From George Washington to William Livingston, 10 March 1780
To William Livingston
Head Qrs [Morristown] March 10th 1780.
Dr Sir
Since I had the Honor of writing to Your Excellency on the 26 Ulto—I have obtained Returns of Moylan’s & Sheldon’s Regiments of Light Dragoons, in which I find there are some Men belonging to the State of New Jersey. I inclose a particular Return of them, specifying the Terms of their engagements.1 I have the Honor to be with the greatest respect & esteem Your Excellency’s Most Obedt servant
Go: Washington
P.S. I have had the Honor of Your Excellency’s Obliging Favor of the 26 of February and am much indebted for the very polite and friendly manner in which You have been pleased to express Yourself on the subject of my Letter of the 19th.2
Your Excellency’s observations with respect to the Enemy’s Affairs in Europe, appear to be well warranted by the public prints that have transpired;3 but I hope nevertheless as You do, that the States will not relax in any necessary & prudent preparation.4 We may be certain from what has happened, that the Enemy will never give over prosecuting their claim till they are compelled by the last necessity. I congratulate You on the proceedings in Ireland—which seem well calculated to hasten this.5
LS, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, NN: William Livingston Papers; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. GW addressed the LS to Livingston at Trenton.
1. The enclosed return has not been identified, but a notation on the draft manuscript indicates that twenty-one men in Col. Stephen Moylan’s 4th Continental Dragoons and eleven men in Col. Elisha Sheldon’s 2d Continental Dragoons belonged to New Jersey and required support from that state.
For similar communications sent to other state executives, see GW to Thomas Sim Lee, this date, and n.2 to that document.
2. GW wrote Livingston at length on 19 Feb. to censure state intervention when soldiers disputed their enlistment terms.
3. The draft of this letter, also in Harrison’s writing, reads “been received” rather than “transpired.”
4. Livingston had gleaned from “foreign Papers” that “the affairs of our Enemy in Europe are in a most disasterous Situation.”
5. GW probably is alluding to increasing Irish nationalism whose advocates sought commercial and political reforms from Great Britain (see , 254–60, 270–72; see also Fielding Lewis to GW, 26 March, and n.8). For GW’s interest in Irish affairs, see General Orders, 16 March, and his letters to Lafayette of 18 March and to William Gordon of 3 May.