sentences:  Henry immediately sent Washington the letter, and though it is uncertain if Henry recognized Rush's handwriting, Washington did, tipping him off to the conspiracy.President Washington wrote of Henry in 1794, "I have always respected and esteemed him; nay more, I have conceived myself under obligation to him for the friendly manner in which he transmitted to me some insidious anonymous writings in the close of the year 1777 with a view to embark him in the opposition that was forming against me at that time".In an effort to secure Virginia's vast claims in the West (to the Mississippi River, and north to present-day Minnesota) against British and Native American forces, Henry in December 1777 sent George Rogers Clark on an expedition against Kaskaskia, site of a British and French settlement.