1To George Washington from William Gordon, 13 August 1783 (Washington Papers)
Your obliging letter of the 8th ulto was duly received. We have been earnestly waiting for the definitive treaty, but as yet have had no authentic account of it. However looking upon it as certain & at hand, have determined with the permission of Heaven setting off for the Jerseys next monday fortnight. Mrs Gordon accompanying me in the chaise will oblige us for the sake of better roads & a...
2To John Adams from William Gordon, 28 June–2 July 1783 (Adams Papers)
Should you find in this ms a deal of the caput mortuum don’t wonder, for the weather is & has been very hot for several days. The last wednesday the house opposite to the old brick was so violently hot, that in their zeal against the absentees they broke the good frame of government you had a hand in erecting. The brains were for providing that persons taken up as such, should have a trial by...
3To 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...
4To John Adams from William Gordon, 10 May 1783 (Adams Papers)
From what D r Holten writes me in his of the 16 th ult I suspect You will be upon your passage home: however there is a chance of the contrary, therefore venture sending by the present conveyance from Providence to London. You are to have other letters from Braintree &c &c by the same channel; & yet this possibly may be first rec d , for which reason I mention your family & friends being well;...
5To George Washington from William Gordon, 26 February 1783 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of Ocr the 23d I was honored with in due season: but having nothing special about which to write, & being sensible how many & great your engagements were, I delayed till somewhat of importance might offer. Now is the happy moment: for though we have received no official accounts announcing the Peace, yet the information is so particular & hath the appearance of such authenticity,...
6To John Adams from William Gordon, 30 November 1782 (Adams Papers)
In answer to yours of July 2 d , sent You, Sep t 19, under cover to Mess rs D e Neufville’s by a vessel,—Buffington Master—bound from Salem to France, a very long letter, in which I wrote freely: afterwards I thought, that should French curiosity peep into it, you might possibly fail of receiving it. I keep no copies, & therefore cannot transmit a duplicate. But I told You that I neither knew...
7To 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...
8To John Adams from William Gordon, 7 September 1782 (Adams Papers)
Last evening I heard that a vessel was arrived from Amsterdam. Was up early and went to Boston in the morning after letters, could meet with none, and returned home to dinner. Between four and five Deacon Mason called and brought me one from . My good old Friend, who I began to fear from his long silence, had nearly forgotten me, through the multitude of more capital European figures...
9To 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...
10To George Washington from William Gordon, 30 August 1781 (Washington Papers)
You have been so obliging as to promise me your assistance in my designed history of the present glorious contest for liberty; & I have no doubt of your affording it. Truth & impartiality are what I aim at; & therefore am for getting the best information possible, which must be by having a recourse to original papers in the possession of those who have borne a distinguished & active part in...
11To 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...
12To George Washington from William Gordon, 28 February 1781-1 March 1781 (Washington Papers)
The multiplicity of business upon your hands will apologize sufficiently for your not answering my last wrote when the campaign was going on; nor is it strange, that after a while you should forget it: but wishing to hear from your Excellency before your attention becomes wholly engrossed by more important matters, I now send You my hearty congratulations, upon the several appearances of...
13To 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...
14To John Adams from William Gordon, 19 October 1780 (Adams Papers)
O! human nature, what are thou! When one of the most noted Republicans cannot be consistent; nor be placed on an eminence without having his head affected. My former letter was designed for Messrs. Adams and Dana, whom I humourously considered as in partnership: but I now find that they are not partners —that they carry on business separately and that I must be at the expence of corresponding...
15To 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,...
16To John Adams from William Gordon, 22 July 1780 (Adams Papers)
The beginning of March I forwarded to You and friend Dana a joint letter, which I hope if received will be answered by one or other of you. The people, you will have heard before this can get to hand, have agreed upon a form of government, not so good as the Report of the Committee, but better than I expected. We begin to think of the ensuing elections. It is thought that Mr. Bowdoin or Mr....
17To George Washington from William Gordon, 22 July 1780 (Washington Papers)
I take this method of introducing to your Excellency Lt Coll Weld (generally pronounced Wells) one of my parishioners, a gentleman, on whose prudence activity courage & zeal for the public good, I apprehend, you may rely without danger of disappointment. On the 5th of March 1776 at night he was honoured with a particular service at the lines next to Boston neck, & had the thanks of Genls Ward...
18To George Washington from William Gordon, 12 June 1780 (Washington Papers)
Your obliging favour of May 3d came to hand this day fortnight May 29th. I waited with a degree of solicitude, as I could not proceed consistently without hearing first from your Excellency. It was a very busy week what with the annual election on the following wednesday, & the convention of ministers the next day. However I have since then transcribed all the correspondence between me & Lt...
19William Gordon to John Adams and Francis Dana, 8 March 1780 (Adams Papers)
You are so united by commission, in mind views and principles, that there is no writing to the one without the other; for which reason I address you jointly . I rejoiced when I heard that you were safely landed upon the Terra Firma of Europe; and hope that you have had a secure journey over the Pyrenean mountains, which I suppose to be as high as any you ever crossed in America, tho’ not so...
20To George Washington from William Gordon, 29 February 1780–1 March 1780 (Washington Papers)
The last week I was designing to send You a friendly letter, without introducing into it any of my own concerns but Col. Henly calling upon me on the saturday afternoon, with a most extraordinary letter from Col. Hamilton hath reduced me to the necessity of altering my plan. In some stations moral character is of little importance, but in mine it is next to All; & like female honour must, be...
21Enclosure: William Gordon to George Washington, [1 March 1780] (Hamilton Papers)
The last week I was designing to send You a friendly letter, without introducing into it any of my own concerns: but Col Henly calling upon me on the saturday afternoon, with a most extraordinary letter from Col Hamilton hath reduced me to the necessity of altering my plan. In some stations moral character is of little importance, but in mine it is next to All; & like female honour must be...
22To Alexander Hamilton from William Gordon, 15 November 1779 (Hamilton Papers)
In my last of Sepr. 23. I mentioned my having sent to my informer; have received an answer from him wherein he writes “As to the subject of your letter (for which I have now an opportunity to return my thanks) what was said was very confidential, & influenced by nothing but an anxious regard & attachment to our public cause. To affect the character of any one from a malignant principle is...
23To Alexander Hamilton from William Gordon, 23 September 1779 (Hamilton Papers)
Tho from the expressions & innuendos in yours of the 5th instant which I received from Col Henly the last tuesday, I cannot apprehend myself treated with due respect, yet I shall not be thereby drove either to reply with asperity, or to quit my own plan of conduct. Said one of the greatest soldiers of the age in which he lived, “The business of a general is not to fight but to overcome.” When...
24To Alexander Hamilton from William Gordon, 25 August 1779 (Hamilton Papers)
Upon my return home from a visit on the monday evening I received yours without a date. However common the principle may be, on which you urge me. to an immediate direct & explicit answer , as tho’ the least hesitation or reserve might give room for conjectures, which it can be neither your wish nor mine to excite —it is certainly a false one. In many cases a gentleman may receive information...
25To 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; &...
26To George Washington from William Gordon, 22 July 1779 (Washington Papers)
I have been earnestly wishing for an opportunity to congratulate you upon some successful manoeuvre under your own immediate direction; & I now embrace it with the utmost satisfaction. The capture of the fort is of the greatest consequence, all things considered, & must therefore afford your Excellency peculiar pleasure. I have been fearful lest our men, being called out to storm lines or...
27To John Adams from William Gordon, 8 May 1779 (Adams Papers)
We are just returned from visiting your good Lady at Braintree, where I had a complaint exhibited against me for not writing to you, which I mean to answer totidem verbis. But before I proceed further must mention, in brief, that news which will be the most important and agreeable of all you will meet with in the letter, viz, that Mrs. Adams and children are well and as chearful as can be...
28To Benjamin Franklin from William Gordon, 5 May 1779 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society This may probably convey to you a painful article of intelligence, viz, the death of that great man Dr Winthrop, who expired on the 3d instant, & is to be buried on the saturday. The College, the State & the Public have sustained a great loss in his death; but the Orderings of Heaven are all right; & it is appointed unto man to die, no less than to be born....
29To Benjamin Franklin from William Gordon, 4 February 1779 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I must pray you, amidst the multiplicity of important business that is continually crowding in upon you, to pay an attention to the enclosed (of consequence to Mr Parker) so far as to forward it by a speedy & safe conveyance. It relates entirely to his ship. Mr Deane has been imprudently making a bustle, & spreading uneasiness. His publication in the...
30To George Washington from William Gordon, 15 December 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have for some time waited in vain for the pleasing occasion of congratulating your Excellency upon the evacuation of the United States by the British troops; but can delay no longer writing you a few lines. My tour was far more agreeable than can be generally expected so late in the fall. Genl Gates being orderd to Boston, while I was at Weathersfield in the neighbourhood of Hartford, I...