mit a list of sundry officers exchanged on the 21st
instant.1

TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, IN CONGRESS.

DEAR SIR,

VALLEY FORGE, 25 April, 1778.

I received your obliging favor of the 18th instant
yesterday evening. I thank you much for the ex-
planatory hints it contains, and could have wished it
had come to hand a little sooner.
I have many

things to say to you, but as the express, who will
deliver you this, is going with despatches, that will
not admit of delay, I shall content myself with taking
notice of one matter, that appears to me to require
immediate remedy."

The resolution of Congress directs the council to
be formed of major-generals and the chief engineer,
who, you say, is to be a member officially. By this
the commanding officer of artillery is negatively

instructions to Sir Henry Clinton as his succeesor. The letter was received by
Sir William Howe on the 9th of April.

1 Read in Congress, April 25th. Referred to Drayton, Morris, and Dana.
From Gouverneur Morris' Letter.-"We have determined to send Gates
to Hudson's River, where he is to command very largely. But he is to receive
instructions, which shall be proper. You are directed to call a council of major-
generals, in which the chief engineer is officially to be a member, and to which,
by a subsequent resolution, Generals Gates and Mifflin were ordered to repair.
As these gentlemen ought not to receive orders immediately from Congress, they
are, as you will see, permitted to leave the Board of War upon your order. This
amendment was therefore acquiesced in unanimously.

Apropos, of your council of war. Should you determine on any thing,
which, considering the course of human affairs, is, I confess, rather improbable,
let Congress know nothing about it. A secret should never be trusted to many
bosoms. I will forfeit any thing, except reputation, that it will not be well
kept, even by those necessarily confided in."-April 18th. See the whole
letter in Sparks' Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. i., p. 164.

excluded, who, by the practice of armies, and from the very nature of his appointment, is more officially a member than the other. According to my ideas, both or neither ought to be there; or, if an official preference is due to one more than the other, it is to the commander in the artillery line. I do not know what motives induced the discrimination in this instance; but I should suppose it will at least be felt; and I will further add, though prejudices may be entertained by some against General Knox, there is no department in the army, that has been conducted with greater propriety, or to more advantage, than the one in which he presides, and owing principally if not wholly to his management. Surely whatever plans may be come into, the artillery will have no small share in the execution.

You say, All will yet be well. I wish it heartily; but am much mistaken, if there are not some secret and retrograde springs in motion to disprove it. I wish you could announce the provision for officers. concluded. It seems to me the basis of all our operations. Resignation after resignation is taking place; not here only, but of officers acting east of Hudson's River.

I am, with great esteem and regard, dear Sir, &c.1

1 Mr. Morris wrote in reply: "Knox will attend the Council. Conway has resigned, and his resignation has heen accepted. The affairs of the army are necessarily delayed by the foreign affairs, which have broken in upon us. As to the half-pay, matters stand thus. The questions have been carried; but by an entry on the minutes there is an agreement, that a final question shall be put, whether it be finally determined in Congress, or sent to the several States. When a motion is made for the purpose, the yeas will be Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Jersey, and South Carolina; the nays will be New York,

SIR,

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

VALLEY FORGE, 25 April, 1778.

I beg leave to inform Congress, that the report of the commissioners coming, according to intelligence received yesterday by a person of Philadelphia, is confidently believed; and it is there thought, that they will very soon arrive. I think it almost certain that the matter will not be delayed, as the conduct of the ministry, in not sending them immediately after their former propositions, has been much reprobated, and as it may be of much importance to improve the first impressions of the people upon the occasion. Lord Amherst, Admiral Keppel, and General Murray, are said to be the persons appointed2; and it is likely they are vested with both civil and military powers. The information was through the channel of a sensible, intelligent man, well known, and of esteemed credit. He is connected with the British army, having two or three brothers in it. I shall transmit the earliest accounts I receive from time to time on this very interesting subject. I have the honor to be, &c.3

Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia. Pennsylvania is in a mighty flimsy situation on that subject, having indeed a mighty flimsy representation. I wish Boudinot were here. Delaware is absent, who is with us; as is North Carolina, also absent. New Hampshire is absent, who is against us."-MS. Letter, May 1st. When the question was put, two weeks afterwards, whether the subject of making allowance to the officers after the war should be referred to the several States, it was decided in the negative, by a vote which accorded exactly with Mr. Morris' prediction.-Journals, May 13th.

' Commissioners for effecting a reconciliation with the Americans, according to the tenor of Lord North's bills for that purpose.

? This information, in regard to the names of the commissioners, proved to be

erroneous.

* Read in Congress, April 26th. The expectations of the British ministry,

SIR,

TO GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON.

VALLEY FORGE, 26 April, 1778.

I received yesterday your favor of the 15th instant with the papers alluded to.

Your reasoning, upon the subject of deserters attending flags, is certainly right, and not to be disputed. Their appearing in that character is an additional crime, and it is the practice of war, in such instances, founded in principles of common reason and the delicacy of truces, to execute them immediately. This is the custom in general cases. How far the circumstances, which attended the enlistment of Job Hetfield, require a discrimination in his favor,

in regard to what they called the Conciliatory Propositions, may be inferred from Lord George Germaine's letter on the subject to Sir Henry Clinton, in which he says:

"If that be true, which has been repeatedly declared by the colonial assemblies, and is still asserted by many persons, who pretend to be well informed of the dispositions of the inhabitants, that the generality of the people desire nothing more, than a full security for the enjoyment of all their rights and liberties under the British constitution, there can be no room to doubt, that the generous terms now held out to them will be gladly embraced, and that a negotiation will immediately take place upon the arrival of the new commission, and be so far advanced before the season will admit of military operations, as to supersede the necessity of another campaign. So speedy and happy a termination of the war could not fail to gratify the King, as the peace, prosperity, and happiness of all his subjects have ever been his most ardent wish."—MS. Letter, Whitehall, March 8th.

Instructions were at the same time communicated, that, in case the attempt at a reconciliation did not succeed, the war was to be prosecuted with vigor, and a plan for the campaign was suggested. Five days after the above letter was written, the French ambassador made known to the British cabinet, that a treaty had been signed between the French government and the commissioners from the United States. The instructions to Sir Henry Clinton were then essentially altered. These facts render it probable, that the British ministers had not positive knowledge of the signature of the treaty, before it was communicated by the French ambassador, although they undoubtedly had strong reasons for suspecting it.-Sparks.

is a point perhaps of some difficulty. I find, by inquiry of General Maxwell, that he was enlisted and sworn; but that there was a sort of coercion, which might distinguish it from an act perfectly free and voluntary. Upon the whole, I think his detention and confinement justifiable, which I would prefer to capital punishment. At the same time, you will permit me to observe, that, from the expediency of flags, and the necessity of such an intercourse between warring powers, it is the constant usage for the party detaining, executing, &c., to inform the other side of the reasons.

I have taken the freedom to commit to your care a letter for Major-General Tryon, which you will be pleased to send by a flag to Staten Island, or to such other post as you may deem most proper. I transmit you a copy of our correspondence, which on his part is pretty similar, it is probable, to his addresses to your officers. Determined that I should get some of his obliging letters, he made out a first, a second, and a third, all of the same tenor and date. I am persuaded you will be under some difficulty, which to admire most, his impertinence or his folly. I am, dear Sir, &c.1

"The practice of seizing and confining the friends to America in the civil line, however barbarous it may be, is a favorable engine of policy with the enemy; from which I believe it will not be easy to make them depart. Their object is to deter men from taking an active and leading part in our governments, the firm establishment of which they foresee will be fatal to their views. Whether the measure of securing their friends with us, to redeem ours in their power, would put a stop to the practice, is extremely doubtful. There are few persons among us whom they esteem of sufficient importance to desist on their account from anything which they look upon as advancive of their interest." -Washington to Samuel Chase, 27 April, 1778.