To George Washington from George Clinton, 7 November 1778
From George Clinton
Poughkeepsie [N.Y.] Novr 7th 1778
Sir.
About two Weeks hence the Commissioners will be ready (as they have informed me) to send off the last Cargo of Persons who have refused to take the Oath of Allegiance, as prescribed by Law, to this State and are sentenced to be banished within the Enemy’s Lines.1
I have therefore to request that your Excellency will be pleased to direct the Commanding Officer at West Point to furnish an Officer to take the Vessel in charge on her arrival there, and to conduct her to New York. The necessary Instructions and the Flag will be forwarded to Colo. Malcom.2 I have the Honor to be with great Respect Your Excellency’s most Obedt servt
Geo: Clinton
LS, DLC:GW. The letter is docketed “not Answered.”
1. On 30 June 1778 the New York general assembly passed “An Act more effectively to prevent the mischiefs arising from the influence and example of persons of equivocal and suspected characters in this State,” which prescribed that persons refusing to take the oath of allegiance to New York State be removed behind enemy lines (New York Assembly Journal, 30 June 1778, 123; see also Hastings and Holden, Clinton Papers, 3:520, 601–5). For more on the prisoners sent to New York City by order of the New York Commissioners for Conspiracies, see Hastings and Holden, Clinton Papers, 4:307, 362–63, 375.
2. GW seems to have taken no action on this request, and the docket indicates that there was no reply.