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George Washington Authorized by John Hanson to Negotiate with the King Re: Prisoner Issues and the Resolution of the War, Setting the Stage for his Future Presidency, and is Likely his Copy as it is in the Hand of his Trusted Aide
George Washington Authorized by John Hanson to Negotiate with the King Re: Prisoner Issues and the Resolution of the War, Setting the Stage for his Future Presidency, and is Likely his Copy as it is in the Hand of his Trusted Aide
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Washington George

George Washington Authorized by John Hanson to Negotiate with the King Regarding Prisoner Issues and the Resolution of the War, Setting the Stage for his Future Presidency, and is Likely his Copy as it is in the Hand of his Trusted Aide

 

Congress gives General George Washington authority to negotiate a general cartel for the exchange of prisoners in September 1782. However, Congress also wanted the cartel to include provisions “for liquidating and settling all accounts and claims whatsoever respecting the maintenance & subsistance of Prisoners of War on either side,” the position that had doomed attempts to achieve an exchange in the spring of 1778. These political and financial complications prevented opposing commanders George Washington and Guy Carleton from reaching an agreement to exchange the prisoners held by each side.

 

DAVID COBB, Autograph Document, Copy of Congressional Commission to George Washington to Negotiate Regarding Prisoners, September 16, 1782, [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 3 pp., 8.5" x 12.75". Expected folds; chipped edges; text clear and dark. From the Library of Charles I. Forbes, tucked away since 1957.

 

Complete Transcript

The United States in Congress Assembled

{L.S.}

John Hanson

 

Charles Thomson Secy

                        To all People who shall see these presents send Greeting

            Whereas justice & humanity and the practice of civilized nations requires that the Calamities & asperities of War should as far as possible be mitigated, and we being disposed for that benevolent purpose to accede to a general Cartel between the United States of America and the British Nation for the exchange, subsistance & better treatment of all Prisoners of War. Now therefore know ye, that reposing high confidence in the wisdom, prudence and integrity of our trusty & well beloved George Washington Esquire our Commander in Chief of all our Armies raised or to be raised for the defence of the United States of America, we have authorised & empowered, and by these presents do authorise & empower our said Commander in Chief, for us and in our name to negociate, accede to & establish in the proper forms and with the usual solemnities, such General Cartel between the United States in Congress Assembled and the King of Great Britain for the exchange, subsistance & better treatment of all Prisoners of War as well Land as naval prisoners, hereby giving and granting to our said Commander in Chief full power and authority ultimately and on all points to adjust and conclude the principles, terms and conditions of the said Cartel, and in general to do and perform every matter & thing which shall in any wise be necessary for the final and perfect accomplishment thereof. And the better to enable our said Commander in Chief to execute the trust reposed in him by these presents, we do hereby further authorise and empower him, from time to time, by Commission under his hand and seal, to nominate & constitute such and so many Commissioners as he shall judge necessary to meet, treat, confer and agree with Commissioners to be appointed and competently authorised on the part of the King of Great Britain, touching the terms, conditions and stipulations for subsisting, better treating & exchanging all prisoners of War as aforesaid, as well as for liquidating and settling all accounts and claims whatsoever respecting the maintenance & subsistance of Prisoners of War on either side, and we do hereby declare, that the engagements concluded upon by our said Commander in Chief in the premises, being mutually interchanged with the party contracting on behalf of the Crown and Nation of Great Britain, shall be binding and conclusive on the United States of America. In Testimony whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made patent, and the Great Seal of the United States of America to be thereunto affixed.

Witness His Excellency John Hanson, president of the United States in Congress Assembled, the sixteenth day of September and in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty two, and of our Sovereignty & Independence the seventh.

 

Copy

[Docketing:

Copy of Letters Patent to the Commander in Chief / No 1.

 

On October 17, 1777, at the end of the Battle of Saratoga, nearly 6,000 British and Hessian soldiers surrendered to the Americans. Because American general Horatio Gates and British general John Burgoyne signed the Convention of Saratoga that called for the prisoners to be sent back to Europe with a promise of never waging war in North America again. Burgoyne and his officers returned to England, but the enlisted men remained prisoners in what became known as the Convention Army. Congress delayed the ratification of the Convention of Saratoga but were ill-prepared to deal with the large number of prisoners in the Convention Army.

 

In early February 1778, British General William Howe in Philadelphia and American General George Washington at Valley Forge appointed commissioners to discuss the terms of an exchange of prisoners, and Washington expressed hope for a cartel, or formal commitment, to make exchanging prisoners easier in the future. They committed to a meeting of their commissioners on March 10 at Germantown. On February 26, Congress passed a resolution reminding Washington than in December 1777, Congress had decided that all money expended by the states in caring for enemy prisoners of war had to be paid before there would be an exchange. Washington wrote a letter to the president of Congress expressing his annoyance at Congressional interference. He asked Howe for a delay until March 30 for the conference. When the commissioners finally met on March 31 and April 1, they could not agree on terms of an exchange, and a subsequent meeting in mid-April in Newtown, Pennsylvania, achieved no better results.

 

After spending the next year in camps in Massachusetts, the Convention Army marched as prisoners to Virginia, where they remained for two years. In 1780, they were moved north into Maryland and Pennsylvania and eventually dispersed to different states for the remainder of the war.

 

After the British surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, the war continued, but there was little combat. Before the Treaty of Paris officially ended the war in 1783, many Convention Army soldiers, by then mostly Germans, escaped and became permanent residents of the United States.

 

On August 2, 1782, Guy Carleton (1724-1808), commander-in-chief of all British forces in North America in 1782 and 1783, sent a letter from New York to General George Washington informing him that “Transports have been prepared in England for conveying all the American Prisoners to this Country to be exchanged here, and we are directed to urge by every Consideration of Humanity, the most speedy Exchange a Measure in which not only the Comforts, but the Rights of Individuals, are concerned.” Because of the nature of the war and the strengths of each side, a disproportionate number of American sailors and British soldiers were held as prisoners. Carleton reminded Washington that a proposal had already been made that “(all Exchanges of Men of the same description being exhausted) Sailor and Soldier should be immediately exchanged Man for Man against each other” with the condition that American sailors could begin serving immediately, while British soldiers would not be allowed to serve for one year.

 

Washington passed Carleton’s proposal on to Congress, and on August 12, Congress “Resolved, that the commander in chief be directed to propose to his Britannic majesty’s commanders at New-York, the appointment of commissioners to settle forthwith a general cartel for the exchange of prisoners, taking care that the liquidation of accounts and settlement of the balance due for the maintenance of prisoners, be provided for therein.” Washington forwarded the resolution to Carleton on August 18, and Carleton responded five days later. To the proposition of appointing commissioners, Carleton wrote, “I readily accede, and not inquiring into any niceties which may retard the Course of business,” Carleton nominated Lieutenant General John Campbell and Mr. Andrew Elliot as commissioners. On September 8, Washington responded by nominating Major General William Heath and Major General Henry Knox as the American commissioners. Carleton proposed a meeting of the commissioners on September 18, 1782, at Tappan, New York, a couple of miles west of the Hudson River, between Washington’s headquarters at Newburgh, New York, and British headquarters in New York City. The first meeting did not take place until a week later, on September 25, but soon broke up over compensation for the maintenance of prisoners.

 

Congress provided this authorization to General George Washington to enable him to conclude an exchange rapidly. Perhaps still frustrated over his controversy with Congress in the spring of 1778 over an abortive prisoner exchange, Washington felt bound by an earlier report approved by Congress on September 9, 1782, which stated in part, “Your committee cannot refrain from reminding Congress of the great weight of expense which is thrown upon the United States by the subsistence of so many thousand prisoners of war, for which the enemy constantly refuse to make a reasonable provision; and that in the opinion of your committee, the commander in chief ought to be instructed to remonstrate against the inhumanity and injustice of this procedure, and to insist on the most decided terms on reasonable satisfaction; and that if these, like former representations, should produce no effect, it will be high time to take measures, however disagreeable, for diminishing a burthen which is become intolerable.” Washington conveyed this report to Carleton on October 2.

 

On October 25, an incredulous Carleton responded to Washington, “I am much at a loss how to answer the declarations of Congress.... I understand that he practice has been for Nations at war to provide, at the conclusion of a peace, for the liquidation of all demands made reciprocally for the maintenance of prisoners…but we Sir, on our part, can have no objection to appoint Commissaries at this period for the purpose of liquidation, if Congress earnestly desire that such liquidation shall be so prematurely made, but it has not been  usual I think, since the barbarous ages, to use any menaces, however obscure, toward prisoners, and still less to practice toward them any barbarity. There is an easy and an honorable way for Congress to diminish the burthen which our prisoners occasion. Let those who, agreeable to the terms of their surrender, should have been restored to their Country five years ago, be now delivered up; let a number of our prisoners, equal to those we have liberated, be returned…; let the remainder be given up for an equitable ransom, as is practiced by all civilized people.”

 

Prospects for the exchange of prisoners faded again and had to await the arrival in North America of the Treaty of Paris in April 1783. On April 11, 1783, Congress issued a proclamation for the suspension of hostilities, and finally on April 15, passed two resolutions providing for the liberation of all naval and land prisoners.

 

 

John Hanson (1721-1783) was born in Maryland into a planter’s family and became sheriff of his county in 1750. He served in the Maryland General Assembly from 1757 to 1769, when he moved to Frederick County in western Maryland. There, he became a leading patriot and chaired the county Committee of Observation in 1775 and 1776. He served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1777 to 1782 and began serving in the Second Continental Congress in June 1780 and signed the Articles of Confederation for Maryland on March 1, 1781. Hanson served as the first full-term president of the Confederation Congress from November 1781 to November 1782. He found the largely ceremonial position tedious and continued resigning after a week, but colleagues convinced him to remain. He retired from public life after his one-year term as president of Congress and died a year later.

 

David Cobb (1748-1830) was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College in 1766. He studied medicine in Boston and practiced in Taunton. He was a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1775 and served as lieutenant colonel in a Massachusetts regiment in 1777 and 1778. From June 1781 to December 1783, Cobb was an aide-de-camp on General George Washington’s staff. In 1786, he became a major general of militia and played an important role in suppressing Shays’ Rebellion in 1787. He served as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1789-1793), member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1793-1795), President of the Massachusetts Senate (1801-1805), and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (1809-1810).

 

 

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