[draft] Phia Feby 19th 83 Dr Sir, Long ere this Col Brooks has reached you, the report he carried from the Committee, and his own particular detail will give you a full Idea of our expectations when he left this. Nothing has since been done by Congress on the subject of our memorial. Georgia, Maryland and Delaware are still unrepresented. The Kings Speech is the only intelligence which has reached this of any moment, relative to a Peace. I think the Ballance of evidence is in favor of that desirable events takeing [sic] place, but I do not consider it as certain. The prospect of it has however realized what we have often anticipated would be the fate of the Army. The peoples attention is engrossed with two subjects, a great part of them rejoicing in the great prospects which will [2] open for profits to them on a peace, while a smaller part of them are bewailing the losses they will sustain on that event, by the Fall of Goods, so that the wretched condition of the Army is not thought of but when some of its members remind them of it. My stay here is become irksome to me, for I have said all I can say, but it is as difficult to move some of those Gentlemen I have to deal with, as to create a Courser's motion in an old Continental Horse. I shall patiently wait for an answer as long as there shall be a prospect of obtaing one. In the mean time I wish to hear from you, and particularly what seems to be the temper of the Army on the prospect of a Peace. I am Dr Sir, with great trust Your affectionate Hble Servt Alexr McDougall Major General Knox [address] Major General Knox Commanding at West Point [docket] from Genl cDougall [2] March 1783