To George Washington from Lachlan McIntosh, 20 April 1784
From Lachlan McIntosh
Savannah in Georgia 20th April 1784.
Sir,
I had the honor of writing to your Excellency the 20th December in answer to your favor of the 24th October last which I hope you received 1—and since, your Circular Letter of the 1st January with its duplicate came to hand at the same time, & only four days ago, which I laid before our State Association of Cincinnati whose Quarterly Meeting was held here Yesterday and this Day—and in Consequence, thereof, they have Chosen Majors Eustace, Lucas, Cuthbert and Captain Field to Represent them in the General Society, who are to proceed immediately to Philadelphia if we can possibly make out as much Money as will bear their Expenses 2—and to whom I begg Leave to refer your Excellency for any information you may require as they will go fully Instructed, & are directed to carry Copy of all the Proceedings of our State Society from its commencement.3 I have the Honor to be most respectfully Your Excellency’s most obt Hble Servant
Lachn McIntosh
President of the Georgia Association of Cincinnati
ALS, DSoC.
1. For GW’s circular letter of 24 Oct. 1783, see William Moultrie to GW, 6 April 1784, n. 1. In his letter of 20 Dec. 1783, McIntosh wrote GW that he had directed “the Secretary of our State Association of the Cincinnati to copy such extracts from the minutes of our proceedings as will give you all the information you require [about the establishing of the Georgia Society], which he will inclose herewith.”
2. Between 1776 and 1780 John Skey Eustace served as aide-de-camp to generals Charles Lee, John Sullivan, and Nathanael Greene, successively. John Lucas, who was McIntosh’s aide at the siege of Savannah in 1779, was captain in one or another of the Georgia regiments from 1777 to 1782. Alexander Daniel Cuthbert also served in the Georgia regiments, and Capt. James Field was an officer in the South Carolina artillery in 1779 and 1780. Only Cuthbert attended the general meeting in Philadelphia in May.
3. The instructions to the Georgia delegates included this sentence: “You are also well acquainted with the Objections made to the whole of the Institution in our State, and the groundless fears of some Citizens which deserves some Consideration, and if in any part of our Institution there is found upon Mature deliberation a just Cause for such fears they ought to be removed, as the greatest Glory of the Cincinnati is, that they were prime Agents in giveing freedom to a great portion of the Globe, and leading the way for all the rest to obtain it” ( 131–32).