THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
The Correspondence of
General Thomas Gage
(1763-1775)
Carter, Clarence Edwin, comp. and ed.
in:
The Correspondence of General Thomas
Gage with the Secretaries of State:
1763-1775, New Haven: Yale
University Press, vol. 2,
1933, pp. v-vi.
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
GENERAL THOMAS GAGE
with the Secretaries of State
1763-1775
Compiled and edited by
Clarence Edwin Carter
Professor of History, Miami University.
VOLUME TWO
NEW HAVEN - YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON - HUMPHREY MILFORD - OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCXXXIII
PREFACE
THE second volume of the correspondence of General Thomas Gage herewith presented embodies selections of relevant letters pertaining to the American scene in the dozen years antecedent to the outbreak of the Revolution. They are drawn principally from three classes of sources. In the first part of the volume are found letters from the Secretaries of State to the Commander-in-Chief, consisting of answers to the latter's letters, heretofore printed in volume one, and instructions concerning the execution of policies formulated in London. The originals of these letters are now found in the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan; the draft copies are located in the Public Record Office (Colonial Office, class five), of which transcripts are available in the Library of Congress.
A selection of letters from General Gage to the War Office and to the Treasury constitutes the second part of the volume. The originals of both series are for the most part in the Public Record Office (War Office, class one, and Treasury, class one); transcripts of many of these papers also are in the Library of Congress, though copies of certain letters, such as those marked "private, " are not always found in that repository or in the Public Record Office. But the collection of Gage manuscripts in the William L. Clements Library contains a complete set of office copies, and has found that the copies were usually made by General Gage's secretaries with meticulous accuracy. Therefore, although preference has naturally been given to originals whenever available, reliance has been placed upon office copies for the private letters to the Secretaries at War, as well as for a number of official letters not easily obtainable in original form. The same procedure has likewise been followed for sundry miscellaneous letters, the originals of which are in the Public Record Office.
It has been impossible to print every communication from General Gage to his superior officials in London. There are hundreds of purely routine letters which are omitted from this edition; the few offered here and there in the present volume are illustrative of the civil and military aspects of the army's organization and administration. Such routine letters usually transmitted bills, warrants, contracts, recommendations for promotions and similar data. It may be suggested that no study of the actual cost of the administration of the British possessions in North America can be complete without a careful scrutiny of the material in question, which is found either in original or in copy form in one or more of the repositories already cited.
The problem of the disposal of inclosures has been a constantly recurring question. It was deemed impracticable, in general, to embody such a class of documents in this edition, though many of them are of such a nature as to justify their publication, in future installments, in the original setting. In the present instance, however, occasional inclosures are presented for purposes of illustration, and the location of others mentioned in the correspondence is given.
The index supplied for each of the two volumes now published is designed to supplement the footnotes in furnishing necessary cross references.
The order of publication of the papers has been determined by two factors. When the series was inaugurated it was plain that it could not be predicated upon an assurance of publication in extenso; the great number and variety of the documents involved seemed to make an exhaustive publication difficult to accomplish through a single agency. This factor, together with a consideration of the character of the papers themselves, pointed the way to the selection of specific classes for presentation, each series to be complete and to be arranged in sequential order. Each volume, constructed in accordance with the foregoing procedural method, would thus possess a unity of its own, even though it might embody two or more classes of papers. At the same time greater thoroughness would be possible with respect to the publication of any given series of documents, such as the correspondence with the Secretaries of State and the like. The way would thus be left open for a continuation of the volumes as circumstances should permit.
In order to complete the various series of correspondence between the home government and General Gage's office in the colonies there remain to be published the letters to Gage from the War Office and from the Treasury, and from those miscellaneous offices in London which also had to do with American affairs. Such a publication will not only furnish a necessary supplement to the two volumes now offered, but it will provide an adequate foundation for an understanding of the domestic correspondence of the Commander-in-Chef, as represented by the letters to and from the Governors, the Brigadiers General, the Indian Superintendents, and many other subordinate military and civil officials who were charged with the administration of various divisions of the continent and the islands. Very few of these papers have ever been printed or utilized in any way, though they comprise, in certain respects, the most interesting part of the collection.
As noted in the preface to volume one the Gage Papers were acquired by Mr. William L. Clements from the Viscount Gage, of Firle, Sussex, England. This significant purchase was not consummated, however, until that volume had gone to press, and the footnote citations were therefore without reference to the new ownership and location of the collection. In the present volume the symbol "W.L.C.L.," in headnotes and footnotes, refers to the William L. Clements Library.
The editor is under heavy obligations to Mr. Clements for having generously consented to the early printing of the original letters from the Secretaries of State found in his collection, and for having facilitated the work of photostatic reproduction. To Miami University acknowledgment is again due for the continuation of grants which aided in the preparation of the manuscript for the press. It is a pleasure, also, to acknowledge the editor's indebtedness to Professor Charles M. Andrews, of Yale University, for having made possible the publication, by the Yale Press, of the present volume and of its predecessor.
|
C.E.C. |
Oxford, Ohio
June 15, 1933.
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