"Properly Arranged and So Correctly Recorded"

Abstract

SHORTLY after Benedict Arnold's treason in the fall of 1780, an incensed Lt. Col. Richard Varick, late member of the traitor's military family, wrote to George Washington reminding him of his promise of court of inquiry into Varick's conduct while serving under Arnold. It is Sir, wish, he wrote, natural to young man, whose rise and happiness in life depend on fair & unblemished reputation, to preserve it inviolate . . . ' Outraged as he was by the possibility of guilt through association, Varick further requested that the court be allowed to extend its coverage to his entire military career. This Washington denied him, as it could not be done with propriety, but when the court absolved him from the implications of corruption, he again wrote to Washington fortified by a consciousness of the rectitude of [his] intentions desiring distribution as wide as possible for the findings of the court. Washington must have sympathized with the young patriot, who had had solid not distinguished military record, serving as secretary to General Schuyler and later as Deputy Mustermaster General of the Northern Army, position abolished by Congress in January 1780. Varick yearned to serve until the reduction of the British in New York, if not to the close of the war, but there seemed to be no opening for him. His chance came in May of the following year, when Washington named him as his recording secretary, with the responsibility of recording his wartime papers. In early June of 1781 Varick established his office in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., at the house of Dr. Peter Tappen, Governor George Clinton's brother-in-law. The house was close to Clinton's and thus enjoyed the Governor's protection. This Varick felt was necessary