From George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 31 August 1779
To Jonathan Trumbull, Sr.
Head Quarters West point 31st Augt 1779.
Dear Sir
I was yesterday honored with your Excellency’s letter of the 27th instant.1 previous to the receipt of it I had granted a Repreive to Case, not from any thing that could possibly be urged in extenuation of his guilt, but out of compassion to his connections,2 who were represented to me as numerous and reputable. I am the more happy that the matter turned out as it has done, as your Excellency interested yourself in the affair.3
The inclosed I recd yesterday from Governor Livingston.4 I have the honor to be with the most perfect Respect & Esteem Your Excellecy’s Most obt Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, CtHWa; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC: GW.
1. This letter has not been found.
2. Tilghman wrote this word above the crossed-out word, “Relations.”
3. For the charges against Ezekiel Case and the court-martial’s sentence of death, subsequently confirmed by GW, see General Orders, 21 August. On 25 Aug., GW ordered that Case’s execution take place on 28 Aug. (see General Orders, that date); however, on the same day, GW asked Maj. Gen. William Heath for information on Case (see Heath to GW, 25 Aug.).
4. This enclosure may have been New Jersey governor William Livingston’s 23 Aug. letter to Trumbull, in which Livingston thanked Trumbull for the “Civilities” shown to his nephew—a Loyalist prisoner on parole—and expressed his sympathy regarding the “savagely vindictive” British raids on the Connecticut coast in the summer (see 3:163-64, and GW to Trumbull, 7 July, source note; see also William A. Livingston to GW, 27 Dec. [DLC: GW], and GW to William A. Livingston, 2 Jan. 1780 [DLC:GW]).