The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

536 WASHINGTON'S WTRITINGS. [APPENDIX.
detain General Burgoyne's troops in New England until all demands
for their provisions and other necessaries are satisfied, and that this
determination is grounded, not only upon a requisition of mine for
provisions to be sent in for the subsistence of the prisoners in my
possession,' and for the purchase of other necessaries, but upon a
forgery by my agents, emissaries, and abettors, of what are called
continental bills of credit. This last allegation is too illiberal to
deserve a serious answer.
With regard to the other, I know not from what expression, in any
of my letters to you, it has been understood, that I made the requisition alluded to. You know that the allowance of provisions to prisoners, from the beginning of my command, has been equal in
quantity and quality to what is given to our own troops not on service.
If you had thought this insufficient, you might have directed a farther
supply from the markets, and were likewise at liberty to send in
whatever articles you thought proper from the country. The allowance of fuel has been also regulated, as well as our means would
admit, and a similar permission of purchase or supply from you has
never been refused. My letter of the 21st of April last explained to
you what was afforded to the prisoners; clothing, and some other
necessaries, they had a right to expect from those, who had been the
occasion of their being exposed to the chance of captivity, and that
idea I have ever understood to be mutual. But notwithstanding the
remonstrances I made to you upon that point, finding that supplies
were not sent in, my humanity interposed in behalf of the unfortunate men in our possession; and, on a late representation of their
distress, I permitted in this city the purchase of blanketing, and such
other necessaries as the severity of the winter required, and without
which they must absolutely have perished.
Confident as I am, that you will acknowledge this to be a just
recital of facts, I cannot but think it unnecessary to say any thing
farther, either upon the cruelty falsely alleged to have been exercised
against the prisoners, or the unjust reflections you have been so often
induced to transmit to me upon that head. In consideration, however, of the real and unavoidable distresses of the prisoners on both
sides, as well as to put an end to all fruitless altercation on the subject, I shall consent to an immediate exchange of all prisoners now
in our possession, as well officers as private men, so far as the number
of the latter, and parity of the rank of the former, will admit. In the
mean time, I shall wait the arrival here of the British officers, whom
you have released upon their paroles, and shall, without delay, send
an equal number to you in return.