The Online Library of Liberty

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• The Writings of George Washington.
• 1777.
• To Major-general Putnam.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Governor Trumbull.
• To Governor Henry.
• To the Council of Safety of New York.
• To John Augustine Washington.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Major-general Putnam.
• To Lieutenants Bird, Dorsey, Craig, Moore, and Gray. 1
• To Governor Clinton.
• To Benjamin Franklin, In Paris.
• To Benjamin Harrison, In Congress.
• To Brigadier-general Wayne.
• To Major-general Gates.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress. 2
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Major-general Sullivan.
• To General Cadwalader.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Governor Livingston.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Major-general Heath.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress. 1
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Lieutenant-colonel Alexander Hamilton.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Major-general Putnam.
• To Major-general Gates.
• To Lord Stirling.
• To John Parke Custis.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Sir William Howe. 1
• To the President of Congress.
• To Colonel Christopher Greene. Instructions.
• To Governor Livingston.
• To Brigadier-general Potter. 1
• To Lieutenant-colonel Samuel Smith.
• To Governor George Clinton.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Thomas Wharton, President of Pennsylvania.
• To Richard Henry Lee.
• To Baron D’arendt. Instructions.
• To John Augustine Washington.
• To Major-general Putnam.
• To John Hancock. 1
• To Major-general Sullivan.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Brigadier-general Forman.
• Circular to Pulaski and Colonels of Horse.
• To Major-general Putnam.
• Call For a Council of Officers.
• To Francis Hopkinson and John Wharton, of the Navy Board. 1
• To Landon Carter.
• To Lieutenant-colonel Alexander Hamilton.
• To Major-general Gates.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Brigadier-general Varnum.
• To Governor Livingston.
• To Sir William Howe.
• To Jeremiah Powell, President of the Council of Massachusetts.
• To General Thomas Nelson.
• To Col. Theodorick Bland.
• To Brigadier-general Conway.
• To Henry Laurens, President of Congress. 2
• To the President of Congress.
• To Brigadier-general Varnum.
• To Major-general Heath.
• To Governor Henry.
• To Sir William Howe.
• To John Parke Custis.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To Brigadier-general Conway.
• To Major-general St. Clair, Major-general Baron De Kalb, and Brigadier-general Knox. Instructions.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Richard Henry Lee, In Congress.
• To Major-general Putnam.
• To the Officers and Soldiers of the Militia In the Counties of Hunterdon, Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Major-general Greene.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Major-general Greene.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Major-general Putnam.
• To Joseph Reed.
• To Major-general Gates.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Governor Livingston.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Governor Trumbull.
• To George Read, President of Delaware.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the Executives of the Eastern States.
• To Major-general Conway. 1
• To Governor Livingston.
• 1778.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Major General Gates.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Governor Wharton.
• To Major-general Arnold. 1
• To Sir William Howe.
• To Major-general Heath.
• To Major-general Putnam.
• To Major-general Gates.
• To Major-general Charles Lee.
• To a Committee of Congress. 1
• To Sir William Howe.
• To Henry Laurens.
• To John Parke Custis.
• To Governor Livingston.
• To Peter Colt. 2
• To Thomas Nelson, Jr.
• To Major-general Gates.
• To Brigadier-general Wayne. Instructions.
• To Sir William Howe.
• To Major-general Mcdougall.
• To Major-general Gates.
• To Governor Livingston.
• To Richard Henry Lee.
• To Governor George Clinton.
• An Address to the Inhabitants of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. 1
• To William Duer.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Bryan Fairfax. 2
• To Thomas Wharton, President of Pennsylvania.
• To Colonel George Baylor. Instructions.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Brigadier-general Parsons, At West Point.
• Copy of the Letter Referred to Above.
• To the Marquis De Lafayette.
• To Lieutenant-general Burgoyne.
• To George William Fairfax, In England.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Robert R. Livingston.
• To Philip Schuyler, James Duane, and Volkert P. Douw, Commissioners of Indian Affairs.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Governor Livingston.
• To Major-general Mcdougall.
• To the President of Congress.
• To James Bowdoin, President of the Council of Massachusetts.
• To Brigadier-general John Cadwalader.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Sir William Howe.
• To the President of Congress.
• To John Ternant. 1
• To Major-general Armstrong.
• To Patrick Henry.
• To Patrick Henry.
• To Governor Trumbull.
• To Thomas Mckean. 1
• To Colonel Josias C. Hall.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Colonel Mathias Ogden.
• To the President of Congress.
• To the General Officers In Camp.
• To John Banister, Delegate In Congress.
• To Major-general Mcdougall.
• To Major-general Charles Lee.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Gouverneur Morris, In Congress.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Governor Livingston.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Major-general Heath.
• To the President of Congress.
• To Henry Laurens.

TO MAJOR-GENERAL GATES.

Headquarters,Valley Forge,
9 February, 1778.1

Sir:

I was duly favored with your Letter of the 23d of last month, to which I should have replied sooner, had I not been delayed by business that required my more immediate attention.

It is my wish to give implicit credit to the assurances of every Gentleman; but in the subject of our present correspondence, I am sorry to confess, there happen to be some unlucky circumstances, which involuntarily compell me to consider the discovery you mention, not so satisfactory and conclusive as you seem to think it.

I am so unhappy as to find no small difficulty in reconciling the spirit and import of your different Letters, and sometimes of the different parts of the same Letter with each other. It is not unreasonable to presume, that your first information of my having notice of General Conway’s Letter came from himself; there were very few in the secret and it is natural to suppose, that, he being immediately concerned, would be most interested to convey the intelligence to you. It is also far from improbable that he acquainted you with the substance of the passage communicated to me. One would expect this, if he believed it to be spurious, in order to ascertain the imposition and evince his innocence; especially as he seemed to be under some uncertainty, as to the precise contents of what he had written, when I signified my knowledge of the matter to him.—If he neglected doing it, the omission cannot easily be interpreted into any thing else, than a consciousness of the reality of the extract, if not literally, at least substantially. If he did not neglect it, it must appear somewhat strange that the forgery remained so long undetected, and that your first letter to me from Albany of the 8th of December, should tacitly recognize the genuineness of the paragraph in question; while your only concern at that time seemed to be “the tracing out the author of the infidelity, which put extracts from Genl. Conway’s Letter into my hands.”

Throughout the whole of that letter the reality of the extracts is by the fairest implication allowed and your only solicitude is to find out the person that brought them to light. After making the most earnest pursuit of the author of the supposed treachery, without saying a word about the truth or falsehood of the passage; your Letter of the 23d Ulto. to my great surprise, proclaims it “in words as well as in substance a wicked forgery.”

It is not my intention to contradict this assertion but only to intimate some considerations, which tend to induce a supposition, that though none of General Conway’s letters to you contained the offensive passage mentioned, there might have been something in them too nearly related to it, that could give such an extraordinary alarm. It may be said, if this were not the case, how easy in the first instance, to have declared there was nothing exceptionable in them, and to have produced the letters themselves in support of it? This may be thought the most proper and effectual way of refuting misrepresentation and removing all suspicion.—The propriety of the objections suggested against submitting them to inspection, may very well be questioned. “The various reports circulated concerning their contents,” were, perhaps, so many arguments for making them speak for themselves, to place the matter upon the footing of certainty. Concealment in an affair which had made so much noise, tho’ not by my means, will naturally lead men to conjecture the worst; and it will be a subject of speculation, even to candor itself. The anxiety and jealousy you apprehended from revealing the Letter, will be very apt to be increased by suppressing it.

It may be asked, why not submit to inspection a performance perfectly harmless, and, of course, conceived in terms of proper caution and delicacy? Why supposed that “anxiety and jealousy would have arisen in the breasts of very respectable officers, or that they would have been unnecessarily disgusted at being made sensible of their faults, when related with judgement and impartiality by a candid Observer?” Surely they could not have been unreasonable enough to take offence at a performance so perfectly inoffensive, “blaming actions rather then persons,” which have evidently no connexion with one another, and indulgently “recording the errors of inexperience.”

You are pleased to consider General Conway’s Letters as of a confidential nature; observing that “time and circumstances must point out the propriety or impropriety of communicating such Letters.” Permit me to inquire whether, when there is an impropriety in communicating, it is only applicable with respect to the parties, who are the subjects of them:—One might be led to imagine this to be the case from your having admitted others into the secret of your confidential correspondence, at the same time that you thought it ineligible it should be trusted to those “officers, whose actions underwent its scrutiny.” Your not knowing whether the Letter, under consideration, “came to me from a Member of Congress, or from an officer,” plainly indicates that you originally communicated it to at least one of that honorable body; and I learn from General Conway, that before his late arrival at York Town, it had been committed to the perusal of several of its members, and was afterwards shown by himself to three more. It is somewhat difficult to conceive a reason, founded in generosity, for imparting the free and confidential strictures of that ingenious censor, on the operations of the Army, under my command, to a member of Congress; but perhaps “time and circumstances pointed it out.”—It must indeed be acknowledged, that the faults of very respectable officers, not less injurious for being the result of inexperience, were not improper topics to engage the attention of members of Congress.

It is however greatly to be lamented, that this adept in military science did not employ his abilities in the progress of the campaign, in pointing out those wise measures, which were calculated to give us “that degree of success we might reasonably expect.” The United States have lost much from that unseasonable diffidence, which prevented his embracing the numerous opportunities he had in Council, of displaying those rich treasures of knowledge and experience, he has since so freely laid open to you.—I will not do him the injustice to impute the penurious reserve which ever appeared in him upon such occasions to any other cause than an excess of modesty; neither will I suppose he possesses no other merit than of that after kind of sagacity, which qualifies a man better for profound discoveries of errors, that have been committed, and advantages that have been lost, than for the exercise of that foresight and provident discernment which enable him to avoid the one and anticipate the other.—But, willing as I am to subscribe to all his pretensions and to believe that his remarks on the operations of the campaign were very judicious, and that he has sagaciously descanted on many things that might have been done, I can not help being a little sceptical as to his ability, to have found out the means of accomplishing them, or to prove the sufficiency of those in our possession. These minutiæ, I suspect, he did not think worth his attention, particularly as they might not be within the compass of his views.—

Notwithstanding the hopeful presages, you are pleased to figure to yourself of General Conway’s firm and constant friendship to America, I cannot persuade myself to retract the prediction concerning him, which you so emphatically wish had not been inserted in my last. A better acquaintance with him, than I have reason to think you have had from what you say, and a concurrence of circumstances, oblige me to give him but little credit for the qualifications of his heart; of which, at least, I beg leave to assume the privilege of being a tolerable judge. Were it necessary, more instances than one might be adduced from his behavior and conversation, to manifest that he is capable of all the malignity of detraction, and all the meanessess of intrigue, to gratify the absurd resentment of disappointed vanity, or to answer the purposes of personal aggrandizement and promote the interests of faction. I am, &c.1

[1 ]The first official note from Gates as a member of the Board of War was dated 24 January, 1778. Washington’s first letter to Gates as President of the Board of War was dated 26 January, 1778.

[1 ]“I yesterday received your favor of the 19th inst.

“I am as averse to controversy as any man, and had I not been forced into it, you never would have had occasion to impute to me, even the shadow of disposition towards it. Your repeatedly and solemnly disclaiming any offensive views in those matters, which have been the subject of our past correspondence makes me willing to close with the desire, you express, of burying them hereafter in silence, and, as far as future wants will permit, oblivion. My temper leads me to peace and harmony with all men; and it is peculiarly my wish to avoid any personal feuds or dissentions with those who are embarked in the same great national interest with myself; as every difference of this kind must in its consequence be very injurious.”—Washington to Major-General Gates, 24 February, 1778.