From George Washington to Joseph Reed, 9 July 1779
To Joseph Reed
New Windsor July 9th 1779
sir
Doctor Hodges will have the Honor of presenting this to Your Excellency.1 The Inclosed, a Copy of a Letter from Governor Trumbull, will inform you of the business he is upon.2 It is important & interesting and I am persuaded the Doctor will meet with every assistence that you can give him in the prosecution of it. I have the Honor &c.
Df, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Silas Hodges (1741–1804), formerly a doctor, worked as an agent to detect conspiracies against Connecticut and the United States. Massachusetts, and probably New Hampshire, authorities had employed him for the same purpose (see 1:208–11). Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., wrote New York governor George Clinton in a letter of 5 Aug. that Hodges was “faithful, and well qualified” ( 5:184). After the war, Hodges moved to Clarendon, Vt., and became a merchant.
2. The enclosure, presumably a letter from Trumbull to GW, has not been found.