To George Washington from Christopher Gadsden, 10 August 1781

The Bearer Mr John Loveday informs me that he hath had the Honour to be Reccomended to an Office in your Excellency’s Family by some of your Friends here, I cannot in justice deny him my Testimony of his Character.

He has bee[n] Messenger of the Privy Council of our State four or five Years during which Time he always behaved with the greatest diligence, Attention, & Secrecy & is, your Excellency may be assured a strictly honest Man, He was taken by the Enemy a few Days before Chas Town capitulated, trusted with some important Messages from Mr Rutledge, was immediately closely confin’d, & when We were shipt off to Augustine sent with us—He is a sober, prudent discrete man, very firm & steady to the Cause.

Sixty One of us with our Servants arriv’d in two small Vessels from Augustine, par[t]y abou[t] ten or twelve & the Remainder about five or six Days since, thanks to Heaven all in good Health & Spirits—We were in Augustine from the 15th Septr to the 17th last Month, forty two Weeks of which I was confin’d in the Castle, & none of my Friends permitted to see me, because I wou’d not give another Parole, I told them I had kept the first as a Gentleman, defy’d (& do still defy) them to prove the Contrary & was determined never to take a second wch wou’d imply a Breach of the first Their Treatment of me when taken up the 27th of August last, was much more severe & pointed than against any of my Friends, which appears to me more owing to the Station I was In, than as Mr Gadsden, (tho I believe no Favourite as such,) & my not being mention’d in the Capitulation gave them an Opportunity to affect treating me with Rigour & Contempt. I thought it a Duty I owed to the General Cause to Refuse to the last giving a Second Parole, that I might be as a Standing protest against such outrageous Tyranical Conduct—When in the Castle the Officers were order’d frequently not to converse with me, however many of them often did, & all of them behaved with Decency, I never had the least Insult offer’d me there, Once indeed there was an Order against lighting a Candle In Consequence of which I went without for two or three Nights, but the Pitifulness of this they were soon asham’d of thems[elves].

Mr Ferguson & I are waiting for our Families expected in a few Days as soon as we see them a little fix’d, we shall set off for our State as will most of the Carolina Gentleman here, We hope to be gone by the Middle of next Month at farthest. I beg your Excellys & the Publicks pardon for taking up so much of your precious Time & am with the greatest Esteem Yr Excellency’s Most Obedt hble se[rvt]