1Enclosure: Lemuel Hayward to William Gordon, 24 October 1775 (Adams Papers)
I have attended the Hospital ever since about the middle of May last by Order from Genl. Thomas, but am unable to ascertain the Number I attended or the Event till June 10th. since which Time Doctr. Willm. Aspenwall and myself have attended not less than six hundred Patients as Provincial Surgeons and out of that Number have not lost more than forty. This I have collected from the Hospital...
2From John Adams to William Gordon, 23 June 1776 (Adams Papers)
Your agreable Favour of May the first has lain by me neglected, not for Want of Inclination to answer it, but for Want of Time. You have deserved highly of this Country, sir, by Setting So amiable and laudable an Example of public Spirit in Signing the subscription for Fortifications. With great Pleasure I have learn’d that, the Harbour is pretty well secured. I hope, in a Post or two, to be...
3From John Adams to William Gordon, 8 April 1777 (Adams Papers)
I had your Favour of 27 March by this Days Post. That this Country will go Safely through this Revolution, I am well convinced, but We have severe Conflicts to endure yet, and I hope shall be prepared for them. Indeed there is one Enemy, which to me is more formidable, than Famine, Pestilence and the sword, I mean the Corruption which is prevalent in so many American Hearts, a Depravity that...
4From John Adams to William Gordon, 31 August 1777 (Adams Papers)
The loss of Ty is in a train of serious enquiry. Altho this disaster for the present is grievous, yet I think it has put Burgoyne into our power, and I hope he will not be suffered to slip out of it. Mr Howe has planned his operations in such a manner, as to give us a vast advantage, both of him and Burgoyne. He is at the head of Elke about 55 miles from this city. Genl Washington is at...
5From John Adams to William Gordon, 26 May 1780 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged to you, for your Letter of the 8 and 11. of March, which is the more prescious for being in so little Company, having not a line from any other, except a kind Card from Mr. S. Adams. I thank you for your account of the Proceedings of Convention, and am happy to learn, that they have gone through the Report of the Committee. Mr. Jackson, has obliged Us, by an enumeration of...
6From John Adams to William Gordon, 15 April 1783 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 30 th. Novem r: came to hand yesterday, & afforded me real pleasure & great Consolation. The Sentiments it contains were precisely such as actuated the American Ministers for Peace, on the same day. It is astonishing that occasion sh d. ever have been given to you or them to think in that manner— A complicated & extensive system of Imposture has been practised, upon America...
7From John Adams to William Gordon, 10 September 1783 (Adams Papers)
I have rec d yours of 28 June & thank you for the information it contains— In all domestick Disputes I wish our countrymen, may moderate their passions, & manifest as much mutual forbearance as possible. I dread the course of our elections if parties prevail. Every publick Man is in a dangerous & perplexed Situation at present, & as few obstacles should be thrown in his way & as much Candour &...
8From John Adams to William Gordon, 27 April 1785 (Adams Papers)
I am like other Debtors, afraid to look into my Affairs lest I should find the balance against me. it is so with you, I very much Suspect. You may not be sorry to be uninterrupted, for I suppose you are busy in writing your History. I should be glad to see it, because it is time there should be some sketch or full Draught in which there may be some Resemblance, when there are so many abroad...
9From John Adams to William Gordon, 26 June 1785 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter, and can assure you that the use you made of any expressions of mine concerning the refugees was not the cause of my silence, I never troubled my Head about those expressions enough to take a Copy of them, but whatever they were they were the Language of the Heart.— Base and abandoned as many of them the refugees are I should Scorn to hurt the Hair of the Head of...
10From Alexander Hamilton to William Gordon, 10 August 1779 (Hamilton Papers)
You will find by the inclosed copy of a letter of the 25th. of July from Mr. Dana, that he mentions you as his author for a charge of a very singular nature, that has been brought against me, relative to a declaration which I am said to have made in the public coffee house at Philadelphia. Conscious that this charge is totally destitute of foundation, I owe it to myself to investigate its...
11From Alexander Hamilton to William Gordon, [5 September 1779] (Hamilton Papers)
I have received your letter of the 25th of August, which you will probably not be surprised to hear, is by no means satisfactory. Instead of giving up the author of the accusation, you charitably suppose me guilty & amuse yourself in a strain of conjecture (which whatever ingenuity it may have, was certainly unnecessary) about the manner in which the affair happen’d, & the motives that...
12From Alexander Hamilton to William Gordon, [10 December 1779] (Hamilton Papers)
As your letter of the 23d of September offered nothing conclusive I delayed acknowledging it ’till I should receive the result of your pretended application to your informer. This is contained in your last of the 15th. of November which arrived while I was absent from Head Quarters. The unravelment of the plot in the ridiculous farce you have been acting proves, as I at first suspected, that...
13From Benjamin Franklin to William Gordon, 18 October 1779 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Library of Congress I received but the other day your favour of feby. 4. It has been round by the West Indies. The Letter it inclos’d for Mr. Parker is forwarded. I forwarded to you lately a Letter from your friend Mr. Samuel Taber in Holland. Your mistaking his name and calling him Jonathan occasioned one of your Letters to wander and be opened before it got to his hands. I suppose you...
14From George Washington to William Gordon, 13 May 1776 (Washington Papers)
I thank you for the Intelligence contain’d in your Letter of the 5th which is now before me. No matter from what cause your promptness to Work proceeded, whether from the Salem Acct of an Invasion, or the general Plan of Security; which common prudence rendered obviously necessary for the preservation of every Capital place—If the Work is done, I will not quarrel about the motives, for you may...
15From George Washington to William Gordon, 29 June 1777 (Washington Papers)
I am rather asham’d to be so long in debt for your favor of the 10th Ulto but a variety of matters for my consideration; and of late, the bustle, & moving condition of the Army, will, I am perswaded, sufficiently appologize for the seeming neglect. I am too far remov’d from Philadelphia, and have too much business of my own, to know, or enquire into the springs which move Congress to such...
16From George Washington to William Gordon, 23 January 1778 (Washington Papers)
I HAVE attended to your information and remark, on the supposed intention of placing General L——, at the head of the army: whether a serious design of that kind had ever entered into the head of a member of C—— or not, I never was at the trouble of enquiring. I am told a scheme of that kind is now on foot by some, in behalf of another gentleman —but whether true or false, whether serious, or...
17From George Washington to William Gordon, 15 February 1778 (Washington Papers)
Since my last to you abt the end of Jany I have been favourd with your Letter of the 12th of that Month, which did not reach my hands till within these few days. The question there put, was, in some degree, solved in my last—But to be more explicit, I can assure you that no person ever heard me drop an expression that had a tendency to resignation. the same principles that led me to embark in...
18From George Washington to William Gordon, 2 August 1779 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 22d Ult. came to my hands by the last Post, and receives, as it deserves, my warmest thanks—I have also to acknowledge myself your debtor for another letter of the 15th of Decemr which the number I am obliged to write, and read, with other papers to consider, prevented my answering till it had slipped my memory wholly. The Assault of Stoney point does much honor to the Troops...
19From George Washington to William Gordon, 3 May 1780 (Washington Papers)
I received some time ago Your Letter of the 29th of February & 1st of March by Colo. Henley. From a multiplicity of important-pressing business which I have had on hand—I was prevented from communicating it to Colo. Hamilton till yesterday. It was then put into his hands, as You will perceive by the inclosures No. 1 & 2, a Copy of my Letter to him upon the occasion & his Answer. While I must...
20From George Washington to William Gordon, 8 May 1784 (Washington Papers)
Every aid which can be derived from my official papers, I am willing to afford, & shall with much pleasure lay before you, whenever the latter can be unfolded with propriety. It ever has been my opinion however, that no Historian can be possessed of sufficient materials to compile a perfect history of the revolution, who has not free access to the archives of Congress—to those of the...
21From George Washington to William Gordon, 10 August 1784 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to William Gordon, 10 Aug. 1784. On 30 Aug. Gordon wrote to GW : “Your obliging letter of the 10th instt was recd the last thursday.”
22From George Washington to William Gordon, 3 November 1784 (Washington Papers)
The last post brought me your favor of the 18th ulto, & gave me the pleasure to hear you were well. My return from our Western territory was sooner than I expected when I left home. The Indians from accounts were in too discontented a mood to have rendered an interview with them agreeable, if chance should have thrown us together. I therefore returned from the Neighbourhood of Fort Pitt, where...
23From George Washington to William Gordon, 20 December 1784 (Washington Papers)
I am indebted to you for several letters; & am as much so for the Fish you kindly intended, as if it had actually arrived, & I was in the act of paying my respects to it at table—the chance, however, of doing this would be greater, was it at Boston, than in York-town in this State, where, I am informed it was landed at the time the Marqs de la Fayette did; who proceeded from thence to...
24From George Washington to William Gordon, 8 March 1785 (Washington Papers)
Since my last to you, I have been favored with several of your letters, which should not have remained so long unacknowledged, had I not been a good deal pressed by matters which could not well be delayed, & because I found a difficulty in complying with your request respecting the profiles—the latter is not in my power to do now, satisfactorily. Some imperfect miniature cuts I send you under...
25From George Washington to William Gordon, 31 August 1785 (Washington Papers)
In my absence from home on a tour up this river, to view the nature of it & to direct the improvements agreeably the Acts of Assemblies of Virginia & Maryland; the enclosed memoirs arrived here, covered by a letter, of which the following is an extract, from a member of Congress. As I am fully persuaded it is your wish to transmit to posterity a true history of the revolution, & of course you...
26From George Washington to William Gordon, 6 December 1785 (Washington Papers)
Altho’ I am so great a delinquent in the epistolary way, I will not again tread over the usual ground for an excuse, but rather silently throw myself upon your philanthropy to obtain one. In reading the Memoir which passed thro’ my hands to you (for I have no copy of it) I do not recollect that I was struck with any exagerations or improprieties in it; nor is it in my power to give you a...
27From George Washington to William Gordon, 20 April 1786 (Washington Papers)
Mr Lund Washington having expressed a wish to quit business & live in retirement & ease, I could not oppose his inclination; & his having carried these desires into effect, that kind of business which he usually transacted for me, is now thrown on my shoulders in addition to what they bore before, & has left me less time than ever for my numerous correspondences & other avocations. I mention...
28From George Washington to William Gordon, 10 April 1787 (Washington Papers)
I have received your favor of the 13th of July and 28th of Septr. I am pleased to hear of your safe arrival in London and of the happy meeting with your friends. I wish you success in the publication of your work and that your future establishment (which you say was not then fixed) may be agreeable to your wishes. The bill which was sent to Rhode Island had the good fortune to come back...
29From George Washington to William Gordon, 1 January 1788 (Washington Papers)
I have recd your letter of the 6th of Septr together with flower-seeds accompanying it for which I beg you will accept of my best thanks. I am glad to find by your letter that you have begun printing your history of the revolution—you have my best wishes for its success. Our information from Europe is so various and contradictory as to render it still doubtful whether a rupture will take place...
30From George Washington to William Gordon, 23 December 1788 (Washington Papers)
Your letter dated in London the 24th of Septr has been duly forwarded to me by your friend Mr Hazard. As I shall be able to notice the contents but generally and briefly; I request, in the first place, that you will be pleased to accept my best thanks for your good wishes for my happiness here and hereafter. I am pleased to learn that your History is at length completed. I conclude by the...