To George Washington from William Livingston, 27 November 1779
From William Livingston
Mount Holly [N.J.] 27 Nov. 1779
Dear Sir
I have received your Excellencys favour of the 16 instant, & am greatly obliged to you for your kind Congratulation on my Re-election to the Government.1 If your Excellency has seen a certain Lybel in Collins’s Paper, you will probably acknowledge that I have rather been overtaxed for the Emoluments of the appointment;2 but Calumny Sir is a Tax that the Tories will impose upon every man who exercises a public office with Integrity & Vigour, & of which your Excellency yourself has paid your full Proportion—Posterity however it is to be hoped will do strict Justice; & the verdict of ones own Conscience the mean while enable one to treat the whole race of Calumniators with sovereign contemp⟨t⟩.
I have lately received a Letter from Baron Van Der Cappellen a dutch nobleman & one of their high mightynesses containing a very favourable Account of the Hollanders respecting their disposition towards the Cause of America, & that our Interest is daily increasing among them, notwithstanding the Influence of the Prince of Orange.3 He greatly laments our not having had a secret Agent in his Country constantly furnished with a true state of our Affairs to enable him to counteract the Mischief done [by] the false Intelligence propagated by the British Emissaries. Apprehensive that such Mischief was done, I sent him last fall a detail of our then Situation of affairs, calculated particularly tho strictly sound to remove those Prejudices which I thought it most probable the English were Labouring to instill in the minds of his Countrymen. This Letter after having it translated into his own Language, & observing the Impression it made on those to whom it was read, he caused to be printed, & dispersed thro’ all the seven Provinces & which he is pleased to tell me has had a most happy Effect. He farther informs me, that the Congress may procure a Loan from his Countrymen to any amount, & His Letter to me came accompanied with an offer of one of the greatest commercial Houses in Amsterdam to that purpose.4
I am always extremely Loth to consume more of your Excellency’s time by my Letters than necessity requires, but the Account I first received of the Project from Mr. Sayre himself about four months ago, (when I confess I looked upon it as rather5 visionary, & savouring too much of Captain McPherson’s proposal to Congress)6 I am from this Gentleman’s confirmation induced to consider in a more serious Light. For your Excellencys amusement I will give you the whole paragraph of Baron Van der Capellen’s Letter relative to this extraordinary Invention.
“We have (says he) at present in Amsterdam the celebrated Mr. Stephen Sayre late Sherif of London, a native of America, full of fire, spirit, & affection for his Country. He has invented a very singular kind of Ship, of a construction altogether new, to appearance much stronger in its make, less expensive, & a swifter Sailor than any other hitherto seen. It may be entirely built, if that is one’s choice, of pine. Our best Shipwrights & several respectable American Captains now here, pronounce in its favour. One cannot but wonder at the Simplicity of the Invention. Some Merchants have already contracted to have one built, which was to be set on the Stocks yesterday. But what is of more Importance, Mr. Sayre has invented a Plan perfectly original to build ships of War; a Plan that I believe never before entered into the Imagination of Man, tho’ founded on the most simple Principles. He will as soon as possible open the matter to Congress in person, & has in the mean time least he should meet with an Accident on his Voyage committed the Secret to me, to preserve for the Benefit of America. I have no skill in Ships, or naval affairs, & therefore do not take upon me to decide concerning it. But as it appears to me, the Invention is of the utmost moment, & I believe that the observation of Mr Sayre that the power which shall first introduce it into its Marine, will be able to annihilate that of its Enemies, certainly deserves the Consideration of Congress. The Secret I shall, the mean while keep sacred, hoping however that by the safe Arrival of the Inventor, Congress will not be necessitated to learn it from me.”
Whether the Project will succeed I cannot tell but certain it is that the speediest way of rendering the American Navy more numerous than that of our Enemy is to annihilate the Latter.7 With the most respectful Attachment I have the honour to be Dear Sir
ADf, NN: William Livingston Papers, Letterbook. GW replied to Livingston on 7 December.
1. For GW’s letter to Livingston of 16 Nov., see Livingston to GW, 9 Nov., n.5.
2. Livingston is referring to an item printed in The New-Jersey Gazette (Trenton) for 27 Oct. under the pseudonym “CINCINNATUS.” Among the twelve “Hints” that CINCINNATUS urged the New Jersey legislature to consider “in their future choice of a Governor” were “6. He ought to be a man who never did, who never will, and who never can speak in any publick assembly: for it is as great a shame for a Governor to be able to speak in publick, as it is for a woman to speak in the church” and “8. He ought to be a thorough and complete coward, and instead of taking the command of the militia, with which the constitution has very unwisely invested him, when his State shall be invaded, (and this will be the time to try mens souls) he ought immediately to abscond into some other State, and skulk about there in beer-houses, spend evenings with carters, and deny his name, until the danger is over—because the life of a Governor is, by far, too precious to be exposed at the head of his militia” and “12. He ought to be a man who, for certain reasons, used every artifice in his power to prevent the declaration of Independency, but who, upon coming into office, under the aforesaid declaration, will suddenly tack about, and be for drinking the blood of every man who thought as he did; because your turn-coats and new converts are always the most violent—and violence is an excellent disposition in a Governor.” Efforts in the New Jersey legislature to identify CINCINNATUS proved unsuccessful (see 3:183–86, and 95–99).
Isaac Collins (1746–1817) left his native Delaware to work as a printer in Philadelphia and later Burlington, New Jersey. He moved The New-Jersey Gazette from Burlington to Trenton in 1778 and continued that newspaper’s publication, with an occasional break, until 27 Nov. 1786.
3. William V (1748–1806), prince of Orange and Nassau, problematically pursued an Anglophile policy in his capacity as hereditary stadholder of the Dutch Republic. He left the Netherlands and was dismissed as ruler early in 1795 after a French invasion.
4. Livingston is alluding to a long letter from Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol first dated 6 July and then sent again with the date of 16 July (see 3:131–43). Livingston, the recipient, translated the original Dutch to English. That translation in part reads: “Your Excellency had no Occasion to be sollicitous about curing me of any Prejudices which I might have imbibed by the Artifices of the Enemies of America. I have remained altogether uncontaminated with such Biasses. But that is not the Case with the generality of my Countrymen. They stood in the greatest need of your Excellency’s very seasonable Letter. I have, agreeably to your Excellency’s permission, made the most public use of it. … One of my near kinsmen the Baron Van der Capellen of Marsch, who notwithstanding his affection for America, had not yet dared to venture his money in the American Funds, was thereby so thoroughly convinced, that he immediately promised me 16,000 Guilders.
“The Reason why the thirteen United States have not yet found that Credit in our Country which the Solidity of their Cause deserves, is solely and entirely to be ascribed to this, that on the one hand, we are altogether ignorant of the true Situation of your affairs, and on the other hand that the English cease not to propagate all manner of disadvantageous Reports against you, & to diffuse the most idle & groundless Reports invented to aggrandise their own Exploits as real & undoubted Events.” Congress recently had named Henry Laurens to negotiate a loan from Holland (see Laurens to GW, 24 Oct., and n.10).
Joan Derk van der Capellen tot den Pol (1741–1784) vehemently opposed the rule of William V, prince of Orange and Nassau, over the Dutch Republic and ardently promoted the cause of American independence in his country. Capellen anonymously published a statement of his beliefs in Aan het Volk van Nederland (Ostend, Belgium, 1781).
5. At this place on his draft, Livingston initially wrote “altogether.” He then struck out that word and wrote “rather” above the line.
6. John Macpherson had proposed a scheme to destroy the British fleet in Boston harbor in fall 1775 that did not gain GW’s approval (see John Hancock to GW, 20 Oct. 1775; GW to Hancock and to Joseph Reed, both 8 Nov. 1775; and 3:296, 300–301).
7. In a letter to Benjamin Franklin written at Copenhagen on 21 March, Stephen Sayre described his discovery of “an astonishing improvement … in the Hull of the Ship: but still more as to the rigging.” Sayre continued: “I see not only the certainty of an infinite difference in point of sailing (under all possible circumstances)—not only less necessity for the same number of hands—less expence for outfit—less difficulty in repairs—less inconveniencies in battle &c &c. But, with half the bulk—half the number of guns—& half the number of men: she shall be sure, of victory. I will say more—She cannot be taken by any Ship now in use, of any burden or denomination whatever—But shall with certainty ruin the first rate Ships in the world, in a very few moments—nor is there the last probability of losing a single man in the Engagement—She shall not only sail faster, but be a better Sea Boat, in all weathers, & under all circumstances—In short, I can promise the immediate & utter ruin of all the British Navy … I am confident your Excellency will immediately require some further evidence & communications on this Subject. I have not yet given the world any Instances of Insanity, therefore don’t suspect me of it till you hear what I have to offer” ( 29:181–84; see also Sayre to Franklin, 7 and 9 June, in 29:639–40, 653–55). Sayre’s experimental ship did not prove seaworthy once constructed (see 107, 109, 115–17, 120–21).