I this day received your letter of April 8th which is the only one on the subject that has come to hand. Your letter of the 9June 1779 with the petition and remonstrance enclosed was read in Congress on the 1 July following and ordered to lie on the table. Nothing farther has been done in the matter.(1)
I am, Sr, your humble Servt,Cha Thomson
1 Col. Brown was attempting to revive charges against Benedict Arnold, pertaining to the conduct of the Canadian invasion in 1775-76, which he had levelled against the general as early as 1776 and had formally resubmitted to Congress in June 1779. These had been so scurrilous and exaggerated that the Board of War had originally virtually ignored them and Congress continued to preserve silence on the subject. They had been revived in 1779 by Timothy Matlack during the Pennsylvania Council's campaign to discredit Arnold, but they seem to have been largely ignored at that time as well. Brown's June 9, 1779, "Memorial and Remonstrance" and his April 8, 1780, letter to Thomson are in PCC, item 42, 1:179-84, item 78, 3:455-58. For a general discussion of Brown's relations with Arnold, see James T. Flexner, The Traitor and the Spy Benedict Arnold and John Andre (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1953), pp. 43, 88, 94, 100, 114, 129, 249.