From George Washington to Major General Lafayette, 8 May 1780
To Major General Lafayette
Morris-town May 8th 1780.
My dr Marqs
Your welcome favour of the 27th of April came to my hands yesterday1—I received it with all the joy that the sincerest friendship could dictate—and with that impatience which an ardent desire to see you could not fail to inspire.
I am sorry I do not know your rout through the State of New York, that I might, with certainty, send a small party of Horse (all I have at this place) to meet & escort you safely through the Tory settlements between this and the North River.
At all events Majr Gibbs will go as far as Pompton (where the roads unite) to meet you, & will proceed from thence as circumstances may direct, either towards Kings-ferry or New Windsor.
I most sincerely congratulate with you on your safe arrival in America & shall embrace you with all the warmth of an Affectionate friend when you come to head Qrs—where a bed is prepared for you.2 adieu till we meet Yrs
Go: W——n
ADfS, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. GW reported receiving Lafayette’s letter at 9:00 A.M. on 6 May in the postscript of his letter to Samuel Huntington written on 5–6 May.
2. Lafayette reached GW’s Morristown quarters on 10 May and consulted with the general until leaving for Philadelphia on 14 May (see GW to James Duane, 13 May, PP, and Lafayette to the president of Congress, 16 May, and to Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, 20 May, in , 3:13, 26–29; see also the Committee at Headquarters Report, 15 May, in , 15:127–28, and GW to Lafayette, 16 and 19 May, both in DLC:GW).
While at Morristown on 11 May, GW’s aide-de-camp Richard Kidder Meade wrote Maj. Gen. Robert Howe, who was posted at the Highlands, N.Y.: “The Marquis’s baggage is coming on by the way of Hartford to Fishkill—His Excellency desires me to request you will be pleased to order a sergts guard to proceed immediately on that route to meet & escort it to this place” (DLC:GW; see also Howe to GW, 13 May, DLC:GW).