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

TO JOSEPH REED, DELEGATE IN CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA. - 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.

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 JOSEPH REED, DELEGATE IN CONGRESS FROM PENNSYLVANIA.

Dear Sir,

I thank you very much for your friendly favor of this date, and your polite attention in submitting the draft of your letter to Governor Johnstone to my perusal. I return it again; but, before you transcribe a fair copy, I would wish to see you upon the subject of it. Perhaps there are some parts of it which might receive a small alteration. In the present situation of things, all correspondence of this nature must and will be weighed and scanned with a scrupulous exactness; and even compliment, if carried far, may not pass entirely uncensured.

There is another consideration with me. Congress perhaps, at this instant, are deliberating on an answer to give the Commissioners to an address, they have received from them. Should a letter, therefore, from a member (in which light you will be considered) hold out sentiments different from theirs, an unfavorable use, will doubtless be made of it.

I am, dear Sir, your affectionate &c.1

[1 ]General Reed was probably at this time in camp, as one of the committee from Congress for arranging the army.

“The Baron Steuben will have the honor to deliver you this. I do not know particularly the extent of his business at York; but, from what he has communicated, it is in part to get the duties and powers of his appointment minutely defined and settled. I enclose a copy of orders on the 15th instant, which were issued to quiet the minds of the general officers, and to remove a spirit of jealousy, which but too apparently was rising among them. These contain my ideas of the principal duties of the inspector’s office, and, I have reason to think, are generally agreeable to the army. While I am on this subject, I must do justice to the Baron’s intelligence, zeal, and indefatigable industry, from which we have experienced very happy effects.”—Washington to the President of Congress, 18 June, 1778.