George Washington Papers

To George Washington from John Hancock, 10 January 1777

From John Hancock

Baltimore Jany 10th 1777.

Sir,

The enclosed Resolves will inform you of the Proceedings of Congress since my last.1

I have wrote to the Council of Massachusetts Bay on the Subject of the enclosed Resolve relative to an Attack on Nova Scotia, the Propriety of which the Congress have submitted to that State.2

You will please to inform Doctor Morgan, and likewise Doctor Stringer of their Dismission from the Service of these States. I am so extremely hurried in the Execution of the Resolves of Congress, that I have only Time to request your Attention to the enclosed.3

The late Movements of our Army have filled us with the most anxious Expectation and we are impatient for the Event.4 I have the Honour to be with perfect Esteem & Regard Sir your most obed. & very hble Sert

John Hancock Presidt

LS, DLC:GW; Df, DNA:PCC, item 12A. The draft is in Hancock’s letter book.

1Hancock’s last letter to GW was written on 6 January. The enclosed copies of Congress’s resolutions of 8 and 9 Jan. are in DLC:GW (see also 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 , 7:18–20, 24–27). Two of these resolutions are discussed in notes 2 and 3. The other resolutions concern the exchange of Lieutenant Colonel Gezeau, a French officer taken by the British along with Gen. Charles Lee, magazine provisions for South Carolina and Georgia, Virginia reinforcements for the Continental army in New Jersey, and the stocking of salted meat.

2Congress on 8 Jan. passed a resolution calling for the state of Massachusetts to plan a secret winter or early spring attack upon Fort Cumberland in Nova Scotia and empowering the state to raise up to 3,000 men and to prepare necessary magazines and military stores for the expedition (ibid., 18, 20; see also Hancock to the Massachusetts Council, 10 Jan., in Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends , 6:81–82).

3Congress on 9 Jan. resolved to dismiss from the service the chief physician and director general for the hospital department for the main army, John Morgan, and the director general in the northern department, Samuel Stringer, and GW informed the doctors of their dismissals on 18 Jan. (see 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 , 7:24, and GW to Hancock, 17 Jan., and n.1; see also Elbridge Gerry to John Adams, 8 Jan., and Samuel Adams to John Adams, 9 Jan. 1777, ibid., 51–54, 63–66).

4At this point in the draft the phrase “May you be safe in the Day of Battle, and reap” has been struck out.

Index Entries