(ORIGINAL.)
Head-quarters, White Plains, 1st September, 1778.
DEAR SIR,—I have had the pleasure of receiving your several letters, the last of which was of the 22nd of August. I have not now time to take notice of the arguments that were made use of for and against the count's quitting the harbour of Newport and sailing for Boston: right or wrong, it will probably disappoint our sanguine expectations of success; and, what I esteem a still worse consequence, I fear it will sow the seeds of dissension and distrust between us and our new allies, unless the most prudent measures are taken to suppress the feuds and jealousies that have already arisen. I depend much upon your aid and influence to conciliate that animosity which I plainly perceive, by a letter from the marquis, subsists between the American officers and the French in our service; this, you may depend, will extend itself to the count, and to the officers and men of his whole fleet, should they return to Rhode Island, unless, upon their arrival there, they find a reconciliation has taken place. The marquis speaks kindly of a letter from you to him on the subject; he will therefore take any advice coming from you in a friendly light; and, if he can be pacified, the other French gentlemen will of course be satisfied, as they look up to him as their head. The marquis grounds his complaint upon a general order of the 24th of August, the latter part of which is certainly very impolitic, especially considering the universal clamour that prevailed against the French nation.
I beg you will take every measure to keep the protest entered into by the general officers from being made public. The congress, sensible of the ill consequences that will flow from the world's knowing our differences, have passed a resolve to that purpose. Upon the whole, my dear sir, you can conceive my meaning better than I can express it; and I therefore fully depend upon your exerting yourself to heal all private animosities between our principal officers and the French, and to prevent all illiberal expressions and reflections that may fall from the army at large.
I have this moment received a letter from General Sullivan of the 29th of August, in which he barely informs me of an action upon that day, in which he says we had the better, but does not mention particulars.
I am, &c.