I thank your Excellency for the agreeable intelligence you give me of his Christian Majesty's intentions to send over succors of arms and ammunition. It is a new and valuable proof of his friendship, and will be of essential utility. I agree with you, that there ought to be no relaxation in the measures otherwise intended to be taken to procure the necessary supplies of those articles.
I am sensibly mortified, that the present situation of affairs will by no means suffer me to yield to the desire I have of paying you my respects in Philadelphia; and I shall impatiently look for the opportunity of doing it here, which your Excellency promises me in the course of this month. Besides the important objects of public utility, which I am authorised to hope from it, I shall take pleasure on every occasion of testifying to you those sentiments of respect and esteem, with which I have the honor to be, &c.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
P. S. The interest your Excellency is pleased to take in Major Galvan, will be an additional motive with me to avail myself of his talents and zeal, as far as circumstances will possibly permit.
GEORGE WASHINGTON TO M. DE LA LUZERNE.
Head Quarters, Morristown, February 15th, 1780.
Sir,
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's letter of the 4th,[33] which only reached me on the 13th.
Sincerely desirous of doing everything in my power, by which the interest of his Christian Majesty, inseparable from that of these States, can in any manner be promoted, and still more in a point so essential as that which makes the subject of your letter, I should not hesitate to furnish the detachment required by Mr Duer, whatever might be my opinion of its necessity, did not the present state of the army absolutely forbid it. I with confidence assure your Excellency, that our force is so reduced by the expiration of the terms for which a considerable part of it was engaged, and will be so much more diminished in the course of a month or two from the same cause, as scarcely to suffice for the exigence of the service, and to afford just cause for uneasiness should the enemy be actuated by a spirit of enterprise, before we receive the reinforcements intended for the next campaign. So circumstanced, my duty to the common cause will not justify me in adding to the insecurity of our situation, by making a detachment, which, though apparently inconsiderable, would be materially felt in our present weakness; and I am persuaded, after the information now given, that your Excellency will wish me not to hazard the measure.