Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., to George Washington, 27 April 1781
From Jonathan Trumbull, Jr.
Lebanon [Conn.] 27th April 1781
Dear General
Returng Yesterday from a Journey Eastward as far as Boston on which I had been employed for a Fortnight,1 I found your Excellency’s Letter of the 16th waiting for me, with a Proposal for my joining your Family in Capacity of a Secretary2—as your Excellency must e’er this begin to wonder at my Silence, I think it my Duty to make an imediate Acknowlegement of the Recipt of your Letter, altho I have not yet had Time to consider its Contents—or decide on the Proposal. The Idea is so new & unexpected—and my other Engagements (exclusive of my Family, private Business & domestic Concerns) are such as will render it very difficult for me to make a Compliance to your Excellencys Request—’tho at same Time I have to confess, that it will give me great Pain, if on full Consideration, I shall find myself obliged to make a Refusal; as my Inclination would lead me to fulfill your every Wish—& be assured Sir! my Ambition would be highly gratified by so near an Admission to the Person & Confidence of General Washington.
Congress have intrusted to my Care the Settlement of my late Brother’s Commissary Accounts—in these Affairs I have been busily engaged & have almost closed (so far as I shall go) all the Accounts of the Four N.E. states & N. York—& have expected to go on to the Jersies & Pensylvania in the Course of this Summer—I shall be much at a Loss to leave these Matters unfinished both on Account of the Public, & that of my Brothers private Estate—which in some Respects is held in close Connexion with the Public Settlements—perhaps also Congress may think it not well for me to leave this Business in its present Stage.3
On the Whole I must beg your Excellencys Permission for a short Time to consult my own Mind & those of my Friends on this Subject—& in the Mean Time suffer me to suggest that your Excellency will be pleased to turn your Mind on some other Person who may eventually be called to this Service—some others I can readily conceive may be found who will perform it with greater Abilities but no One I dare say will accept whose chearfull Readiness & utmost Endeavours to fulfill your Excellenys Wishes will be greater (if Circumstancs shall permitt) than mine.4 With highest Sentiments of Respect & Esteem—I am most Gratefully D. Genl Your most Obedient & humble Servant
Jona. Trumbull Junr
ALS, DLC:GW. Trumbull addressed the cover to GW at New Windsor. A notation on the cover, written in French and signed by Colonel Darrot of Brigadier General Lauzun’s legion stationed in Lebanon, orders the bearer to pass through the outposts immediately.
1. Trumbull had been in Providence earlier in the month serving as one of Connecticut’s commissioners at a convention of New York and New England states. The convention’s purpose was to devise “ways and means that Congress may be invested with power to collect and raise a permanent fund for the paying, clothing and supporting the army, and for discharging the interest arising upon the debts which have been contracted” (, 9:365). The commissioners also could consider “the request of the people calling themselves the State of Vermont to be admitted into union and confederation with the thirteen United States of America as a free and independent State” (, 3:316–17).
Reporting to the Connecticut legislature from Lebanon on 1 May, Trumbull wrote that an insufficient attendance of commissioners and the absence of an “agent appearing from the French army or navy” sent the delegates home immediately, “not being able to proceed to the conclusion of any business which had been proposed as the subject of their meeting” (, 3:574–75). Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., remarked to New Hampshire council president Meshech Weare in a letter written at Lebanon on 4 May: “I fear what effect this neglect may have upon any future similar occasion, when if the States do not attend to their appointments the interests of the States may receive essential injury for want of their combined efforts & united consultations” (, 3:224–25).
3. Congress adopted a resolution on 5 May 1779 that authorized Trumbull “to settle and adjust, at the public expence, all the accounts of the several deputy commissaries and purchasers employed by or under” his brother, former commissary general Joseph Trumbull (, 14:550–51; see also , 13:395–98, 422). Congress authorized another commissioner to settle the accounts when Trumbull, Jr., began as GW’s secretary in June 1781 (see , 20:693).
4. Trumbull agreed to serve as GW’s secretary (see his letter to GW, 10 May, DLC:GW). For his official appointment, see the general orders for 8 June.