George Washington to Major General Benjamin Lincoln, 21 April 1781
To Major General Benjamin Lincoln
Head Quarters New Windsor 21st April 1781
Dear Sir
I have recd your favors of the 2d and 13th Inst.1 Major Clarkson has communicated the Matter for which I am referred to him in your last. It seems a clue which may lead to an ample discovery of what has been some time suspected, provided the Emissary is sincere. But Major Clarkson cannot tell me whether he proposed to make himself known to me or whether he is to communicate his discoveries to Mr C——.2 If one or the other of these is not to be the consequence, we shall be as much in the dark as before, and he may have been artful enough to have given the hints he has, to screen himself from punishment should he be apprehended on his journey.
Under this uncertainty I have concluded not to send in the letter ’till I can hear again from you. You will therefore be good enough to apply to Mr C—and know of him whether any and what mode of communication has been agreed upon—If no plan has been settled, ask him whether he could fall upon any way of informing — that it would be necessary that I or some person authorised from me should see him at a convenient place on his way to and from ——. I would prefer an interview both going and coming to any other mode, for by cross examining and minutely observing the conduct and behaviour of a person under such circumstances much may be determined as to his honesty or knavery.3 I shall be anxious to hear from you on this subject. You will see the necessity of keeping the names of the principal Actors out of sight as I have done in this letter.4 I am &.
Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. The purported LS was offered for sale in Kenneth W. Rendell, Inc., catalog 150, item 18. Tilghman docketed the draft: “sent under cover to Colo. Wadsworth by Chain of Expresses with desire to forward it by post.” The LS went with a letter GW wrote Jeremiah Wadsworth from headquarters at New Windsor on this date (Saturday): “You will oblige me by putting the inclosed into the Mail which I think will leave Hartford on Monday next” (LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, eBay sale, February 2011).
1. See Lincoln to GW, 2 and 13 April.
2. “Mr C——” was evidently Jesse Cole (see n.3 below). The name of the emissary is not known.
3. GW eventually wrote John Flood from New Windsor on 29 April: “If Jesse Cole, an Inhabitant of the City of New York, will undertake to communicate with me through the Channel that has been proposed to him, or any other which may be more direct and better, and will give me regular information of the enemys movements—strength—& designs, as far as he can come at them from good information & his own observation, particularly noting their reinforcements—Embarkations—and the disposition of their Troops on the different Islands—& of their Ships of War in the Harbr and where the case requires it will give this intelligence with dispatch. I do, in behalf of the United States, promise that due consideration of his services shall be had—& compensation made—when circumstances will admit of it” (ADfS, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW).
John Flood had lived at Mamaroneck, N.Y., and moved to Lower Salem, N.Y., where he aided espionage operations around New York City (see the entry for 6 May 1781 in , 3:360–61). Flood apparently served as a militia captain from Westchester County, N.Y., earlier in the war (see William Duer to GW, 30 Aug. 1776).
4. Lincoln replied to GW on 26 April.