The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1779-12-29 00:00:00, page 1

Mr. Collins,
If is the duty of every honest man in this land
of liberty, to endeavour, as much as pollible,
to confirm his fellow-citizens in the princi
ples of freedom, essential to their happiness,
and to promote the common weal fed wel
fare, by every mean in his power.
Of all the rights of a freeman, there is none more
invaluable than that of the liberty of the pref —lt
is a cardinal and tranfeendant right not to be pro
faned by the touch of the hand of power, but ought
ever, like the principles of our holy religion, to be
held sacred and inviolate—for on this depends our
political salvation.
There have been many attempts made in England
by ministers and royal minions, upon the freedom of
the press, but the spirit of the nation, though in
other instances lulled into insecurity, yet in this has
even been too much awake to the danger, to be
cheated out of so essential a privilege. Ministers
knew too well the uneasy and dangerous conse
quences of the heats and convulsions such attempts
usually bred among the people, to prosecute a mat
ter of this fort to any great lengths. We fee in
th: well-known case of Mr. Wilkes, in what man
ner the people have triumphed over ministerial at
tempts —It is true they prosecuted him even to out
lawry—but this outlaw, this banished man has been
for more than ten years a representative in parlia
ment, for the capital city of the kingdom.
This instance, together with some others of lesser
notoriety, has taught British ministers some ufeful
lessons of wisdom and prudence. The cauftick pen
and keen satire of Junius, though in the moll une
quivocal manner applied and directed to the king
himfelf, could not provoke his ministers to vindicate
their royal master—They knew too well, that the
fire, which animated these writings, was drawn from
the very altar of liberty, and that the whole body
of the people formed her priesthood.
There has also been a moll: signal attempt, on the
liberty of the press, on this fide the Atlantick —I
mean the trial of John-Peter Zenger, a printer in
New-York, in the Year 1735. This man was pro
secuted by information for printing a supposed libel
on the then governor, (Colby) and some of the
great men, as they were stiled, of that province—
But what was the issue of this prosecution ?—why,
a full and ample difeuffion of the dodrine of libels,
(in which all the falfe principles of Ear-chamber law,
and the arbitrary and illegal opinions and proceed
ings of venal and corrupt judges were detected and
exposed) the honourable acquittal of the printer,
and of course the disgrace of the prosecutors and
abettors of the suit against him.
To “ think what we please, and speak what we
think," is a darling prerogative of human nature —1
believe no honest informed man in a free country,
will deny me the liberty of speaking my sentiments
openly, with refpe& to publick men and measures—
If I may speak them, I may write them; and if I
may write them, I may surely print them—The
hindering me from the last, will certainly and sud
denly lead to the preventing me doing the fir ft, and
whenever this happens, it is a symptom of the most
fatal kind, and the catastrophe of liberty is at hand.
HAMPDEN.
From the NEW-YORK PACKET of November 4,
Printed at Filh-Kill.
To Sir HENRY CLINTON.
ALTHOUGH your military trait in America, is
marked with a variety of misfortunes, yet it is no
less worthy of panegyric, than that of your prede
cessors: Like them, you have adventured your cha
racter, in the execution of delufory objects ; but like
them, you may not return to reap the reward of your
labours.
I will presume that your cabinet, after four years
projection, had conceived the idea of reducing the
States by the capture of Weft-Point ; or if this could
not be accomplished, had directed the establishment
of a poll in its vicinity. Could these sages have given
you force and wisdom to have captured, with Weft-
Point, the American army, it would perhaps have
been doing something ehc&aaJ towards their project,
NE W-JERSEY GAZETTE.
[Vol. !L]
WEDNESDAY, December 29, 1779.
But the reduction and occupancy of this post on any
other condition was a mere found ; a rattle, like all
their other rattles, only calculated to plcale for the
moment.
Had you arrived at Weft-Point before Gen. Wash
ington could have reached it from Middlebrook,
(which you might have done without a pollibility of
interruption, from your commanding the water) and
carried the post by norm ; it mult have been at the
expence of all further operations, and at the certain
rifque of being belieged by the American army. Had
you inveiled the place, General Washington would
alone, with his forces, have been sufficient to have railed
the liege, and you might have loft your heavy cannon
and stores, if not the greatest part of your army ; or
had you carried it without any material loss, still the
object of the ministry would have been defeated. A
new fort would have instantly appeared on the Hud
son, capable of insulting Welt-Point, and of render
ing its supposed advantages nugatory and ridiculous.
Your orders arrived, and you received them with
all the complacency of accustomed fubmiilion : The
caution, however, with which you moved towards
an object, confidcred as the moltcapital in America,
at lead, does credit to your prudence. You ap
phoached within nine miles of Welt-Point, and halted
before a small work at King's-Ferry, that could nei
ther disturb the pafiage of your [hipping, nor give
obltrultion to the progress of your army. Its dclign
was merely to give a lhew of cover to the ferry way,
and prevent the piracies of your picaroons.
Sir William Howe could not have invested this in
fignificant place with more unmeaning normality. No
display of oltentatious arrangement was overlooked
on this occalion; and Mr. Andre, your Aide, as if
in compliance with the taste of his General, signed a
capitulation, in all the pomp of a vain glorious so-
Icmnity, on the very edge of the glacis, which he had
gained, under cover of a flag.
What, Sir Henry, could you intend by this farce ?
What excuse will a perlon of Mr. Andre's reputed sense
find for this parade? Was it that you were obliged to
do something, in order to avoid the scandal of doing
nothing ? If you meant to aftomfh all Europe, there
is no doubt but the intention has been answered. The
capture of fifty men, after a foolifn variety of move
ments, and under a vain pomp of capitulation, mult
appear to all the world a Itrange effort towards the
reduction of America; and but a poor recompence
for the millions voted by parliament, and which you
have cheerfully expended for this tingle purpose.
When you eftablilhed your garrison on each fide the
ferry, and improved Stony-Point, till it acquired, in
the language peculiar to your nation, the title of the
American Gibralter, what was the good it compre
hended ? It did not interrupt the provisions for the
army of your enemy ; their waggons came and re
turned as usual. A few dragoons and a company or
two of light troops, under Major Lee, circumferibed
you to the lines you had erefted ; and the country
between Haverftraw and Paules-Hook, afforded its
usual supplies.—Thus your enemy experienced no in
jury, and you felt a thousand inconveniencics from
your new situation.
It isamaximin Rochefoucault, " that fortune turns
every thing to the advantage of her favourites." By
this rule it would seem, that neither you nor your
nation arc within her patronage, for the bufmefs of
both, lincc the beginning of this happy contest, has
been constantly going backwards. Nay, as if the had
placed you at the extremity of her malice, the has
even made the blunders of your directors, serve as
the iteps to your ruin ; and to complete the catalogue
of your evils, ihe haunts your bewildered imaginati
on with the fate of Burgoyne.
How often, Sir Harry, in your affairs, has the song
of the morning been closed with the evening tear!
You had scarce tinifhed your dilpatches, which were
to Hatter the hopes of an all-expecting ministry, when
Stony-Point was fcormed, and carried at the bayonet,
by a body of troops but little fupcrior in numbers
to its garrison.
In your account of this event, (which holds so
small a corner in the Gazette, as if wishing to escape
the public eye) have you told your nation, that the
American loldiery, in the full career of their ardour,
exhibited a companion and magnanimity, of which
the practice of their army, had not afforded one tin
gle solitary proof ?
As this place was of small moment to the States,
when your dores and prisoners were fafely lodged,
you were permitted to repossess it without opposition.
The only circumstance that could have added to the
entertainment of a repossession, you happily adopted.
You landed your disgusted troops under a furious
watte of ammunition, deeded from your /hipping,
THE
The situation of this post gave it every possible secu
rity; and you might have laughed over the midnight
bottle without imputation of folly. Formed on a pe
ninsula, within protection of your Whipping, and the
instant support of the city. The approach hazardous
in its nature; and rendered kill more so, by the dif
ficulty of keeping the least movement of your enemy
from the knowledge of your endflaries, that were
flattered for that purpose in its neighbourhood. The
retreat was equally dangerous, being conducted a
long fevcral miles of your flank, and liable at every
Rep to inteffedion—All these obflacles were sur
mounted, and another ray plucked from that star,
whose luftre is nearly extinguilhed.
Did the tale end here, you might have solaced your
felf in the full security of reward. —But the strength of
your army was to be worn down in forming new
works on both tides of King's Ferry, and the health
of your troops wafted in nightly watch ngs, to guard
against a furprize, and to add to the triumph of ^our
enemy by their evacuation.
How shall we account for this change in your con
duct? Was it a few fafcines which were ordered to be
cut, and Gencr 1 Wayne's taking post on Haverftraw
heights, within five miles of your principal fortrefs;
the bringing of a few boats down the North river, and
the armies on each fide of the ferry, under Lord Stir
ling and General Howe, drawing nearer your works,
that forced you from a place without making the
smallest resistance? It is, however, a just punishment,
that what was occupied from folly, Ihould be evacu
ated through fear.—How will you explain to minis
try, the mystery of your campaign; and how will
they explain to the people, its labyrinth of absurdi
ties? How will they make it appear, that it was pro
per to do one day, what was improper the next.—
That to conquer America, it was necessary to dis
grace their arms —That to hold King's Ferry was
right; and that to hold King's Ferry was wrong—
That it was expedient, and founded on true English
policy, to expend several millions of money to bring
an army up the North river, and take only a part of
it back again; after having loft in prisoners, and by
deaths and desertions, a tenth of the whole!
Alas, Sir Harry! in aiming at a campaign, you
have rendered yourfelf ridiculous to the world. —
They will either suppose that you wanted means or
capacity; or that poffefling these, you mistook your
enemy, and ventured against your fupcrior in both.
The momentary hopes you had raised, like the fugi
tive gleams of a winter's fun, have been scarcely felt,
before they were succeeded by all the severity of dis
appointment. Even the flatterers your profpeds had
drawn around you, withhold their wonted adulation,
and dispose of your character, in order to make peace
with your supposed successor. You have even disho
nored your few former acquirements, in the disgrace
of publishing Negro proclamations.* You have fuf
fcred yourfelf to be successively defeated, by a people,
boaftingly called cowards, and ridiculously rebels.
You have taken away from your Prince the chief tup
port of his speeches. He will be no longer ableto tell his
Parliament of his reliance on the bravery of his troops
and the courage and conduit of his commanders.—
To the dull ear, that the Dutch turned to Sir Joseph
Yorke's plaintive memorial, you have added the storm
of Stoney-Point, the furprize of Paules-Hook, and
the degrading evacuation of King's Ferry : A cam
paign commenced in exultation, and ended in lack
cloth. You have multiplied the enemies of your pa
trons, and opened against Lord North, the full
mouthed cry of his antagonist Charles Fox.
But I leave you, Sir Henry, to your own reflections,
I cannot increase their severity; and your present si
tuation needs not the scourge of the satirist. Z.
* See Sir Henry Clinton's proclamation, to fell negroes
captured from the enemy.
r I™O be fold by publick vendue at Pitts Town, on
1 Friday the 31st inst. a number of Cast HORSES,
the property of the United States: the vendue to be
gin at „ o'clock FURMAN YARD, QM.
at both flanks of the rock ; while the enemy at se
veral miles distance, were enjoying their victory, and
laughing at such a profufion of folly.---Was it, Sir
Harry, to soothe the short-sighted sagacity of a de
luded people, that you again attempted to hold,
what you had so ostentatiously acquired, and ts de
gradingly loft : Or because the ministerial nTift was
not to be too suddenly dissipated, that you were
obliged to rc-occupy a few aci es of unprofitable rock?
But scarce had you announced the second solemnity
of re-possessing Stoney-Point, when the Ministry
were compelled to ihed frelh tears over the furprize
of Paules-Hook.
[Nu*b. 105.]