![[WASHINGTON, GEORGE-ASGILL AFFAIR] A fascinating manuscript titled Epistolary Correspondence between General Washington and Capt:n Asgill.](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/2022-10-28/1506846_VIEW.JPG?itok=-jyty0ia)
Lot Details
Lot 134
[WASHINGTON, GEORGE-ASGILL AFFAIR] A fascinating manuscript titled Epistolary Correspondence between General Washington and Capt:n Asgill.
A circa 1786 manuscript in two distinct hands on the laid-paper blank sheets of a late 18th century letterbook of vellum-backed marbled boards. 8 x 6 1/2 inches (20 x 17 cm); with a calligraphic title page reading Epistolary Correspondence between General Washington and Capt:n Asgill followed by approximately 43 pages of manuscript in two distinct hands, the first section 25 pages on the rectos only in a very neat hand, the second section 18 pages on rectos and versos in a more hurried hand, both quite legible. Some rubbing and light wear to boards, very well preserved overall.
A fascinating glimpse into George Washington's 1786 response to news from England that British Captain Asgill, held as a prisoner of war to be hung in 1782, was now reporting mistreatment during his captivity, known as the Asgill Affair. Washington's decision to hang Captain Asgill came after the Board of Loyalists in Monmouth, New Jersey executed Continental Army Captain Jack Huddy in response to the death of a loyalist solider. Condemned to be hung, Asgill was held for several months before release and Washington was not pleased to have his reputation sullied by the news years later of Asgill's complaints. The present volume collects and offers the texts of letters and newspaper reports that informed Washington's defense of his actions published in the New Haven Gazette and the Columbian Magazine in January 1787.
The first entry reprints a New Haven Gazette article by Washington aide David Humphreys dated December 1786 in which he makes Washington aware of Asgill's claims. Subsequent entries offer a different story, including the text of a letter from James Tilghman to Washington: "some give credit to a charge exhibited against him by young Asgill, of illiberal treatment and cruelty. He alleges that a gibbet was erected before his prison window and often pointed to in an insulting manner as good and proper for him to atone for Huddy's death; and many other insults, all of which he believes were countenanced by General Washington, who was well inclined to execute the sentence on him, but was restrained by the French General Rochambeau. I have contended that it was entirely owing to the humane procrastination of our General that Capt. Asgill did not suffer the fate allotted to him, and that it was most happy to General Washington's good disposition that the French court interposed so as to enable him to save Asgill and at the same time keep our Army in temper." Copies of Washington's letters on the subject follow. The second portion of the manuscript, where the hand changes, opens with Captain Asgill's long December 1786 response to Washington's letter as addressed to the editor of the New Haven Gazette, in which he passionately replies to this humane procrastination and the means of keeping the American Army in temper. The present album was most likely assembled by a contemporary in Washington's inner circle and offers a fascinating glimpse into how responses to challenges were handled in his pre-presidency period. In 1859, the papers were collected and published in the book The Conduct of General Washington Respecting Captain Asgill.
C Private Collection of Barbara and Ira Lipman
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