Note 1277 — Chapter VIII

Secret Journals of Congress, p. 44. Sparks, in his review of the subject, says "After the sanguinary affair at the Cedars ... Congress openly changed their system" (Washington, iii. p. 497). The resolution passed May 25th. Washington was then in Philadelphia. As late as June 9th, he wrote from New York: "I have been much surprised at not receiving a more explicit account of the defeat of Colonel Bedell and his party at the Cedars. I should have thought some of the officers in command would and ought to have transmitted it immediately, but as they have not, it is probable that I should have long remained in doubt as to the event, had not the commissioners called on me to-day." The coincidence of Washington's presence in Philadelphia at the time of the passage of the resolve is more significant than the fact that a battle had been fought of which the general of the army had only just heard two weeks after that date.