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.

APPENDIX.] COUNT DE VERGENNES. 549
eastern States in the case of Vermont. Of this Massachusetts and
Connecticut are not insensible, and therefore find their advantage
in keeping the territorial controversy pending. Connecticut may
likewise conceive some analogy between her claim to the western
country and that of Virginia; and that the acceptance of the cession of the latter would influence her sentiments in the controversy between the former and Pennsylvania.
The western claims are opposed by Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, and New York, all of these States being
interested therein. South Carolina is the least so. The claim of
New York is very extensive, but her title very flimsy. She urges
it more with the hope of obtaining some advantage or credit by
its cession, than of ever maintaining it. If her cession should be
accepted, and the affair of Vermont terminated, as these are the
only ties which unite her with the southern States, she will immediately connect her policy with that of the eastern States, as
far at least as the remains of former prejudices will permit.
No. XI. p. 361.
LETTER.FROM COUNT DE VERGENNES TO GENERAL WASHINGTON, RESPECTING CAPTAIN ASGILL.
Versailles, 29 July, 1782.
SIR,
It is not in quality of a King, the friend and ally of the United
States, (though with the knowledge and consent of his Majesty)
that I now have the'honor to write to your Excellency. It is as
a man of sensibility and a tender father, who feels all the force of
paternal love, that I take the liberty to address to your Excellency
my earnest solicitations in favor of a mother and family in tears.
Her situation seems the more worthy of notice on our part, as it is
to the humanity of a nation at war with her own, that she has recourse, for what she ought to receive from the impartial justice
of her own generals.
I have the honor to enclose to your Excellency a copy of a letter,
which Lady Asgill has just written me. I am not known to her,
nor was I acquainted that her son was the unhappy victim, destined
by lot to expiate the odious crime that a formal denial of justice
obliges you to avenge. Your Excellency will not read this letter