The answer of the committee, as I doubt not your Excellency will recollect, was, as to the first point, that Congress in all probability would not make the request, having determined (as the Council had been already informed) not to resume their deliberations in the city, till effectual measures had been taken to suppress the mutiny; and should they assemble, would naturally feel a delicacy in requesting what had been denied to their committee. And as to the second point, that the Council having judged it inexpedient to give a written answer, the committee would content themselves with making the most accurate report in their power, relying upon the confidence of the body to which they belonged, and upon the candor of the Council.
Your Excellency is too good a judge of human nature, as well as of the force of language, not to have perceived at the time, the effect which the refusal of the Council had upon my mind. I own it struck me, either as an uncandid reserve, or an unbecoming stateliness; and, in either supposition, a disrespect to the body of which the committee were members.
Though nothing enters less into my temper than an inclination to fetter business by punctilio, after the Council had discovered such overweening nicety, I should have thought it a degradation to my official character, to have consented to their proposal.
The desire of self-justification is so natural, that I should not have been surprised to have seen the transactions which are the subject of the Council’s message, receive a coloring favorable to their purpose: but I did not expect to find material facts either suppressed or denied.
The report made by the committee on the first interview with the Council, was, I acknowledge, from memory, and therefore I admit a possibility of error; but, so far as my memory can be relied on, the representation was just. And I am certain that there is a mistake in the insinuation, that the circumstance of the message sent to Congress by the Board of Sergeants, was not mentioned at all to the Council; for I have a note of it, taken immediately after the first conference subsequent to the mutiny. The affair, by the event of , having assumed a more serious aspect, I kept a regular minute of the proceedings; a summary of which, made up our report to Congress, and which I shall annex, at large, to this letter for your Excellency’s perusal.
The message entirely omits the declaration of the Council, that ... ... ... [21]; and the note says, that the Council only declared, “That they could not be sure, that such another insult would produce those exertions.”[22] The difference in this article is of great importance. The declaration made so deep an impression at the time, that almost the precise words remained in my memory. They were twice repeated, as well when we saw your Excellency alone, in your own house, in the morning, as when you delivered to us, in the Council chamber, the determination of the Council.
Mr. Ellsworth[23], in half an hour afterwards, repeated them to several members of Congress assembled at the President’s house; and in a few hours from that time I committed them to writing. I cannot suppose your Excellency’s recollection fails you in this particular; and I must pointedly appeal to your candor.
To show the inaccuracy with which the report of the committee was composed, it is observed, in the notes with respect to that part which relates to the commission given by the mutineers to the officers whom they had chosen to represent them, that only two hours had intervened between that event and the conference with the Council; and that it was very improbable the knowledge of it could have so early reached the committee. It is added, that none of the Council remembers to have heard a single syllable respecting it, during the whole conference.
As to the argument drawn from the short interval between the delivery of the commission and the conference, it will be sufficient to say, that the committee held a constant communication with General St. Clair, and that he kept a vigilant eye upon all the motions of the mutineers; that his access to them was easy; that the fact in question was a matter of immediate notoriety; that two hours were abundant time for a thing of that nature to be conveyed from the barracks to General St. Clair’s quarters; and that one of the committee had actually seen, and obtained the intelligence from him, a little time before the interview with the Council commenced.
It is much more extraordinary that the Council should have been apprised of it so late, than that the committee should have known it so early. As to the memory of the Council, it is unfortunate it should have been so fallible as it is said to have been: but I would rather suppose, “in the quick succession of circumstances,” the matter had escaped recollection, than that my minutes, as well as my memory, should have deceived me. I well recollect, also, that your Excellency, when it was mentioned, acknowledged that it rather contradicted the pacific appearance which the conduct of the troops, in other respects, wore.