To John Jay from Arthur St. Clair, 25 July 1777
From Arthur St. Clair
Moses’s Creek, July 25th, 1777
Sir
General Schuyler was good enough to read to me part of a letter he received last night from you.1 I can not recollect that any of my officers ever asked my reasons for leaving Ticonderoga, but, as I have found the measure much decried, I have often expressed myself in this manner, “that as to myself I was perfectly easy, I was conscious of the uprightness and propriety of my conduct, and dispised the vague censure of an uninformed populace,” but had no allusion to orders from General Schuyler for my justification, because no such orders existed.2
The calumny thrown upon Schuyler, on account of that matter, has given me great uneasiness. I assure you, Sir, there never was any thing more cruel and unjust, for he knew nothing of the matter until it was over, more than you did at Kingston. It was done in consequence of a consultation with the other general officers, without the possibility of General Schuyler’s concurrence; and had the opinion of that council been contrary to what it was, it would nevertheless have taken place, because I knew it to be impossible to defend the post with our numbers.
In my letter to Congress, from fort Edward, in which I gave them an account of the retreat, is this paragraph, “It was my original design to retreat to this place, that I might still be betwixt General Burgoyne and the inhabitants, and that they might have something to collect to— It is now effected, and the militia are coming in, so that I have the most sanguine hopes that the progress of the enemy will yet be checked, and I may have the satisfaction to experience that, quitting a post, I have saved a State.”3
Whether my conjecture is right or not is uncertain; but, had our army been made prisoners, which it certainly would have been, the State of New York would have been much more exposed at present.
I proposed to General Schuyler, on my arrival at fort Edward, to have sent a note to the Printer, to assure the people he had no part in abandoning what they considered their strongholds— He thought it was not so proper at that time, but it is no more than what I owe to truth and him, that he was totally unacquainted with the matter; and I should be very glad that this letter, or any part of it you may think proper to communicate, may convince the unbelieving.4 Simple unbelief is easily and soon convinced, but when malice or envy occasions it, it is needless to attempt it.5 I am, Sir, your very humble and most obedient Servant,
A. St. Clair
The Hon. John Jay, Esq.
PtL, Connecticut Courant, 4 Aug. 1777. This is the earliest extant printed copy of the letter located.
1. JJ to Philip Schuyler, 21 July, above.
2. See above, JJ to Schuyler, 21 July.
3. See St. Clair to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, 14 July, in , 1: 426–29. Mentioned in Hancock to Schuyler, 18 Sept. 1777, , 7: 352–53.
4. JJ sent this letter to the press on 26 July. It was published first in the New York Journal at Kingston, 28 July 1777, with this introduction by JJ to John Holt, its printer: “Be pleased to give the enclosed letter, which I have just received from Brigadier General St. Clair, a place in your next paper. With the cander and ingenuity becoming a man of honour, he acquits Major General Schuyler of having ordered or been privy to the evacuation of Ticonderoga—a charge, which it seems has gained credit without proof, and found zealous advocates though unsupported by truth.” The letter and JJ’s note were also published in the Connecticut Courant, 4 Aug. 1777; Pennsylvania Packet, 5 Aug. 1777; Boston Gazette, 11 Aug. 1777; and New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury, 1 Sept. 1777.
5. For JJ’s reply, see below, JJ to St. Clair, 28 July 1777, and JJ to Schuyler, 26[–28] July 1777.