The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1778-12-09 00:00:00, page 1

[The following is infcrted by particular defire.]
'' Secure be /lands, bis front undaunted Jbo^ws,
• Alone be combats, 'midJi a heft of foes,
Far mo^e than death, be dreads a fully'd name,
And if he dies, would clcfe his death <witb fame."
To the Citizens and Freemen of the United
States tfAMERICA.
IT was well said by a certain illustrious Chief
to his King, on taking his leave : " I go to
fight your Majesty's enemies, in the field ; I
leave you Sire, to contend with mine at home."
Thus every man who is called by the voice of
his country, to engage in i&s service, and to
expose his life in its defence, has a right to exped,
that his person and character Ihould be lecured against
the storms of clamour and detraction, the fhaits or
envy, or the secret plots of undermining foes. All
those he is sure to meet, who comes in the way of
the interested, or ambitious pursuit of others, and
who determines to perform all the duties of his
place, with integrity. Whea iuch a person is ap
pointed to any important Ration, he can scarcely fail
to stir up the felfifh pallions of the envious,the ambi
tious, and the malignant, who will watch and mil
reprefent his actions, and twist every occalion that
times of confufion and public calamity too often
present, to fully and afperfe his character, and to
defame those qualities in him which they have not
the virtue to imitate, with a view to remove luch an
obstacle to their withes, and if possible, to rile to
his envied situation.
It is much to be lamented, that nothing has been
more common amongst us, upon any publiccalami
ty, or signal misfortune happening, than to look out
for some conspicuous person, or one placed in an
elevated situation, to hunt down and facrifice, with
a pretended design to fatisfy, but in fad to amuie
and deceive the people, with a shew of atoning for
the imaginary faults of the individual, who is thus
given up to the cries of a faction, and to conceal, in
reality, the ignorance and mifcondudt of those ve r y
men, who raise the hue and cry against him, in which
they can only hope to succeed, by preventing him
from obtaining a public hearing.
But if a person who has discharged his duty to hi^
country, with fidelity, cannot be secured from the
rude assaults of those demons of detraction that
roam abroad, seeking whole reputation they may
devour : if these are permited to fix their envenomed
teeth in him, and by the basest, falfeft calumnies,
to tear and wound his fame, fortune, peace and
happiness, or to call for a public facrifice' of the
firft officers in any department, without a previous
trial; what less is it, than to level with the dust
every thing that is most sacred amongst men, to vio
late the peace and order of society, and the common
rights of human nature, and to trample under feet
all laws, human and divine ? In such a service, where
is the honour of accepting a place of trust? Who is
fafe in it, or what person is secure from the devouring
jaws of obloquy ?
If clamours are excited, or accusations are brought
against men appointed to the charge of any depart
ment, who have given unequivocal proofs of their
attachmentto the true liberties and welfare of their
country, of their Arid regard to justice, and their
watchful care of its interests, ought they not to have
an impartial trial, and to be heard publicly in their
defence, before any sentence of punishment, de
gradation or censure pass upon them, since it is
known and observed by all, that those whose behaviour
in places of trust is most meritorious and felf-denying,
are most liable to be traduced by the tongues of
envy and malice, and that very conduct, which
viewed through the medium of passion or interest,
appears dißorted and unnatural, when cleared from
the mist, with which clamour and prejudice have
surrounded it, may claim the warmest approbation
of the virtuous and discerning?
If such, then, is the value of a footled reputa
tion,that, like virgin modesty, it ought to be guarded
with the greatest circumfpec'tion, from any aspersions
that may be attempted to be thrown upon it, by the
censorious and malevolent, and if he whose public
character is defamed, is shunned as a wafting plague,
what have we to boast, in the present Rruggle° for
Liberty and Independence, that is worthy of the
conteß, if, upon the factious cries of interested or
wicked men, we may be delivered up to an evil,
worse than slavery, the death of our good name ?
To what more fatal injury can we be exposed, if de
fining men have it in their power to get a person
condemned, degraded, or puniihed as criminal, with
out a previous inquiry or trial, and, " under an ap
pearance of prosecuting the guilty, to injure and
NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
[Vol. I.]
WEDNESDAY, December 9, 1778.
What but the very oppolite to this, has been ex
perienced by persons of the most illustrious characters
and distinguished virtues and talents this country can
boast ? A Putnam, an Arnold, a Sullivan, a Schuyler
and a Sinclair, Generals, of whom some are equally
celebrated by friends and foes, for their honour,
courage, activity, and other military virtues, have
fuccefiively felt the stings of the rancorous and male
volent,when want of success attended any enterprize
in which they were concerned. To this lift let me
add the name of Mifflin, whose character has been
insidiously attacked by the clamours of factious men,
which he is now employed in publicly vindicating,
and refeuing from the malice of his adversaries, in
which he cannot tail of meeting with the good withes
of the virtuous part of the community.
To become the object of a malevolent persecution,
it seems fufficient for men to have been the forcmoft
in contending for the liberties of their country, to
have been distinguished with an early confidence, and
to have been called amongst the firft, to the charge of
places of important trust ; to have thereby stood in
the way of ambitious, avaricious, and crafty men;
to have been a check and restraint upon a third of
power or gain, which so fatally prevailed in some of
the departments; and made it necehary to dilplace
men who were obstacles to the gratification of the
inordinate appetites of those, against whole wiles and
clamours innocence is but a weak defence, and merit
an insufficient protestor.
Full time it is, for those men who have fuffered
from their arts, and finilter practices, to step forth,
and endeavour to convince an impartial world, how
infufficient the greatest indußry, virtue and integrity
have been to fheltcr them from the storms of envy
and defamation, which have been raised, it is hoped
in vain, to overwhelm them. It may be presumed
that the spells of private influence and barefaced cla
mour have now nearly spent their force, and that the
minds of the people, so long abused by the grossest
falfehoods and misrepresentation, now freed from
the magic charm, are capable of diftinguilhing be
twixt groundless, unsupported assertions, and plain
matters of fad, that rest on the sure foundation of
unquestionable evidence.
It has been the chance of the subscriber, though
innocent, to be pitched upon as the firß victim to be
facrificed, in order to amuse and pacify the people,
on a barbarous supposition that the common people
require such facrifices to be made to the public mis
fortunes ; misfortunes, the production of which, he
had no Ihare, but on the other hand, devoted himfelf,
by the most vigorous exertions to prevent. Nor has
it fallen to the lot of anyman, however diftinguilhed
by superior rank or talents, to have experienced, in
an higher degree, the united assaults of rancorous
and unjust men, in a persecution that has no equal.
This he by no means presumes to place to the ac-
This is a breach of the Magna Cbarta of every
freeman, for the security of which, our forefathers
bled, and which they transmitted to us, as the most
invaluable inheritance ; and Ihall we, their degene
rate offspring, cowardly fuffer the rich jewel to be
torn from us, as though unworthy to wear it ? To
call for the condemnation of any man unheard, is to
require the subversion of those liberties for which
America roused to arms. It is to ihake the founda
tions of all authority and obedience, which are laid
in a security of our person, fame and property, and
in a protection from violence and injustice. If a
precedent is of that weight that is commonly allow
ed, we ought, to oppose every unrighteous attempt
to introduce or establish one so dangerous to the
liberty of the subject, otherwise a blinded people,
whilst they fondly, but mistakenly imagine they are
in the enjoyment of liberties, purchased at the ex
pence of blood and treasure, profufely lavished, only
hug a delulion, and instead of Juno, clasp a phantom,
not perceiving that if they trust such power out of
their hands, they allow others to forge fetters for
their posterity, and to lay the ground work of the
most absolute despotism, and most abject slavery,
to the completion of which, there never will be want
ing either workmen or materials.
" People who are Rruggling for freedom, ought
to be convinced that it is more than a mere name.
To accomplish which, the laws mult be supreme,
and every man know (the meanest fubjeCt as well as
he who balks in the funlhine of favour) that if he
ads agreeable to those laws, no other man or body
of men, however great, numerous, or powerful, can
injure him, in his person, property or reputation."
This, and this only, is the kind of liberty that de
serves to be contended for, even unto death.
oppress the innocent." Is not this the essence of
the vileJl Jpecies of slavery?
THE
Some men may ask, why has this defence been so
long delayed, or why was the matter fuffered to
Deep ? He answers, it was not owing to any fault of
his, or want of application for a more seasonable
hearing, as it is likely the Public will be fully con
vinced in the course of this Narrative and Vindica
tion. Too long have the artifices of evil-minded
persons abused the credulity of the Public! Too
long were they enabled to prevent the voice of inno
cence, crying for justice, from reaching the ears of
the rational and thinking part of the community.
In the loud clamours that were excited against hin^
his feeble cries were not heard, or were no ways
listened to. In vain did he call for a trial, that if
guilty he might be justly condemned upon evidence,
and, if otherwise, that he might be honourably ac
quitted. The " away with him" was ir.celTantly
Touted into the ears of the people, nor were the
Members of Congress, who wished to oppole the
tide of influence, and to bridle the spirit of faction,
by taking equity and the eßabliffied laws of every
civil society for their guide, to hear both Jides, and to
determine, upon a fair trial, in the leak hearkened
to, on this occasion. Instead of this, tlie cries of
violent and unjust men, who were instant with loud
voices to facrifice him prevailed, as though on his
devoted head, depended the only fafety of the Ame
rican Caule ; and Congress, it seems, from the criti
cal state of affairs, which arose not from him, but
from the faults of others, were, on the general com
plaints excited amongst all ranks of persons against
him, by the contrivances of men, having more in
fluence than public virtue, reduced to the necessity
of giving sentence, even as they required, and to con
demn him, unheard, '' nvithout having any one parti
cular charge against him."
To the good people of these Rates, who have been
milled by idle tales, forged for the purpose of de
ceiving them, and have only listened to theclamours
against him, and not heard or attended to his defence,
this declaration may seem flrange, but if it is not
found to be consistent with truth, he will readilv
pronounce against himfelf, that the treatment he has
met with, so injurious to his fortune, fafety and re-
count of merit, but to having had it in his power,
more than others in more elevated Rations, from his
being entrusted with the dilpofal of public monies,
and a power of appointing, and displacing a great
number of persons, to open or shut the door against
venality, corruption, and an unbounded profuliou
in a very important department ; to check the for
wardness of aspiring ignorance and presumption,
and to lead and encourage merit ; but was so blinded
to his own interest, and the smiles, frowns and in
fluence of others, as regularly to perform what his
duty exacted, and what he eßeemed the service of
his country, to any ielfilh gratification, or to an.
empty popularity, that he might easily have acquired,
at the expence of honour, or breach of public trust.
He has therefore considered himfelf as called upon
by Providence, to be one of the fonmoft to demand
a public inquiry, andin stepping forth for the defence
of his own character, and as an example and en
couragement to others, in vindication of theirs,
boldly to encounter this many-headed monster of
slander and licentiousness, ever glutting, never sati
ated, that trampling down all before it, seizes and
mangles the characters of such distinguished persons
as present, and like a giant refreshed with wine, rises
with new vigour from its sordid repast
With a view to answer this great and important
purpose, he hopes he may lay claim to the candour
and indulgence of the Public, and be allowed to call
for their attention to the several steps he has already
taken, and Rail further take in prosecuting the vin
dication of his much .ibuled and intuited character,
in the Ration of Director-General of the Holpitals,
and Ptiyfician in Chief to the American Army.
To effect this, it is necessary to know how it came
to pass, that a person appointed to the supreme
charge and direction of the General Hospitals, on
whose skill, attention and conduct, the health and
welfare of the soldiery of the whole army is supposed
principally to depend, should be difmified from that
Ration, without a trial, and without an hearing, tho'
earnestly and repeatedly called for, before it took
place, after he had declared, " That such had been
his attention to the orders of the Commander in
Chief and relolves of Congress, and such his vigi
lance, care and activity, in the several duties of his
Ration, and his integrity in every branch of trust,
as would have convinced every impartial person
how groundlels were the complaints against him,
had he been indulged with the common privilege of
a freeman, ot being tried before his difmiffion took
place."
[Numb. 53.]