The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1782-11-07 00:00:00, page 2

FHTLADELFHI A, Nov. 7.
0 ffr of a letter written by a gentleman lately from the vicinity
of Fort Pitt.
" Tfuppofe, Sir, that you as well as I have lately heard those
called Moravian Indians reprerented as a Angularly religious and
honest fort of people ; and the killing them lift fpringcalled an
horrible murder, while the bame ot this murder was c mfi'ently
thrown on two ref,eftable congregations, viz. the Rev. Messieurs
McMullen's and Smith's. Having lately had an opportunity of
being in the neighh urhool from which the men went who com
mitted the deed, and being anxious to know the truth, I made
particular enquiry of such as knew the Rate of the case, and
shall lav befne you the result of my e r quby, and leave you to
judge how tar the above re,ref p ntation i just or candid. It is
require I observe that those Indians were supposed by fume to be
o' signal fe vice to th- county, by givi g intelligence to the
commander at Frt Pitt, of attacks intended by the other Indi
ans, and by fopplying our men with provisions while in their
country; and i: is ye legally thought they were of foecial service
to ou merchandising officers, by carrying on a trade with them.
But J must farther observe, that it has been the prevailing opi
nion of neo; le in the back parts, that their service to the country
was trifling, cbm ared with the mifehief they at least were the
occasion of. Toeir being connected with the other Indians by
various ties, justly rendered them futpeaed. And although
they sometimes informed of the approach of other Indians to the
fcttlcment, this was feldorn in time to prevent the evil; while,
by affording a frefh fipply of provisions to our enemies, they
enabled them fucceisfully to carry on their depredations and mur
ders ; and it was not without reason alledged, that feme of those
very Moravians had an active hand in the murders committed,
and were very officious in giving notice of our expeditions into
the Indian country. From these considerations many were fur
prized that government fuffered them to continue where they
were.
“ Thus stood the case, when eadylaft spring a party, or dif
ferent parties of Indians broke in upon the frontiers, burning,
murdering, and captivating. While the people were in perplex
ity, word came that another party of Indians from Sandusky
were in the Morvian towns, on their way to our frontiers; on
which a number of men assembled, and without any regular or
ders resolved to make a sudden effort to prevent thof Indians
from penetrating into the settlement, and if possible cut them off.
I was told by men deemed worthy of credit, that the greater part
of those who went on the expedition were not known to belong
to any religious society ; that not rrwre than one or two belonged
0 Mr. M'Mullen's congregation : Some said, not one, and but
a very few to Mr. Smith's; and that only oife man belonging to
either had an hand in killing the Indians, and he a man who a
very little before had his wife and children taken prisoners, and
thought it probable they were butchered. These men marched
to the Moravian towns, and surrounded them, on which the In
dians surrendered, and were kept prisoners for some time. And
my informers told me that in this time there was found in the
towns a variety of goods, lately taken from the inhabitants, and
that one of the men who had then been taken prisoner, and was
some days in the custody of the Indians, but escaped, confidently
pointed out a Moravian who had taken and was fevered against
him, and that an old Moravian Indian upon examination granted
that some of that people had an hand in the depredations com
mitted on our frontiers. A few of the men, upon feeing and
hearing inch things, and thinking of their wives, children or
relations, that had been barbarously murdered, got inflamed,
and would not be restrained, but rulhed upon, and killed young
and old, Sandusky and Moravian Indians indiscriminately, not
withstanding that divers persons interceeded for the lives, efpe
cialy of the children, and could not bear to fee them put to
death, but fled away with tears in their eyes ; and notwhhftand
ing that the leaders of the expedition were consulting what they
should do with their prisoners, and had not ended their deliber
ations. Divers persons told me, that although some of the In
dians appeared to be well exertifed, yet that one of the squaws
sung the war song upon finding she was to be executed. The
account I have now given, I am persuaded, upon the ftriaett
trial will be found to be very near the truth."
DOVER, in the DELAWARE STATE.
^ Message from hit Excellency John Dickinson, Efa Pfefdent
"of the Dlaquire State, to the General Assembly.
Gentlemen of the General Assembly,
I Fee) a verv sincere pleafu e in advising you, that their High
Mightinesses the States General of the United Provinces
have acknowledged and received a Miaifter Plenipotentiary of the
United States in that quality,, an event likely to be immediately
succeeded by treaties of Alliance and Commerce greatly benefi
cial to both Nationss
The Secretary will lay before you letters from the President of
Congress, of the 19th and 24th of June, and the 20th of July--
from the Commander in Chief, of the 28th of May—from the
Financier, of the gth, 29th and 30th of July, the 15th, 17th
and 25th of Augnft, the 12th and 20th of September, and the
sth of Odober --f om the Secretary at War, of the Bth of July,
the 9th of August, and the 15th of October-- from the Secre
tary for F reign Affairs, of the 2d of May, and the 12th and
if h of September- -from Governor Clinton of the 4th of Au
guft—from General Gift, of the sth of June---and from the
Commanding Officer of our troops in the Southern Army, of
the 8 h of July, and the 16th of Aueuft.
I beg leave to refer you, Gentlemen, to several a&s of Con
gress communicated in former messages, to recommend them to
your attention at the present Sessions, and to observe, that an
eaHy as well as a pointed compliance of the several Legislatures
with the determinations of that National Council, is absolutely
necessary for eftabliffiing a system of regularity and efficacy in
the affairs, and for maintaining the Honor of the United States.
You will perceive by a Refolurion of the House of Assembly
and the Council of New-Jersey, of the 24th of June, that
Coramiffioners are appointed for fettling and eftabliihing the
line of jurifd'6tion between that State, Pennsylvania and this
State. Commissioners are also appointed by the State of Pennsyl
vania ; and such a measure seems proper to be taken on our part
for fettling the line of jurifd:&ion in the bay and river Dela
ware.
Upon considering, after your last recess, some circumstances
that have lately occured, I judged it expedient to consult the
Commander in Chief before I should give orders in purfuanCe of
your resolutions, for the march of the recruits and soldiers then
in the State, to the southward. In consequence of his answer,
and of the second letter abovementioned from the Secretary at
War, orders were issued for their march to Philadelphia, which
have been executed, as will appear by Captain Moore's letter of
the 7th of August.
As it appeared to me my indefpenfable duty to endeavour that
our militia should be placed on the most refpedable footing, I
have constantly and diligently applied my care to this great point.
Returns have been required of the military stores, and of the
arms, both public and private, fit for service, in each county.
These are now presented to you ; and from them you will observe,
how necessary it is that immediate provision Ihould be made for
procuring further flipplies of these articles: It is much to be
wiffied, that the General Affmbly would also devise means for
establishing an artillery company, with a competent number of
field pieces, in each county.
I have lately reviewed every regiment in the State, except the
eighth, and have been generally pleased with the appearance and
behaviour of the officers and privates on this occasion, and parti
cularly of Colonel Duff's, Colonel Hall's, Colonel Jones's, and
Col met Polk's regiments.
An adjustment of all public accounts is a business of such
moment, that it ought to be made with dispatch, and published
for the faosfaaion of cur constituents, and an officer of skill and
integrity should be appointed to keep them in perfect order for
the iutu?e; so that the General Assembly and Executive may
easily and without loss of time know the state of our Finances,
and avoid errors and difficulties in transitions relating to them.
The propriety tnd advantage of fucha measure are too manifeft
to need any aigunoents for enforcing its adoption.
Many of our titles to lands depend upon records in Pennsyl
vania. Tranferipts from them Ihould be obtained, and duly re
corded in some of our offices. It may not be improper, that a
Committee Ihould be im^wered to enquire and report whether
the records in general are fafely and properly kept.
The laws require very considerable amendments to be made,
for preventing substantial justice being defeated or delayed by un
necessary and injurious forms; for afeertaining with precision
the statutes prior to the Revolution that are to be regarded as
parts of our jnrifproderce: for securing the ineftintab'e benefits
of the writ of habeas corpus; and f r fixing the trial by jury on
such a folic bafr, as will guard as much as possible against its be
ing shaken by the dreadful efforts of party rage, if that blind
and dedruflive power, from which we are now so happily free,
Should in times to come attempt to pull d'own the pillars of our
Courts, for fopporting which the precious blood of our brave
fellow citizens l^as been so n bly offered and liberally poured out.
Regulations of this fort will be among the best inheritances we
can leave to our posterity.
Another amendment humanity compels me to propof? :—-
That persons manumitting healthy fiaves, not advanced in years,
Should not be obliged to give security for their maintenance, and
that slaves should not be sent upon file, or otherwise, to places
diftint from their usual residence, by which means affectionate
and near relations are cruelly separated from one another, and
the remainder of their lives extremely embittered. The Legi
slatures of several neighbouring States, moved by a deep sense of
the Divine fav Urs to them in this contest for their own freedom,
and by an enlightened commiseration, have lately passed laws for
alleviating the afflictions of this helpless, and too often abused
part of their fellow-creatures. I entertain the warmest hopes,
that the Legislature ot this State will emulate the most generous
and wife examples of this kind.
To THE FREEMEN of PENNSYLVANIA.
SEVERAL publications having lately appeared
against the honourable JOHN DICKINSON, es
quire, a number of the friends of tire freedom ani in
dependence of Pennsylvania beg leave to inform the
public, that the only reason why the falfehoods con
tained in them are not contradicted is, that Mr. Dick
inson has in letters addressed to each of the p inters, re
quested them to publish nothi g in his favor, and
EVERY THING THAT SHOULD BE OFFERED AGAINST
him, until the election of a president of the state was
over ; thereby difeovering a consciousness in his own
integrity, and a noble disinterestedness with refpeft to
the firft office in the state.
Mr. CLAYPOOLE.
I WROTE a letter to my correspondent in Philadel
phia in August last, part of which he published,
without my knowledge, in your paper of the aid of
that month; but as ne left out that part of it which
more immediately related to our ftuation on the fron
tiers, I beg leave to fend this direHly to yoorfelf:
My friend Pledges, in excuse for the omission, that
the paragraphs which he left out, seemed to imply my
approbation, that the people whose families and rela
tions had been murdered by the savage allies of Britain,
while at their peaceable employments, should take that
vengeance on tne prisoners of that cruel nation in our
power, which our rulers have hitherto refufed to take:
whereas, if 1 remember right, I said, that it was the
indilpenfable duty of those in power, to make the most
pointed remonstrances to the enemy, and to lay be
fore them the confluences of this unmanly method
of carrying on tire war, so contrary to the practice of
all civilized nations : that if, notwit! standing such
remonstrances, tne enemy should continue to murder
the frontier inhabitants, the innocent blood of this un
happy part of our fellow citizens would cry aloud to
those in power, to use the only means of prevention
tha' are left them—To retaliate upon the persons of
the enemy in our possession—That if this was the in
dispensable duty of congress, and of our generals, and
they should negle& that duty in future, as they had
hitherto done, and the enemy should continue that
conduct, which will render them abhorred as a nation,
while they shall continue to exist as such, the people
would be juflified in the fight of the Supreme Being,
and by the implied principles of all, as well as the ex*
press ptincip e of our government, in doing that, which
may God forbid that they should ever be driven by
despair to attempt. But if our mild treatment of the
@nemy has been confirued by them as the effea of fear,
and has been productive of innumerable scenes of wan
ton barbarity to our own citizens; if the inhuman mur
ders of many thousands of men, women and children
on our frontiers might have been prevented, if we had
invariably retaliated upon the enemy for every citizen
put to death contrary to the laws ot war—our conduct
might have been termed cruel by the phiiofopher in bis
cell, as he knows not the miseries that we have (offer
ed; but the man of real humanity would have called
it a merciful Severity.
These were, and tnefe are my sentiments, and it is
with deep anguish of mind that I find the ju slice and
the propriety of them already juflified by the event.
We had lately some faint glimmerings of hope, or
rather a momentary relief from unutterable distress,
whea we understood that two well planned expeditions
were going out against our savage foe, to operate in
different directions ?t one and the fame time, and which
promised fairer, to chastise them for tne many pad, and
to put it out of their power to commit future depre
dations, than any other since the commencements rfthe
of the British and barbarian alliance.—We exerted
ourselves in order to co operate with those coming to
our assistance, with anenergy which will hardly be ere.
JOHN DICKINSON.
Do^r, Goober 29, 1782.
Some of ynr readers, who never experienced the
horrors of war, may fay, that my sentiments favour of
cruelty—L-t me ask one of these humane gentlemen a
few questions—Did you ever spend a day in honest ru
ral industry, assisting ancient neighbours, perhaps re~
lations, to collect the hard earned labours of the year,
and was you awaked next morning, as day had crim-
Coned o'er the east, from that repose which you had
walked home at night to enjoy, by the inarticulate an
guish of one of them, with whom you ran towards the
humble cot which you had left the preceding evening
full of humbly happy inhabitants; but which you
then found in flames, and those with whom you lad
in jocund glee and cheerful toil passed the former day,
lying one here and another there, mangled in a man
ner horrible to human fight, and did you after Aria
search find that the messenger was the only one of a
large spreading family, who, by rising early to milk
the cows, had escaped the carnage? Have you been
beref of all your children by the hands of these but*
chers? or have you even loft a son or daughter, per
haps an only son or daughter, or a hoary father or
mother? Or a trifle compared to these losses, have you
had your all consumed, and been happy for a moment,
that you and your little ones had escaped and been
turn-d naked upon those neighbours who were scarce
ly ableto cover themselves ? have you for many fum
iners gone to bed in fear every night that you and all
four family would be murdered before morning? If
you cannot, my good fir, answer any of these questi
ons in the affirmative, you are in danger of pronounc
ing too hastily when you condemn the feelings of those
who can, and may you never be qualified to form a
proper judgment of them !
The hand that writes this has gathered up the feat
tered limb, and configured to the dust the mangled bo
dies of many with whom the writer had lived many
years in social intercourse; many of his neighbours
has he known put to death by the savage allies of Bri
tain, and those parts of their bodies which the foe left
entire, torn to pieces by the wolves, and even their
bones denied burial! many has he known whose rela
tions thought it a great alleviation of their grief, to be
able to heap a few logs to secure the bodies from beasts
of prey! miny hundred nights has the writer gone to
bed in dr ad that before morning the fate of those might
be his own !— I am informed that the only person that
we have as yet felefted for retaliation, is the eldest, if
not the only, son of a rich banker—the relations of
this unhappy office, if fehey have beard of his fate,
are the only proper persons to judge upon the poignan
cy of our feelings ; _tneir riches and our poverty make
no difference in this case.
dited by those who know into what extreme miter,
and poverty we have been reduced by the war: but
alas ! when we were nearly ready, the fatal order cams
which countermanded our march, under the delusive
assurances that Britain had called in her Indian allies.—
It is beyond the power of language to describe what
we felt upon this occasion —it was not horror, it was
not indignation, it was not pity, it was not difpair •
but it was a tumultuous mixture of all the passions
and affeCtions belonging to the family of pain, which
can actuate the human mind, and yet notwithstanding
our aflonifhment, our faint hopes and strong fears, I
did not hear a reflection hinted against our illustrious
and beloved general.—The countermanding orders had
the effect of a sudden and unexpeCt d thunder clap up
on those I saw (and I am informed that the fame mind
seemed to animate the whole frontiers) they sighed and
looked unutterable things, and yet when I 6xpreffed
my with that our great and good commander in chief
might not have been too easy of belief, they with one
voice answered, " he knows better than we do what wfil
be lor our good.”—ln this temper of mind did we con
tinue for some time; out the delusive feene of happi
nf, or rather the absence of extreme misery, was of
Ihort continuance. In a few days we were informed
tnat Britain was filling up the measure of her iniquities;
that her savage allies had, on different parts of the wa
ters of this river killed four and taken two people ; that
they had struck at the fame time the frontiers of Weft
moreland and Washington counties:—what mifehief
they nave done in these two counties, we in this re
mote corner have not heard. But we are credibly in
formed, that on the 13th inff. two persons were kill
ed and three taken prisoners within a few miles of
the town of Northumberland—May Heaven out of
partial ill, bring out univeifal good—The lot of us
Wno exist on the frontier^ is indeed a hard one ! com
plaints are wrung out of us, which to repeat would
Wound the humane minds of others, without affording
us any help—ls fir Guy is a man of tha. delicate fen-,
fibility of foul; if he has that high sense es national
and peffonal honour and humanity which I have often
hard him represented to have, he muff be, if possible,
more miserable than the unhappy people which he has
contributed to plunge into the extremity of human
woe! That a man of his chatader and age and coun
try, should degrade himfelf so much as to become the
mouth of a faithlefs nation; should sloop to declare in
the most folemo manner, what he is in a short time
obliged to contradid, or what the conduct of his na
tion gives him the lie in, is humiliating indeed ! If he
has given general Washington such positive and une
quivocal affuraoces, as I have heard, that the Indians
were called in, and if th<fe allies of Britain continue
to put our frontier citizens to death, these assurances
ought to be confidtred as insults added to the barbarities
the enemy ; for were they in earnest, these savages
would not dare to continue their depredations a day
longer, and it is credulity in us, indeed, to believe
any such orders were ever given in earnest, unless we
experience their effi^.—What ought to be our con
duft in such a predicament ?—The blood of every citi
zen whom they fhal put to death contrary to laws of
war, will lie upon our own heads, should we neglect to
retaliate, in the most decided manner, upon a nation
which has degraded human nature!
If f have a cruel tieart, the many barbarities of Bri
tons and tneir allies to which I have beep wiinefs, have
hardened it--may the God of heaven and earth in his
mercy to his creatures, forbid that we should be driven
to the dreadful necessity of retaliation -it is never juf-