A Letter so very agreeable kind argues & so in all respects so
very apl[a]udble, ought not to have been receivd without a
grateful acknowlegement w[ith] all the return I can make; for what
benevolent intenti[ons] publick & privat (in neither of wch. I
ever ? you respective) an I am assurd equally firsthand. I am to
like you [such?], that of our first I have been ? honourd with
yours of the 15 of october. come to my hands; but not But it did
not come to my hand until more than a month after it was written.
I only waited to communicate the contents to the Gentlemen
concernd, & then opend my Treaty with the Ministers. I could I
was not so fortunate as in reason ought in reason to have
expected. should have been? all men are not of the description or
of the Sentiments which you have mentiond in your letter. one
lady’s ? they do not delight They choose The animoity against
Genl. Beugoyne continues. Mr. Laurens is still in the Tower. The
former is at the charge of the Congress; where I hope he will meet
better Treatment I hope the former will find better resource in
the magnamity of a generous Enemy than in the justice of those
Ministers under whose dirctions he was he was led to defend in
brought into a Situation ? makes such an exchace necessary.
I have been ? all things for the honour of the Community I
belong to, I could wish that this Govn. take the lead in every act
of Generosity. And this are disfavour of America & ally with the
gifts of fortune what fortune also canot give I ? have wished to
grant; I am left to supplie
wish & to perhaps I have upheld ?
with Enthusiam the honour & dignity witht. derogating from the
respect due of the younger part of our Nation wch. is branch of
our Nation. I could wish that as we are the older we should
furnish you with Examples ? But providence has not done ? at least
I confess I have been a proud man & my proud well humbled
The reason alleged for refusing the exchange proposed by
Congress in their Leter of Honesty was that they had ? genl. B was
already exchanged. It was to no purpose, that I pleaded the utter
impossibility of that fact. Congress has made a Vote in favour of
Mr. Laurens wch. they could never act so cruelly & treacherously
by their late president, as to falsify their own vote for his
release. At that time they had no officer of rank in their hands
to that for so far as they It was represented also, in
confirmation of this idea that no such Exchange for soldiers had
taken place said Months after the Vote, when M. A. G. was off the
Chesapeak. to the Exchanges of soldiers the ? included in the
Number of ? offered men ? for Genl. Beugoyne, they know that the
Congress had already constantly refused to admit them in accounts
I added that It was represented to them that who had always made
the offer, whenever Genl. B. was concernd because they knew it had
been constant these ? had always been ressired in account, ?
sense, that they had taken effectual means that no such Exchange
should be made. I touchd also that a Topic, that I thought would
have had some Effect. Col. Laurens had been employd to settle the
Capitulation of York River. This He was too pious a son to be
careless of his fathers indifferent about it & too considerable
not to be informed of the Vote wh. had been made in favour of his
father if he could have imagined the vote ? Exchange for his
father could have been rejected; was it to be believed, that he
would not have put some difficulties on those who? in the way of
others until an exchange so interesting to him had taken place? It
was all to no purpose. It was ? to propose & ? that the offer of
the Cedres prisoners ought constantly to be adhered to.
I take the Liberty of troubling you with all this, to let you
see, that I have not neglected the affair with wch. you have been
so obliging as to comment to me. You judges are You have done me a
great favour in putting me in the way of repaying an act of
kindness done to me by giving me the favour of being ? in doing
another. You do me Justice in [thistry?] such a Commerce in the
same species is most pleasing to me. If G. B. had not existed much
as I love & honour him. I should have exerted every Nerve for Mr.
Laurens. Whatever the Ministers may think proper to be done I will
not yet suppose, that the Nation feels along with them. After
Christmas I shall know more the reason ? I shall consider as a
part addition to the obligations to your ? in consequence of the
Enquiry & Bill which will be thus brought on.