1To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 20 April 1776 (Washington Papers)
I take the Liberty of addressing your Excellency upon a Subject so much out of my own Line, that I must be entirely in your Equity, as to the Charge of Impertinence. I hope to be acquitted. The Committee of Safety have ordered, that the sick Soldiery should be transported to an Island called little Barn Island; which was, and perhaps still is, the Property of Captn John Montresor, an Engineer...
2From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 20 April 1776 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Gouverneur Morris, 20 April 1776. Morris’s letter to GW of this date is endorsed in Stephen Moylan’s writing: “ansd Same day.”
3To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 18 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
I expected before this to have written to you “Provision is made for the American Officers” but that Thief of Time Procrastination hath kept it off from Time to Time. The Question is now an Order of the Day and as such takes Place of every other Business When it will be determined I know not but this I know that it shall be finished one Way or the other before any Thing else Let what will...
4From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 25 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
I received your obliging favor of the 18th Inst., only Yesterday evening. I thank you much for the explanatory hints it contains and could have wished it had come to hand a little sooner. I have many things to say to you, but as the Express, who will deliver you this, is going with dispatches that will not admit delay, I shall content myself with taking notice of one matter, that appears to me...
5To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 1 May 1778 (Washington Papers)
Knox is to attend the Council. Conway hath resigned & his Resignation is accepted. The Affairs of the Army are necessarily delayed by the foreign Affairs which have broken in upon us. As to the Half Pay Matters stand thus the Questions have been carried but by an Entry on the Minutes there is an Agreemt that a final Question shall be put whether it be finally determined in Congress or sent to...
6To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 15 May 1778 (Washington Papers)
Permit me to congratulate you on the passing a Resolution for a Kind of Establishment at this late Hour It is not what you wished but it may do You must pardon a little to the Republicanism of our Ideas. What is a little extraordinary there was no Dissentient State and only two Individuals Yet no Measure hath ever been more severely contested. We shall now go thro the Regimental & other...
7From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 18 May 1778 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 15th Inst. gave me singular pleasure—I thank you for the agreeable intelligence it contains; which (tho not equal to my wishes) exceeds my expectation, & is to be lamented only for the delay, as the evils, consequent of it, will, soon (as I have often foretold) be manifested in the moving state of the Army, if the Departments of Quarter Master and Commissary will enable us to...
8To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 21 May 1778 (Washington Papers)
We are going on with the regimental Arrangements as fast as possible and I think the Day begins to appear with Respect to this Business. Had our Saviour addressed a Chapter to the Rulers of Mankind as he did many to the Subjects I am perswaded his Good Sense would have dictated this Text. Be not wise overmuch. Had the several Members who compose our multifarious Body been only wise enough Our...
9To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 23 May 1778 (Washington Papers)
I wrote you a few Days ago by Colo. Johnson; as he is not yet gone, I will now add two Things I forgot to mention then. The first is that if you send any General to Rhode Island you will probably find it most convenient to get rid of Varnom, Whose Temper and Manners are by no Means calculated to teach Patience Discipline & Subordination. Congress having determined on the Affair of the...
10To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 27–28 May 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have a Word to say to you upon the Subject of Promotion which we have just now finished or rather unfinished at least if that Matter was before in an unfinished Situation. That famous incomprehensible Baltimore Resolution (unluckily perhaps) introduced a very tedious Debate which terminated at Length by rejecting the whole of what the Committee reported with relation to the Promoting of...
11From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 29 May 1778 (Washington Papers)
I thank you for your favors of the 21st & 23d Instt both of which have come to hand since my last to you —had such a chapter as you speak of, been written to the rulers of Mankind, it would, I am perswaded, have been as unavailing as many others upon subjects of equal importance—we may lament that things are not consonant to our wishes, but cannot change the nature of Man; & yet, those who are...
12To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 9 June 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have sent to your Addressé three Bundles containing the several Materials collected by the Committee for arrangg the army. This Business being now put under your Care I trust you will be enabled speedily to put your Army in the Situation you wish excepting always the Deficiency of Numbers which is upon the whole well enough since thereby it happens that less of the Resources of the Country...
13From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 24 July 1778 (Washington Papers)
Whether you are indebted to me, or I to you a Letter I know not, nor is it a matter of much moment—The design of this is to touch, cursorily, upon a Subject of very great importance to the well being of these States; much more so than will appear at first view—I mean the appointment of so many foreigners to Offices of high rank & trust in our Service. The lavish manner in which Rank has...
14To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 2 August 1778 (Washington Papers)
I was in your Debt. It is my Fate always to be so with my Friends. But beleive me my Heart owes Nothing. Let me add that you can do me no Favor so great as to comply with your Wishes except an Opportunity to serve the Public which indeed is your highest Wish as you have evidenced fully to all the World & particularly to your Friends. I feel the full Force of your Reasoning. The Faith of...
15To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 31 August 1778 (Washington Papers)
I wrote you a Letter long since which went backwards & whether it hath ever Yet got so far forwards as to reach you I am utterly incapacitated even to guess trusting however that you have got or will get it I shall not from Memory repeat what if there at all is at best but faintly traced. At present I trouble you on the Subject of recruiting your Army which is at this Moment in Debate before...
16From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 5 September 1778 (Washington Papers)
I was yesterday favoured with your Letter of the 31st Ulto—The one you allude to, came to hand about five days before. I thank you for your very polite and friendly appeal, upon the Subject of half bounty in solid Coin. The measure, I have no doubt, would produce an Instant benefit, so far as the engaging drafts &ca might be concerned; but I am certain, many mischievous and pernicious...
17From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 4 October 1778 (Washington Papers)
My public Letters to the Presidt of Congress will inform you of the Wind that wafted me to this place —nothing more therefore need to be said on that head. Your Letter of the 8th Ulto contains three questions & answers—to wit—Can the Enemy prosecute the War? Do they mean to stay on the Continent? And is it our interest to put impediments in the way of their departure? To the first you answer...
18To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 26 October 1778 (Washington Papers)
I received your Favor and return you Thanks for it. The Conduct which the Enemy may pursue with Relation to us is not quite decided But I have not a Doubt but their Efforts during the next Campaign will be chiefly towards our Frontiers with a View to weary us into Submission. At the same Time they will perhaps endeavor to keep such Posts in our Country as to render the Communications tedious...
19To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 11 November 1778 (Washington Papers)
As Congress have delegated to a Committee, of which I have the Honor to be a Member, the Superintendance of the Commissary & Quarter Masters Departments; this, together with our Finances which we have long been cobling at, hath obliged me to consider in a more compleat View the State of our Affairs than my former detached Attention would permit, or indeed than my natural Indolence would have...
20From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 27 November 1778 (Washington Papers)
I thank you for your favor of the 11th which I received by the last Post. You know when a House is on the move and packing up, all the family are commonly busy—and all is hurry—so it is when an Army is changing it’s ground for new Quarters. This circumstance must plead my excuse for not going fully into your Letter. You are certainly right in your position that we must act according to our...
21To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 14 March 1779 (Washington Papers)
You will excuse in me the Liberty I have taken in requesting Colo. Morgan to call on you. That Gentleman can give you much and important Information relative to the State of our Western Frontiers. From the first View of the Commander in that Department at York Town he struck me as one of those who excel in the Regularity of Still Life from the Possession of an indolent Uniformity of Soul. The...
22From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 20 March 1779 (Washington Papers)
I have received your favor of the 14th Instt by Colo. Morgan, and have had a good deal of conversation with him respecting our affairs to the Westward. I wish matters had been more prosperously conducted under the command of Genl McIntosh—This Gentlemn was in a manner a stranger to me, but during the time of his residence at Valley forge I had imbibed a good opinion of his good sense—attention...
23To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 26 April 1779 (Washington Papers)
You must permit me most heartily to congratulate you upon the very important Intelligence which Monsr Gerard will confidentially communicate to you. It is and indeed ought to be a Secret even from Congress for which I need give you no Reasons as you are but too well acquainted with them. Measures have already been taken for obtaining the necessary Supplies which the Minister will detail to...
24George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 8 May 1779 (Hamilton Papers)
Middlebrook [ New Jersey ] May 8, 1779 . States reasons for favoring a campaign in South. Discusses distressing state of the Army. Df , in writings of George Washington and H, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. Morris was a delegate to Congress from New York.
25From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 8 May 1779 (Washington Papers)
Monsieur Gerard did me the honor to deliver me your favour of the 26th—I shall always be obliged to you, my dear Sir, for a free communication of your sentiments on whatsoever subject may occur. The objects of your letter were important. Mr Gerard I dare say has made it unnecessary for me to recapitulate what passed between him and myself and has informed you of the alternative I proposed for...
26To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 21 October 1779 (Washington Papers)
Two Days ago I was placed on a Committee to report the necessary Provision to be made for Officers not heretofore provided for. I recollect at present the general Officers & Erskine’s Corps (The Surgeons are already reported & the Report set down for this Day when as the Devil will have it I cannot attend) but as it would produce many Inconveniences to make this Provision which Congress intend...
27From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 6 November 1779 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 21st ulto did not reach me till a longer time after its date, than is usual between this and Philadelphia. I cannot for a variety of reasons which will occur to you, undertake to designate the persons who shd receive the provision of Congress—or to fix upon the Sums which might be adequate. They are points of too great delicacy for me to interfere in. The Committee on the...
28To George Washington from Gouverneur Morris, 28 November 1780 (Washington Papers)
I ⟨ mutilated ⟩ to write a Letter which I ⟨ mutilated ⟩ you to excuse. If I am rightly inform’d of the Situation of the Enemy the Next E⟨m⟩barkation will not leave above 6.000 Men in New York. Supposing this to be the Case I will go on to suppose that the french Troops with 2.000 Militia are throw⟨n⟩ upon Long Island and march Westward. That you move down with 10.000 Men to the Neighbourhood...
29From George Washington to Gouverneur Morris, 10 December 1780 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 28th Ulto I met with on my way to these quarters, where I arrived on the 6th Instt. The suggestions contained in it required no apology, as it gives me pleasure at all times to know the sentiments of others upon matters of public utility—Those however which you have delivered relative to an enterprize against the enemy in New York, exhibit strong evidence how little the...
30From George Washington to Henry Knox, 11 March 1782 (Washington Papers)
Whereas a proposition was made by me on the 6th day of December last to General Sir Henry Clinton to the following effect "That Commissioners mutually appointed should meet at such time and place as might thereafter be agreed upon for the purposes of obviating all difficulties in exchanges—for liquidating the expenses of maintaining prisoners and for making solid arrangements for providing for...