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.

PART II.] THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 107
That we have had a very competent portion, and a
great variety of difficulties of late, a person, so well informed of public matters as you are, needs not be told.
The distresses of Virginia I am but too well acquainted with; but the plan you have suggested as a relief for
it is, in my judgment, a greater proof of your unbounded confidence in me, than it is, that your means proposed would be found adequate to the end in view,
were it practicable to make the experiment, which at
present it is not, as there are insuperable obstacles to
my removing from the immediate command of the
auxiliary troops.
The reasons for this opinion I cannot commit to paper, at all times liable to miscarriage, but peculiarly so
of late. I am fully persuaded, however, and upon good
military principles, that the measures I have adopted
will give more effectual and speedy relief to the State
of Virginia, than my marching thither with dictatorial
powers, at the head of every man I could draw from
them, and the dangers that threatened upon every side. "It would be
a thing for angels to weep over," said he, " if the goodly fabric of human freedom, which you have so well labored to rear, should in one
unlucky moment be levelled with the dust. There is nothing I think
more certain, than that your personal call would bring into immediate
exertion the force and the resources of this State and the neighbouring
ones, which, directed as they would be, will effectually disappoint and
baffle the deep laid schemes of the enemy."
In this letter Mr. Lee enclosed a copy of one, which he had written
to some of the members of Congress, and in which he had expressed
himself as follows.
" Let General Washington be immediately sent to Virginia, with two
or three thousand good troops. Let Congress, as the head of the federal union, in this crisis direct, that, until a legislature can convene and
a governor be appointed, the General be possessed of dictatorial powers, and that it be strongly recommended to the Assembly, when convened, to continue those powers for six, eight, or ten months, as the
case may be; and that the General may be desired instantly on his arrival in Virginia to summon the members of both Houses to meet where
he shall appoint, to organize and resettle their government." - MS. Letters, Chantilly, June 12th.