WASHINGTON, George. Letter signed (“G:o Washington”), as Commander-in-Chief, Continental Army, to Elias Dayton, Headquarters, 11 June 1782. With free-frank signed (“G:o Washington”) on address panel. 4 pages, folio, partly silked, staining and wear at folds, seal hole repaired with loss of several words in postscript, below the signature .
WASHINGTON, George. Letter signed (“G:o Washington”), as Commander-in-Chief, Continental Army, to Elias Dayton, Headquarters, 11 June 1782. With free-frank signed (“G:o Washington”) on address panel. 4 pages, folio, partly silked, staining and wear at folds, seal hole repaired with loss of several words in postscript, below the signature . “THE ENEMY OUGHT TO HAVE LEARNT BEFORE THIS THAT MY RESOLUTIONS ARE NOT TO BE TRIFLED WITH" A powerful letter in which a frustrated Washington expresses his anger towards the British during the Asgill-Huddy affair. “You will inform me as early as possible the present situation of Capt. Asgill, the prisoner destined for retaliation; and what prospect he has of relief from his application to Sir Guy Carleton which, I have been informed, he has made through his friend Capt. Ludlow…His fate will be suspended till I am informed of the decision of Sir Guy; but I am impatient, lest this should be unreasonably delayed. The Enemy ought to have learnt before this that my resolutions are not to be trifled with.” In the postscript Washington adds that Asgill is now at Chatham “& under no constraints. This if true is certainly wrong.” He wanted the young man “treated with all the tenderness possible” but until his fate was determined, “he must be considered as a close prisoner.” American Capt. Joshua Huddy was captured by a group of Tory militia in March 1782, turned over to the custody of the British regulars, but then released back to the militia who hanged him on 12 April, in retaliation for allegedly having killed a loyalist named Philip White A sign around Huddy’s neck read, “Up Goes Huddy for Philip White ” Washington ordered that a British prisoner be hung in retaliation, and Moses Haven selected Asgill. But under the terms of Cornwallis’s surrender, Asgill was to be a protected prisoner, not subject to hostage-taking or retaliation. Asgill’s salvation came not through Guy Carleton, but the King of France, who heard a desperate petition from young Asgill’s mother. Louis XVI then ordered Vergennes to write Washington on 29 July 1782, asking him to pardon Asgill. Washington passed the letter to Congress, which ordered Asgill’s release. The letter also takes up the habeus corpus petition of a New Jersey loyalist, De Peyster, who had been arrested on suspicion of being a spy. Published in Fitzpatrick, 24:329-330. Provenance : Sotheby's New York, Nov 25, 1997, lot 394.
WASHINGTON, George. Letter signed (“G:o Washington”), as Commander-in-Chief, Continental Army, to Elias Dayton, Headquarters, 11 June 1782. With free-frank signed (“G:o Washington”) on address panel. 4 pages, folio, partly silked, staining and wear at folds, seal hole repaired with loss of several words in postscript, below the signature .
WASHINGTON, George. Letter signed (“G:o Washington”), as Commander-in-Chief, Continental Army, to Elias Dayton, Headquarters, 11 June 1782. With free-frank signed (“G:o Washington”) on address panel. 4 pages, folio, partly silked, staining and wear at folds, seal hole repaired with loss of several words in postscript, below the signature . “THE ENEMY OUGHT TO HAVE LEARNT BEFORE THIS THAT MY RESOLUTIONS ARE NOT TO BE TRIFLED WITH" A powerful letter in which a frustrated Washington expresses his anger towards the British during the Asgill-Huddy affair. “You will inform me as early as possible the present situation of Capt. Asgill, the prisoner destined for retaliation; and what prospect he has of relief from his application to Sir Guy Carleton which, I have been informed, he has made through his friend Capt. Ludlow…His fate will be suspended till I am informed of the decision of Sir Guy; but I am impatient, lest this should be unreasonably delayed. The Enemy ought to have learnt before this that my resolutions are not to be trifled with.” In the postscript Washington adds that Asgill is now at Chatham “& under no constraints. This if true is certainly wrong.” He wanted the young man “treated with all the tenderness possible” but until his fate was determined, “he must be considered as a close prisoner.” American Capt. Joshua Huddy was captured by a group of Tory militia in March 1782, turned over to the custody of the British regulars, but then released back to the militia who hanged him on 12 April, in retaliation for allegedly having killed a loyalist named Philip White A sign around Huddy’s neck read, “Up Goes Huddy for Philip White ” Washington ordered that a British prisoner be hung in retaliation, and Moses Haven selected Asgill. But under the terms of Cornwallis’s surrender, Asgill was to be a protected prisoner, not subject to hostage-taking or retaliation. Asgill’s salvation came not through Guy Carleton, but the King of France, who heard a desperate petition from young Asgill’s mother. Louis XVI then ordered Vergennes to write Washington on 29 July 1782, asking him to pardon Asgill. Washington passed the letter to Congress, which ordered Asgill’s release. The letter also takes up the habeus corpus petition of a New Jersey loyalist, De Peyster, who had been arrested on suspicion of being a spy. Published in Fitzpatrick, 24:329-330. Provenance : Sotheby's New York, Nov 25, 1997, lot 394.
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