to be persuaded that a sense of the patriotic exertions of yourself and the ladies who have furnished so handsome and useful a gratuity for the army, at so critical and severe a season, will not easily be effaced, and that the value of the donation will be greatly enhanced by a consideration of the hands by which it was made and presented. Amidst all the distresses and sufferings of the army, from whatever sources they have arisen, it must be a consolation to our virtuous countrywomen that they have never been accused of withholding their most zealous efforts to support the cause we are engaged in, and encourage those who are defending them in the field. The army do not want gratitude, nor do they misplace it in this instance. Although the friendship of your father may oblige him to see some things through too partial a medium, yet the indulgent manner in which he is pleased to express himself respecting me is indeed very gratifying; for nothing in human life can afford a liberal mind more rational and exquisite satisfaction than the approbation of a wise, a great, and virtuous man. Mrs. Washington requests me to present her compliments to Mr. Bache and yourself, with which you will be pleased to accept of mine. To MRS. SARAH BACHE, January 15, 1781. 46. PRISONERS MUST BE EXCHANGED IS THE ORDER OF THEIR CAPTURE. I HAVE received your favor announcing your promotion, and soliciting my influence in obtaining your exchange. I desire you to be persuaded that I rejoice in your prosperity and wish you an increase of well-merited honors and felicities; but at the same time I cannot conceive how the private concerns of any individual should be preferred to the public good, or that general rules, established for the benefit of all those unfortunate men whom the fortune of war bas placed in the power of the enemy, should be dispensed with on ordinary occasions. Priority of capture has been an invariable principle in making those exchanges which have been negotiated under my immediate direction; and I see no reason for departing from so equitable a rule. The inconveniences I foresee would be innumerable. The danger of partiality would alone be a sufficient objection. Besides this, from the number of letters I have received from you since your captivity, you must be sensible, sir, that were a door opened for all our officers who are prisoners to expect partial exchanges would be made for them, my whole time and attention must be devoted to their applications. In fine, sir, I cannot interfere in the matter without violating an express resolution of Congress, counteracting my own sentiments, introducing a new system, and doing the most palpable injustice. To LIEUTENANT-COLONEL DURUYSEN, February 1, 1781. 47. GRADATION OF PUNISHMENTS. THE highest corporal punishment we are allowed to give is a hundred lashes; between that and death there is no medium. As instances daily occur of offences for which the former is altogether inadequate, courts-martial, in order to preserve some proportion between the crime and the punishment, are obliged to pronounce sentence of death. Capital sentences on this account become more frequent in our service than in any other; so frequent as to render their execution in most cases inexpedient. And it happens from this that the greater offences often escape punishment, while the less are commonly punished; which cannot but operate as an encouragement to the commission of the former. The inconveniences of this defect are obvious. Congress are sensible of the necessity of punishment in an army, of the justice and policy of a due proportion between the crime and the penalties, and, of course, of the necessity of proper degrees in the latter. I shall therefore content myself with observing that it appears to me indispensable that there should be an extension of the present corporal punishment, and that it would be useful to authorize courts-martial to sentence delinquents to labor on public works; perhaps even for some crimes, particularly desertion, to transfer them from the land to the sea service, where they have less opportunity to indulge their inconstancy. A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion. The number of lashes may either be indefinite, left to the discretion of the court, or limited to a larger number. In this case I would recommend five hundred. To the PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS, February 3, 1781. 48. CORRUPT DEALING WITH THE EMEMY IN NEW YORK. THE traffic with New York is immense. Individual States will not make it felony, lest, among other reasons, it should not become general; and nothing short of it will ever check, much less stop, a practice which, at the same time that it serves to drain us of our provision and specie, removes the barrier between us and the enemy, corrupts the morals of our people by a lucrative traffic, weakens by degrees the opposition, and affords a means for obtaining regular and perfect intelligence of everything among us, while even in this respect we derive no benefit from a fear of discovery. Men of all descriptions are now indiscriminately engaging in it, Whig, Tory, speculator. On account of its being followed by those of the latter class, in a manner with impunity, men who two or three years ago would have shuddered at the idea of such connections, now pursue it with avidity, and reconcile it to themselves (in which their profits plead powerfully) upon a principle of equality with the Tory, who, knowing that a forfeiture of the goods to the informer is all he has to dread, and that this is to be eluded by an agreement not to inform against each other, goes into the measure without risk. To JOHN SULLIVAN, in Congress, February 4, 1781. 49. HE WOULD HAVE HAD HIS HOUSE BURNED, RATHER THAN SUPPLY THE ENEMY WITH PROVISIONS. DEAR LUND,—I am very sorry to hear of your loss. I am-a little sorry to hear of my own; but that which gives me most concern is that you should go on board the enemy’s vessels and furnish them with refreshments. It would have been a less painful circumstance to me to have heard that in consequence of your non-compliance with their request, they had burnt my house and laid the plantation in ruins. You ought to have considered yourself as my representative, and should have reflected on the bad example of communicating with the enemy, and making a voluntary offer of refreshments to them with a view to prevent a conflagration. It was not in your power, I acknowledge, to prevent them from sending a flag on shore, and you did right to meet it; but you should, in the same instant that the business of it was unfolded, have declared explicitly that it was improper for you to yield to the request; after which, if they had proceeded to help themselves by force, you could but have submitted; and, being unprovided for defence, this was to be preferred to a feeble opposition, which only serves as a pretext to burn and destroy. I am thoroughly persuaded that you acted from your best judgment, and believe that your desire to preserve my property and rescue the buildings from impending danger was your governing motive; but to go on board their vessels, carry them refreshments, commune with a parcel of plundering scoundrels, and request a favor by asking a surrender of my negroes, was exceedingly ill-judged, and, it is to be feared, will be unhappy in its consequences, as it will be a precedent for others, and may become a subject of animadversion. I have no doubt of the enemy’s intention to prosecute the plundering plan they have begun; and unless a stop can be put to it, by the arrival of a superior naval force, I have as little doubt of its ending in the loss of all my negroes, and in the destruction of my houses. But I am prepared for the event; under the prospect of which, if you could deposit in a place of safety the most valuable and least bulky articles, it might be consistent with policy and prudence, and a means of preserving them hereafter. Such and so many things as we necessary for common and present use must be retained, and must run their chance through the fiery trial of this summer. To LUND WASHINGTON, at Mount Vernon, April 30, 1781. 50. RETALIATION. THE enemy, persisting in that barbarous line of conduct which they have pursued during the course of this war, have lately most inhumanly executed. Captain Joshua Huddy, of the Jersey State troops, taken prisoner by them at a post on Tom’s River; and in consequence I have written to the British commander-in-chief that, unless the perpetrators of that horrid deed were delivered up, I should be under the disagreeable necessity of retaliating, as the only means left to put a stop to such inhuman proceedings. You will, therefore, immediately on receipt of this, designate by lot for the above purpose a British captain, who is an unconditional prisoner, if such a one is in your possession; if not, a lieutenant under the same circumstances from among the prisoners at any of the posts, either in Pennsylvania or Maryland. So soon as you have fixed on the person, you will send him under a safeguard to Philadelphia, where the Minister of War will order a proper guard to receive and conduct him to the place of his destination. For your information respecting the officers who are prisoners in our possession, I have ordered the commissary of prisoners to furnish you with a list of them. It will be forwarded with this. I need not mention to you that every possible tenderness that is consistent with the security of him should be shown to the person whom unfortunate lot it may be to suffer. To BRIGADIER-GENERAL HAZEN, May 3, 1782. 51. TO THE OFFICER SELECTED, ON HIS RELEASE. SIR,—It affords me singular pleasure to have it in my power to transmit to you the enclosed copy of an act of Congress, of the 7th instant, by which you are released from the disagreeable circumstances in which you have so long been. Supposing that you would wish to go into New York as soon as possible, I also enclose a passport for that purpose. Your letter of the 18th of October came regularly to my hands. I beg you to believe that my not answering it sooner did not proceed from inattention to you, or a want of feeling for your situation. I daily expected a determination of your case, and I thought it better to await that, than to feed you with hopes that might, in the end, prove fruitless. You will attribute my detention of the enclosed letters, which have been in my hands about a fortnight, to the same cause. I cannot take leave of you, sir, without assuring you that, in whatever light my agency in this unpleasing affair may be viewed, I was never influenced, through the whole of it, by sanguinary motives, but by what 1 conceived to be a sense of my duty, which loudly called upon me to take measures, however disagreeable, to prevent a repetition of those enormities which have been the subject of discussion. And that this important end is likely to be answered without the effusion of the blood of an innocent person is not a greater relief to you than it is to, Sir, your most obedient and humble servant. To CAPTAIN CHARLES ASGILL, November 13, 1782. 52. ADVICE TO A NEPHEW ON HIS BEGINNING THE STUDY OF LAW. LET the object which carried you. to Philadelphia be always before your eyes. Remember that it is not the mere study of the law, but to become eminent in the profession of it, that is, to yield honor and profit. The first was your choice; let the second be your ambition. Dissipation is incompatible with both; the company in which you will improve most will be least expensive to you; and yet I am not such a stoic as to suppose that you will, or to think it right that you should, always be in company with senators and philosophers; but of the juvenile kind let me advise you to be choice. It is easy to make acquaintances, but very difficult to shake them off, however irksome and unprofitable they are found, after we have once committed ourselves to them. The indiscretions which very often they involuntarily lead one into prove equally distressing and disgraceful. Be courteous to all, but intimae with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distresses of every one, and let your hand give in proportion to your purse; remembering always the estimation of the widow’s mite, but that it is not every one who asketh that deserveth charity; all, however, are worthy of the inquiry, or the deserving may suffer. Do not conceive that fine clothes make fine men, any more than fine feathers make fine birds. A plain, genteel drew is more admired and obtains more credit than lace and embroidery, in the eyes of the judicious and sensible. The last thing which I shall mention is first in importance; and that is, to avoid gaming. This is a vice which is productive of every possible evil; equally injurious to the morals and health of its votaries. It is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief. It has been the in of many worthy families, the loss of many a man’s honor, and the cause of suicide. To all those who enter the lists, it is equally fascinating. The successful gamester pushes his good fortune till it is overtaken by a reverse, The losing gamester, in hopes of retrieving past misfortunes, goes on from bad to worse, till, grown desperate he pushes at everything and loses his all. In word, few gain by this abominable practice, which thousands are injured. Perhaps you will say, “My conduct has anticipated the advice,” and “Not one of the cases applies to me.” I shall be heartily glad of it. It will add not a little to my happiness to find those to whom I am so nearly connected pursuing the right walk of life. It will be the sure road to my favor and to those honors and places of profit which their country can bestow, as merit rarely goes unrewarded. To BUSHROD WASHINGTON, January 15, 1783. 8 Sparks, 373. 53. NECESSITY OF A CLOSER UNION OF THE STATES. I REJOICE most exceedingly that there is an end to our warfare, and that such a field is opening to our view m will, with wisdom to direct the cultivation of it, make us a great, a respectable, and happy people; but it must be improved by other means than State politics, and unreasonable jealousies and prejudices, or it requires not the second-sight to see that we shall be instruments in the hands of our enemies, and those European powers who may be jealous of our greatness in union, to dissolve the confederation. But, to obtain this, although the way seems extremely plain, is not so easy. My wish to see the union of these States established upon liberal and permanent principles, and inclination to contribute my mite in pointing out the defects of the present constitution, are equally great. All my private letters have teemed with these sentiments, and, whenever this topic has been the subject of conversation, I have endeavored to diffuse and enforce them; but how far any further essay by me might be productive of the wished-for end, or appear to arrogate more than belongs to me, depends so much upon popular opinion, and the temper and dispositions of the people, that it is not easy to decide. I shall be obliged to you, however, for the thoughts which you have promised me on this subject, and as soon as you can make it convenient. No man in the United States is or |