Part 21

The filth in the churches (in consequence of fluxes) was beyond description. Seven dead have been seen in one of them, at the same time, lying among the excrements of their bodies. The British soldiers were full of their low and insulting jokes on those occasions, but less malignant than the tories. The provision dealt out to the prisoners was not sufficient for the support of life; and was deficient in quantity, more so in quality. The bread was loathsome and not fit to be eaten, and was thought to have been condemned. The allowance of meat was trifling, and of the baser sort. The consequence was, a suspicion of a premeditated and systematical plan to destroy the youths of the land, thereby to deter the country. The integrity of these suffering prisoners was hardly credible. Hundreds submitted to death, rather than enlist in the British service, which they were most generally pressed to do. It was the opinion of the Ameaican officers that gen. Howe perfectly understood the condition of the private soldiers; and they from thence argued, that it was exactly such as he and his council had devised. After general Washington’s success in the Jerseys, the obduracy and malevolence of the royalists subsided in some measure. The surviving prisoners were ordered to be sent out for an exchange; but several of them fell down dead in the streets, while attempting to walk to the vessels.[43]

Gen. Washington wrote to gen. Howe in the beginning of April, “It is a fact not to be questioned, that the usage of our prisoners while in your possession, the privates at least, was such as could not be justified. This was proclaimed by the concurrent testimony of all who came out. Their appearance sanctified the assertion, and melancholy experience, in the speedy death of a large part of them, stamped it with infallible certainty.” The cruel treatment of the prisoners being the subject of conversation among some officers captured by Sir Guy Carleton, gen. Parsons, who was of the company, said, “I am very glad of it.” They expressed their astonishment, and desired him to explain himself. He thus addressed them. “You have been taken by gen. Carleton, and he has used you with great humanity; would you be inclined to fight against him?” The answer was no. “So,” added Parsons, “would it have been, had the troops taken by Howe been treated in like manner; but now, through his cruelty, we shall get another army.” The hon. William Smith, esq.[44] now at Haverstraw, learning how the British used the prisoners, and concluding it would operate to that end by enraging the Americans, applied to the committee of the New-York state, for leave to go into the city, and remonstrate with the British upon such cruel treatment, which he doubted not but that he should put a stop to. The committee, however, either from knowing what effect the cruelties would have in strengthening the opposition to Britain, or from jealousies of his being in some other way of disservice to the American cause, or from these united, would not grant his request. Gen. Gates has been repeatedly heard to say to the following purport—“Had gen. Howe seen to it, that the prisoners and Jersey inhabitants, when subdued, were treated with as much humanity and kindness as Sir Guy Carleton exercised toward his prisoners, it would have been all up with the Americans.”

The congress commissioners for treating with the Indians of the Six Nations, and their brethren on the Susquehanna, have had repeated meetings with them. They had one the last August at the German Flats; when Adam, an Oghuaga Sachem, made mention of the line that was settled between the Indians and whites at the treaty at Fort Stanwix; and observed, that by the agreement the whites were not to encroach upon their lands; but that of late some of the white people had made encroachments, by surveying their hunting grounds, close up to their habitations. He desired the commissioners to consider it, and hoped for redress. They assured the Indians, that the great council at Philadelphia would effectually put a stop to such wicked practices, and punish every person that should offend against their orders. “If any persons (say they) shall come upon your lands, we desire you will immediately bring them to the minister, that he may write down their names, and inform us of it, and then we shall immediately proceed against them. Brothers, you may all rest assured, that no white people will be suffered to pass the line settled at Fort Stanwix; for although that agreement was made with the king, yet as you are satisfied with it, we shall take care that it is complied with.” Since then, some of the Indians have complained of a number of people who have gone over the line, and settled on the west branch of the Susquehanna, contrary to the Fort Stanwix treaty, and threatened they would not suffer them to stay. The people have not any legal claim to the ground in the opinion of the commissioners; who suppose that col. Butler, upon coming to Niagara, seized upon this affair as a fit instrument to foment a difference. But the difference, it is hoped, will be prevented by a late treaty at Easton, which ended February the sixth, to mutual satisfaction. The commissioners say, “We remember the agreement at Fort Stanwix. Our people ought not to have bought, and your people not to have sold lands contrary to the former agreement. We blame both. We will tell this matter to congress, who will enquire, and not suffer the old agreement to be broken by any of their people. They will call the intruders back, and do strict justice to both sides.” The Indians seemingly mean to adhere steadily to their engagements of neutrality; and absolutely protest against either the enemy marching through their country by way of Niagara, to attack the United States, or the army of the latter marching that way to attack their enemy.

The Americans were not in readiness to begin their naval hostilities at a distance from their own coasts till late in the last year. That circumstance however, was of no great disadvantage, by reason of an unexpected occurrence. The discovery of an intended conspiracy among the negroes of Jamaica, detained the fleet till after the customary time of sailing. Through this detention, it sailed at a season that was accompanied with much tempestuous weather, which scattered the ships, and exposed them to such American cruisers, as lay in wait for them in the latitudes through which they were to pass in their voyage homeward. The consequence was, that many of them were taken by the American privateers. The trade from the other islands suffered proportionably; so that by the close of the year, the British loss in captures, exclusive of transports and government store-ships, was considerable higher than a million sterling. The privateers were at no difficulty as to the disposal of their prizes. The ports of France and Spain especially the first, were open to them, both in Europe, and in their American dominions. In the last the captors sold them openly, without any colours of disguise. On remonstrances from the British court, a little more decorum was observed in Europe, and a check given to the avowed sale of them; for a while they were obliged to quit the harbours, and were purchased at the entrance or in the offing. But in the West-India islands the real inclinations of the French were undisguised. They not only purchased the prizes as fast as they could be brought into port; they moreover fitted our privateers, under American colours and commissions, and with a few American seamen on board (at times probably not any) carried on a war upon the British commerce.

Though many have been the captures made by the ships and armed vessels of the British navy, they have not counterbalanced, either in number or value those taken by the Americans from Great-Britain. Several of them indeed were laden with flour, and other articles for the trade in the West-Indies; and so proved a timely relief to the British islands, which were suffering much, through the depravation they lay under, of those various supplies with which they had been before furnished from the American continent.

The ministerialists at New-York will undoubtedly amuse the nation with accounts of the thousands, who have formed themselves into military corps under the auspices of gen. Sir William Howe, as he is now to be stiled from the honor conferred upon him, for his success on Long-Island. But when the campaign comes to be opened by Sir William, you will find that they are reduced to hundreds; and that the acquisition of strength derived from the country, whatever flattering appearance it may have upon paper, is no wise answerable to the report. Governor Tryon made a parade in black and white before lord George Germain, with his two thuosand [typo: thousand] nine hundred and seventy inhabitants of New-York, who have qualified by taking an oath of allegience and fidelity to his majesty. By the aid of the mayor, he may increase them to three thousand and twenty. He may add those attested on Staten-Island and elsewhere, and make the whole amount to five thousand six hundred men. He may also tell of the loyal inhabitants of Queen’s county, who have received eight hundred stand of arms, with demonstrations of joy, and with a professed resolution to use them in defence of the island[45]. But the service they will be of to government, in the great American contest, will be next to nought.

The _Georgia_ representatives, met in convention, unanimously agreed in a constitution for that state, on the 5th of Februray.

LETTER VII.

_London, June 7, 1777._

FRIEND G.

Mr. Sayre sued lord Rochford, in the court of Common Pleas, about this time twelvemonth, for illegal imprisonment; the jury granted him a thousand pounds damages, subject to the opinion of the court upon a point of law. Thus ended an affair, which in the commencement occasioned a great bustle among the people.

An unaccountable indifference possessed the nation, through the last summer. When at length the American cruisers, not only scoured the Atlantic, but spreading over the European seas, brought alarm and hostility to our doors—when the destruction which befel the homeward bound richly laden West-India fleets, poured equal ruin upon the planters in the islands, and the merchants at home—even in that state of public loss and private distress, an unusual phlegm prevailed, and the same tranquil countenance was preserved, by those who had not yet partaken of the calamity.

Administration had acquired such an appearance of stability, as seemed to render them, for some considerable time to come, superior to the frowns of fortune. Supported by an irresistible majority in parliament, they were already armed with every power which they were capable of desiring for the establishment of their American system. But the conduct of the French and Spaniards gave them just cause of alarm.——The French and Spanish ministry not only connived at the encouragement given to the American privateers, but filled the ports of both kingdoms with such indications as denoted that objects of far higher and more dangerous importance were in contemplation. The naval preparations carried on by the house of Bourbon, became at length so formidable, that sixteen British ships of the line were suddenly put into commission; [Oct. 25.] and the unusual methods taken for manning them by a very hot unexpected press, and the opening houses of rendezvous for such seamen, as would enter voluntarily upon the proffered bounty. Some days after a proclamation was issued for a general fast through England and Wales, to be observed the 13th of December following.

The news of gen. Howe’s success on Long-Island, gave the highest satisfaction to administration, and the strongest hopes of the most decisive good consequences, The messenger of the operations had been but two days in London, before a title and badge of honor was bestowed upon the general.

On the last of October, the session of parliament was opened. The royal speech seemed to breathe indignation and resentment against the people of America; and the receipt of assurences of amity from the several courts of Europe was still acknowledged. When the address of the house of commons in answer to it was produced, an amendment was moved for by lord John Cavendish, and supported by a speech perhaps the most remarkable of any that had been delivered since the commencement of the troubles, for the freedom and pointedness with which it was expressed. It entered into a comprehensive view of the conduct of the British ministry respecting America; and approached them with the pursuits of schemes formed for the reduction and chastisement of a party, supposed to consist of some inconsiderate and factious men, but which had in the issue, driven thirteen large colonies into an open and armed resistance. Every act of parliament, it said, proposed as a mean of procuring peace and submission, had proved, on the contrary, a new cause of opposition and hostility. The nation was now almost inextricably involved in a bloody and expensive civil war, which threatened to exhaust the strength of the British dominions, and to lay them open to the most deplorable calamities. No hearing had been given to the reiterated petitions of the colonies, nor any ground laid for a reconciliation, the commissioners nominated for the purpose of restoring peace, not being furnished with sufficient powers to bring about so desirable an end. It observed, that it must have been expected, that the American seamen and fishermen, being indiscriminately prohibited from the peaceable exercise of their occupations and declared open enemies, would betake themselves to plunder, and wreak their vengeance on the commerce of Great-Britain. After a variety of other observations, it concluded with declaring—“We should look with the utmost shame and horror, upon any events that would tend to break the spirit of any part of the British nation, and to bow them to an abject, unconditional submission to any power whatsoever, to annihilate their liberties, and to subdue them to servile principles and passive habits, by the force of foreign mercenary arms; because amidst the excesses and abuses which have happened, we must respect the spirit and principles operating in these commotions. Our wish is to regulate, not to destroy them; for though differing in some circumstances, those very principles evidently bear so exact an analogy with those which support the most valuable part of our own constitution, that it is impossible, with any appearance of justice, to think of wholly extirpating them by the sword, in any part of the British dominions, without admitting consequences, and establishing precedents the most dangerous to the liberties of this kingdom.” Debates pro and con succeeded. It was the same in the house of lords, where the royal speech underwent a no less severe scrutiny. Since the declaration of independence, the debates in parliament are less interesting to the Americans than formerly, brevity in the account of them will therefore be most acceptable. The opposition said—“What can ministers mean by assurances of friendly and pacific sentiments from abroad? Poor politicians must they be, who depend upon such assurances, in the best of times, from those quarters whence they now come. Old grudges are not so easily forgotten; and this nation has every thing to apprehend from those to whom it has done so much mischief in the last war. Resentment and ambition will go on hand in hand upon this occasion, and will not lose so fair an opportunity of revenge, as that which is opened by this fatal quarrel between Great-Britain and her colonies. The preparations, of those powers who speak so friendly a language are no secret; their partiality to the Americans shows their intentions to this country; their encouragement to the privateers, which are capturing the British merchantmen, is a sufficient carnest of the designs that are uppermost in their councils, and is but a prelude to what we are to expect, as soon as circumstances have brought their plans to maturity. A war with the whole house of Bourbon, and perhaps with other powers, will be the inevitable consequence of continuing hostilities in America; but such a war at present, will no longer resemble those who have formerly waged with the princes of that family. Powerful as they were at that time, they will still be much more formidable now that the strength of America will be thrown into their scale. It is a sorrowful, but a true reflection, that one half of the British nation is become an instrument in the hands of our natural enemies, with which most effectually to distress the other. Impelled with these cogent reasons, it is the duty of every man who feels them, to oppose an address approving of measures which must, if persisted in, terminate in calamities that will give such deadly wounds to Britain, as may prove incurable, and bring her to such a state of debility as will, from one of the first powers in the world, reduce her to hold but a secondary rank among the European nations.”

Administration urged in favor of the address—“Nothing is recommended by it that tends to oppose the Americans; no more is required of them than a return to the same obedience which every other subject is bound to pay. Is it consistent with the wisdom of the nation, to throw away the fruits of the infinite cares and expences it has bestowed upon the colonies, while any hope remains of reclaiming them from their defection? To give them up, will be to resign the wealth, the strength and the importance of Great-Britain; these are evidently at stake in the present contest; should the issue of it be contrary to what is hoped by all well-wishers to their country, its fall and degradation will be the necessary consequence. The season for arguing is over. The Americans have bid us defiance, and are become our enemies; the sword is therefore to decide; it is now to be seen whether we can reduce them to obedience by superior force. It is time to assert our national dignity and supremacy; we are in full strength and vigor; the resources of the country are far from being exhausted. They cannot be employed upon a more critical and necessary occasion than the present. The successes of the last campaign in America, afford a well grounded prospect of settling affairs to our satisfaction. A spirited prosecution of the business in hand will speedily conclude it. Much is threatened from abroad, and great terrors are held out, and we are told that occasion will be taken from these unhappy broils, to do Great-Britain irreparable damage. But the prudence of government has fully obviated these objections. A sufficient force is preparing to face all dangers at home; and the prosperity of our arms abroad has, it is well known, cast a damp on all the partisans of the Americans throughout Europe. However well they may wish them, the most inveterate of our foes will not venture to engage in so distant a quarrel, until they see better signs of its terminating to the advantage of our opponents. We are now in the career of victory; and it will betray weakness to be driven out of it by mere apprehensions. The people at large are now greatly alienated from the Americans; however they might once have been inclined to favor them, they are full of resentment at their late conduct. The declaration of independence has entirely altered their opinion of the colonists.”

The conclusion of the debates was the carrying of the address in the house of lords by 91 votes to 26; and in the house of commons by 232 to 83. The declaration of independence lost the Americans many advocates; but the great bulk of those who had hitherto espoused their cause, dreaded the success of ministerial measures against them, from an apprehension of the danger which would result from it to the liberties of this country. They were therefore, before and after the opening of the session, indefatigable in representing the necessity of putting an end to a dispute, which they considered as ruinous, in every shape, whether the British arms did or did not prevail.

[Nov. 6.] A motion was made in the house of commons by lord John Cavendish, for a revisal of all those acts by which the colonies thought themselves aggrieved. It was grounded on a paragraph in the declaration of the commissioners, given at New-York, the 19th of September, in which mention is made of “the king’s being most graciously pleased to concur in the revisal of all acts by which his subjects in the colonies may think themselves aggrieved.” The motion was opposed with great warmth; and in the sequel of the debate, it was asserted by ministry, that until congress had rescinded the declaration of independence, no treaty could be entered into with America. Such an assertion was severely censured by opposition, as being no less than a denunciation of war, and all its calamities, unless the Americans implicitly admitted the principal point in litigation, without any preliminary stipulation. The motion was rejected by a majority of 109 to 47. This rejection exasperated the minority so violently, that a part of them avowedly withdrew whenever any questions relating to America were proposed, and from this period left the house to the full and undisturbed possession of the majority.

They justified this secession, by alledging that an attendance on these matters was nugatory; the weight of numbers was irresistible, and baffled all arguments. It was a degrading office alway to contend with a certainty of being defeated. There was a time when reasoning was listened to, and had its due influence; but as experience had shown, that time was no more, it was wiser to acquiesce in silence than to undergo the fatigue of a fruitless opposition. The season was not yet come for the nation to be undeceived. It was the interest of so many to continue the deception, that it would last till an accumulation of calamities had oppressed the public so as to be felt by all degrees. Such amazing numbers were benefitted by the measures of ministry, that till defeats, disappointments and losses of every kind, had disabled them from pursuing their schemes any longer, they were sure of a ready support from those whom they employed in their execution. For these reasons they judged it necessary to refuse their presence to transactions which they disapproved, and could not hinder; but whenever they perceived that adversity had, as usual, opened the eyes of men, they would then come forth anew, and endeavor, if possible, to remedy the evils which it was not at present in their power to prevent.

The strength of ministry was now so decisive, that whatever was proposed, was immediately approved and carried, without any opposition or debate.

A bill was brought in for granting letters of marque and reprisals against the Americans. This was followed by another to empower the crown to secure such persons as were accused or suspected of high treason (committed either in America or at sea) or of piracy. By the provisions of this bill, they were liable to be detained in custody without bail or trial, while the law continued in force; it was reserved solely to the privy council to admit them to either. His majesty was also empowered by warrant, to appoint one or more places of confinement within the realm, for the custody of such prisoners.