From George Washington to John Beatty, 10 November 1779
To John Beatty
West point Nov. 10. 1779
sir
I have received Your Letter of the 8th Instant with the Inclosures.1 You will consider the following as the Sixth paragraph of my Letter of Instruction to You of the 30th Ulto instead of the One it contains, & govern Yourself by it in your answer to Mr Loring, with respect to his demand on account of Violators of parole.2
In this view, You will inform Mr Loring that you are pursuing every means in your power to return the Officers for whom we consider ourselves accountable, as Violators of their parole—and in the mean time, if agreable to Sir Henry Clinton—we will send in on parole as many of their Officers of the same rank, prisoners to us, counting upon those of their rank already in their hands in part—as these Violators of parole amount to—and that at any time when a Violator of parole is returned—they may make the release of any One of their Officers of his rank absolute & final, by sending out Another of ours of the same rank, who stands first in order of captivity, in exchange for him. And You may farther inform him that the moment we are so happy as to conclude upon a plan for a general exchange, which we have ever been willing to make & still are, on terms of equality & mutual advantage—that the whole of these Violators of parole or such part of them as shall not have returned or been exchanged shall be finally accounted for.3 I am Sir Your Most Obedt sert
G. Washington
Df, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Beatty’s letter to GW of 8 Nov. has not been found.
2. For the acrimonious letter of 12 Oct. from Joshua Loring, British commissary general of prisoners, to Beatty demanding the immediate return of all parolees, see Beatty to GW, 26 Oct., n.10 (see also Henry Clinton to GW, 9 Nov.). Beatty’s reply to Loring has not been identified.
3. This paragraph on the draft replaced an earlier, struck-out rendering that reads: “The Enemy have certainly a claim to satisfaction for the Officers belonging to us, who have violated their paroles. We ought either to return them or account for them, by releasing an equal number of their prisoners to us: and this is perfectly consonant to the ideas and direction of Congress, as expressed in their act of the 28th of January. Their claim being just, I would wish You to attend to it immediately. It cannot be too soon taken up, as their Commissary in his late correspondence with You on the 12th Ulto has made the satisfaction of it, a preliminary point to all farther Negociations on the subject of Exchanges. In this view you will inform Mr Loring, that we are willing to release from every obligation of parole—a like number of their Officers, upon the principle of equality of rank, on receiving their previous assurance, that whenever we send in a Violator of parole, Another of our Officers of similar rank, and who stands first in order of captivity, shall be immediately returned, as finally exchanged. These terms are so just, with respect to the Enemy, that they themselves cannot object to them, and they will never be departed from by us, as they have no right to determine what prisoners we shall receive in exchanges, if those we demand fall within the principles of exchanges subsisting between us. Equality of rank is the only Rule which has hitherto been established between us in exchanges—and therefore should there remain any Violators of parole to be accounted for, where it cannot apply—the claim with respect to those must of necessity continue, till some equitable mode of composition can be agreed on.”
Upon receiving a representation “in behalf of Sir Henry Clinton, commanding the British troops in New York, that some officers of the army of these United States have withdrawn themselves from captivity contrary to their paroles; and such a breach of public honor and private faith being in every view reprehensible and injurious,” Congress adopted a resolution on 28 Jan. 1779: “That the Commander in Chief be directed to make strict enquiry into the truth of the said allegation, and if it shall appear to be well founded, to take the necessary measures for causing every officer who shall have escaped from captivity in violation of his parole, to be returned within the enemy’s lines, or to order the commissary of prisoners to account in his exchanges for all such officers, in such manner as is agreeable to practice and to the principles which have heretofore regulated exchanges between the two armies, and to report the names of such officers to the Board of War” ( 13:122). Additionally, upon learning “that divers British officers, prisoners to these states, have violated their paroles,” Congress adopted another resolution on the same date: “That the Commander in Chief be directed to require from Sir Henry Clinton, or officer commanding the British troops, the same degree of justice with respect to the British officers, prisoners to these United States, who have broken their parole, which this Congress have directed to be done on their part by the preceding resolution” ( 13:122).
For a systematic review of American officers who allegedly violated their paroles, see GW to Beatty and to a Board of General Officers, both 25 June, and a Board of General Officers to GW, 28 June (see also General Orders, 25 June; GW to Beatty, 12 July; and the second Circular to the States, 26 Aug.).