HISTORY LESSON

 Submitted by: Ron Ewart

"The Jeffington Files"

By General Canwell Jeffington

Special Covert Military Attaché to General George Washington

Taken from the pages of "The Jeffington Journal"

© Copyright June 20, 2011 - All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

 

My name is General Canwell Jeffington, special covert military attaché to General George Washington during America's Revolutionary War.  I operated outside of General Washington’s secret Culper Ring as a rogue spy for Washington and my knowledge of those events is second to none.  Much of what I know was never recorded in the history books.  I can no longer take what is happening to my America and I have been summoned by the angels of providence to re-visit the courage and sacrifices of those days and use them to inspire hope in those now-living Americans who are rapidly awakening to what their long-term apathy and indifference to rising government tyranny has wrought.

 

Each week I shall arise from my final resting place at Valley Forge to pen a series of columns, based in part from the pages of my written journal during the Revolutionary War years.  These columns are designed to fill the hearts and minds of all those willing to listen, with the courage to climb the steep wall to freedom and restore America to her rightful place in history as the shining city on the hill and a beacon of hope to the rest of the world.  Because you see, the American free spirit is alive and well and the Sun is rising once again over a free America.  The hot, patriotic blood that ran through the colonials, now courses through the arteries and veins of their descendants.  It is time for these new Americans to look into their souls and summon their courage, just as their counterparts did so long ago.

 

Americans are finally waking up to the fact that they are not pawns of a tyrannical government, they are sovereigns with certain unalienable rights.  Soon they will show the world the power and inspiration of American enthusiasm, bravery and free spirit, just as they did during the Revolutionary War and all subsequent wars.  They are Americans and no power on earth, no collectivist, multi-culturalist ideology and no false gods can keep them down.  From Sea to Shining Sea, the Republic will be born again and Americans shall declare their individual sovereignty from all who would steal their freedom and rob them of their liberty.  Freedom will be born anew during the short reign of King Obama.

 

My first column from "The Jeffington Journal" is entitled: 

 

"The Request"

 

I heard Washington call out to his adjutant, "Is General Jeffington still waiting out there?  The adjutant softly said: "Yes sir."  "Well send him in here and then close the door after you", Washington bellowed.  I entered General George Washington's quarters and sat down next to his desk.  My rank as general had more to do with family connections to the British royalty than it had to do with any military exploits I might have had in the British army, few as they were.  For this meeting with General Washington I was in street clothes, for obvious reasons.

 

I wasn't sure why Washington wanted to see me and I was a bit apprehensive of what he was about to say.  George knew that I was equally at home in the inner circles of the British military and the elite society that surrounded them, having been raised in a British military family, as I was amongst the colonial military brass and the civilian leaders of the day.  He further knew that even so, my loyalties lay with the colonists.  At least that was what was running through my mind as I sat down.

 

George, without the usual courtesies, said: "what I am about to tell you Canwell must never leave this room.  Do I have your word on that?"   "Of course", I said.  At least I had one unflinching quality.  My word is my bond, as it was to many honorable men of the day.

 

Acknowledging my response with a brief "OK", and without any further hesitation, Washington continued.  "I have a bunch of boys up around the New York area that are running a covert spy operation and providing me advance information on British maneuvers.  They have proved very useful but I must get deeper into the plans of the British, or we are going to lose this war.  One of my spies, Nathan Hale, was found out by the British and he was quickly hung without trial.  That breach may have put my whole spy ring in jeopardy."

 

"I am well aware of your position in their military and how close you are to the generals and lower rank officers, as well as your freedom to come and go at their social functions where their women are present.  In fact, I believe you have a fairly familiar relationship with General Clinton's wife, do you not?  I nodded in agreement.

 

Washington followed my nod with: "To get to the point Canwell, I need you to spy for me.  Will you do it?"

Now Washington knew he was taking a giant risk in telling me this, but he had confidence in my loyalty to the colonial cause, as he had checked around.  My life as a British Officer was pretty dull and I wasn't taken very seriously by anyone in General Clinton's staff.  The thought of doing something exciting was very appealing.  I was quietly very sympathetic to the plight of the inhabitants of the 13 colonies, as they bowed to the ever-tightening yoke of King George III.  I only shared my sympathies with those I knew would not relay them to my British brethren.  I knew I was taking a chance by sharing my thoughts, but I really didn't care.  I think it was in the minds of my British superiors that I also might be useful as a spy for them, but for some reason they never approached me on the subject, perhaps because they considered me to be somewhat of a social baffoon.

 

In any event, with all that racing through my mind at Washington's request, my answer was made without words.  To set Washington's mind at ease, I reached across the desk with my hand out, as if to say yes.   He grabbed it with both of his hands and shook it vigorously.  With that gesture I was in and in I would stay for the rest of Washington's life, never divulging to anyone but Washington, the things that I observed and learned during the Revolutionary War.

 

Thus began my career as special covert military attaché to General George Washington, to spy for him within the highest ranking officers of the British high command.  His code name for his main intelligence gathering group, the Culper ring, was 711.  Ironically, the code name that I was to use for Washington was 911.  The irony of that code name would not be known for another 220 years.

 

What I saw, heard, learned and observed during the intervening years of the bloody Revolutionary War and relayed to General Washington, hardened my resolve, even at great risk to my own personal safety, to help these courageous people striking out in a new land for something no one else had achieved in all of human history ..... true individual freedom!  Washington's Hurculean task to win the war and his compatriots' laborious attempts to define the term and codify it into a document that would last for many generations to come, was inspiring indeed.  The resolve of these people to claim their liberty, transcended any previous attempts by the oppressed to break loose from the shackles of dictatorial brutality and tyranny.  What was even more ironic was that such a small percentage of the people achieved their freedom, not only for themselves, but for all those who were apathetic to the British and those who maintained their loyalty to the King.

 

All throughout my years as a spy for General Washington, I logged everything in the "Jeffington Journal".  And what I have relayed here and will expose in subsequent columns, has never been seen by one other single human being, with the exception of General Washington.

 

Ever since America won her freedom, many haved asked, did divine providence play a hand in our great achievement?  Did the stars line up in our favor?  Or was it just plain dumb luck that granted us our liberty?  Some are sure that the almighty intervened.  Others believe that the time in history was ripe for the event.  Still others believe it was nothing more than random probabilities that led to the greatest experiment with freedom since the pharaohs built the Great Pyramids along the River Nile, on the southeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, some 5,000 years ago.

 

From my perspective of those years when I worked with General Washington as a spy and my new knowledge of today's events, whomever or whatever played a role in creating a free and prosperous America, it is evident that she is now reaching a turning pointin her short life.  What was won and maintained by the sacrifices of so many, now may fall victim to apathy and indifference to an ideology that has infected the body politic like a fast-moving, highly infectious, airborne virus, with no known vaccine.   The question is, will free Americans develop a vaccine to this dreaded 100-year old disease of progressivism, before it is too late?

 

In further columns I shall explore the common elements between the colonials that won their freedom and those contemporary Americans who are looking for solutions to their current malaise.  The solutions are there for all to see, if Americans will but open their eyes to their own history.  They only need unite in freedom, en masse, with courage, no matter what the cost and that one act will set them free.

 

Stay tuned to your favorite publisher for the next installment of:

 

"The Jeffington Files".

 

Click on the link if you would like to learn more about General Canwell Jeffington?

 

I remain yours in liberty,

 

 

 

General Canwell Jeffington,
Special covert military attaché to General George Washington
During America's