To George Washington from Nicholas Cruger, 18 April 1780
From Nicholas Cruger
Beverwick1 [Morris County, N.J.] 18. April 1780
sir
On my Return to Philada from the Southward I found a Letter from my Friend in New York Lodg’d there, informing me that General Patteson has Requested my Return to that City agreeable to The Tenor of the Parole he had given him Previous to his having granted me the Pass to come out,2 and adds he was fearfull if I did not Comply with his Request it might be Attended with Disagreeable Consiquences both to himself & others—I had Determin’d to Sail from Philada & for that Purpose had ingaged my Passage, but knowing the Situation of my Friends there, fearing they might Suffer & being bound by every Tie of Honor & Affection, I Determin’d to Comply with the Request & go into N. York, Since my Arrival here I have been inform’d by some of my Friends that illgrounded Suspitions have allready Takeing Place in the Breasts of some infamous suspicious Charactors to my Prejudice & that insinuations have been and wou’d, Continue to be Thrown out that I had Come into the Country to serve the Purposes of the Enemy Shou’d, I Return to N. York, Cou’d I know the Persons I wou’d, find means to Punnish them—But as I would wish the Good People of this Country to entertain that Opinion of me to which I think the Rectitude of my Conduct from the Earliest Period of this Controversy to the Present day entitles me, And that there may be no Possible Doubt Left (with any) of my Attachment to the Interest of the States, Permitt me to Begg that your Excellency will be Pleas’d to give me a Refusal in Writing to my Request for a Pass to go in, which will Serve to exculpate my Friend in N. York, and be a justification to me.
I Shall Sail in few days from Philada and will be Proud of the Honor of your Commands.3 With Every Respect I am your Excellency’s Obt servt
N. Cruger
ALS, DLC:GW.
Nicholas Cruger (1743–1800) came from a merchant family engaged in the West Indies trade. Cruger had employed Alexander Hamilton as a clerk on St. Croix and subsequently supported his move to New York and education. His brother John Harris Cruger served with distinction as a Loyalist officer in the British army. Nicholas Cruger later endorsed GW’s neutrality policy (see Address from the Citizens of New York City, 8 Aug. 1793, in 13:389–91).
1. Beverwyck, located about seven miles northeast of Morristown, was the country estate of Lucas von Beverhoudt (see William Hall, “General Lucas Van Beverhoudt,” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 18 [1887]: 91–93).
2. Cruger had been taken prisoner while on one of his merchant ships (see , 6–7, and 78).
3. GW replied to Cruger from headquarters at Morristown on 22 April: “Colo. Hamilton has commun⟨icated⟩ to me your Favor of the 18th. I have considered the request You were pleased to make for permission to return to New York and beg leave to inform You—that I do not think myself authorised to grant it. I hope this will not be attended with any personal inconveniences to Yourself or with any embarrassments to your friends in New York (Df, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; obscured material in the draft manuscript is supplied in angle brackets from the Varick transcript).