I wrote to you yesterday.(1) Since that Time, we have had an Express from Camp, by which we are acquainted that Genl. Washington and Genl. Howe have agreed upon an exchange of prisoners. This is an agreeable piece of news. The former Dispute is waved for the present. The Law of retaliation has had this good effect.
Enclosed you have a piece of the Earl of Abingdon.(2) It is just put into my hands. I have not read it. It is said to have reputation.
1 Not found.
2 Thoughts on the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. to the Sheriffs of Bristol, on the Affairs of America, a vigorous attack on Edmund Burke's defense of unlimited parliamentary supremacy. For the Americans' use of Abingdon's tract to revive sagging American morale during this bleak period, see Paul H. Smith, comp., English Defenders of American Freedoms, 1/74-1778 (Washington: Library of Congress, 1972), pp. 193-230. It is clear from the correspondence of Thomas Wharton, president of the Pennsylvania Council, that he and Robert Morris had a hand in subsidizing the publication of an American edition of the pamphlet by John Dunlap at Lancaster at this time. Ibid., pp. 194, 196n.3.