The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1780-12-02 00:00:00, page 2

To dodor William Shippen, jurt.
Diredor General of the Military Hospitals of the
United States.
JT is in vain to aftft a contempt for my anf,ver to
your 6rft publications. You have seen (for
feel nothing) the effect of it in part upon the legisla
ture of Pennsylvania. They have difmiffe^ the ho
nourable Mr. Matlack for fifpporting you in Congress.
As this gentleman was eloquent in debate and capable
ii? business, I lament the lass of his talents to the Pub
lic- but as he was the friend of a (peculator in office,
I rejoice in his. difmiffion. I now feel more pleasure
in bei r g a Pennsylvanian than ever. Dear aflylum of
my ancestors, and place of my nativity, f I will ever
love thee, and honour thee, for this facrince which
thou hall offered upon the altar of public virtue.
Let tyrants and public defaulters ceafb to complain
of the freedom f have taken with the votes of Congress.
The enemy know full well that a free press is the en
sign of liberty, and all their hopes of conquering us
are in vain, while that bulwark of freedom exists a
mong us. They measure the probability of their suc
cess in the present contest, entirely by the number
and degrees of our vices, and hence tney exult only
when they hear o; men without principle and without
character, being advanced to the firft honours and
offices in oir country. They sicken at the fight of
those publications, which point out the defects in the
adminiCration of our governments, and expose the
folly and tyranny of our rulers.
There art two things absolutely necessary to make a
Congress truly refpefUble, They should recoiled at
all times that they are a sovereign power. This will
teach them to preserve their dignity, and prevent their
feeling the force of obligations, Which destroy the
freedom and independance of their votes. They should
confider likewise, that they are tie rulers of a repub
lic. As virtue is the only basis of this form of go
vernment, a constant sense of the necessity of flipport
ing it should pervade hll their efts and resolutions.
They should both in their public and private capaci
ties bear a testimony not only against offences com
Fitted against the kites, bur against every species of/
vice and immorality. They should moreover confider
tbemfelves as the servants of the public, and learn to
pay a proper deference upon all occasions to the opi
nions and inclinations of the people. Such a condud
in members of Congress, would secure them from re
proach, and render ti em once more the guardians and
fathers of our country.
I proceed now to take notice of that part of your
evidence, which is intended to exculpate yod from the
charge of fraud in felling hospital Hores as private pro
perty.
After paying the refpe& that is due to the oath of
Mr, Thomas Smith, and the declaration of colonel
Moylan, refpeding your purchasing five or fix pipes
of vrine of messieurs Coningham, Neibitt and compa
ny, give me leave to aik you the following questions.
Why did you not apply to one of the gentlemen of
that house for a certificate, declaring those pipes of
wine to be private property ? in a case so delicate as
to require the advice of your friends, whether there
was any thing wrong in purchasing this wine upon
your own account, it would have men natural to have
distinguished this contrast from those you had made
with other wine merchants in the city on the account
of your hospitals- , ,
Did you ever buy five or fix pipes of Wine upon
your own account before you handled public money ?
Did you not declare, in the presence of the commit
tee of Congress at York-Town, who were appointed
to hear my complaints of the abuses that prevailed in
your hospitals, when I expressed a doubt whether you
claimed FIVE or six pipes of wine in the hospital store
at Reading, that you had bought six pipes 'upon
you own account ?
Has not colonel B. Flower declared upon oath, that
you told him at Reading, that you had cleared a
thousand pounds by the file of six pipes of wine upon
your own account ?
Do not the bill of fide, and the books of Coning,
ham, NHbitt and company shew, that you bought
only Five pipes of wine at the time referred to in Mr.
Smith's oath and colonel Moylan's declaration ?
Dil not Mr. Lloyd, by your order, fill up those
pipes of wine out of pipes acknowledged to belong to
Lie continent, which were fold upon your account
by Mr. Smith in Lancaster?
I proceed to take notice of the evidence of dofior
Thomas Bond, iunr. I wish this good tempered man
had not lessened the reputation he acquired in his of
fice, by the evidence he has given in your favour.
Too much pra fe cannot be given to him for his hu
inanity, and even charity to the sick; but duty to my
country, and a regard to my own testimony, oblige
me to declare, in this public manner, that I have re
peatedly heard doctor Bond complain of your manner
of doing business, and of your neglecting to consult
him upon those mercantile tranfaftions that related to
the supplies of the hospitals: I have, moreover, often
heard him fay that you could never fettle your ac
conip's and that you would be ruined when they
were called for : and laflly, I have heard him declare,
that by his exertions, in putting your hospital at
Bethlehem in or ter, and fnpplying it plentifully with
neceffarie% he had saved you from perdition. He
meant by this, that he had obviated the force of my
complaints against ycur oral administration, to the
committee of Congress at York Town.,
Here I must ask you a few more questions.
Why did yotr prefer doctor Bond's evidence of the
fate of your books to producing them before the
court-martial ? ,
Would it not have been much easier to have carried
two or three books to camp, than to have dragged,
through muddy roads, in the Month of march, a wag
goi load of wine, spirits, lemons and raifons, which
you difiributed to great ad vantage, daring your trial,
through the village and neighbourhood of Morriftownl
Will not all honest and thinking men fufped that
the books you have lately lodged with the treasury,
have tan traafcribed since your impeachment and
trial?
A few questions will be fufficient upon the evidence
of one of your late apothecary generals, Mr. Cutting.
Did not Mr. Bright, a refpeftable citizen of Read
ing, declare upon oath, that when he received the su
gar into his cellar, (which Mr. Cutting swears he
bought upon your account in Boftdn) he applied to
him to fell him feme of it, and that Mr- Cutting told
him it was not for tale, and that it belonged to the
hospitals? „
Did you not receive one hundred thousand dollars
from the treasury, just before Mr. Cutting set off for
Bolton ? Th Journdsof that board shew that you did.
Is.it probable, if you intended to make use of puo
iic money, for the purpose of private (peculation, tuat
you would tell Mr. Cutting of it?
One indifereet friend often does a man more mif
chief than ten enemies. Mr. Cutting's tef limony has
made you, like Milton's description of heaven, '' dark
" with excessive bright."
You have introduced Hugh James to cover the mod
barefaced fraud that ever Leaped with impunty in a
civilized country : this man has paid the debt of na
ture; I am therefore precluded from faying any thing
more of him thin, that he was your most intimate
friend. He was the only man in the department whom
you ever consulted about the business of your hospi
tals. From your own account of the sale of wine and
sugar to Mr. Bennet, Mr. James seems to have had a
proper sense of what belonged to the charade, of the
physician in chief and director general of the hospitals
of the United States. He was ashamed to have it known
that his mafler was a (peculator in wine and sugar, and
therefore, “ prudently," fubhituted the name of Tho
mas Brown, in the room of William Shippen: the
account, thus drawn out, you fay, was sent to Mr.
Bennet's without your knowledge or c^nftnt : but
give me leave to alk you: Did not Mr. Bennet declare
upon oath, that he received the above accompt, drawn
out in the name of Thomas Brown, in a letter from
yourfelf, written with your own hand ?
How then do you dare to tell the public, that you
knew nothing of the name of Thomas Hkown being
put in the place of yuur's, until the prosecution com
menced.
For shame! For fliame! I hope, for the fake of this
poor man's foul, that the " Recording Angel dropt a
" tear upon his rath," immediately alter he repfat
ed it in the court, " and blotted it out for ever."
I cannot help adding in this place, that had I been
your prosecutor inflead of a witness against you, I
would have disqualified force of the principal witnes
ses is your favour, by impeaching them, of faring
with you in the plunder of the hospitals.
That Being who searches the heart, knows that I am
aduated at this time, as I was when I complained of
your mal-praßices at York Town, in the year 1778,
by nothing but a regard for my country, and a sin
cere love for human nature. Human life has ever
been equally dear to me, whether it appeared in the
form of a wealthy merchant, an honourable senator,
an illustrious general, or in the humble garb of a pri
vate soldier. Hundreds can witness the difirefs I have
felt at the fight of the fufferings of this ufeful necef.
fary class of men, while you withhed from me the
power of relieving th6m. I wish I could forget the
reception I met with from your junto in York-Town,
after I had laid before them the mortality that pre
vailed in the army from your negligence of your du
ty, and (peculations in stores proper for the hospitals.
The honourable Mr. Lovell is entitled to your warmest
gratitude for the zeal with which he screened you from
justice. When I told him that you had transported
the wine which you claimed as your own, in public
waggons, I well remember that he said, that " this
" was pr fticed by all the ftaff officers in the army : "
and added, that " men who handled public money,
" from the beginning of the world to the present day,
fi were constantly envied " The chairman of the com
mittee, appointed to hear us. merits your thanks like
wise, for the fidelity with which he executed the scheme
you had concerted, for driving me out of the hospital
department. He informed me that I had loft ground
in Congress, and obliquely hinted to me that I should
be dismissed, unless I resigned my office of physician
general to the hospitals. 1 told him that T accepted of
my commission to serve the army and my country, and
not the Congress ; and that while I did my duty faith
fully I was indifferent what opinion they entertained
of me; and further, dared and defied them to dirnifs
me without any charges being brought againfi me.
The gentleman, upon hearing this, altered bis plan,
and told me, that little or no change would be made
in the hospital fyflem, and that the purveying business
would Kill remain in your hands. This information
produced the defined effect : I knew it was impossible to
do justice to the sick while you had the direction of the
hospital (lores, and therefore I immediately resigned
my commission. I learnt in a few days afterwards that
this information was without foundation, for the pur
veying business was taken wholly out of your hands,
and the (lores of the hospitals placed entirely under the
direction of the phyficiansand surgeons of the hospitals.
The consequences of this alteration of the hospital sys
tern have been happy to the United States. Doßor
Brown has declared, in his pointed letter from M rrif
town to his friend in this city, that fewer soldiers have
died in twenty months in the army,fince the pur
veyorfhip of the hospitals was taken out of your hands,
than usually died in twenty days, while you had
the direction of the hospital stores.
I beg the patience of the public a few minutes long^
er, while I add, that after my return from York-
Town I sent, in a letter to general Roberdeau, then a
, delegate for Pennsylvania, fame faffs, relative to your
fates of public wine and loaf sugar, and the mortality
of the diseases that prevailed in your hospitals. This
letter, contrary to my expectation, was laid before
Congress. It produced a refblutlon for another com
mittee to enquire into your conduct; and I was re
quefled, by the members of it, to appear a second
time at York-Town, with the necessary evidence to
support my charges against you. His excellency,
Mr. Huntington, president of Congress, was one of
the members of this committee: this worthy senator
end genuine republican I knew was incapable of injuf
lice or partiality, where the interests es his country
were at flake; but as T was a flranger to the charac
ters of the other members of the comnefittee; arid as I
knew their report mufibe made to Congress, wher^
your party were always ready to support you, Ide
.clined waiting upon the committee, but offered to ap
pear, as four prosecutor, provided a court-martial
was ordered for that purpose. My letter to the com
mittee, containing this offer, was read in Congress, but,
produced no resolution for your trial: it was ordered
to lie on the table. This impeachment and offer to
prosecute you were read in Congress in the spring of
1778, and you were brought before a court-martial in
March, 1780. The Journals of Congress are my vouch
ers for the^truth of these affections.
It is now near three years since I have borne, in si
lence, with the suspicion of having accused you un
justly, and of facrificing the public good to private
refentmenti I was fatisfied that an appeal to the pub
lic, (for I always fufpefted the resources of youroffice
would enable you to baffle every attempt to bring you'
to punishment by the ordinary course of law) would
do justice to my complaints, and shew you in your
proper colours to your country. Phope my fellow ci
tizens will ever be tenacious of this invaluable check
upon the decisions of our courts, as well as the pro
ceedings of our legislatures. A free paper is the surest
detention of fraud and corruption: the virtue and li
berties of America, and the liberty of the press mufi
Hand or fall together.
I wait with impatience for the continuation of your
vindication. I have some fads to oppose to the sub
sequent parts of your evidence, which will be new tw
the public, and which will juftify the freedom with
wnich I have written, more than any thing that has
yet been published. The friends of virtue, I know,
will blame-me for my long silence, and wonder only at
my moderation. BENJAMIN RUSH.
P. S. I am just now informed that the Congress have,
at lass, ordered you to repair to camp, to take charge
of the sick: I take it for granted the gentlemen of the
army, and the physicians and surgeons of the hospi
tals, will be the guardians of their own honour.
To the PRINTERS.
1A M acquainted with a gentleman who has written
and spoken a great 4eal qd the subj a of finance ;
whether w# el, or not I will not determine. It i# a pofi
li^ of this gentleman—That if the embargo were taken
eff, and a duty of five (hillings per barrel laid on the
exportation of flour, it would reduce the price here te
fifteen (hillings per hundred : —Tq prove this he ad
vances t? e following calculation :
r wo hundred of flour, at 151. - - 4. dol.
Burd sand 6d duty ~ - - - 1
Tnfurar.ee at 25 per cent, must insure (so as to cover
the piemium, &c.j on 6. 84, which at 25 per cent, i#
1.71: total 6. 71: D.
Allow the average tales, in the Weft Ir,dies,\
to be as high as
DeJud commiffioßS and charges, 10 percent. - 1 c
10 $
Freight 1-3 deduct • . , fl - 3 6
7 2
Prime cost, &c. at above - • - • 671
Profit, 49
That is, on something more than 6 dollars and s^ds,
a profit of t-s a dollar; not quite 8 per cent.
If this calculation is right, the embargo should ht
taken oil ; if wrong, I should be glad some of your
many correspondents would (hew the error. Your„
tyfH,4b++++<fr4 -*O I>-teQ*+++s)^
United States Lottery-Office.
Philadelphia, November 29, 1780.
THE Managers hereby give Notice tq all perlons,
who h<ve purchased Tickets in the third ctefs,
in this city, thitthey are now ready to renew
the fame in the fourth class. All tickets not renewed
in fix weeks from this date, will be the property of the
United States.
Philadelphia, December 1, 1780.
BROKE JAIL,, lad night, about twelve
° o'clock, the three following persona, and got off
by cutting the bars of the windows, the noted hole
thief, HENRY STROUS, formerly a resident of Ger
mantown, commuted sot horse stealing, forgery, an 1
sundry salons of debt r The said Henry Strous is 10
well known he needs no other d,efcription.
And JOHN STEELMAN, late of the county of
Gloucester, in New Jertty, a tall (lender man, of a fair
complexion, wears ht sown hair long and tied I ehin J,
with a whiti(h coat and a fashionable hatt: The said
Sterimrn was lately tried at Gloucester and found guil
ty of the fad, and burnt in, he band ; and tried hire
at the last court of Oyer rod Terminer, and was pillored
for the offeree, and should have graced the gallows on
Saturday I ft with his partner, who fuffered fur paffi ig
the counterfeit mon„.
A Frenchman, named —— DUZEE, abou' 5 feet
a 11. he, black complexion, wears bis own black hai,
blu«coatee, red breeches and blue jacket, sad walkers,
and talks bad E^glith. Whoever apprehends the above
named Henry Strous, and facure# huu in any jad, fe
that h^ may be had . gain, (hall receive a reward 0 One
Thousand Pounds; and Five Hundred Pounds for
Steelman; and One Hundred Pounds for Dazee, by
applying to WILLIAM WILL F'qune Sheriff,
O JOHN REYNOLDS, Jailor.
AL L persons having any demands against Captain
CHARLES STEWART, deceased, are ^quelled
to bring in their accounts, properly authenticated; and
those that are indebted to said estate are defined to make
immediate payment to SARAH STEWART, Admi
niftra^rix t° '' f '' “4^ Nov 20
*4.* A particular account of a hurricane, winch late
ly happened in rhe Weft-Indies, advertisements, &c
---omitted this publication, will be in our next.