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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from John Armstrong to Horatio Gates
Armstrong, John, 1717-1795
September 20, 1780
Volume 14, Pages 630-631

COL. JOHN ARMSTRONG TO GENERAL GATES.

Richmond, 20th Sept., 1780.

Dear General:

I this moment received the enclosed letter, which,—as it was addressed to you in my absence,—becomes at least half your property & gives you a right to a reading. Our friend Measam you will find as honest but as minute as ever. It's but a small alloy to so precious yet so uncommon a virtue. Malmadi & Harrison I suspect has been spreading the poison to which Mr.___'s abounding pride gave birth,—but with as little effect as an Ignorance of the one & a Knowledge of the Other will ever secure to a character as firmly established as your's. Virginia is less

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biassed—I mean the Informed among them—than I imagined. In B. Gen. Stevens you have a firm & assiduous advocate. Senf will tell you all, and much more than it would be proper to tell me. It I doubt at all, I fear that he & his Colleague have been over-zealous & from what I learn by Another hand, have rather Invalidated their common report by too early & too freely answering all questions they were asked, Many of which could not have been accurately determined, at that time, by either, & I am sorry to add that (as answered by them) have been since flatly contradicted by some Authoritie after Intelligence.

My state of health is but little altered; freer from fevers in the day, but an increas'd shortness of breath, and a sadness or growing Melancholy, which alarms me more than either. I shall have no Company from hence. Major McGill I find has taken Charge of some shirts for me from my father. I must beg the liberty of asking a place for them in your Trunk 'till one of us return.

I am, my dear Gen.,
With every affectionate regard,
Your Most Obedt. Servt.,
JOHN ARMSTRONG.
Gen. Gates.