Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. - The Writings of George Washington, vol. VI (1777-1778)

Return to Title Page for The Writings of George Washington, vol. VI (1777-1778)

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. VI (1777-1778) [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. VI (1777-1778).

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.

Head-Quarters, at Peter Wintz’s,
16 October, 1777.

Sir,

I have been duly honored with your favors of the 12th & 13th inst. with their several Enclosures.

In respect to the resolution, directing a flag to be sent to General Howe, I am inclined to think, that the information upon which it was framed was without foundation. The letters, which have come from our officers, who have been lately taken, generally mention that their treatment has been tolerably good; and such privates as have escaped have said nothing, in the course of their examination, of their having been compelled to work. For these reasons I have taken the liberty to decline sending the flag.1 At the same time Congress may be assured, if our prisoners suffer any wrongs, I shall take every means in my power to have them redressed as soon as I am apprized of them.

It is with the highest satisfaction I congratulate Congress on the success of our arms at the northward in the action of the 7th, an event of the most interesting importance at this critical juncture. From the happy train in which things then were, I hope we shall soon hear of the most decisive advantages.1 We moved this morning from the encampment at which we had been for six or seven days past, and are just arrived at the grounds we occupied before the action of the 4th. One motive for coming here is to divert the enemy’s attention and force from the forts. These they seem to consider as capital objects, and, from their operations, mean to reduce if possible. At present their designs are directed against Fort Mifflin and the chevaux-de-frise. I have therefore detached a further reinforcement to the garrison.

I yesterday, through the hands of Mrs. Ferguson of Graham Park, received a letter of a very curious and extraordinary nature from Mr. Duché, which I have thought proper to transmit to Congress. To this ridiculous, illiberal performance, I made a short reply, by desiring the bearer of it, if she should hereafter by any accident meet with Mr. Duché, to tell him I should have returned it unopened, if I had had any idea of the contents; observing at the same time, that I highly disapproved the intercourse she seemed to have been carrying on, and expected it would be discontinued. Notwithstanding the author’s assertion, I cannot but suspect that the measure did not originate with him; and that he was induced to it by the hope of establishing his interest and peace more effectually with the enemy.1

I have the honor to be, &c.

[1 ]Information had at different times been conveyed to Congress, that the prisoners in Philadelphia were compelled to labor, and were employed in throwing up works in the neighborhood of the city. Congress thought it incumbent on them to inquire into the truth of the report, and directed that a flag should be immediately despatched to General Howe for that purpose.—President Hancock’s Letter, October 12th.

[1 ]“The General congratulates the troops upon this signal victory, the third capital advantage, which under divine Providence, we have gained in that quarter; and hopes it will prove a powerful stimulus to the army under his immediate command; at least to equal their northern brethren in brave and intrepid exertions when called thereto. The General wishes them to consider that this is the Grand American Army; and that of course great things are expected from it. ’T is the army of whose superior prowess some have boasted. What shame then and dishonor will attend us, if we suffer ourselves in every instance to be out-done? We have a force sufficient, by the favor of Heaven to crush our foe, and nothing is wanting but a spirited, persevering exertion of it, to which, besides the motives before mentioned, duty and the love of our country irresistibly impel us. The effect of such powerful motives, no man, who possesses the spirit of a soldier can withstand, and spurred on by them, the General assures himself, that on the next occasion his troops will be completely successful.”—Orderly Book, 15 October, 1777. “The General has his happiness completed relative to the successes of our northern army . . . Let every face brighten, and every heart expand with grateful joy and praise to the Supreme Disposer of all events, who has granted us this signal success.”—Orderly Book, 18 October, 1777.

[1 ]This letter “contained in substance, an abjuration of all his former opinions, but severe and illiberal animadversions on Congress, and the leaders in the cause of freedom, censuring alike their motives and conduct. Washington, he said, was the only person who had power to stop the current, which was fast hurrying the country to inevitable ruin; and on him he called, in the voice of entreaty and almost of admonition, to ‘represent to Congress the indispensable necessity of rescinding the hasty and ill-advised Declaration of Independency.’ ”—Sparks, Washington merely enclosed the letter to Congress, where many copies were taken. “I never intended to make the letter more public than by laying it before Congress. I thought this a duty, which I owed to myself; for, had any accident happened to the army entrusted to my command, and it had ever afterwards appeared that such a letter had been written to and received by me, might it not have been said, that I had betrayed my country? and would not such a correspondence, if kept a secret, have given good grounds for the suspicion?”—Washington to Francis Hopkinson, 21 November, 1777. More than five years later Duché, in seeking to pave a way for his return to America, gave an explanation of his conduct:—

“Will your Excellency condescend to accept of a few lines from one, who ever was and wishes still to be your sincere friend, who never intentionally sought to give you a moment’s pain, who entertains for you the highest personal respect, and would be happy to be assured under your own hand, that he does not labor under your displeasure, but that you freely forgive what a weak judgment, but a very affectionate heart, once presumed to advise? Many circumstances, at present unknown to you, conspired to make me deem it my duty to write to you. Ignorance and simplicity saw not the necessity of your divulging the letter. I am convinced, however, that you could not, in your public position, do otherwise. I cannot say a word in vindication of my conduct but this, that I had been for months before distressed with continual apprehensions for you and all my friends without the British lines. I looked upon all as gone; or that nothing could save you, but rescinding the Declaration of Independency. Upon this ground alone I presumed to speak; not to advise an act of base treachery, my soul would have recoiled from the thought; not to surrender your army, or betray the righteous cause of your country, but, at the head of that army, supporting and supported by them, to negotiate with Britain for our constitutional rights.

“Can you then join with my country in pardoning this error of judgment? Will you yet honor me with your great interest and influence, by recommending, at least expressing your approbation of the repeal of an act, that keeps me in a state of banishment from my native country, from the arms of a dear aged father, and the embraces of a numerous circle of valuable and long-loved friends? Your liberal, generous mind, I am persuaded, will never exclude me wholly from your regard for a mere political error; especially, as you must have heard, that, since the date of that letter, I have led a life of perfect retirement, and since my arrival in England have devoted myself wholly to the duties of my profession, and confined my acquaintance to a happy circle of literary and religious friends.”—Duché to Washington, 2 April, 1783. He returned to America in May, 1792, and “lodged for a few weeks at my house, with his family. During their being with me, there took place the interesting incident of his visit to President Washington; who had been apprised of and consented to it; and manifested generous sensibility, on observing, on the limbs of Mr. Duché, the effects of a slight stroke of paralysis.”—Wilson, Memoir of Bishop White.

Duché’s letter was printed in Rivington’s Gazette, 29 November, 1777, and, with the reply of Col. Parke, was included in the Rivington issue of the “forged letters” of Washington, printed in Vol. IV. of this collection. A letter to the Doctor from his brother-in-law, Francis Hopkinson, may be found in Sparks, Writings of Washington, v., 477. Duché died in March, 1797.