From George Washington to Samuel Huntington, 6 July 1780
To Samuel Huntington
Head Quarters near Posaick Falls [N.J.] July 6th 1780
Sir
I have the honor by this morning’s Post, to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency’s dispatches of the 25th Ulto which have been presented to me by General Lincoln.1 The several objects to which they extend, will have my consideration, and I shall do myself the honor of informing Congress of the result.2
Since the Enemy left Jerseys, their main body has proceeded into the County of West Chester;3 and they have extended themselves from Philips’s across towards the Sound: in which position they lay, according to my last intelligence. Their object most probably is to forage that Country, and strip it of all Supplies.
We have not yet received any Levies, except between thirty and forty from Pensylvania.4 This is a most painful circumstance, and such as keeps me still unable to prepare any plan to lay before the French Admiral and General.
I enclose Your Excellency Rivington and Gaine’s New York Papers of the 1st and 3d Inst.5 Congress will find in the latter, if they have not already got it, a Memorial of the Empress of Russia to the States of Holland; The substance of which, she had also laid before the Courts of Copenhagen—Stockholm, and Lisbon on the subject of neutrality—Also a Declaration to those of London, Versailles, and Madrid; And an act of His Britannic Majesty in Council, declaring Holland to be on the footing of a Neutral Nation, not previleged by Treaty.6 I have the honor to be With the highest respect and esteem Your Excellency’s Most Obedient Servant
Go: Washington
LS, in David Humphreys’s writing, DNA:PCC, item 152; Df, DLC:GW; copy, DNA:PCC, item 169; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. Congress read this letter on 10 July (, 17:595).
1. See Huntington to GW, 25 June, and the notes to that document.
3. For the British incursion into New Jersey, see Battle of Springfield, 23–24 June; see also GW to Huntington, 25 June.
4. For the requests to the states to provide reinforcements for their Continental regiments, see GW to the Committee at Headquarters, 25 May, and notes 3 and 5 to that document; see also GW to Huntington, 20 June.
5. James Rivington published an issue of The Royal Gazette (New York) on 1 July. Hugh Gaine published an issue of The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury on 3 July.
6. The New-York Gazette for 3 July printed, in addition to the act of the British council, a memorial from Empress Catherine II of Russia to the Dutch Republic of 3 April stating, in response to seizures of neutrals’ goods by the powers at war, her determination “to support the honour of the Russian flag, the security of the trade, and the navigation of her subjects, and not suffer either to be hurt by any of the belligerent powers.” The empress invited the Dutch to make “common cause” with Russia in the endeavor. Catherine’s declaration to Great Britain, France, and Spain, also printed in the paper, set out five “principles” of neutral trading rights that Russia intended to defend. For a discussion of the principles, see , 172–73.
The memorial and the declaration were part of Catherine’s effort to organize a League of Armed Neutrality to enforce neutral trading rights set out in the principles. Denmark and Sweden immediately joined Russia in the league, and other neutral European powers eventually joined. Although it did not directly aid the United States, the league hindered British naval efforts to suppress the trade of the allies and frustrated British efforts to find friends in Europe. For more on the formation of the league and its significance, see , 140–194, 439–58.