I am further charged by a Member to inform you as a Message from Congress that it is expected you will see that all Accounts with General Burgoyne are Settled and fully paid agreeable to the above mentioned Resolves before the embarkation of himself or other Officers and Troops included in the Convention of Saratoga.* A Committee are now preparing proper Instructions for your proceeding with respect to the demanded description of Soldiers and other persons comprehended in that agreement. Mr. Burgoyne's memory has deceived him in the Account which he gives of Sir Guy Carleton's releasing many hundred Continental Troops upon their bare parol. Mr. Boudinot has shewn me a much more accurate state of which you will be fully and very soon informed. these articles are however mere baggatelle compared with his complaint that the public faith with respect to the Convention is infracted, in a Letter to Major Gen. Gates. it will be impossible to part with him before an eclaircissement is had on this important charge. I have the honour to be With very great Esteem Sir Your most obedient Servant Dear Sir HENRY LAURENS President of Congress 787. WILLIAM ELLERY TO WILLIAM WHIPPLE.1 [December, 1777.]2 . . Among the prisoners we have made in that quarter is Mr James Delancey who was taken in Maurisania and who went over to the enemy since the Declaration of Independency. Congress have ordered him to be delivered over to the Executive Order of New York to be dealt with as to Law shall appertain.3. I read the paragraph of your letter relating to Marine matters to the Marine Committee. They liked the hint: but you know that Committee I wish you were here. that Committee particularly wants your services. Sir, 788. DANIEL ROBERDEAU TO THE PRESIDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA (THOMAS WHARTON, JR.).1 YORK TOWN, Decr 24th, 1777. The Delegates of this State are honored with your favor of the 20th, which shall forthwith be laid before Congress, to obtain a further regula * See the Journals, Dec. 19 (p. 1037). 5 See the Journals, Dec. 1, 12, 17, 18, 23, 26, 27; also nos. 752, 756, 779, 782, ante, no. 791, post. 2 Some passages of this letter, not here printed, indicate that it was probably written about Dec. 23. There is no record in the Journals of the order concerning James De Lancey. See a letter from John Jay to De Lancey, Jan. 2, 1778, and De Lancey's reply, Jan. 14, in Correspondence of Jay, I. 171, 172. Morrisania was a village in Westchester County, N. Y., now included within the city of New York. VI. 131. [788]1 Pa. State Lib., P. P., XLIV. 39; Pa. Arch., first ser., tion of the hire of Waggons. An ambiguity in Genl Armstrongs Letter, and the entire silence of Council on the Subject leaves us in doubt respecting their pleasure. If a repeal of the Resolve of Congress of one Substitute for two Yeoman is meant, it falls in with my judgment, and shall be glad to have it signified. Coll Smith has forwarded to you the Resolve of Congress in answer to the Remonstrance of our State, also copy of a law of Virginia to suppress Monopoly.*. 789. HENRY LAURENS TO JAMES Duane.1 YORK 24th. Decem. 1777. Dear Sir, A Vessel containing 70 Hogsds. of Rum and 6 Hogsds. Sugar with some other goods intended from Granada to New York for the use of the Enemy had been carried into Charles Town by the Mate and Crew, who had dispossessed the Master of Command. the whole was adjudged in pursuance of the Resolution of Congress, prize to the Captors. this is the first retort upon that species of British policy calculated for encouraging infidelity and treachery among seamen in the service of these States. I have no doubt but that in a few Months they will experience an hundred fold retaliation of their infamous example, which nothing but dire necessity would have induced virtuous Americans to Copy.*. Sir, 790. DANIEL ROBERDEAU TO THE PRESIDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA (THOMAS WHarton, JR.).1 YORK TOWN, Decr 26th, 1777. A letter is just come to hand giving the most melancholy discription of the situation of our army on account of difficiencies in the Commissary's 2 See the Journals, Dec. 24. President Wharton's letter is in Pa. Arch., first ser., VI. 116. Cf. ibid., VI. 124, 130, 136. 3 The letter of General Armstrong referred to is probably that of Nov. 29, in Pa. Arch., first ser., VI. 43. Cf. ibid., V. 487, 672, VI. 65, 96, 171, 251. See the Journals, Apr. 14, Dec. 4. 4 See no. 785, ante. [789]1 S. C. Hist. Soc., Laurens Letter-Book, 1776-1778, p. 207. 2 See nos. 766, 777, 778, ante. Laurens sets forth circumstantially the situation of Indian affairs in the South. 8 See the Journals, Oct. 14, and no. 690, ante. The disposition toward retaliation is also voiced by William Ellery_in_a letter written about the same time: "Our soldiers in the hands of the enemy at Philadelphia and New York, especially in the former, are treated in a most barbarous manner and a number of them have perished with famine. Some of them have died in the State house yard with grass in their mouths as I have been informed different ways. How long shall we forbear to retaliate on those worse than savages!". (Library of Congress, Force Trans., Whipple, p. 445.) [790] Pa. State Lib., P. P., XLIV. 40; Pa. Arch., first ser., VI. 134. and Qr master's Departments. With respect to the article of cloathing, 2800 are obliged to retire in a naked condition, unfit alone from that consideration for duty, that he was about to apply a remedy by taking supernumerary articles, particularly from the disaffected, agreeable to a resolve of Congress, but desisted on an assurance from a Committee of this State, that provision would be made without delay in a manner more to the satisfaction of the Inhabitants, but although their own Troops suffered in the most extream degree, either no supply had been sent, or so scanty that it did not deserve to be mentioned. Thus much from memory. I intend Council an extract of the Letter if I can obtain it. This is no time for recrimination, otherwise I could trace our present distress to other sources, and indeed Genl Washington speaks out for the first time and charges the principle difficiency viz., in the Commissary's department, to the arrangement made by Congress. I foresaw the Consiquences and withstood the measure, but in vain.*. . Sir, 791. THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS TO WILLIAM HEATH.1 YORK TOWN 27th. December, 1777. I beg leave to refer you to the inclosed duplicate of a letter which I had the honour of writing to you the 23d Inst transmitted by the hand of a Mr. Storer.2 Congress having received from Gen. Gates as intimated in my last, Copy of a Letter written to him by Lieutt Gen. Burgoyne in which this Gentleman declares that "the public faith is broke " etc., have taken his declaration, together with his refusal, under an assertion not founded in truth, to give such descriptive marks of his Non Commissioned Officers privates and other persons as you had demanded, into their most serious consideration in a Committee of the whole House. these weighty and important circumstances after having long employed the close attention of a select Committee, have taken up almost the whole time of Congress for two days past, nor have the House yet accomplished all the solemn and necessary Resolutions which the Case demands but so far has the House proceeded as to receive a Report from the Committee of the whole, and to order me to address you Sir, in terms of the Letter which you will find inclosed and of this which I am now penning. these will be followed 2 Two letters from Washington, Dec. 22 and 23 (Writings, ed. Ford, VI. 252, 257), describing conditions in the army, were read in Congress Dec. 26 and referred to a committee. December 29 this committee was discharged, and the letters referred to the board of war and three additional members as a committee. See nos. 794, 795, post, and the Journals, Jan. 1, 15, 1778. Another committee, to take into consideration the wants of the army, together with the propositions from the committee sent to camp, had been appointed Dec. 24. See nos. 774, 782, ante; cf. no. 792, post. 3 See the Journals, Sept. 17, Nov. 14, Dec. 10. 4 See nos. 664, 726, 748, 757, 759, ante. [791]1 Mass. Hist. Soc., Heath Papers, XII. 85, III. 54 (duplicate); Library of Congress, Presidents Letter-Book, I. 80; Mass. Hist. Soc., Collections, seventh ser., IV. 194 (printed from the duplicate in the Heath Papers). 2 No. 786, ante. The bearer was presumably Ebenezer Storer. See the Journals, Aug. 11, Oct. 23. as speedily as possible by extended Acts and Resolutions prepared for your further direction and for public Information on both sides the Atlantic.3 It is the express desire and injunction of Congress that you do not communicate the contents of these Letters to any person until it shall become absolutely necessary, that is to say until you shall have received the intended Acts and Resolves or until you shall have attempted and if possible completed certain essential Acts, admitting the Vessels for transporting Lt. Gen. Burgoyne and his Troops to be arrived at the port of Boston. by essential Acts, Congress mean that the Tonnage of the Transport Vessels and also that the Stores of Provisions and Fuel should be particularly enquired into and ascertained to be in your judgement sufficient for transportation and sustenance of the numbers of persons intended to be embarked for a Voyage from Boston to Great Britain, and more particularly that all accounts be liquidated and the Amount due by Lt. Gen. Burgoyne or as great a part of it as you can obtain, actually paid in Gold or Silver according to the rate specified in the Resolve of Congress of the 19th Inst. transmitted in my last Letter, in order to reduce within the smallest compass articles which hereafter may be made subjects for cavil and disputation by the Court of Great Britain on whose honour and justice these States cannot at present with any degree of safety rely. These Acts which Congress judge indespensibly necessary to be performed before an embarkation can take place will employ some days and gain so much time without subjecting the Honour of the House or of its Constituents to any unfavourable imputation from the world. You will also from what has been said perceive good ground for renewing your demand of the Names and particular description of the Non Commissioned Officers privates etc. but it may be prudent not to press this unless by appeal to expected directions from Congress and to the conduct of Sir Guy Carleton in the Instance adduced by Mr. Burgoyne and permit him if he pleases to decoy himself. If when you shall have sufficiently attempted or completed these necessary Acts you shall not have received the intended Resolves of Congress, it will then be necessary for you to disclose the Contents of the Inclosed Letter to General Burgoyne and peremptorily to prohibit his embarkation until you shall have received further directions on that point. You will understand the motive for dating that Letter January 1778, and leaving a Blank for the day to be properly and carefully filled by your self.* I have in conclusion to assure you Sir, that Congress repose the highest confidence in your address and abilities for conducting with propriety this very important business in which on one side the faith and honour of these Infant States are to be preserved, and on the other the magnanimity 3 See the Journals, Dec. 26, 27, and no. 786, note 5, ante. See also no. 793, post. The letter to General Heath, which was given the date Jan. 8, 1778, is printed in the Mass. Hist. Soc., Collections, seventh ser., IV. 210. It will also be found under its date in the next volume of these Letters. and Resolution of Congress to be exemplified in guarding against frauds and deceptions of an Enemy who have hitherto practiced without remorse every act of violence, injustice, and cruelty in the prosecution of the present War. 792. DANIEL ROBERDEAU TO THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA (GEORGE BRYAN).1 Sir, YORK TOWN, Decr 29th, 1777 I wrote Council, two days ago, to which please to be refered. Revd Mr Batwell, on an application to be enlarged on security on his parole, accompanied with a certificate from his Physician, that fresh air and exercise were absolutely necessary to his recovery, obtained the following resolution: "That in the opinion of Congress the Revd Mr Batwell should be discharged out of confinement on his taking an oath of allegiance to the State of Pennsilvania, or on his refusal that he should be allowed to go with his family into the City of 'Philada." The delicacy of interfering with this State was agitated, together with the very low condition of the petitioner whose life was reported to be in iminent danger, and might add to the number of marters in the esteem of the disaffected, who interested themselves in his behalf, nevertheless the prayer of the petition was not attended to, but the above alternative given, for Congress did not know how, otherwise, to get rid of importunity, and apprehended this Step from all circumstances, would not be disagreeable to the State.2 I think the above resolve is a specimen of treatment Congress would wish to other disaffected persons in every State, as was at large said in debate, with much concern that decisive measures had not long since been taken with all Enemies to the Independence of America. A Committee are appointed to take into consideration the deplorable condition of our army, and to report to-morrow. I make no doubt that the most vigorous measures will be recommended to be immediately taken, as without, the army must disperse as mentioned in my last. My situation is extremely delicate on this occasion; the ruin of our Army, or the interference with the police of the State, I apprehend will be the alternative set before me; under these circumstances I should be glad of advice and assistance. The House of Burgesses, in Virginia, have unanimously consented to the confideration, as handed to them with orders to their Delegates, to confirm it on the 10th March. I could wish the State would favr their Delegates with Dunlap's paper constantly. I should be glad you would furnish me with the two or three last papers. Our State, I understand, have published a bill, which I have not seen, respecting the measures recommended to the northward, and I [792]1 Pa. State Lib., P. P., XLIV. 45; Pa. Arch., first ser., VI. 144. 2 See the Journals, Dec. 27, and no. 735, ante. Batwell's petition, dated Dec. 26, is in Pa. Arch., first ser., VI. 95. 3 See no. 790, note 2, ante. |