To George Washington from Henry Laurens, 17 December 1777

From Henry Laurens

York [Pa.] 17th Decemr 1777.

Sir

I had this Morning the honour of receiving Your Excellency’s dispatch dated 14th & 15th Currt inclosing Copy of a Letter from Lt Genl Burgoyne, which, without reading them through, I sent directly to Congress, from whence I am this moment charged with a Resolve, formed, I presume, as the present necessary direction for a reply to the British General’s application to your Excellency.1 The business appearing to me to demand all decent respect & dispatch I shall put it immediately in motion. I have the honour to be with sincere Esteem & regard &ca.

LB, DNA:PCC, item 13. The LB indicates that this letter was sent to GW “⅌ [William] Jones” at the Gulph.

1. Congress’s resolution of this date directs GW to inform John Burgoyne that it would “not receive nor consider any proposition for indulgence or altering the terms of the convention of Saratoga, unless immediately directed to their own body” (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 9:1032).

Index Entries

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Washington Papers
Title: To George Washington from Henry Laurens, 17 December 1777
Author: Laurens, Henry
Recipient: Washington, George
Date: 17 December 1777

Reference

Cite as: “To George Washington from Henry Laurens, 17 December 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-12-02-0571. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 12, 26 October 1777 – 25 December 1777, ed. Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. and David R. Hoth. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2002, p. 625.]

More between these correspondents