To George Washington from John Hancock, 15 January 1777
From John Hancock
Baltimore Jany 15th 1777.
Sir,
The enclosed Resolves I do myself the Honour to transmit in Obedience to the Commands of Congress, as necessary for your Information. By them you will percieve, that in Order to restore the Credit of the Continental Currency, the Congress have adopted, & recommended to the States, such Measures, as if properly executed cannot fail to produce the Effect.1
Doctor Potts, who is ordered to repair to Ticonderoga, I am directed by Congress to inform you, is so highly recommended to them, that they wish to have him appointed in the Room of Doctr Stringer in that Department.2
Your two Favours of the 5th & 7th inst. I had the Honour of recieving in the Order of their Dates, and immediately laid them before Congress.
The Hessian Officers, taken at Trenton, arrived here yesterday, and are ordered immediately to Dumfries in Virginia.
The enclosed Letters & other Papers relative to the Army, and Appointments therein, having come to Hand since you were invested with Power to fill up Vacancies, and to make such Arrangements as you might think proper, I transmit them to you for your Attention & Consideration3—and have the Honour to be, with the most perfect Esteem & Respect, Sir your most obed & very hble Servt
John Hancock Presidt
LS, DLC:GW; LB, DNA:PCC, item 12A. On this date Hancock wrote a second letter to GW recommending that GW employ Walter Cruise and Richard Carpenter (1746–1781), two recently exchanged American officers “who have been treated with the utmost Severity by the Enemy ... in the Manner you think most proper, and beneficial to the Service” (DLC:GW). An enclosed resolution of 13 Jan. granted $100 each to the two men (DLC:GW; see also , 7:32). On 24 Jan. GW sent copies of the resolution to Col. John Patton, urging Patton to find a spot for Cruise in his regiment (Df, DLC:GW), and to the Massachusetts committee of safety, informing the committee of Carpenter’s desire to serve in that state’s line (LS [photocopy], DNA: RG 93, Photocopies of State Records, Mass. Archives). Both Cruise and Carpenter returned to active military service in mid-February, Cruise as a captain in the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment and Carpenter as a second lieutenant in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment. Carpenter resigned from the army in October 1777, and Cruise in June 1778.
1. The enclosed copies of the resolutions passed by Congress on 14 Jan. to stablize the Continental currency are in DLC:GW (see also , 7:35–37). Other resolutions of the same date concern the procurement of steel and nail rods for the northern army, the building of flatboats on Lake George, regimental paymasters in the northern army, and the taking of the Virginia light horse into Continental pay (DLC:GW).
2. Congress’s resolution of 14 Jan. directing Dr. Jonathan Potts to go to Ticonderoga is accompanied by resolutions of the same date ordering the medical committee to “provide a suitable Assortment of Medicine, and send them to the Hospital in the Northern Army with all possible Dispatch together with other Necessaries for the sick” and directing Dr. Samuel Stringer to deliver to Potts “such Medicine & other medical Stores as may be in his Hands, belonging to the Continent” (DLC:GW; see also , 7:34).
3. For these enclosures, which have not been identified, see GW to Hancock, 20 Jan., and notes.