- The Writings of George Washington.
- 1778.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Heath.
- To Major-general Mcdougall.
- To General Schuyler.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette. Instructions.
- To Gouverneur Morris, In Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Richard Henry Lee.
- To John Parke Custis.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To Landon Carter.
- To Major-general Lee. Instructions.
- To Sir Henry Clinton.
- Thoughts Upon a Plan of Operations For the Campaign of 1778. 1
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Dickinson.
- To John Augustine Washington.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To Major-general Charles Lee.
- To James Hunter, Esq., Near Fredericksburg, Va.
- To Joseph Reed, Delegate In Congress From Pennsylvania.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To Major-general Arnold.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette. Instructions.
- To Major-general Lee.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To John Augustine Washington.
- To Major-general Lord Stirling and the Members of the General Court-martial For the Trial of Major-general Lee.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Governor Clinton.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To John Parke Custis.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To Major-general Arnold.
- To the Board of War.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Parke Custis.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Lund Washington. 1
- To the President of Congress.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To Brigadier-general Nelson, Virginia.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To Major-general Heath.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To Major General Greene.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To John Augustine Washington.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To John Parke Custis.
- To Brigadier-general Andrew Lewis, Virginia.
- To Major-general Heath.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Mr. James Hill.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Burwell Bassett.
- To Count D’estaing,
- To the President of Congress.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed, President of Pennsylvania.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Lund Washington.
- To Benjamin Harrison, Speaker of the House of Delegates of Virginia.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- 1779.
- To the Committee of Congress Appointed to Confer With the Commander-in-chief.
- To the Committee of Congress.
- To Major-general Putnam.
- To the Committee of Congress.
- To Brigadier-general Mcintosh.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Jay, President of Congress.
- To Governor Livingston.
- To President Reed.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette, Paris.
- To Sir Henry Clinton.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Henry Laurens, In Congress.
- To Colonel Daniel Brodhead, At Fort Pitt.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To George Mason.
- To President Reed.
- To James Warren, In Massachusetts.
- To President Reed.
- To John Jay.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Colonel Daniel Brodhead.
- To Burwell Bassett.
- To Governor Livingston.
- To John Jay.
- To President Reed.
- To Monsieur Gerard, Minister Plenipotentiary From His Most Christian Majesty to the United States of America.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Governor Livingston.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Benjamin Harrison.
- To Brigadier-general Maxwell.
- To Brigadier-general Maxwell.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Armstrong.
- Circular to the States.
- To Major-general Sullivan. Instructions.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major Benjamin Tallmadge. 1
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Brigadier-general Wayne. 2
- To Brigadier-general Wayne.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To Brigadier-general Wayne.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
TO JOHN JAY, PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Middlebrook, 1 March, 1779.
Dear Sir,
I have been a little surprised, that the several important pieces of intelligence lately received from Europe, (such parts I mean, as are circulated without reserve in conversation), have not been given to the public in a manner calculated to attract the attention and impress the minds of the people. As they are now propagated, they run through the country in a variety of forms, are confounded in the common mass of general rumors, and lose a great part of their effect. It would certainly be attended with many valuable consequences if they could be given to the people in some more authentic and pointed manner. It would assist the measures taken to restore our currency, promote the recruiting of the army and our other military arrangements, and give a certain spring to our affairs in general. Congress may have particular reasons for not communicating the intelligence officially (which would certainly be the best mode if it could be done;) but, if it cannot, it were to be wished, that as much as is intended to be commonly known, could be published in as striking a way, and with as great an appearance of authority as may be consistent with propriety.
I have taken the liberty to trouble you with this hint, as sometimes things the most obvious escape attention. If you agree with me in sentiment, you will easily fall upon the most proper mode for answering the purpose. With very great esteem and regard, I am, &c.
The President of Congress replied:—“The opinion, that greater advantage results from communicating important events to the people, in an authentic way, than by unauthorized reports, is certainly just, though often neglected. The intelligence alluded to is unfortunately of such a nature, or rather so circumstanced, as to render secrecy necessary. As Congress, with the consent of the Minister of France, have directed it to be communicated to you, further remarks will be unnecessary. Dr. Witherspoon, who lately returned to Jersey, promised to do it in a personal conference.”—MS. Letter, March 3d.
This intelligence related to a project of Congress for attempting to recover Georgia, by sending an army to act in conjunction with Count d’Estaing, who was then in the West Indies. Congress applied to M. Gerard, the French minister, for four frigates out of Count d’Estaing’s squadron to operate against the enemy in Georgia and Carolina. M. Gerard answered, that they would weaken Count d’Estaing’s armament too much, and moreover would not be sufficient to meet the enemy’s forces at the south; and that this would in any case be an extraordinary service, which, by the conditions of the treaty, would demand a compensation from the United States. The committee of Congress, who held the conference with M. Gerard, argued from the fourth article of the treaty, that the king was bound to render assistance to the United States, and that the condition of affairs in Georgia rendered this assistance necessary and important. They said the demand for compensation could only have place where one of the allies required assistance from the other for an object of conquest, and never when the proposed expedition had for its end the interest of the alliance; and that in the former case a compensation would be just, but to apply this stipulation to objects of the latter kind, would be to frustrate the purpose of the alliance. They proposed, therefore, to reserve the question of compensation for the decision of the sovereign powers.
M. Gerard replied, that the treaty explained the intentions of the contracting parties with so much precision, that he could not admit its sense to be doubtful; that it was necessary to take all the parts of the treaty together; that the first articles contained the principles, of which the following ones were modifications; that the obligation of mutual assistance certainly existed, and that the king would fulfil it with fidelity, but conformably to what his own situation would admit; that the principle from which they were to set out was, that each party was to carry on the war on its own accord against the common enemy; that his Majesty would fulfil this obligation by employing all his force, and doing all the injury possible to the enemy; that his efforts would be equally useful to the alliance, in whatever part of the world they might be made; that this principle was founded on the distance of places, the impossibility of a concert, the difficulties and delays of a correspondence, the necessity of preventing dissensions between parties, and the impossibility of combining expeditions under these circumstances; that there was no distincttion between such an expedition as they proposed, and one that should have conquest for its object. M. Gerard added, that the proposition of Congress tended to interpret the treaty, that he had no authority to accord to any definite interpretation, or rather to fix an interpretation, and that the only thing that could admit of a reference was, to determine what the compensation ought to be, and not when it could be demanded. Count d’Estaing came to America with orders to act under the requisitions of Congress, while he was in the American seas. He had now left those seas, and was promoting the general objects of the alliance by carrying on the war separately. He could be called back by Congress only with the assurance of a compensation.—MS. Letter from M. Gerard to Count de Vergennes, February 12th.—Sparks.
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