August 18th
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“We cant conceive, that being Americans shoud deprive us of the benefits of British Subjects; nor lessen our claim to preferment”
Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie
New York Public Library
To Robert Dinwiddie
Philadelphia, 10 March 1757
*We may I think with great Propriety and Justice represent.
That: The Virginia Regiment was the first in arms of any Troops upon the Continent, in the prest War. That: The three Years which they have Servd has been one continued Scene of Action. That: whilst other Troops have an agreeable recess in Winter Quarters, the Nature of the Service in which we are engagd, and the smallness of Our Numbers so unequal to the Task, keep us constantly in Motion—That nevertheless, all these Services have hitherto been performd with great Spirit and cheerfulness but That continuing in a Service precarious and uncertain: hazarding Life Fortune & health to the chances of War, for the present, and a bare Subsistance, is matter for serious, and melancholy reflection: It tends to promote langour and Indifference: It sickens that laudable and generous Emulation so necessary among Troops: It is nipping in the bud our rising hopes. Hopes that we have been led to cherish: It is discouraging to Merit, and, I can’t help repeating, that it is in the highest degree dispiriting to the Officers, more especially those, who, having thrown themselves out of other employments are now to look forward and see, that they are wasting the Prime of their Lives and Constitutions in a Service the most uncertain, and Precarious: In which they can expect to be continued no longer than hard blows, and continual Dangers require their Aid. and when those Causes Cease, are then dismissd, perhaps in a State of disability and Indigence from wounds, &ca.
These are reflections that must have due weight in every Breast, but the Idiots and Madman’s, and have made Our Officers anxiously Solicituous to know their Fate—at once—and the full extent of their Dependances, that they may regulate their conduct accordingly.
George Washington, 1750s
National Portrait Gallery
We cant conceive, that being Americans shoud deprive us of the benefits of British Subjects;nor lessen our claim to preferment: and we are very certain, that no Body of regular Troops ever before Servd Bloody Campaigns without attracting Royal Notice.
As to those Idle Arguments which are often times us’d, namely, You are Defending your own properties; I look upon to be whimsical & absurd; We are Defending the Kings Dominions, and altho the Inhabitants of Gt Britain are removd from (this) Danger, they are yet, equally with Us, concernd and Interested in the Fate of the Country, and there can be no Sufficient reason given why we, who spend our blood and Treasure in Defence of the Country are not entitled to equal prefermt.
Some boast of long Service as a claim to Promotion—meaning I suppose, the length of time they have pocketed a Commission—I apprehend it is the service done, not the Service engag’d in, that merits reward; and that their is, as equitable a right to expect something for three years hard & bloody Service, as for 10 spent at St James’s &ca where real Service, or a field of Battle never was seen.
If it shoud be said, the Troops of Virginia are Irregulars, and cannot expect more notice than other Provincials, I must beg leave to differ, and observe in turn, that we want nothing but Commissions from His Majesty to make us as regular a Corps as any upon the Continent—Because, we were regularly Enlisted attested and bound, during the King’s or Colony’s Pleasure—We have been regularly Regimented and trained, and have done as regular Duty for upwards of 3 Years as any regiment in His Majesty’s Service—We are regularly and uniformly Cloathd; Officers & Soldiers—We have been at all the expence that regulars are in providing equipage for the Camp—and in few words I may say, we labour under every disadvantage, and enjoy not one benefit which regulars do.
* Washington’s famous appeal to Governor Dinwiddie for fair treatment. He would not receive it, and would resign in late 1758.
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