To George Washington from Philip Schuyler, 12 December 1779
From Philip Schuyler
Albany December 12th 1779
My Dear Sir
An opportunity offers, and Surely I ought not to let It pass without Intreating you to Accept the warmest Acknowledgements of a grateful heart for an Attention which has afforded me the first of pleasures as It was Strongly Stamped with the Marks of Friendship.1
A Religieous of the Recollet order Is arrived here from Canada he is come away as he Says with leave of his Superior and of the Bishop of Canada. I will not Anticipate his tale as he will soon have the honor of presenting himself to You being to set of[f] In the Morning In the same sled with the bearer of this.2
I hope Your Lady will have arrived before this reaches You,3 and I Indulge Another that we shall have the happiness of giving you both and the Gentlemen of Your family4 a hearty Welcome to this fire Side In the course of the Winter my best wishes attend all about Yours.5 I am Dear Sir Most Affectionately & sincerly Your Excelleny’s Obedient Humble servant
Ph: Schuyler
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Schuyler probably is alluding to his recent visit to GW’s quarters at Morristown as a member of a congressional committee (see GW’s first letter to Nathanael Greene, 7 Dec., n.1).
2. This Recollect friar may have been Junipère Berthiaume (b. 1744), who supported the Patriot cause and absconded from Canada. Later in the war, Berthiaume served as a missionary among the Penobscot Indians. The Recollects, a Franciscan order, had worked as Catholic missionaries in Canada since 1615. The British suppressed the Recollects after taking control of Canada in 1759, and their numbers steadily declined over the remainder of the century.
Jean-Olivier Briand (1715–1794) served as Bishop of Quebec from 1766 until his resignation in 1784. During the American Revolution, Briand worked to keep Canadian Catholics loyal to the British government. See Samuel Knox Wilson, “Bishop Briand and the American Revolution,” The Catholic Historical Review 19 (1933): 133–47.
3. For Martha Washington’s travel from Virginia, see John Mitchell to GW, 30 Oct., and GW to Mitchell, 6 Nov., and n.3 to that document.
4. Schuyler is referring to GW’s staff officers.
5. GW replied to Schuyler on 25 December.