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instance where I have even been suspected of an untruth, or of a base or
dishonourable action. Conscious of the truth of what I have asserted, I
have no fears that my conduct will ever "dishonour me with the wise and
virtuous."

The reason I have assigned for the dissolution of our intimacy antecedent
to the war, will afford a better proof of your ingenuity than your
integrity; and further, (with respect to your veracity,) if any other
instance is necessary, let me add one which happened at camp, (at
head-quarters,) in the year 1777, soon after the battle of Germantown, when
in my hearing, and in the presence of three officers of the first rank in
the army, you was charged to your face with a falsehood, and which was
fully proved the next day, by the general officer who made the charge.

And now, before I introduce the concurrent testimony in support of my
assertion, I shall take but a momentary notice here of those disrespectful
expressions with which you have decorated your pamphlet. Weakness of head,
is an accusation of a kind which it would equally puzzle the fool and the
wise to reply to; but against that of badness of heart, my known tenor of
conduct, in private and public life, must be my defence; if that fails, it
must be needless in me to set up any other.

But if even prejudiced men should still doubt the truth of my assertion,
with respect to the conversation alluded to, in the above representation,
every doubt must be removed upon reading the following certificates.

_Hermitage, 5th October, 1782._

DEAR GENERAL,--In the winter of 1776, after we had crossed the
Delaware, General Reed, in conversation with me, said that he,
and several others of my friends, were surprised at seeing me
there. I told him, I did not understand such a conversation;
that as I had engaged in the cause from principle, I was
determined to share the fate of my country; to which he made
no reply, and the conversation ended. As I had the honour of
commanding the militia of New Jersey, both duty and
inclination led me to use every exertion, in support of a
cause I had engaged in from the purest motives. I was really
much surprised at General Reed's manner, considering the
station he then acted in, and his reputation as a patriot; but
I considered it as the effect of despondency, from the then
gloomy prospect of our affairs.

This I m