e Armenians and the
Poles without end.

I do not mean to say that that was the only time that Washington had had
the question brought squarely before him. It was a question that came up
all over the country every day for seven years down to within a few
months of the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781; for the year 1780 was as
you know the darkest hour in our revolution. Every individual in those
seven years had that question before him every day and hour, and as
individuals settled it for themselves one way or the other they dropped
in and out of the two sides of the contest.

How did Washington settle it with Duche? The young clergyman made a
powerful appeal to him. He said that the whole solution of the war
rested with Washington alone. He alone could stop the fighting. He alone
could persuade the other leaders in the name of God and humanity to give
up a hopeless contest. This was somewhat of an exaggeration. The war was
deeper than Washington just as the Boer war is deeper than Kruger. But
never mind that. Duche's idea was that Washington should at the head of
his army negotiate for some settlement short of independence.
Independence, England would never grant.

Awful and wicked as it now no doubt seems to you, Washington declined
this honor. He sent Duche's letter to the wandering congress. It was
copied and given a wide publicity. Your ancestor and the men of that
time never dodged the question raised by that letter. Washington also
sent a copy to Duche's brother-in-law, Francis Hopkinson, and if you
want to read a stinging letter I can recommend the letter Hopkinson
wrote to his perverted relative. The whole correspondence including
Duche's letter is printed in the appendix to the edition of 1846 of
Graydon's Memoirs. I shall quote just one passage from Hopkinson's
letter:

"The whole force of the reasoning," he says to Duche, "contained in
your letter tends to this point: that virtue and honor require us
to stand by truth, as long as it can be done with safety, but that
her cause may be abandoned on the approach of danger; or in other
words, that the justice of the American cause ought to be squared
by the success of her arms."

The moral or principle contained in that passage is repudiated by you
and by every one who lives in England; by the Russians also, most of
the Germans, many Frenchmen and in fact Europe generally. If you fear
numbers you do well, no doubt, in repudiating