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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Cornelius Harnett to Richard Caswell
Harnett, Cornelius, 1723-1781
May 25, 1778
Volume 13, Pages 136-137

CORNS. HARNETT TO GOV. CASWELL.
[Erom Executive Letter Book.]


Poplar Grove near Wilmington May 25th '78.

Sir:

It was my intention to have waited on your Excellency on my way home, but was detained so long on the way that I had nothing to communicate, but what I was sure, must have been transmitted to you officially, by the President of Congress, but above all the earnest desire of seeing my family after so long an absence prevented my paying my respects to you which you will be kind enough to excuse. I shall set out for Pennsylvania about the latter end of the next month, and shall wait on your Excellency for your commands. I suppose Mr. Penn is gone on, with the proper credentials of our appointment. Mr. Craike met a person on the road yesterday with a hand Bill printed by order of Congress, giving an accout of a Treaty, betwixt France and the United States. Congress had not received the slightest intimation of this transaction when I left it, indeed our intelligence from Europe had been stopped for several months past, several of our Packet Boats having been taken by the enemy's cruisers, which almost cover the ocean. I left the Congress in high spirits expecting the Continental Army to be very soon reinforced, and

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able to keep the Enemy within their bounds. With my best wishes for your family I am with the greatest respect and regard,

Your Excellency's Mo. Ob. very huml Servt.
CORNS. HARNETT.

P. S. The letter from Mr. Burke, he desired me to mention to you was only for your own private information. I hope before he left Congress the whole was erased from the Journal.