To George Washington from the New York Committee of Safety, 17 April 1776

From the New York Committee of Safety

New York, 17 April 1776. Request GW “to obtain a release of Seven Citizens, now detained on board the ships Pheonix and Asia, as prisoners. They are well informed an exchange may be effected, if your Excellency would be pleased to give them1 the benefit of a number of your Prisoners, of equal rank.”

LS, DLC:GW; copy, enclosed in GW to Hancock 22 April 1776, DNA:PCC, item 152; copy, DNA:PCC, item 169; copy, DLC: Hancock Papers. The LS is signed on behalf of the committee by its chairman William Paulding. For a printed copy of the draft, see N.Y. Prov. Congress Journals description begins Journals of the Provincial Congress, Provincial Convention, Committee of Safety, and Council of Safety of the State of New-York, 1775–1776–1777. 2 vols. Albany, 1842. (Microfilm Collection of Early State Records). description ends , 1:409. The differences between it and the LS are minor ones of wording and style. The manuscript list containing the names of the seven American prisoners that the committee enclosed with this letter has not been found, but it is printed with the draft in the journals. For GW’s response to the committee’s request, see his letters to Hancock, 22 April and 11 May 1776.

1. The printed draft reads “give the Committee.”

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Source Project: Washington Papers
Title: To George Washington from the New York Committee of Safety, 17 April 1776
Author: New York Committee of Safety
Recipient: Washington, George
Date: 17 April 1776

Reference

Cite as: “To George Washington from the New York Committee of Safety, 17 April 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-04-02-0062. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 4, 1 April 1776 – 15 June 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991, p. 79.]

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