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

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. VIII (1779-1780) [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. VIII (1779-1780).

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 have been honored with your Excellency’s favors of the 6th and 9th instant, with the Acts and papers to which they refer. The first did not reach me till the 13th in the Evening.

I shall in obedience to the orders of Congress take the proper steps for a Court of Inquiry to be held on the Conduct of Major-Genl. Gates as Commander of the Southern Army; and also shall, agreeable to their direction, appoint an officer to command in his room, untill such inquiry be made. Major-General Greene, who is at present at West Point, is the officer I shall nominate. I am sorry to find, by the Copies transmitted in your Excellency’s letter of the 9th, that our Affairs at the Southward are in so deranged a state. I see not how we are to supply the defect of Cloathing and Arms, except those, which have been long expected from France, should speedily arrive.

I inclose your Excellency a New York paper of the 11th which contains nothing material, except Arnold’s address to the inhabitants of America. I am at a loss which to admire most, the confidence of Arnold in publishing it, or the folly of the Enemy in supposing that a production signed by so infamous a Character will have any weight with the people of these States, or any influence upon our Affairs abroad. Our accounts from New York respecting the intended embarkation continue vague and contradictory. A few days ago it was said, that the troops designed for the expedition were all on board and that the Fleet would sail immediately. I last night received intelligence, tho’ not thro’ a direct Channel, that the troops were again disembarked, and that a plan intirely new was in agitation. Unluckily the person in whom I have the greatest confidence is afraid to take any measure for communicating with me just at this time, as he is apprehensive that Arnold may possibly have some knowledge of the connexion, and may have him watched. But as he is assured, that Arnold has not the most distant hint of him, I expect soon to hear from him as usual.

I have, in my several late letters to Govr. Jefferson, mentioned the preparations in New York, and have advised him to have all public Stores removed from the navigable Waters, lest the expedition should really, as they industriously propagate, be destined for Virginia. I have the honor to be, &c.1

[1 ]Read in Congress, 19th October.