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

TO SIR HENRY CLINTON. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. IX (1780-1782) [1891]

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. IX (1780-1782).

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

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TO SIR HENRY CLINTON.

Sir,

The enclosed representation from the inhabitants of the county of Monmouth, with testimonials to the facts which can be corroborated by other unquestionable evidence, will bring before your Excellency the most wanton, unprecedented, and inhuman murder, that ever disgraced the arms of a civilized people.

I shall not, because I believe it to be altogether unnecessary, trouble your Excellency with any animadversions upon this transaction. Candor obliges me to be explicit. To save the innocent, I demand the guilty. Captain Lippincot, therefore, or the officer who commanded at the execution of Captain Huddy, must be given up; or, if that officer was of inferior rank to him, so many of the perpetrators as will, according to the tariff of exchange, be an equivalent. To do this, will mark the justice of your Excellency’s character. In failure of it, I shall hold myself justifiable, in the eyes of God and man, for the measure to which I shall resort.

I beg your Excellency to be persuaded, that it cannot be more disagreeable to you to be addressed in this language, than it is to me to offer it; but the subject requires frankness and decision. I have to request your speedy determination, as my resolution is suspended but for your answer. I am, Sir, &c.1

[1 ]Sir Henry Clinton’s answer to this letter, and some other parts of the correspondence between General Washington and the British commanders, respecting the case of Captain Huddy and Captain Asgill, were published, and are contained in the Remembrancer, vol. xiv., pp. 144, 155; vol. xv., pp. 127, 191.