The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1777-02-03 00:00:00, page 2

strjeantß, 53 rank aid file killed, I Lieutenant Calo:
nel ; 3 Captains, 8 Lieutenants,!i Serjeants, 3 Drum
mers, 231 rank and file wounded ; 1 Lieutenant, 1
Serjeant 350 rank and file miffing.
Lift of Offices killed, wounded and miffing
KILLED,
Captain Sir Alexander Murray, 17th regiment,
Lieut. Col. Grant, 40th, ditto.
Captain Neifon, §2d, ditto.
Capt. Logan, 2d r^gr. marines.
Second Lieut. I,swell, royal artillery.
WOUNDED.
Lieut. Morgan, 17th regiment.
Captain Gov, 23d ditto.
Lieut. Crammond 42 . ditto.
Lieut. Muir, 43d ditto.
Lieut. Weir, of ditto.
Captain Brown, 44 h ditto.
Captain Kenedy, of ditto.
Lieut. Col. Monkton, 45th dittos
Lieut. Powell, 42 h ditto.
Lieut. Addison, §zd ditto.
Lieut. Nugeat, ift regiment of marines.
MISSIN G.
Lieut. Ragg, zl regiment of marines, prifoneY.
Hessian troops, 2 rank and file killed; 23 rank and
file wounded.
Major Paoli, Captain O'Rtil) ? Lieutenant Detop,
wounded.
T^/fanc^ C RISIS NuMberlL
To Lord HO W E,
“ Whit's in the name of Lord that IShould fear,
'' To briwg w, grievance to the public ear.
Churchill.
TTNlVEßSALempiteit th prerogative of a writer.
Hi concerns are with ai'lmankind, and though
he cannot command their obedience,he can aflign them
their duty. Tm« Republic of Letters is more ancient
than monarchy, end of far higher charader in the
work, than the vassal court of Britain , he that rebels
ngaini reason, is a real rebel, but he th^t in defence
of r fan, rebels against tyranny, has a better title to
" Defender of the Faith" than George the
Third.
Asamilitary maa your Lordflfp may hold out the
sword of war, and call it the " Ultima Ratio Re
gum ." The lafl Reason of Kings; we in return can
ihow you du tword of justice, and call it, 66 The best
Scourge of Tyta&s." The firft of these two may
threaten or even frighten, for 2 while,a^d c&ft a sick-
I, languor over an insulted people, but reason will
fjon recover the debauch, and refture them again to
tranquil fortitude. Your Lordihip I find, has now
commenced author and publifh^d a proclamation; I
too have published a crisis ; as they Hand they are the
antipodes of each other; both cannot rife at once,and
one of them muti defend : And so quick is the revo
lution of things, that your Lordlhip’s performance,- I
fee,has already fallen ma&ydegrees from its firft pbcf,
and ri now jR vifibe on the edge of |he political
horizon
It is farprifing to what pitch of infatuation, blind
folly, and obftin'acy will c^rry mankind, and your
L:rShip's d'owfy proclamation is a proofthat it does
not even quit them in their fl^ep. Perhaps you
thought America too was taking anap, and therefore,
chose, like fu^ to E<e, to whisper the delation Lft
ly, kfty^u should awaken her. TI is Continent, Sir,
is tocexienfive to sleep all at once, and too watchful,
even in iu flumben, not to startle at the unhollowed
foot of an invader. You may iffus your proclamati
ons, arid welcome, for w< have learned to '• to rever
race curflvob" and Lorn the iafultiag ruffian that em
ploys yen. America for your deceived brother's fike
would gladly have fhowa r^fped, and iiit a new ag
gravatba tohir feelings chat H''"" Should be forget
ful, a d rail:hi fvorl agrinft th ft,who at their own
charge railed a mo^umvnt to his brother. But your
ma^r h^ commanded, and you have not enough of
mature left to refute. Surely ! There must be fome
thin, strangely degenerating in the love of monarchy,
that"can so completely wear a man down toaningrate,
and make him proud to lick the dust that kings have
trod upon. A f^w more years, should you farvive
them, will bellow nn you the title of an old man, and
in fom^ hour of future rrfhaion you may probably
find the fitnefs of Woolfey's defoairing penitence,
“ Had lforced my God as faithfuls, as I formed m, king,
« bo w^ld not thus bave forfaken me in a, old ^ age."
T e charader you appear to us in is truly ridiculous.
Your fiends, the Tories, announced your coming
with high descriptions of your unlimited powers; but
your proclamation has given the lie, by shewing you
to be a Comin ffioner without authority. Had your
powers been ever so great, they were nothing to us,
fir her than we ple2fed ; because we had the fame
right vhich other nations had, to do what we thought
was b^ft. “ The United Statesof America,"
will found as pompoufl, in the world or in history as
The Kingdom of Great Britain ;" The charader of Gene
ra! Washington will fill a page with as much luftre as
that of Lord House ; and the Congress have as much
right to command th^ King and Parliament of London,
to desist from l^gtfluijn, as the, or ,0# have to com
mand the Congress Only suppose how laughable
fach an edi& would appear to us, and then, in that
merry mood, do but turn the tables upon yeurfelf, and
you will fee how your proclamation is received here.
Having thus placed you in a proper petition in which
you may have a fall view of,oar folly & learn todtfpife
it, I hold up to you, for that purpose, the following
quotation ft m your own lunarian proclamation
" And We (Lord Howe and General Howe) " do
command, (and in his Majeft/s name fertoothj " all
" such persons as are affambled together under the
" name of general or provincial Congreffei,Commit
" teas, Conventions, or other Affociationr, by what
“ ever name or names known or distinguished, to de
'' fift and cease from all fitch treasonable adings and
" doiags,"
You introduce your proclamation by referring to
your declarations of the 14th of July and isth ofSept.
Is the last of these, , o ^ funk youifelf below the cha
ratler of a private ge^Seman. That I may not seem
to accuse unjustly I Ihall state the circum&ance: By a
verbal invitation of fours communicated to Coagrefs
by General Sullivan, then a prisoner on his parole,you
fignified your deftre of conferring with some members
of that body a# private gentlemen. It was beneath
the dignity of the American Congress to pay any re
gard to a rasffagc th ft% at b t ft was tutagenteel affront,
and had too much of 0 ministerial complexion of
tampering with private persons; and which probably
might have been the cafe,had the geatlemea who were
deputed on that bufinrfi, poffeffad that e&fy kind of
virtue which an English courtieris so truly diftißguifi
@d by. Your request however was complied with set
honefl men ere naturally more tender of their civil
than their political fame. The interview ended as e
v„ fenfibie man thought it would ; for your Lord
ship knows, as well as the writer of the Crifis,ih&t it ii
impoffibie for the kiagof England to promise the re-"
peal, or even the revifal, of any a&s of parliament;
wherefore, on your part, you had nothing to fay,more
then to request, in the room of demanding, the entire
furrend^r of the Continent; and then, if that was
complied with, to promise that the inhabitants should
escape wih their lives. This was the upffiot of the
conference. Yjv informed the conferees that you
were two months in foliciring these powers. Wesffc,
what powers ? for as a Commissioner you have none.
If you mean the power of pardoning, it is an oblique
proof that your master was determined to facrifice all
before him ; and that you were two months in diffuad
iag him from his purpose. Another evidence of his
favagi obstinacy 1 From your own account ts the mat
ter we may justly draw these two coaclufions; fieft,
that you feive a monster ; and fecund!,, that never
was a commiffi mt sent on a more fooliffi errand than
youifelf. Thia plain language may perhaps found
uncoothly to er. ear vitiated by courtly refinements ;
but words were made for use, and the fault lies in de
serving them, or the abufc in applying them unfairly.
Soon after your return to New York you published
every illiberal and unmanly hand bill egainft the
Ceagrefs; for it was certainly flapping out of the line
of common civility, fid to fcken your national pride
by fdiciting an interview wiih them as private gen
tlemsn, and in the conclusion to endeavour to deceive
the multitude by miking an hand bill attack on the
whole body of the Congress ; you got them together
Under one name, and abuied them under another.
But the king yau serve e^d thecaufeyou support afford
you so few instances of #aing the gentleman, that cut
of pity to your situation the Congress pardoned the in
sult by taking no notice of it.
You fay in the hand-bill, “ that they, the Con
" grefs, disavowed every purpefe ofyecoaciliatioa not
" Gonfonant with their extravagant and inadmissible
“ claim of Independence." Why, G d blefi me !
what have you to do with our independence ? wezUno
leave of yoursto fetit up; we elk no money ofyour: 10
fupportit; wecan do betterwithout year fleets &a: mies
than with them ; you may focn have enough to do to
prated yourselves wi boat being burthened with us We
are very willing to be at peace with you, to buy of you
and fell to you, and, liks young beginners in the
world, to woikfor our own living; therefor e,why doyou
put yourselves out of calh. when we know you cannot
spare it, and we do not desire you to run into debt? I
am willing, Sir, you should fee your folly in every
view I cam place it, and for that reason defeend feme
tim^s to tell you injeft what I wish you to fee in ear.
nest. But to be more serious with you, why do you
fa, " their" lidependence ? To set you right, Sir,
we tell you, that the Independency is ours net theirs.
Th: Congress were authorifed by every St^te on the
Continent to publish it to all the world, and in so do
ing are not considered as tht investors, but only as the
heralds that proclaimed it, or the office from which the
sense of the people received a legal form ; and it was
as much as any or all their heads were worth, to have
treated with you on the subj a of submission under any
name whatever. But we know the men in whom we
have trusted, can England fay the fame of her parlia
ment ?
I come now more particularly to your proclamation
of the 30th of November left. Had you gained an
entire conquest over all the armies of America, and
then put forth a proclamation, offering (what you call)
mercy, your condu& would have had some specious
ihow of humanity ; but to creep by surprise into a
province, and there endeavour to terrify and seduce
the inhabitants fiom their j uft allegiance to the rest by
promises, which you neither meant nor are able to ful
fil, is borh cruel and unmanly . • Ciuel in its effids ;
because, unlefi you can keep all the ground you have
marched over, how are you, in the words of your pro
clamation, to secure to your proselytes " the enjoy
ment of their property ?" What are to become either
of y our new adopted fubjeas, or your old friends the
Tories, in Burlington, Bordentown, Trenton, Mount
holly, and many other places where you proudly
lorded it for a fewdays,& then fled with the precipita
tion of a purfied thief ? What, I fay, are to become of
those wretches? What are to kterc^ ^ these ^4s
went over tv you fem this city and State ? Wha#
more can you fay to th^m than" ^ift f r ,o„h, e ^
Or whit more can they hope for than 10 wander like
vagabonds over the face bi the earth ? You mty hetf
tell them to take their bive of America and all that
once was theirs. Recommend them, ft, confolatio»;
to your maftet's court; there perhaps they may mik^
a fhift to live on the scraps of force dangling parafiic,
and choose companions among thousands like them.'
selves. A traitor is the fculaft fiend on earth !
In a political sense we ought to thark you for tb^
bequeathing estates to the Continent • we shall focn,
at mis rate; be able to carry on a war without expellees
and grow rich by the ill policy of Lord Howe and th©
general defection of the Tones. Had you fit your
foot into this city you would have bestowed estates up
or us which we niver thought of, by bringing forth
traitors we were unwilling to fufpd. But these me^, ;
you'll fey; " are bis majeftfs moftfaithfulfaty&$ ; " U^
that honour then be ail their fortune, end let hi^
jefty take them to himfelf.
lam now thorough!, dif^efled with th,m ; so live ies
Ungrateful safe dud ber.d their whole minds tamifebif. h
fems as if God bad given them over to a f,irit of irfdeli
tj, and that the, are open to conviction in no other line so
that of punishment. It is time to have done tarring fea
thering, carting, had taking fauritiesfor tbeir future gedd
behaviour; e^erjfofbh man mdflfal a confeton, fame a?
feeing a poor follow tanked for a sow about the fireets.
when it is known that be is only the tool of fam grincipt,
toilliaft, bitejea into bis offeree if the force of false rty,fr,
6r bribed thereto throughfad neceffit,. We difaior cu„&j
b, attacking fab trying characters, while greater ores ars
ftferedto ejeape; 'tis cur aut, to find them out, and their
proper pttnifement would be to exite them from the Continent
forever. The circle of them is xetf great asfame imagine;
the influence of a few have tainted man, who are not natu
ral!, corrupt. A continual circulation of he; among tbofc
•Who are not much in the waj of bearing them confoiai
will in time pafsfor truth; and the crime lies not in the be
liever but in the inventor. lam rot for declaring war a
gainji ever, man that appears not so warm as miff : Det.
jerence of confitution, temper, habit of fteak^g and mc%
other things will go a great wa, infixing the outward cba.
rader of a man. yet fafle beneft, "ma, remain at bottom.
Some men have naturally a militar, turn, and can bravo
hardships and the rife of life with a cbtarful face ; others
baw not, no flavor, appears to tbem so great as fatigue of
arms, and no terror so powerful as that of perfanal danger %
What can we fa, ? We cannot alter nature,' neither ^gh
we topunsfhtbefonbecauje the father begat him in acoward
l, mood. However, I believe mos men have more cguiqc^
than the, know of, and that a little at Jirf is enough tob„
with. I knew the time when I thought that the whiffling
of a cannon ball would have frightened me afneft to dcaf°
but I havefines tried it, anafnal can fad it with as lit'-
tle difcomppfure, and (I believe) with a much ecfar con
faience than,our Lerfbip. The feme dread would return
to me again were I in,our Situation for m, folcmn belief of
your calf: is, that it is bdlijh and damnable, and tinker iba?
£Gnviflten ever, thinking man's heart must fail him.
From a concern that a good caufefauld be dishonoured b?
the leaf diJunion among us, Ifaid in m, former paper, No. 1,
" I'bat fauld the enem, now be expelled, I wijb 'with all
" the facerit, of a cbrifian,tbat the names of Whig and
" For, might never more be mentioned;" but there is a knot
of men among us of fab a venomous caf that the, will not
admit even one's good wishes to act in their favour. In
faad of rejoicing that Haven bad, as it wire, providentt
^ preserved this cit, from plunder and defruaun, b, de
livering so great apart of theenemy into our bands with so
littie effufan of blood, tbejfubbornl, affided to dfaeve it
till within a* bear, nay half an hour, cf the prfaers ar
riving : A^dibe Quakers put fortba teftmon,, dated the
zotb of December, Jigned " John Pemberton," declaring
tbeir attachment to the Britife government.* These men
are continually harping on the great fa of our bearing arms,
but the king of Britain ma, la, wajie the world in blood and
famine, andibe,, poorfallen fouls, have nothing to fay.
(To be continued in our next )
* I have ever been careful of chugiag L ff tf nces upon'
whjle focietics of men, but as the paper referred to ia
put forth by an unknown set of men, who claim to
themselves the right of representing the whole ; and
while the whole society of Quakers admit its validity
by a silent acknowledgement, it is impossible that any
diftinaion can be m^de by the public ; and the mote
so because the New-York paper, cf the 30 h of Decem
ber, printed by p rmiffion rs our enemies, faysthat
46 the Quakers begin to freak openly of their attachment to
" the British confitution.” We are certain that we
have many friends among them, and wilh to knew
them.
Head-Quarters in Morris 'town, January 10 '
Mr. WATSON, '
J Have it in commandfrom bis Excellency Gen. Wafeing
ton, to inform the Gentlemen Officers whose Names are
here mentioned, that the, are reriafd from tbeir Parolee
which they gave General Carleton, by an Exchange of others
of the fame Rank and Number belonging to the British Ar
my. Four publishing it in,our next, will much oblige, Sir,
your me, bumble fervaet,
SAMUEL B. WEBB, A. D. C.
MAJORS. Meigs, Bigelow.
CAPTAINS. Lamb, Topham, Thayer, Mor
gan, Ward, Goodrich Hanchett.
LIEUTENANTS. M'Dougall, Compton, Clark,
Webb, Ffebiger, Heth, Savage, Browr, Nichola,
Bruin, Steel.
ENSIGN Tifdal.
VNLUNTEERS. Oswald, Duncan, Lockfr,
M'Gnite, Potteifidt, Henry.