1To George Washington from William Gordon, 25 August 1779 (Washington Papers)
Your obliging letter of the 3d instant afforded me peculiar pleasure, & more especially the close of the postscript, as it furnished me with authority for the removal of prejudices, wherever I found any had been produced against your Excellency, by the idle & foolish expressions of individuals. I am not insensible of the delicate situation you have been in, between the Congress & the Army; &...
2To George Washington from William Gordon, 18 June 1783 (Washington Papers)
Though I have not had the pleasure of an answer, owing to the multiplicity of your engagements, yet by a few lines from New York I have learnt that You was so obliging as to comply with my request. We have now attained to a certainty of peace, upon which You have my most hearty congratulations. Your name will be deservedly written with honor & respect in every history of America. May it be...
3To George Washington from William Gordon, 26 October 1780 (Washington Papers)
I congratulate your Excellency with the utmost sincerity upon the late discovery of Arnolds treachery. This is the second time, that Heaven has prevented the enemy’s ruining us by secret attempts. While the baseness & villainy of individuals, who had been greatly confided in, must tend to discourage, the special remarkable interpositions of Providence preventing the execution of their wicked...
4To George Washington from William Gordon, 21 August 1780 (Washington Papers)
Having received, by the Alliance the last week, a letter from Holland & another from Mr John Adams; I have thought it would be proper to communicate the same to your Excellency wherein they referred to public matters. That from Holland is dated March 27. & says—“if Mr Burke’s oeconomical plan takes place it will long support the present war. I believe the French are half afraid to trust you,...
5To George Washington from William Gordon, 4 March 1782 (Washington Papers)
I cannot omit writing by the present safe conveyance, tho’ I have nothing in particular to communicate. Genl Lincoln will give your Excellency a fuller account of all matters of consequence in this quarter, than what I can do. I was over the other day at Col. Quincy’s. He is breaking fast; but the powers of his mind remain strong. I wish he may live to see & enjoy a happy peace; but I much...
6To George Washington from William Gordon, 2 October 1782 (Washington Papers)
I was in hopes, after reading Genl Carleton’s letter & other publications, that I should have had the opportunity of congratulating you, upon the certain prospects of a speedy & honorable peace; but at present they are uncertain. However I cannot but think, that if G. Britain gets no considerable naval advantage over our friends & allies, before winter sets in, they will seriously apply...
7To George Washington from William Gordon, 2 July 1778 (Washington Papers)
I just catch a few minutes before the post goes off to acquaint you that Lord Chatham is dead—that no troops whatsoever are coming either from G.B. or Ireland—that tho’ an English fleet of 1–90 guns 9–74 & 1–64 may be sailed from St Helens, a powerful provision has been made for counteracting them when they are upon the American coast; their opposers may possibly be at the Rendezvous before...
8To George Washington from William Gordon, 12 January 1778 (Washington Papers)
I was a stranger to the subjects of the present letter when I wrote last week, or should have mentioned them considering their importance. Mr Hancock reports that your Excellency designs quitting the command of the army. I hope he has no good foundation for what he says. I should dread your doing it, did I believe it probable, for I apprehend the cause would suffer amazingly by it, & that the...
9To George Washington from William Gordon, 15 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
When you have perused the enclosed, pray you to put it under cover & forward it to Genl Gates. Should not Genl Burgoyne have practised bribery & corruption, he might propose the question from what he had seen heard & observed while at Cambridge: but the question reminded me of what was wrote you the 12th of Jany. Some things I have heard since have tended to corroborate my suspicion. I have...
10To George Washington from William Gordon, 27 June 1781 (Washington Papers)
In the midst of important business the following anecdote will probably give you some pleasure, with a little pain for the disappointment you have met with in missing the Saddle . A gentleman who served his time with one of my people when I was at London, J. Harvey Pierce, a physician, writes me from Nantz last Feby 12. where He is in his way to America from an attachment to our cause—"I dined...