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

TO JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. VII (1778-1779) [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. VII (1778-1779).

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

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TO JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON.

Camp, nearValley Forge,
10 June, 1778.

Dear Brother,

I do not recollect the date of my last to you, but although it is not long ago, I cannot let so good an opportunity as Captain Turberville affords, slip me. Your favors of the 10th of April from Bushfield, and 8th of May from Berkeley, are both before me, and have came to hand, I believe, since my last to you.

We have been kept in anxious expectation of the enemy’s evacuating Philadelphia for upwards of fourteen days; and I was at a loss, as they had embarked all their baggage and stores on board transports, and had passed all those transports, (a few only excepted,) below the chevaux-de-frise, to account for their delay; when, behold, on Friday last the additional commissioners, to wit, Lord Carlisle, Governor Johnstone, and Mr. William Eden, arrived at the city. Whether this heretofore has been the cause of the delay, I shall not undertake to say, but more than probably it will detain them for some days to come. They give out, as I understand, that we may make our own terms, provided we will but return to our dependence on Great Britain. But if this is their expectation, and they have no other powers than the Acts (which we have seen) give them there will be no great trouble in managing a negotiation; nor will there be much time spent in the business, I apprehend. They talk as usual of a great reinforcement; but whether the situation of affairs between them and France will admit of this, is not quite so clear. My wishes lead me, together with other circumstances, to believe that they will find sufficient employment, for their reinforcements at least, in other quarters. Time, however, will discover and reveal things more fully to us.

Out of your first and second drafts, by which we ought to have had upwards of thirty-five hundred men for the regiments from that State, we have received only twelve hundred and forty-two in all. I need only mention this fact, in proof of what other States do; of our prospects also; and as a criterion by which you may form some estimate of our real numbers when you hear them, as I doubt not you often do, spoken of in magnified terms. From report, however, I should do injustice to the States of Maryland and New Jersey, were I not to add, that they are likely to get their regiments nearly completed.1 The extreme fatigue and hardship, which the soldiers underwent in the course of the winter, added to the want of clothes and, I may add, provisions, have rendered them sickly, especially in the brigade you have mentioned (of North Carolina). Many deaths have happened in consequence, and yet the army is in exceeding good spirits.

You have doubtless seen a publication of the treaty with France, the message of the King of France by his ambassador to the court of London, with the King’s speech to, and addresses of Parliament upon the occasion. If one was to judge of the temper of these courts from the above documents, war I should think must have commenced long before this; and yet the commissioners (but we must allow them to lye greatly) say, it had not taken place the 28th of April, and that the differences between the two courts were likely to be accommodated. But I believe not a word of it; and as you ask my opinion of Lord North’s speech, and bills, I shall candidly declare to you, that they appear to me, to be a compound of fear, art, and villainy, and these ingredients so equally mixed, that I scarcely know which predominates.

I am sorry to hear of Billy Washington’s ill health, but hope he is recovering. Mrs. Washington left this place the day before yesterday for Mount Vernon. My love to my sister and the family is most sincerely offered, and I am, with the truest regard and affection, yours, &c.

[1 ]I assure you, Sir, I would willingly give you every justifiable aid from this army. At present, the situation of affairs will not permit my doing more than what I have already. The enemy are yet in Philadelphia with a respectable force, and our’s but very little, if any, increased, since you left us, from what reason, I shall not pretend to determine. But certainly there is an unaccountable kind of lethargy in most of the States in making up their quotas of men. It would almost seem from their withholding their supplies or not sending them into the field, that they consider the war as quite at an end.”—Washington to Brigadier-General McIntosh, 10 June, 1778.