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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. 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.

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.

You will please to keep me informed as fully as you can, and as often as opportunity will permit, of the progress you shall make in executing the business committed to your conduct.

Sir,

Confiding perfectly in your general knowledge, good sense, judgment, and discretion, in the fulfilment of this commission, I forbear any further detail of instructions but wish you success in your negotiations, with pleasure and security in the prosecution of your tour. Given at Head-Quarters, Newburg, this 12th day of July, 1783.1

I take the liberty to mention to your Excellency, that, in attending to the resolutions of Congress of the 15th of April, respecting the posts in the United States occupied by the British troops, I find it necessary to apply for a more particular explanation of the intentions of Congress than is there expressed.1

[1 ]In compliance with these instructions, Baron Steuben proceeded to Canada. He reached Chamblee on the 2d of August, and thence sent forward his aid-de-camp, Major North, to Quebec, with a message to General Haldimand announcing the object of his mission. General Haldimand was just on the eve of his departure for the upper country, and he met Baron Steuben at Sorel, on the 8th of August. In regard to the first point of the instructions, General Haldimand said that he had not received orders for making any arrangements to evacuate the posts, nor for any other object than a cessation of hostilities, with which he had strictly complied. A request for passports to visit the posts, on the part of Baron Steuben, was likewise refused by General Haldimand, upon the same ground of want of orders. In short, he did not feel himself authorized to enter into any negotiations whatever, respecting the objects for which Baron Steuben had come to Canada, and the latter returned from Sorel to the American army.

[1 ]In compliance with these instructions, Baron Steuben proceeded to Canada. He reached Chamblee on the 2d of August, and thence sent forward his aid-de-camp, Major North, to Quebec, with a message to General Haldimand announcing the object of his mission. General Haldimand was just on the eve of his departure for the upper country, and he met Baron Steuben at Sorel, on the 8th of August. In regard to the first point of the instructions, General Haldimand said that he had not received orders for making any arrangements to evacuate the posts, nor for any other object than a cessation of hostilities, with which he had strictly complied. A request for passports to visit the posts, on the part of Baron Steuben, was likewise refused by General Haldimand, upon the same ground of want of orders. In short, he did not feel himself authorized to enter into any negotiations whatever, respecting the objects for which Baron Steuben had come to Canada, and the latter returned from Sorel to the American army.