The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1778-12-09 00:00:00, page 2

putation, was tender mercy, compared towhat he
deserved to fuffer. He dares to Rake his life on the
proof, that those danders which have been so industri
ously circulated to his prejudice, of the sick having
fuffered from any neglect or mismanagement of his,
are entirely destitute of truth ; that he discharged
his duty faithfully, and in a manner that merited ap
plause ; that Congress itfelf was borne down, or
forced to give way to the storm railed by a set of
factious men, who, with barbarous clamours, re
quired his difmiffion, without having any particular
charge against him; clamours that were excited by
base artifices, and carefully cultivated with a design
to ruin him in the public esteem, under a pretence
of interesting the humane in the fufferings of the sick,
to which the imprudence, ignorance and mismanage
ment of others had given rife, and the blame was
fhifted from them on him. The truth of which he
will undertake to drew to the conviction of every im
partial person, in characters so legible, that he who
runs may read.
But for that purpose he has to entreat, that all
those persons whose minds have received an unfavour
able impression from the malice and invention that
have been employed to injure him, firft divest them
selves of the prejudices which falfehood, misrepresen
tation and fiction have made, nor believe assertions
against him ever so positive, or generally believed, or
with whatever plausible circurnftances dressed in the
seeming garb of truth, till they have heard his defence,
as well as the clamours of his adversaries, and come
to the inquiry with minds disengaged, and open to
the truth.
He is now happy to inform the Public that Con
gress have at length been at leisure to attend to him,
and has appointed the Honourable Messieurs Drayton,
Harvey, and Witherspoon, a Committee for the
purpose of examining into his conduct in the public
service, and of tracing out the true causes of the
fufferings of the sick in the army, during the cam
paign of 1776, and the clamours they produced.
He therefore once more openly invites and challenges
every person who has any thing to alledge against the
faithful discharge of his public trust, as Director-
General and Physician in Chief, to appear before the
abovenamed Gentlemen, with proper evidence in
support of their charges, that he may have an oppor
tunity of meeting them face to face, to answer their
accusation, so that the truth may be made manifeft.
In the mean time the indulgent Public are earnest
ly requested to suspend their judgment till the enquiry
is closed, when they will be made acquainted with
the result; and the whole of his proceedings in that
station, and the several steps he has taken for the
juftification of his character, as far as can be supposed
to give fatisfadion to the inquisitive and candid part
of the community, or so far as may serve for an ex
ample and guide to others in the management of the
General Hospital Department, and the care of the
sick soldiery, shall be faithfully communicated.
JOHN MORGAN.
Philadelphia, October 1, 1778.
To the Free and Virtuous CITIZENS ts AMERICA.
Friends and Countrymen,
THE happiness or misfortunes, the benefits or in
juries, of an individual, have generally no claim
to the public attention. Ido not therefore addrels
you on my own account, but on yours. Ido not
with to prejudice any man, but to serve my country.
I was content, even while facrificed for the aggran
dizement of others ; but I will not fee an individual,
or family, raised upon the ruins of the general weal.
What I write to you, I would have laid to your Re
presentatives, their ears have been shut against me,
by an attention to matters, which my refpeCt for
them induces me to believe were of more importance.
While it was fafe to be silent, my lips were closed.
Necessity hath opened them, and necessity must ex
cuse this effort, to serve, by informing you.
What I have done, and what I have fuffered, from
the moment I left my native shore, until I was ho
noured with one colleague, and saddled with ano
ther, is needless now to repeat; I have told it sub
stantially to Congress, and astheir servant, I leave it
with them. In September, 1776, they appointed the
Honourable Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, Efqrs.
and myfelf, their Commissioners at the Court of Ver
sailles, previous to which, I had the honour to be the
Commercial and Political Agent of America in Eu
rope. My venerable friend, Dr. Franklin, arrived at
Paris in December, 1776, and Arthur Lee, Esq. a
few days after him. This gentleman, by agreement
among the Commissioners, went to Spain in the
month of February following, to negociate your in
terests there, and having by a wanton display of his
errand, given great and just cause of distrust to the
Court of Madrid, he returned in the beginning of
April, not having gone further than the city of Bur
gos. The reasons of that Court for reftridting him to
this place, with many other matters important for you
to know, may perhaps appear in the course of these
letters.
While he was on that journey, Dr. Franklin re
ceived a commission to go thither, but his health,
the season, and other circurnftances prevented his de
parture until.he was superseded. Many reasons con
curred, to convince the Commissioners, that Arthur
Lee, Esq. could no where be less serviceable than at
Paris, and therefore in May, 1777, he set off to make
the tour of Germany, in order to arrive at Berlin in
From the Pennsylvania Packet.
fafety. At this place, he was so unfortunate as to
do nothing, unless indeed we may give the name of
business to the loss of his papers, by which a difeovery
was made of the secrets of his colleagues, and the
British ministry enabled to counteract the measures
taken for your benefit. In August he returned to
Paris, and shortly after received his appointment as
Commissioner to the Court of Madrid, with reserva
tion, nevertheless, of his former commission, to that
of Versailles. Here I must leave him to take notice
of another gentleman of the fame family.
In February, 1777, I received a notification of the
appointment of William Lee, Esq. to be one of your
Commercial Agents in ^Europe, of which I gave him
notice. As your commercial affairs were, at that
time, in such a Rate as to require much attention and
care, I prelied this gentleman, then in England, to
come over immediately and execute his office, but
heard nothing from him till the month of June, when
he arrived in Paris. At this place he continued un
til about some time in August, when he went to
Nantz. There he was loudly called on to regulate
certain affairs, which he prudently declined, left, as
he observed, his property in England should be af
fected. In September or October he returned to
Paris, and there received his appointment of Com
missioner to the Courts of Vienna and Berlin. He
continued nevertheless inactive at Paris until the
month of December, carefully concealing his appoint
ments, which might indeed have militated against his
office of Alderman of the city of London, which he
did then, and probably does hill retain. When the
news of General Burgoyne's defeat and surrender ar
rived, it produced a revolution in the minds of many,
and, among others, inspired your Commercial Agent,
and Political Commissioner, the Honourable William
Lee, Esq. with some degree of activity in your favour.
That I may not be under the necessity of mention
ing this gentleman again, I add here, that he hath
since gone to Vienna, having firft appointed sundry
commercial Agents for you, at the several ports, and
in one instance removed the * person who had faith
fully done your business for two per cent, in favour
of another, who is to receive five per cent, of which,
as well as of the like commission at other places, Mr.
Lee receives a share, for superintending at Vienna,
the business done on your account a thousand miles
off from his place of residence.
My refpeCt for the Honourable the Congress, and
of consequence for its members, will lead me to treat
with all poflible tenderness their friends, dependants
and connexions, and therefore as the Honourable
Arthur and William Lee, Efqrs. have two brothers
in that Body, I shall make no other observation on
the fruitful topic of their manners and deportment,
than this, that unfortunately for you, those gentle
men so highly elevated, and so widely entrusted, gave
universal disgust to the nation whose assistance we
solicited.
Having thus introduced you to your great servants,
I proceed to make you acquainted with some other
personages, which it is of consequence for you to
know. lam sorry to fay, that the Honourable Ar
thur Lee, Esq. was fufpeXed, by some of the bed
friends you had abroad, and those in important cha
racters and Rations. This arose from his connection
and acquaintance with Lord Shelburne, who'had been
his patron in England, and to whom it was, from
many circurnftances, supposed he disclosed your se
crets. These suspicions, whether well or ill founded,
were frequently related and urged to DoCtor Frank
lin and myfelf, and joined to his undisguised hatred
of, and expressions of contempt for, the French na
tion in general, embarrassed us exceedingly, and was
of no small prejudice to your affairs.
In the summer of 1777, a correspondence took place
between a certain DoCtor Berkenhout and the Hon.
Arthur Lee, Esq. on political fubjeCts. The Doctor
propoled in general terms, an accommodation, and
after all obstacles ariling from our supposed want of
confidence in him, and the like, were removed, the
DoCtor went so far as to propose a meeting with Mr.
Lee ; but these dispositions were deranged, by the
news of General Howe's arrival in this city. Mr.
Lee shewed to Doctor Franklin and myfelf a part of
this correspondence, and in order to give the greater
weight to DoCtor Berkenhout's remarks, gave us to
understand, that the Doctor was in the confidence
of the British Ministry.
Immediately on the arrival of the news of General
Burgoyne's surrender, a treaty with France seemed
to the British Ministry more near and more probable ;
your Commissioners, therefore, were continually
founded, indirectly, as to their dispositions for re
conciliation. About this time Mr. Lee's Secretary
went to and from London, charged with affairs which
were secret to your other Commissioners. Conjec
tures were formed, it is true, and with the more rea
son as Mr. Lee was dragged into the treaty with the
utmost reluctance. It was agreed that this important
matter should be kept a profound secret, yet a few
days from the signing, it was pointedly declared in
* Mr. Williams, a natroe of Boston, a gentleman
greatly efleemed in France for his knowledge and inte
grity in mercantile tranfakticns, as cvell as for his agree
able and engaging manners, who being 'well acquainted
with the language, and the commercial rules and cus
toms in that kingdom, had rendered very important
services to bis country, in his department. IJball men
tion this gentleman more particularly in the course of my
future letters.
And having placed my papers and yours, in fafet-y,
I left Paris the 30th, to embark for my native coun
try, on board that fleet, which your great and gene
rous ally sent out for your assistance; in full confidence
that I should not be detained for any considerable
time in America on the business I was sent for ; —juft
before my departure I was informed of a matter,
which as it may tend to throw light on other circum
stances, I shall limply relate. A gentleman of cha
racter told me, that his correspondent in England,
had seen a letter from the Honorable Arthur Lee,
Esq. dated the very day on which the treaty was sign
ed, (though it was not finifhed until near nine o'clock
at night,) in which were nearly these words. “ This
" day the new partnership was signed and sealed, and
" the new house will begin to do business immedi
" ately, if the old house means to have any thing to
" do further, and means honestly, they must make
" their proposals immediately."
When I arrived at this place, I solicited an audience
of the Congress, which, after many delays which
some circurnftances rendered unavoidable, I obtain
ed. I was twieG heard before that honorable body,
viz. on the 19th and 011 the 21st of August, when I
gave them as good a general account of the matters
entrusted to me as the time would permit. It being
my intent to deliver singly and by itfelf, a history of
those affairs, and then to mention from time to time
for their consideration, such things as my duty to
you should require. But after these two audiences,
I have been unable to obtain a third, altho' I have
continually solicited it, and written several letters for
that purpose, which, together with the answers I have
received, and the several intermediate tranfaXions,
as far as the public service requires it, shall in due
time, with the utmost candor on my part, be laid be
fore you ; without deviating in the lead, from that
respect, which I have always profeffed, and which I
feel for that honorable body ; and left any thing which
I have said, or may fay, fnould be mifinterpretfd, I
do hereby again repeat my veneration for ycur Rc
prefentatives, excepting always those (if any such
there be) who with partial interested views, and for
sinister purposes, have endeavoured to facrifice your
interefl, as well as my reputation. I come now to
some things, without which I might perhaps have
continued Rill longer silent. In September lad Iwas
informed, that the DoCtor Berkenhout, who I have
mentioned above, was in gaol in this city. I confefs
I was furprized, considering what I have already re
lated, that this man should have the audacity to ap
pear in the capital of America. I immediately fat my
felf about the measures which I conceived necessary to
investigate his plans and designs; concluding he was
like to continue in those quarters for some time. But
what was my astonishment, when in a few days after
I was informed that he was gone back to New-York.
There was in this something which was alarming, that
a person who from every appearance was sent out as a
spy, should be sent back with the knowledge he had
been able to colled, was, what I could not compre
hend, and therefore in order to set on foot an enquiry,
I published the queries in Mr. Dunlap's paper of the
tenth of October, which had lain by me some days,
in hopes that those in authority would have taken mea
sures to prevent the necessity of it.
To these queries no fatisfactory answer ever was,
or probably ever will be given. At length that Pro
vidence in whom we have put our trust, hath by a
concurrence of incidents, unfolded to me the tranf
adion, which was as follows —Doctor Berkenhout
came from New-York, passed the lines, and came to
this place, under the pretence of important business
with Congress; when he arrived in this place, he made
no application to that body, but to the Honorable
Richard Henry Lee, Esq. Doctor Berkenhout hath
since said, that he had letters to that Honorable Mem
ber of Congress, from the Honorable Arthur Lee,
Esq. Joint Commissioner of the United States at the
Court of Versailles, and Sole Commissioner of those
States at the Court of Madrid. Be this as it may, it
is certain that the Doctor had several meetings with
the Honorable Richard H. Lee, Esq. it is also certain,
that when the Doctor returned to New-York, he ven
tured to assure the British Commissioners, that by the
alliance with France, America was at liberty to make
peace without consulting her ally, unless England qy-
the House of Commons by the Hon. Charles Fox,
Esq. the friend of Lord Shelburne ; this gave additi
onal weight to the other circurnftances. Add tothis
that the attention of DoCtor Franklin and myfelf to
your service, gave rife to many bickerings and dis
putes between Mr. Lee and us; the consequence
was, that insinuations and misrepresentations, to my
disadvantage, were transmitted across the Atlantic,
and stored up here for purposes which will hereafter
appear. On the fourth day of March I received in a
cover, from ore of the 'Committee of foreign corre
spondence, the following Resolution :
In CONGRESS, December 8, 1777.
" Whereas it is of the greatest importance that
" Congress should at this critical conjuncture be well
" informed of the Rate of affairs in Europe. And
" whereas Congress have resolved that the Honorable
" Silas Deane, Esq. be recalled from the Court of
" France, and have appointed another Commissioner
"to supply his place there. Ordered, that the Com
" mittee for foreign Correspondence, write to the
" Honorable Silas Deane, and direct him to embrace
" the firft opportunity of returning to America, and
" upon his arrival to repair with all possible dispatch
" to Congress."