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

TO COUNT DE VERGENNES. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. X (1782-1785) [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. X (1782-1785).

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

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TO COUNT DE VERGENNES.

Upon the whole, Sir, I hardly imagine you will think it prudent to dismiss your carriages under present appearances and circumstances; and, if you do not, the cattle will be as easily and cheaply subsisted upon a march as in a settled camp. Should an accommodation take place, and should the orders of your court call you from the continent, your embarkation might be as easily made upon the Delaware or the Hudson, as upon the Chesapeake. From the foregoing therefore, I am of opinion, that no good consequences can result from your remaining at Baltimore, but that many advantages may attend your marching forward, and forming a junction with this army. Actuated by no motives, but those which tend to the general good, I have taken the liberty of giving your Excellency my sentiments with that freedom, with which I am convinced you would ever wish me to deliver them. I beg leave to return your Excellency my thanks for the attention you have paid, not only to the exchange of Colonel Laumoy, but of several others of our officers.

Sir,

I have the honor to be, &c.

After I had the honor of receiving your Excellency’s letter of the 29th of July, I lost not a moment in transmitting it to Congress, who had then under deliberation the proceedings of the British court-martial upon Captain Lippincott for the murder of Captain Huddy, and the other documents relating to that inhuman transaction. What would otherwise have been the determination of that honorable body, I will not undertake to say; but I think I may venture to assure your Excellency, that your generous interposition had no small degree of weight in procuring that decision in favor of Captain Asgill, which he had no right to expect from the very unsatisfactory measures, which had been taken by the British commander-in-chief to atone for a crime of the blackest dye, not to be justified by the practices of war, and unknown at this day amongst civilized nations. I however flatter myself, that our enemies have been brought to view this transaction in its true light, and that we shall not experience a repetition of the like enormity.