VARIOUS PROPERTIES
WASHINGTON, GEORGE, President. Autograph letter signed ("G:Washington") to [Colonel Francis Johnston, Assistant Treasurer of the Society of the Cincinnati], Mount Vernon, 22 March 1784. 1 page, 4to, verso with recipient's docket (partly defective), a small piece at lower left and a small portion between dateline and body of text cut away, those sections professionally restored with matching paper, the text unaffected.
Details
WASHINGTON, GEORGE, President. Autograph letter signed ("G:Washington") to [Colonel Francis Johnston, Assistant Treasurer of the Society of the Cincinnati], Mount Vernon, 22 March 1784. 1 page, 4to, verso with recipient's docket (partly defective), a small piece at lower left and a small portion between dateline and body of text cut away, those sections professionally restored with matching paper, the text unaffected.
SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI MEMBERSHIPS FOR EUROPEAN OFFICERS RETURNING HOME AFTER THE WAR
With the end of hostilities and the signing of the Definitive Treaty, the European officers who had fought alongside the Americans prepared to return to Europe. As officers, they were eligible for membership in the Society of the Cincinnati, founded, as the membership certificates explained: "by the Officers of the American Army, at the period of its dissolution...to commemorate the great Event which gave Independence to North America..." Its founders, Henry Knox, Jedidiah Huntington, and Baron Von Steuben adopted a formal Constitution in May 1783 and in June Washington agreed to become the Society's President. Colonel Johnston, the Assistant Secretary, wrote Washington on February 23, on behalf of Captain Paschke of the Light Dragoons, and Captains De Marcellin and Le Roy: "I beg leave to inform Your Excellency that they are going to Europe and are desirous of receiving from your own hand a Certificate of their being Members of the Cincinnati Society -- they have all signed the Institution in due form...."
Washington responds: "Enclosed you have the certificate for Capt. [Frederick] Paschke, [Claude-Antoine Villet] De Mercellan, & [Nicholas-George] Le Roy returned, with my Seal & Signature; but if I recollect right, they must be countersigned by the Secretary General [Knox] to give them validity. They only came to my hands yesterday. or you should have had them sooner...."
Not in Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, but published in Edgar Erskine Hume, General Washington's Correspondence concerning the Society of the Cincinnati (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1941), p.97, along with Johnston's letter to Washington forwarding the certificates for his signature.
SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI MEMBERSHIPS FOR EUROPEAN OFFICERS RETURNING HOME AFTER THE WAR
With the end of hostilities and the signing of the Definitive Treaty, the European officers who had fought alongside the Americans prepared to return to Europe. As officers, they were eligible for membership in the Society of the Cincinnati, founded, as the membership certificates explained: "by the Officers of the American Army, at the period of its dissolution...to commemorate the great Event which gave Independence to North America..." Its founders, Henry Knox, Jedidiah Huntington, and Baron Von Steuben adopted a formal Constitution in May 1783 and in June Washington agreed to become the Society's President. Colonel Johnston, the Assistant Secretary, wrote Washington on February 23, on behalf of Captain Paschke of the Light Dragoons, and Captains De Marcellin and Le Roy: "I beg leave to inform Your Excellency that they are going to Europe and are desirous of receiving from your own hand a Certificate of their being Members of the Cincinnati Society -- they have all signed the Institution in due form...."
Washington responds: "Enclosed you have the certificate for Capt. [Frederick] Paschke, [Claude-Antoine Villet] De Mercellan, & [Nicholas-George] Le Roy returned, with my Seal & Signature; but if I recollect right, they must be countersigned by the Secretary General [Knox] to give them validity. They only came to my hands yesterday. or you should have had them sooner...."
Not in Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, but published in Edgar Erskine Hume, General Washington's Correspondence concerning the Society of the Cincinnati (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1941), p.97, along with Johnston's letter to Washington forwarding the certificates for his signature.