Rather an important item to follow an order for a horse.
How "verry dear" the marquis's fine horse was likely to be we can gather from a letter written by the good old gentleman at "Cawsons," from which we have news of some old friends among the race-horses: "I have a new coach which stands me in fourteen thousand and odd pounds of the present money. I have sold the horse 'Aristotle' at a profit and bought for your use the high-bred horse, 'Janus-and-Silver-eye,' which cost me one hundred and twenty pounds."
Another French officer who preferred his own English to Colonel Bland's French was Colonel Armand. He complains that "Congress have passed a resolve that have hurted me in my hart and reputation. I have not practise the way of making friend to me in congress, for I thought such way below the charactere of an honest man, and now God know but I shall trayed to justify myself by myself." Another letter exhibits Washington's stern ideas of honorable warfare, contrasting sharply with some well-remembered methods in later days.
"I am informed that the liberty I granted the light dragoons to impress horses has been horridly abused and perverted into a plundering scheme. I intended nothing more than that the horses belonging to the disaffected, in the neighborhood of the British Army, should be taken for the use of the dismounted dragoons and regularly reported to the quarter-master general that an account might be kept of the number of persons from whom they were taken in order to future settlement. You are to make known to your whole corps that they are not to meddle with the horses or other property of any inhabitants whatever; for they may be assured, as far as it depends upon me, that military execution will attend all caught in the like practice hereafter."
Other letters relate to General Washington's famous order against gaming, he being certain that "gentlemen"—that word so dear to the colonial Virginian—"can find amusement without application to this vile resource attended with so many evil consequences." In vain did one John Hawkins complain of loss because of his erection "for the amusement of gentlemen," of four large houses of entertainment with billiard-tables. It was decided that billiards, as "a game where wagers were laid" were included in the order.
These letters were written in times "well fitted to winnow the chaff from the grain." While Washington wrote of the falling away of the officers, and the desertion of thousands of men, he also paid more than one noble tribute to the brave and true men who remained with him. "Naked and starving as they are," he said, "we cannot enough admire their incomparable patience and fidelity."
Upon Colonel Bland's election to the First Congress, General Washington wrote him a most eloquent letter in behalf of an appropriation for the payment of the army. The original of this grand letter was found in the egg-basket collection.
"This army is of near eight years standing, six of which they have spent in the field, without any other shelter from the inclemency of the seasons than tents or such houses as they could build for themselves without expense to the public. They have encountered cold, hunger and nakedness. They have fought many battles and bled freely. They have done this without pay." This superb tribute to the men whose blood flows in the veins of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution, concludes with an earnest appeal to Congress for harmony. The jealousies already evident between the states filled his heart with anguish. He continues, "Unless our Union can be fixed upon this basis—the removal of the local prejudices which intrude upon and embarrass that great line of policy which alone can make us a free, happy and powerful people—unless our Union can be fixed on such a basis as to accomplish these, certain am I that we have toiled, bled and spent our treasure to very little purpose."
With this eloquent utterance we conclude our extracts from the half-burned letters, with which the poor negro's egg-basket was lined.