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.

Sir,

I take the liberty of transmitting to you the enclosed copies of a letter from me to General Conway, since his return from New York to camp, and of two letters from him to me, which you will be pleased to lay before Congress. I shall not in this letter animadvert upon them; but after making a single observation, submit the whole to Congress.

If General Conway means, by cool receptions, mentioned in the last paragraph of his letter of the 31st ultimo, that I did not receive him in the language of a warm and cordial friend, I readily confess the charge. I did not, nor shall I ever, till I am capable of the arts of dissimulation. These I despise, and my feelings will not permit me to make professions of friendship to the man I deem my enemy, and whose system of conduct forbids it. At the same time, truth authorizes me to say, that he was received and treated with proper respect to his official character, and that he has had no cause to justify the assertion, that he could not expect any support for fulfilling the duties of his appointment. I have the honor to be, &c.

P. S. The enclosed extract from the proceedings of a council of general officers will show, the office of inspector-general was a matter not of such modern date, as General Conway mentions it to be, and that it was one of the regulations in view for the reform of the army.1 The foreign officers, who had commissions and no commands, and who were of ability, were intended to be recommended to execute it; particularly the Baron d’Arendt, with whom the idea originated, and whose capacity seemed to be well admitted.2

[1 ]P. 144 of this volume.

[2 ]Read in Congress, January 7th. Referred to the Board of War.

In the draft of a letter to the Board of War, dated 2 January, 1778, is found the following paragraph, omitted in the letter sent:

“The service and interest of my country I have much at heart, and no man has labored with more unwearied assiduity to promote these than I have in the present contest. This I shall continue to do as far as it may be in my power; but I fear the Board’s expectations will never be answered in the instance in which they have so particularly recommended my co-operation and countenance—I mean in the case of General Conway. His appointment to the office of Inspector General, I believe, would have caused no uneasiness; but his promotion to the rank of Major General has given much. My exertions to co-operate with him, or any other officer to establish discipline shall always be employed; but my feelings and opinion of him will never permit me, without the grossest dissimulation which I abhor and despise, to countenance the man as my Friend, whom I know to be my enemy, and who has been using every base and insidious art to injure me.”