It could not be passed over lightly or in silence, and Washington replied as follows:-- "With a mixture of surprise and astonishment, I have read with attention the sentiments you have submitted to my perusal.

Be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed, and [which] I must view with abhorrence and reprehend with severity.

For the present, the communication of them will rest in my own bosom, unless some further agitation of the matter shall make a disclosure necessary.

I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which seems to me big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my country.

If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable.