From George Washington to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 5 December 1796
To Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Philadelphia 5th Decr 1796
My dear Sir,
Not being able to recollect with certainty whether I expressed to you my ardent desire that no favourable occasion might be omitted, by you, of signifying how much it was my wish, and the wishes of the People of this country that that friend to it—Mr de la Fayette—could be liberated from his confinement, is the cause of my giving you the trouble of this address.1
Not in my public character, have I conceived myself authorised to move in this business; but in my private one I have used, and shall continue to use, every exertion in my power to effect this much desired object.2 For surely if a hard fate has attended any one, the fortunes of this Gentleman has met it.
It would give me much pleasure to hear of your safe arrival after an agreeable passage; and that your reception from the French Directory has been favourable.3
Of politics, or on matters of public concern, I shall say nothing—because you are too recently from this country to need information on the fir⟨st⟩ subject—and from the Office of Stat⟨e, you⟩ receive all that can be given on the secon⟨d.⟩
In presenting compliments to Mrs and Miss Pinckney⟨,⟩4 Mrs Was⟨hing⟩ton unites hers along with those of My dear Sir Your most Obedt and Affectionate Servt
Go: Washington
ALS (letterpress copy), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. Where the ALS is illegible, the text in angle brackets is taken from the letter-book copy.
1. The marquis de Lafayette had been imprisoned since May 1794 at Olmütz, Austria (now the Czech Republic) and did not obtain his release until September 1797 (see GW to George Cabot, 7 Sept. 1795, and n.2 to that document). GW made no mention of Lafayette in his most recent letter to Pinckney (12 Sept.), but he may have discussed the Frenchman’s ordeal when Pinckney was in Philadelphia in September to receive his instructions as the newly appointed minister to France (see Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., to GW, 26 Sept., and n.2 to that document).
2. For an example of GW’s efforts to aid Lafayette in a private capacity, see GW to Frederick William II of Prussia, 15 Jan. 1794.
3. After leaving America for France in late September, Pinckney and his family landed at Bordeaux on 15 Nov., and arrived in Paris on 5 Dec. 1796. French foreign affairs minister Charles Delacroix initially accepted Pinckney’s letter of credence. Nevertheless, the Directory refused to receive him or any other American minister until the United States attempted to resolve France’s grievances over the Jay Treaty and alleged U.S. violations of its treaties with France. Pinckney received a written order in late January 1797 to depart from France. He and his family proceeded to Amsterdam, where they waited months before learning the U.S. government’s decided recourse on the matter (see James McHenry to GW, 24 March 1797, and n.1 to that document, in 1:47–48; see also , 136, 140–49). When he next wrote GW on 25–28 Jan. 1797, Pinckney enclosed communications that provided a comprehensive account of the events that occurred after his arrival in France.
4. Pinckney’s wife Mary Stead Pinckney and their daughter Eliza Lucas Pinckney accompanied him on the diplomatic mission to France.
Eliza Lucas Pinckney (d.1851) was Pinckney’s youngest child with his first wife Sarah Middleton. In 1822, Eliza married Ralph Izard, then a lieutenant in the U.S. navy.