The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1779-07-03 00:00:00, page 2

PHILADELPHIA, July 3 .
Extrafl of a letter from bis Excellency Governor Jefferfox
to the President of Congress, dated Wiltiamf&rgb, June
19, 1779-
"S I R,
cc ret HE inclosed order being in its nature important
M and generally mtcreftmg, Thought it my duty to
lay it before Congress as early as possible, with the reasons
supporting it; nothing doubting but it will meet with tueir
approbation ; its justice seems to have been confirmed by
tee general fettle of the people here.,
"Before the receipt of your letter'defiring a Rate to be
made out of the ravages and enormities, uojuftifiible by
the usage of civilized nations, committed by the enemy on
th ir lite invasion near Portsmouth, I had taken measures
for the fame purpose, meaning to traufmii them to you.
They are not yet returned to me. 7 have given the fame
orders with refpeH to their still later proceedings 111 the
county of Northumberland.
“ I have the pleasure to inclofe you the particulars of
Col. Clarke's success against ^t. Vmcenne, as dated in his
letters but lately deceived, the mefrehger with the firfl let
ter having been killed. I inclofe also a letter from Col.
Shelby, stating the effect of his success against the feeding
Cherokees of Chuccamogga. The dam^ge done them was
the killing about half a dozen, burning eleven towns,
twenty thousand bushels of corn, probably collected to for
ward the expeditions which were to have been planned at
the Council whit h was to meet Governor H imilton at the
mouth of Teniffee, and taking as many goods as fold for
'twenty-five thousand pounds.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your mod obedient and mod humble servant,
THOMAS JEFFERSON."
Extras of a letter from Cel. Clarke, dated April 29, 1779.
'' Afwd ys ago I received certain intelligence of Wil
liam Moires, my express to you being killed near the falls
of Ohio. News truly difagreeaole to me, as I ear many
of my letters will fall into the hands of the enemy at De
troit, altho' some of them, as I learn, were found in the
woods, torn to pieces. I don't doubt but before the re
ceipt of tills, you will hear of my late enterprize againd
Governor Hamilton, at Port St. Vidcent. That gentle
nna, with a body of 600 men, Whites and Indians, pos
sessed themselves of that pod on the 15th of December last,
repaired the fortifications for a repository, and in the spring
intended to attack this post, (which he made no dou t of
Carrying) where he was t # >be joined by 200 Indians from
Mechilimainoi, and 500 Cherokees and Chickasaws and
other nations. With this body he was to penetrate up
the Onio to Fort Pitt, (weaping Kentucky on his way,
(having light brass cannon for the purpose) joined on his
way by all the Indians that could be got tohim, he made
no doubt, it seems, of forcing all Weft Augusta. This ex
pedition was ordered by the Commander in Chief of Ca
DedruHion seemed to hover over us from every
quarter. Detached parties from the edemy daily in the
neighbourhood, but afraid to attack I ordered Major
Bowman to evacuate the fort at the Cohas, and join me
immediately, which he did. Having not received a fciip
of a pen from you fcr near twelve months, I could fee but
little probability ofk^ping possession of the country, as
my number of men were too few to stand a siege, and my
situation too remote to call for assistance. I made ail the
preparations I possibly could for the attack, and was under
2 necessity of setting fire to some of the houses in town, to
clear them out of the way. But in the hei ht of the hurry
a Spanish merchant that had been at St. Vincent, arrived,
and ^ave the following intelligence, that Mr. Hamilton
had 'weakened himfelf by fending his Indians against the
frontiers, and to block up the Ohio; that he had not more
than eighty men in garrison, three pieces of cannon and
some fwiels p mounted ; that he intented to attack this
place as soon as the winter opened, and m de no aoubt of
clearing the Western waters by the fall. My situation and
circumstances occasioned me to fall on that resolution of
attacking him before he could have time to colled his
Indians 'again. I was sensible that the ref®lution was as
desperate as my fixation was , but I saw no other proba
bility of securing the country. I immediately difpitched
off Zfmall galley that I had fitted up, mounting two four
pounders, and four swivels, with a company of men and
necessary flores on board, with orders to force her way if
possible, and station herfelf a few miles below the enemy,
fuffer nothing to pass her, and wait for further orders. Iri
the mean time Imarched across the country, with one
hundred and thirty men, being all that I could raise, alter
leaving this place garrisoned by the militia. The iiihabi
tants of the country behaved exceedingly well. Numbers
of young men turned out on the expedition, and every o
ther one I embodied to guard the different towns.
" I marched the 7th of February, altho' so small a body,
it took me sixteen days on the route. The inclemency of
the season, high water, fcc. seemed to threaten the Ibfs-of
the expedition, when within three leagues of the enemy.
It took us five days to cross the drowned lands of the Wau
bafh river, having to wade upwards of two leagues often
up to our breads in water. Had mot the weather been
warm we mud have perifli'd. But on the evening of the
23d we got on dry land, in fight of the enemy, and at se
ven o'clock made the attack, before they knew any thing
of us. The town immediately surrendered with joy, and
assisted in the siege. There was a continual fire on both
sides for ei t hleen hours. I had no expectation of gaining
the fort, until the arrival of my artillery. The moon fet
tin^ about one o'clock. I had an intrenchnri^nt flung up in
rifle-iliot of their dronged battery, and poured in fucli
Showers of well directed balls into their polls, that we
silenced two pieces of cannon in fifteen nlmittes, without
getting a man hurt. Governor Hamilton and myfelf bad
the following day several conferences, but not agreeing,
until the evening, when he agreed to surrender the garri
ion prisoners of war, in the whole 79, with considerable
stores. I got only one man wounded, not being able
to lose many, I made them secure themselves well ; fe-
Ven badly wounded in the fort through the ports. In
the height of this action an Indian party that had been
to war and taken two prisoners, came in, knowing nothing
of us—hearing of them, I sent a party to give them battle
in the commons, and got nine of them, and the two pri
soners, which proved to be Frenchmen—hearing of a con
vey of provisions and goods on their way from Detroit, I
sent a party of sixty men in armed boats, well mounted
with swivels, to meet them before they should receive any
intelligence, they met the convoy forty leagues up the ri
ver, and made a prize of the whole, taking forty prisoners,
and about ten thousand pounds worth of goods and pro
,vifions, also the mail from Canada to Governor Hamilton,
but no news of importance. But what crowned the joy of
every perlon, was the fafe arrival of William Moires with
your letters, which gave every fatisfadion y®u could have
desired, the soldiery being made sensible of the gratitude
of their country, for their services was so much elevated,
that they would have attempted the reduction of Detroit,
had I have ordered them. Having more prisoners than I
knew what to do with, I was obliged to difeharge the
,greated part of them on parole. Mr. Hamilton, his prin
cipalofficers and.a few soldiers I have sent to Kentucky,
under convoy of Captain Williams, in order to be con
cluded to you; after defpatchirag Moires with letters to
you, treating with the neighbouring Indians, &c. Ire
turned to this place, leaving a fufficieut garrison at St.
Vincent. During my absence Captain Robert George,
who now commands the company formerly Captain Wil
lings's, had arrived from New Orleans, <vhich greatly ad
ded to our drength. It gave great fatisfaflion to the
inhabitants, when acquainted with the protection that was
given them, the alliance with France &c.
" Those Indians that are active against us are the Six
Nations, part of the Shawanefe, the Meamies and about
half of the Chepieweys, Attawaas, /Tawyaas, and Pau
tawatime nations, bordering on the Lakes; those nations
that have treated with me have behaved since very well,
to wit, the P^ankifhaws, Kicapoci's, Onaottinaus of the
Wabash River, the Kalkafkies, Peori ins, Mechigamies,
Foxes, Serks, Opays, Illinois, Shoees, and Poses nati
ons of the M frifippi and Illinois Rivers ; part of the Chi
pawaas have also treated and are peaceable.
“ I continually keep Agents among them to watch their
motions, and to keep them peaceably disposed; many of
the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and their confederates, are, I
fear, ill disposed. It would be well if Col. Montgomery
.was to give them a drefling as he comes down the Tenif
fee; there can be no peace expeHed from many nations
while the English are at Detroit. I Wrongly fufpe& that
they will turn their arms against the Illinois, at they will
be encouraged to do it.
" I ffiallalwiys be on my guard; watching every op
portunity to take the advantage of the enemy; and if I
am ever able to muster fix or Invert hundred men, I shall
give them a shorter distance to come and fight me than at
this place.
" Our alliance ^ith France has entirely devoted this
people to the American cause, and I have sent several
transitions of the articles to Detroit, and don't doubt but
that it will anfiver the desired effeft
" Your inftruHions to me I shall pay an implicit obe
dience to, and am in hopes to coaduß myfelf so as to do
honor to my country.
I am, Sir, with the greatest refpea,
Your very humble servant,
G. R. C LARKE.
To His Excellency Patrick Henry."
W I I. L I A M S BU R G, (Virginia.)
In COUNCIL, June 16, 1779.
#r H E Board proceeded to the confideratjon of the
$ [letters of Col. Clarke, and other papers relating to
Henry Hamilton, Esq; who hAsaHed some years past ^s
Lieutenant Governor of the settlement at and about De
troit, [and commandant of the British garrison there, under
Sir Guy Carletom as Governor in Chief; Philip Dejean,
Jufnee of the Peace for Detroit, and William Lamethe,
Capt. of volunteers, prisoners of war, taken in the county
of Illinois.
They find that Governor Hamilton has executed the
talk of inciting the Indians to perpetrate their accustomed
cruelties on the citizens of these states, without diftinHion
o' age, sex, or condition, with an eagerness and aHivity
which evince that the general nature of his charge harmo
nized with his particular disposition ; they should have been
Satisfied from the other testimony adduced that these enor
mities were committed by savages afting under his com
mission, but the number of proclamations which, at differ
ent times were left in houses, the inhabitants of which were
killed or carried away by the Indians, one of which pro
clamations, under the hand and seal of Governor Hamil-*
ton, is in possession of the Board, puts this fad beyond
doubt. At tue time of his captivity it appears, that he had
sent considerable detachments of Indians against the fron
tier settlements of these states, and had actually appointed
a great council of Indians to meet him at the mouth of the
Taniffee, to concert the operations of this present cam
paign. They find that his treatment of our citizens and
soldiers, captivated and carried within the limits of has com
mand, has been cruel and inhuman; that in the case of
John Dodge, a citizen of these states, which has been par
ticularly stated to this Board, he loaded him with irons,
threw him into a dungeon, without bedding, without
flraw, without fire, in the dead of winter and severe climate
of Detroit; that in that date he harraffed and wafted him,
with incessant expectations of death; that when the rigours
of his filiation had brought him so low that death seemed
likely to withdraw him from their power, he was taken
out and attended to till somewhat mended, and then again,
before he had recovered abilities to walk, was returned to
his dungeon, in which a hole was cut seven inches square
only; for the admifiion of air, and the fame load of irons
again put on him; that appearing again to be in imminent
danger of being loft to them, he was a second time taken
from his dungeon, in which he had lain from January to
June, with the intermission btforementioned of a few weeks
only; that Governor Hamilton gave standing rewards
for scalps, but offered none for prisoners, which induced
the Indains, after making their captives carry their bag
gage into the nighbourhood of the fort, there to put them
to death, and carry in their scalps to the Governor, who
welcomed their return and fuccefles by a difeharge of can
non ; that when a prisoner brought alive, and destined to
death by the Indians, the fire already kindled, and him
felf bound to the flake, was dexterously withdrawn and
feereted from them by the humanity of a fellow prisoner;
a large reward was offered for the difeovery of the victim,
which having tempted a servant to betray his concealment,
the present prisoner Dejain being sent with a party of sol
diers, Surrounded the house, took and threw into jail the
unhappy victim, and his deliverer, where the former soon
expired uader the perpetual assurances of Dejean, that he
was to be again restored into the hands of the savages, and
the latter when enlarged was bitterly and illiberally re
primanded and threatened by Governor Hamilton,
"S I R, Wafoington, June 4, 177^.
" Since my last which I had the honor to address to
your Excellency, some of the Chiefs of the peaceable towns
of the Cherokee nations of Indians came into Fort P. Hen
ry, where they delivered some talks which I herewith
fend you. Some Short time since I received a letter from
the Chiefs of Chickamogga, accompanied with one other
from Oconaftota, the Great Warrior of Chota, with or
ders to dispatch them to your Excellency, which I also
fend you by express. It gives me real fatisfaHion to find
by the contents of those letters and other cir^umftances,
that those people are reduced to a sense of their duty and a
willingness to treat for peace with the United States, which
I flatter myfelf will ease us in some measure frora the cala
mities incident to an Indian war.
" I am informed that the Chiefs of the Chickamogga
towns have since my departure from that place difeharged
all the white people and traders from amongst them who
came from Mobille, or had connexions with the British
party, and from the purport of their letters it seems they
depend solely on the State of Virginia for goods. I would
therefore beg leave to offer it & my ©pinion, that if feme
necessary goods could be procured for them it might an
swer a good end. I am, &c.
EVAN SHELBY.
His Excellency the Governor of Virginia."
Published by order of Congress,
CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.
In COMMITTEE, July 2, t 77 9.
'"re? HEREAS a quantity of flour has been purchas
ed by Jonathan Rumford, Jun. of the State of
Delaware, under the direction of Mr. Holker, Consul and
Agent General of the' Marine of France, and Mr. Robert
Morrris, Merchant, of tkeTcity of Philadelphia: And
whereas the price given for^fe said flour exceeds the regu
lated market price, and thereby tends to depreciate the
currency of this country, as well as to put Qur good allies
to an unnecessary expence of purchase and enercajed com
millions : And whereas it is our intention and determina
tion to support the interest of ®wr allies as well as the
currency of our country, and to preserve the former from
imposition, and the later from depreciation, and in all
cases to do as we would be done by: Therefore
Refolded, That the flour aferefaid be detained under the
care of the Committee, and that Mr. Holker and Mr.
Morris be properly notified thereof, in order that such
measures may be taken as the case may require.
Refolded, That the thanks of this Committee be given
to the Committee of Wilmington for their information
and assistance rejecting the above; and that we hold
ourselves accountable to them for one hundred and eighty
two barrels of flour received.
WILLIAM HENRY, Chairman,
It appears to them that the prisoner Dejuan, was on ah
eccafions the willing and cordial instrument of Governor
Hamil;on, anting both as judge and keeper of the gaol,
and mftigating and urging bim by malicious insinuations
and untruths, to increase rather than relax his Severities,
heightening the cruelty of his orders by (lie manner of
executing them ; off ring at one time a reward to one pri
soner to be the hangman of another,, threatning his life on
refufd, and taking from his prisoners the little property
their opportunities enabled them to acquire.
It appears that the prisoner Larnothe, was a Captain of
the volunteer fcalpivg parties of Indians and whites, who
went out, from time to time, under general orders, to
spare neither men, women, nor children.
From this detail of circumstances which arose in a few
cases only, coming accidently to the knowledge of the
Board, they think themselves authorized to presume by
fair deduction what would be the horrid history of the
fufFerings of the many who have expired under their mi
series (which therefore will remain for ever untold) or
who having escaped from them, are yet too remote and
too much dispersed to bring together their well grounded
accusations against these prisoners.
They have seen that the conduct of the Britifli officers,
civil and military, has in its general tenor, through the
w' ole course of this war, been savage and unprecedented
among civilized nations; tnat our officers and fo'diers
taken by them have been loaded with irons, consigned to
loathsome and crouded gaols, dungeons, and prison Ships ;
Supplied often with no food, generally with too little for
the sustenance of nature, and that little Sometimes unsound
and unwholesome, whereby so many of them have perilh
ed that captivity and inferable death have wi h them been
almost fynonimous ; that tti'ey have been transported be
yond seas where their fate is out of the reach of cur enqui
ry, have been compelled to take arms against their coun
try, and by a new refinement in cruelty to : eceme the
mhrtherers of their own brethren.
Their prisoners with us have, on the other hand, been
treated with moderation and humanity ; they have been
fed on all occasions with wholesome and plentiful food,
lodged comfortably, fuffered to go at large within exten
sive trails of country, treated with liberal hospitality,
permitted to live in the families of our citizens, to labour
for themselves, to acquire and to enjoy property, and final
ly to participate of the principal benefits of society while
privileged from all its burthens.
Reviewing this coritraft, which cannot be denied by
,chr enemies themselves in a Single point, which has now
been kept up during four years of unremitted war, a term
long enough to produce well founded despair that our mo
deration may ever .lead them into the practice of humani
ty, called on by that justice which we owe to those who
are fighting the battles of their country, to deal out at
length miseries to their enemies, mdafure for measure, and
to distress the feelings of mankind by exhibiting to them
Spectacles of Severe retaliation, where we had long and
vaihly endeavoured to introduce an emulation in kindness;
happily poneffed by the fortune of war of some of those
very individuals, who having diftinguilhed themselves
personally in this line of cruel conduct, are fit fubjeCts to
begin on with the w rk of retaliation, this Board has re
solved to advise the Governor that the said Henry Hamil
ton, Philip Dejean, and William Lamothe; prifoners' of
war, be put into irons, confined in the dungeon of the
public gaol, debarred the use of pen, ink and paper, and
excluded all converse except with their keeper. And the
Governor orders accordingly. (A Copy)
Aitefl. ARCHIBALD BLAIR, C. C.