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

TO ALEXANDER HAMILTON. - 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 ALEXANDER HAMILTON.

Sir,

Dear Sir:

I have the honor to acknowledge your Excellency’s favor of the 12th instant, and to thank you most sincerely for the intelligence you were pleased to communicate.1 The articles of treaty between America and Great Britain are as full and satisfactory as we have reason to expect; but, from the connexion in which they stand with a general pacification, they are very inconclusive and contingent. From this circumstance, compared with such other intelligence as I have been able to collect, I must confess, I have my fears that we shall be obliged to worry through another campaign before we arrive at that happy period, which is to crown all our toils.

I did not receive your letter of the 15th till after my return from Ringwood, where I had a meeting with the secretary at war for the purpose of making arrangements for the release of our prisoners, agreeably to the resolve of Congress of the 15th Inst.

Any intelligence from your Excellency will at all times be very agreeable to me. But, should it be in your power to announce a general peace, you could not make me more happy than in the communication of such an event. I have the honor to be, &c.

Finding a diversity of opinion respecting the treaty, and the line of conduct we ought to observe with the prisoners, I requested, in precise terms to know from Gene. Lincoln (before I entered on the business) whether we were to exercise our own judgment with respect to the time, as well as mode of releasing them, or was to be confined to the latter. Being informed that we had no option in the first, Congress wishing to be eased of the expence as soon as possible, I acted solely on that ground.