Washington to Gage

In University of Michigan's Clements Library of early American documents, Teaching Fellow John Alden last week was rummaging through the papers of British General Thomas Gage, came upon George Washington's handwriting. Rushing to librarians with his find, he learned he had turned up a hitherto unknown piece of Washingtoniana.

Dated May 17, 1768 and sent by way of Virginia's Acting Governor John Blair, Washington's letter sought from Gage a favor for some Virginian friends trading with Fort Pitt at the top of the Ohio Valley. They wanted Gage to promise not to make a boundary shift that would throw a block of Indian territory across their route between Fort Cumberland and Fort Pitt and give the market to the Pennsylvanians, who were trading over a more northern route. His request, said Washington, "can give no offense to the Indians, nor any one else, unless there be People in the world, so selfish, as to aim at a Monopoly of those advantages which may follow a Trade to Pittsburg & the Country round it. . . ."

Just seven years after asking this favor, Washington was leading the Continental Army against Gage at Boston.

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