Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. - The Writings of George Washington, vol. V (1776-1777)

Return to Title Page for The Writings of George Washington, vol. V (1776-1777)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Middlebrook, 5 June, 1777.

Sir,

I this morning had the honor of your letter of the 5th with its enclosures. The resolution of the 30th of May, respecting the French gentlemen, who came passengers in the Amphitrite, reached camp before your letter, and has excited much uneasiness in the artillery corps.1 The enclosed copy of a letter from General Knox will convey their anxiety upon the subject; which I think it necessary to transmit, as well from duty as on account of his request. The difficulties upon this occasion arise from the peculiar circumstances of most of the officers composing the artillery regiments at this time. I do not know, for my own part, what operation Congress precisely meant the resolution should have; but if the commissions, which these gentlemen are to receive, should give them rank from the date of those they had from the King of France, or from their compact with Mr. Deane, there are but few officers now in the artillery, who will not be superseded in their command, unless some method is adopted to prevent it. This, I am persuaded, Congress had not in contemplation, because it is opposed to policy and to justice; and I am led to believe the resolution was come into for want of due information how matters were circumstanced in this instance.2

The officers now in the artillery I am obliged to consider of great merit. Experience has proved them to be most warmly attached to the rights of their country; and their conduct in the line of their profession has been such, as does the highest honor to themselves and the gentleman who immediately commands them. Without derogating in the least from the character of the French officers, who are to be commissioned, and whom I wish to receive every countenance they merit, there is strong reason to doubt, laying aside every consideration of policy, whether they have seen as much real service as our own in the course of two campaigns. It would be hard, not to say unjust, that the latter should lose their command when they have a claim to every mark of favor, and after they have taken great pains to form their companies. The service requires that they should not; and I am convinced the event would be attended with the most fatal consequences.

But what is to be done? This is a case of difficulty, view it as you will. I am not for rejecting the French gentlemen; far otherwise; I am for employing them; and public faith, and the encouragements given to bring them over, demand that it should be done. After much thought and consideration upon the subject, two modes occur to me, as the only possible ones by which it can be effected, and by which the inconveniences I have mentioned can be remedied. One is, that the new corps of artillery should be formed, and these gentlemen attached to it. This, we have reason to fear, cannot be done, from the difficulties we have experienced in raising men, and from their having no interest or connexions with the people. Their situation in such case, if they are men of sentiment and active dispositions, would be irksome and distressing. The other is, that our present officers now under consideration should have their commissions antedated, to give them precedency of rank; and this may be done with the greater propriety, as most of them were intended to hold the posts they now sustain, before the French gentlemen had any claim upon us. It is true they were not commissioned, because the old corps existed under the first arrangement. Further it is said, and there is no doubt of the fact, that these gentlemen were promoted by brevet just before their departure from France, merely to give them rank here; antecedent to which, our officers were superior to them in this point; and these brevets only confer local rank, confined to the French-American colonies. This latter mode appears the most eligible. If it is adopted, they will be distributed through the corps as assistant officers. Their want of a knowledge in our language incapacitates them for command in the first instance; and not only so, but to place them at the head of companies, over officers that have been at great trouble, pains, and expense in raising the men, would be both unmilitary and unjust.

I shall now quit the subject, wishing that whatever will best conciliate matters, and advance the public good, may be done; suggesting at the same time with all deference, that, as it is much easier to prevent evils, than to remedy them after they have happened, it will be well, in all cases of foreign and indeed other applications, that the consequences, which granting them wil involve, should be maturely weighed and taken in every point of view. In the present case of difficulty, things, I am persuaded, might have been adjusted with the greatest facility, had the Committee of Foreign Applications been fully possessed of all the circumstances respecting the artillery regiments. * * * I have the honor, &c.1

[1 ]Blank commissions were sent to Washington, the rank of the officers to be settled by the date of their brevet commissions from the King of France—November and December, 1776.

The obvious construction of these words led to the inference, that the American officers were all to rank below these appointments. But Congress removed the obscurity, and set the matter in a proper light, by a subsequent resolve, that the relative rank of the French officers among themselves only was intended, and that their commissions were to bear date on the day when they should be filled by General Washington.—Journals, June 10th. Ducoudray’s list of officers consisted of six captains and twelve lieutenants, besides his aid, who was an American.

[2 ]There was trouble brewing in other directions through the liberality of Deane in giving appointments.

“With much surprize I have been informed, that objections have been made to receiving Monsr. Colerus into a Majority in the Regiment under your command, and that he was treated with indifference and disrespect on his arrival at Princetown with my Letter.

“This Gentleman was appointed to the rank of Major, and commissioned in the Army of the States last fall by the Congress, and I have strong hopes, that he will render essential services and such as will do him honor; But, be this as it may, as he holds a Commission under the same authority, that others do in the Army, and was appointed by me to fill one of the vacant Majority’s in your Regiment, no officer of inferior or the same rank, whose appointment was subsequent to his, has a right to complain, nor will such conduct be countenanced or the like in future pass without being properly noticed.

“You were not at Princetown, when Monsr. Colerus came to take his post, and therefore are not acquainted with the circumstances that then happened; but I shall expect to hear no further objections upon the subject, and that he will immediately take a Majority in the Regiment and rank according to the date of his commission and such Rules as are adopted for adjusting matters of the like nature in the Army.”—Washington to Colonel Hazen, 4 June, 1777.

[1 ]Read in Congress June 9th. Referred to Board of War.