NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2003 Aug 24 @ 10:00UTC-08:00 : PST/AKDT
<b>Autographs</b><hr><b>Secret Negotiations to Free Captured Troops In This “Unhappy War”!</b>
<b>(AMERICAN REVOLUTION),. British General William Phillips’ retained copy of the letter to Horatio Gates, beginning their secret negotiations to effect a prisoner exchange after Saratoga.</b>
Autograph Letter (marked “copy” and bearing the secretarial signature of William Phillips), most likely in the hand of William Collier, aide to British Commander-in-Chief Sir Henry Clinton, 4 pages, 7.5” x 9” and tipped to a 10.5” x 15” linen sheet, Cambridge, December 1, 1778; to American general Horatio Gates. Very Choice Extremely Fine. The left margin of the 4th page of this integral leaf, where hinged, is very slightly affected by archival tape.
In part: “From what has passed between Sir Henry Clinton and the American Congress upon the subject of the Troops of Convention [British prisoners captured at Saratoga] having proved so unsuccessful I am naturally and unluckily led to imagine that Punctilio endeavors at accomplishing a complication of the Treaty of Convention, altho’ I very believe both sides are inclined towards it...I am of the opinion that you, Sir, and I may possibly contrive a method for a general exchange of the Troops of Convention - I say you and I, for this this plain reason, The Treaty of Convention was made with you, and tho’ I did not sign it I remain the ostensible Officer in Command over the Convention Troops, and this is a reason, also, why I think it more proper to address you on the subject than General Washington or even the American Congress, and it must be considered as a private matter of correspondence between you and me as I have no authority from the King’s Commander in Chief for what I write...
“If we are so happy to pursue with success any plan which may conduce to the salutary and humane purposes of setting at liberty the Officers and men connected on both sides in the present unhappy war we shall, perhaps, promote more confidence than has already subsisted, and, by beginning a plan of Exchange be the fortunate instruments of a general Cartel during the unhappy continuance of these Troubles, we shall assuredly receive the grateful acknowledgments...and, I should hope, the approbation of our Superiors. I should propose that the Troops of Convention, from Lieutenant General Burgoyne to the private soldiers included, be rendered back into the full activity of Service in every part of the World under...the Treaty of Cartel settled between General Conway and the Marquis De Barail at the beginning of [the] last war, and that a Ransom should be paid by me in specie .....And even in the carrying this into force it may be attended with an Exchange...as far as there are American Prisoners of War....There will arrive many advantages, the first and principal one will be that by releasing prisoners of war immediately, it will save a very considerable expense both to Great Britain and America...
“Should this proposal be pursued...the Troops of Convention will have to march from Virginia to New York or to be allowed to go on Transports...The Ransom money must be paid at a stated time after the Troops are at liberty...I unbosom myself to you...I am aware that the sentiments [this letter] contains and proposals made in it may be necessary to become known to General Washington and the American Congress, but...I now write without any previous authority from General Sir Henry Clinton...If this letter proves the fortunate means of a negotiation between us it may be so carried on as not to commit our Superiors until the last instant...and then I apprehend there will be no need of secrecy in a matter where good intentions, good faith, and perfect honour have subsisted.”
Gates had originally arranged that the captured troops be returned to Britain, with the promise that they would serve no more in America during the Revolution. Washington, however, objected, arguing that the arrival of these men in Britain would simply free up a like number of troops for service in America. Congress agreed with Washington and refused to honor Gates’s terms - thus unleashing a controversy that swirls to this day.
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