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

TO GOVERNOR TRUMBULL. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. V (1776-1777) [1890]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. V (1776-1777).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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TO GOVERNOR TRUMBULL.

Sir,

The impossibility of keeping the small-pox from spreading through the army in the natural way, has determined us, upon the most mature deliberation, to inoculate all the new troops that have not had this disorder. I have wrote to General Parsons to fix upon some proper place, and to superintend the inoculation of the troops of your State, taking it for granted that you would have no objection to so salutary a measure, upon which depends not only the lives of all the men who have not had the small-pox, but also the health of the whole army, which would otherwise soon become a hospital of the most loathsome kind. Proper steps are taking to inoculate the troops already here, and all the Southern levies will undergo the operation as they pass Philadelphia.

I have wrote to the States of New York and Rhode Island to have their troops also inoculated, and I hope our army will by these precautions be entirely free of that terrible disorder the ensuing campaign. As the troops from Massachusetts and New Hampshire are ordered immediately up to Ticonderoga, they can (as was the case last year) be inoculated there. I am, &c.1

[1 ]“I wish you to Consider the prospect you have of raising your Regiment, for tho it is my desire to promote men of Credit to office and to rank, yet a regard to publick interest will not authorize their promotions without they can be of service afterwards, and multiplying the number of Officers without Regiments, will not be answering the end proposed, viz adding to our strength but will be incurring a heavy and large expense. I regret much the policy of the New England States, which has given rise to so many difficulties and which I fear will be severely felt. I cannot give directions for an Extra bounty, that would be approving a measure which I have always Condemned, and which so far from being justifiable has been reprobated by Congress as impolitick and injurious to the public Cause. If the Gentlemen appointed in those Governments to a part of the Sixteen additional Battalions cannot make up their Corps, the truth of these observations will be verified, and happy will it be, if the measure should not extend its baneful influence elsewhere.”—Washington to Colonel Henry Sherburne, 10 February, 1777.