The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1775-01-16 00:00:00, page 2

— -- - =^^7^-JTI KIVALo
'DIALOGUE between General WOLFE and General
GAGE, in a IVoodnear Boflon.
Gen. Wolfe. |j! WELCOME my old friend to
this retreat.
Gen. Gage. Jam glad to fee you my dear Mr.
Wolfe, but what has brought you again into this
world ?
Gezi. Wolfe. Jam sent by a group of Britiih
heroes to remonstrate with you upon your errand to
this place. You are come upon a business unworthy
a British soldier, and a freeman. You have come
here to deprive your fellow fubjedts of their liberty.
Gen. Gage. God forbid! I am come here to
execute the orders of my Sovereign,---a Prince of
unbounded wildom and goodness, and who aims at
no higher honour than that of being the King of a
free people.
Gen. Wolfe. Strange language from a Britiih
soldier ! I honour the crown of Great-Britain as an
essential part of her excellent constitution. I serv
ed a Sovereign to whom the impartial voice of pos
terity has ascribed the judice of the man as the mag
nanimity of a King, and yet such was the free spi
rit of the troops under my command—that I could
never animate them with a proper martial spirit
without setting before them the glorious objects of,
their King and their country.
Gen. Gage. The orders of my Sovereign have
been fandtified by the Parliament of Great-Britain.
Ail the wisdom and liberty of the whole empire are
collected in that augutt Assembly. My troops
therefore cannot want the fame glorious motives
which animated yours, in the prelent expedition.
They will fight for their country as well as their
King.
Gen. Wolfe. The wisest assemblies of men are
as liable as individuals, to corruption and error.
Ihe greater ravages which have ever been com
mitted upon the liberty and happiness of mankind,
have been by weak and corrupted republics. The
American colonies are intitlcd to all the privileges
of Britiih Subjects. Eauality cfliberty is the glory
of every Briton. He does not forfeit it by crossing
the ocean. He carries it with him into the molt
distant parts of the world, because he carries with
him the immutable laws of nature. A Briton or an
American ccafes to be a Britiih fubjett when he
ceases to be governed by rulers chosen or approved
by himfelf.---This is the essence of liberty and of
the Britiih constitution.
Gen. Gage. The inhabitans of the province of
Mafliichuletts-Bay have not only thrown off the
jurifdidion of the Britiih Parliament, but they are
difaffe&ed to the Britiih crown. They cannot even
bear with that small share of regal power, and gran
deur which have been delegated to the Governor,
ofthis province. They traduced Sir Francis Ber
nard, and petioned the King to remove Mr. Hutch
inion from the feat of Government. But their op
pofitioai to my administration has arisen to open re
bellion. They have refufed to obey my proclama
tions. They have assembled and entered into af
lociations to eat no mutton and to wear clothes ma
nufaftnred in this country—they have even provi
ded themselves with arms and ammunition, and
have acquired a complete knowledge of the military
exercises in direct opposition to my proclamations.
Gen. Wolfe. The inhabitants of Massachusetts
Bay, were once a brave and loyal people. If they
are difaffedted to his present Majesty, it is because
his minillers have sent counterfeit impressions of his
royal virtue to govern them. Bernard and Hutch
inion must have been a composition of all the base
and wicked qualities in human nature, to have di
minished the loyalty of those illustrious fubjeds, or
weakened their devotion to every part of the Britiih
constitution. I mull add here that the late proceed
ings of the Britiih parliament towards the American
colonies, have reached the Britiih heroes in Elysium,
and have produced a suspension of their happiness.
The Quebec bill in a particular manner has roused
their resentment. It was once the glory of En
gMlimen to draw the sword only in defence of li
berty and the protestant religion, or to extend the
bluffing^ of both to their unhappy neighbours.
These godlike motives reconciled me to all the
hardships of that campaign which ended in the re
duction of Canada; These godlike motives likeuife
reconciled me to the horror I felt in being obliged to
flied the blood of those brave Frenchmen, who op
posed me on the plains of Abraham. I rejoiced less
at the hour of my death, in the honour of my victo
ry, than in the glory of having communicated to an
edilaved people, the glorious privileges of an English
constitution. While my fellow soldiers hailed me
as their conqaeror, I exulted only in being their
Deliverer. But popery---and French laws in Cana
da, are but a part of that system of despotism, which
has been prepared for the colonies. The edifts of
the Britiih parliament (for they want the fandion
ofßiitifh laws) which relate to the province of the
Massachusetts Bay, are big with destruction to the
whole Britiih empire. I come therefore in the name
of Blakeney---Cumberland---Granby---and an il
lußrious band of English heroes, to whom the glory
of Old England is Still dear, to beg you to have no
hanu in the execution of them. Remember, Sir,
you are a man as well as a soldier. You did not
give up your privileges as a citizen when you put
on your sword. Britiih soldiers are not machines
to be animated only with the voice of a minister of
Bate. They disdain those ideas of submission which
preclude them from the liberty of thinking for
themselves, and degrade them to an equality with a
war horse, or an elephant. If you value the sweets
of peace and liberty---If you have any regard to the
glory of the Britiih name---and if you prefer the
Society of Grecian—Roman—and Britiih heroes in
the world of Spirits; to the company of Jefferies---
Kirk and other royal executioners, I conjure you
immediately to resign your commission. Assign the
above reasons to your Sovereign for your conduct,
and you will have the „/&/e glory of performing an
a&ion which would do honour to an angel. You
will restore perpetual harmony between Britain and
her colonies.
NEW- Y O R K, January 12.
A Letter from London of a late Date, fays, Lord
North behaves with the greatest Firmness and Com
posure, and is resolutely determined to carry his
I oint with the Colonies, and smiles with Contempt
upon any Tales of Congresses and Combinations in
America. The Duke of Richmond has positively
declared his Opinion, That the Colonies have pro
ceeded to such unjuftifiable Lengths, their Pretensi
ons cannot any longer be supported ; and that the
constitutional Authority of Parliament over them
mule be maintained ; and that this is the Language
of most People in England.
Quere,[Who wrote and who received this letter ?]
" °, ' ° N, (Thursday ) January 12.
The chief troublers of our Israel are the Philan
throps, the Ha^lerods, the Sir Froths, the Tims,
the Lens, and the Bobs, &c. these are the men who,
for large fares in the American plunder, have fold them-
J's, '° do wickedly; the Barbarians who have been
aiding and affiSting bad governors and abandoned mi
mflers^ in all their attempts to subjugate and en-
Slavethefe once happy colonies; the hireling profli
gates who have been constantly representing to rni'-
niftry that the friends of liberty, were a small in
fignificant fyttd faction ,that the people had not
viitue o Sacrifice any part of the profits of their
trade, or the luxuyof their living, for the fakeoftheir
country, or jOAA to withstand the leaf exertion of
power: I hefe arc the traitors who are for none but
licensed town-meetings, and gave administration the
out-lines of the execrable Port-Bill, and jhe other
dcteftabie Bills for destroying the charter, and those
sacred compacts which Americans once thought were
o^/ome value, the faith of Kings being the security.
7 hefe are the unhiding advocates for penfoned go
vernors, dependent judges, hired attornies, and Jhe
riff created jurors, that the people might, under
colour of law, be flript of their property,' without
their consent, and suitably punished if they should
dare to complain; the odious rebels, who for the sup
port of these hateful measures have invited the
troops and ships, that are now distressing the inha
bitants of this loyal town, and alarming not only
a single province but a whole continent: and when
almost every event has turned out contrary to their
predictions, and when it might reasonably be ex
peded that the union of the colonies, and the re
iolutions of the continental congress, and the late
associations and preparations to withstand all hoflile
attempts upon our persons or properties, might lead
administration at least to fufpedt the policy or fafety
of pushing this people to extremeties; we find this
infamous cabal playing over their old game of mi
nisterial deception; and Timothy Ruggles with a
gravity peculiar to himfelf and an owl, averting in
the public prints, " that thougli many of the peo
ple had for some time past been arming, their num
bers would not appear in the field so large as was
imagined, before it was known that independency
was the object in contemplation; *" and further,
" that since that time many have associated in di
vers parts of the province to support what he calls
Government." But the views and designs of these
pensioned prostitutes of the Massachusetts, in all
that they jay or write, are perfectly kenned by the
most short-sighted among us. In vain are their
scare-crows, raw heads and bloody bones held up to
* An assertion as falfe as it is impudent and in
jurious,firft uttered by an hireling Priest in the New-
York Freeholder, who at the fame time declared,
that he had rather be under the Government of Ro
man Catholics than Dissenters---a declaration truly
charaderiftic of the Do&or and his little clubof
Malignants :---The people of this province have hi
therto aCted purely on the defenfive, they have only
opposed those new regulations which were instantly
to have been executed, and would have annihilated
ail our rights ; for this absolutely necessary and
manly step they have received the approbation of
the Continential congress, one of the most refpeda
ble assemblies in the world; they aim at no indepen
cy, nor any thing new, but barely the preservation
of their old rights; they have referred their cause to
the whole continent, and'are determined to aft only
in free consultation and close union with their bre
thren-—this, is indeed the fafety of all.
deter us from taking the troft (ffc&ual means for
oy fecunty.—the little fibbing illiberal piece:
which have disgraced the Massachusetts Gazettes,
will not lessen the continental Congress in our es
teem, or retard the measures they have recommend,
cd, notwithstanding thefums paid to effect it: These
writers, and their attempt to difeourage or mislead,
are treated with ineffable contempt by their coun
trymen. It has however been happy for both coun
tries, that the representations and' projects of such
men as these have been heeded and adopted on the
other fide of the Atlantic, men whose very livings
have depended upon the continuation of those mea
sures which Americans have so long complained of
and fought to have redressed. If these unnaturdls
Ihould iucceed in. their present misleading attempts,
to the prevention of a speedy close of our differences,
we shall then have good reason to conclude, that
blindness has happened to Britons, that thefulnefs of
American liberty might come in.
We are told, that it is an undoubted fad, that
the supposed boxes of small arms, lead, &c. Uhich
were lately seized by the custom-house officers at
New-York, and caused so much disturbance there,
turns cut to be ---What? Why only a few
boxes of Printing Types! -Aye, fays a wag, and
what was the Gun-powder? Why truly no
thing but two calks of Printing Ink! which were im
ported for the 'Printer in Providence.
NE WPOR T, January 2.
Extract of a Letter from a gentleman in Boston, to bis
friend in this town, dated Dec. 20.
anxieties, and perplexities, we fuffer in this
town, are not to be conceived, much less com
municated by any language in the power of your
servant. A thousand insults and oppreflions we
have already fuffered, and because our spirits are
not yet reduced to an acquiescence in the schemes
lain for our deftruaion, we are yet manaced with
injuries more terrible, even extLpatiortyby the
sword ofa foreign enemy. This ycu will Tay is in
credible, and probably blame me for taking up ru
nlours so lightly, and transmitting intelligence,
which I sometimes fail to confirm. I will ask you
on the other hand, how can a people in our situation
be supposed to behave with more prudence ? Your
Governor lays his public letters before a council of
wile, and honed, friends to their country ; ours, be
fore a Divan of the mod abandoned scoundrels that
ev r betrayed a people. A syllable of the conspi
racies of these mifereants hardly ever transpires, un
less by a nicer accident, and when they do, gun
powder treason never wore a blacker complexion !
Of this kind may be reckoned an association sent by
the famous Brigadier Ruggles, to Hardwick, and a
copy of the fame to several towns in this -province,
binding the association to take up arms, on the fide
of the power which aims to destroy our civil constitu
tion, and ere& a tyranny in its place, as abfdlute as
ever was felt in Turkey or Morocco! Nothing is
more evident than that these traitors would advise,
and affift,to the utmost of their power, even to drench
their native country with the blood of her virtuous
sons, to establish their own avaricious & cruel plans.
The scarecrow held up to frighten the ignorant,
and timerous, into a compliance with their treason,
is to suggest that next Spring a force will be sent
fufficient to conquer all North America ; and then
the King's standard will be erefted, and all who re
pair to it will be received as good fubjefts, and will
have their estates secured to them, and those who do
not come in, and swear allegiance to the King and
the Britifn parliament, shall be declared rebels, and
their estates will be confifeated. I have often won
dered that our smart writers, who have so often ex
posed the weakness and villany'cf these wretches,
have been so long silent on this head. Stupid and
prepofterious as it appears, it gives trouble to some
honest minds; and surely an hour's labour of an
A—s, W n, C-----h, Y g, G f, or others
I could mention, would save many a painful hour
to persons whom either of them would acknowledge
their disposition, and perhaps strong obligation, to
fatisfy in so interesting a matter. To me, I confefs,
this old ftcry appeared ridiculous : For, in the firft
place, I asked where was the rebellion, that war
ranted setting up a standard ? What part of their
compact with the crown of Great-Britain did ever
this people break? What Pretender to the crown did
they ever countenance ? What innovation, in civil
government, did they ever introduce, till fatal in
novations from another quarter rendered their Go
vernors as unlike the Governors known in their
charter, as a Turkilh Bafhaw is to your Governor
W n? Again, What security is the loyal fubjeft
to receive for the quiet enjoyment of his estate,
when the very charter, by which he holds it, is es
teemed by the present administration a meer tabula
rata, a parchment alterable, or utterly voidable, at
pleasure ? Did any man think his security for life,
liberty and estate, more than fufficient by the char
ter of William and Mary ? If not, can he think the
power who w®uld void that security, at a rifque
andexpence, dangerous even to his own life and em
pire, would aim to substitute an equal security in its
place? If not, what can we gain by repairing to
this merciful standard, but a privilege of being plun