The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1779-04-28 00:00:00, page 2

value, would be ten millions of dollars. If in this
case fifteen or sixteen millions of dollars could be
borrowed, and when obtained all the bonds, bills
and notes within the several claries before-mentioned,
being previously exempted, and then ten millions of
the gold and silver distributed in just proportion for
all the paper money and loan-certificates emitted in
the empire, and them immediately burnt and dc
ftroyed ; in such case each would receive an equiva
lent to what was the general true value of his money.
The danger of counterfeit not be so great, five or
fix millions be in hand for the immediate exigen
cies of the war, whilst the empire was collecting
necessary taxes in the usual method for the support
of the war. The whole of the sum, with what
is laid up as yet among the community, might be a
fufficient medium for trade, in the present Scarcity of
articles. If in such case regulating laws were palled
and vigorously executed, and the civil or Staff depart
ment of the army brought within proper limits ; then
would monopoly, forestalling and extortion be pre
vented, and we thus become a happy people. —The
balance of trade being against us, would probably
diminish this circulating medium; but necessary
annual taxes would probably keep a Sufficiency of it
till the conclusion of the war; and then, if necessary,
the different States might emit bills of credit more
fafely than now, as heretofore. —If hard money can
not be obtained, this measure might be carried into
execution by new continental emissions, as the Real
Farmer proposes it : That is, let all the emissions
of money and bank-notes be called in by a given
period, and new emissions ready, different places be
appointed convenient for the citizens, and each bring
all the money and bank-notes in their possession, and
receive for them the new emissions, except their re
fpedive proportions, which is supposed to be held
back as so much per cent, to be funk. The Real
Farmer proposes to make trial, firft by thus railing a
tax of twenty-five per cent. But as al! the money
and bank-notes are emitted on our national debt, and
their present value is by common consent brought
down, at the lowest medium we can compute, fifteen
for one, the real and true national debt is ten millions,
I fee no well-grounded objection (on condition of
exemptions as before observed) to paying that equi
valent in full, and destroy the whole of the other;
and what is more necessary for circulation to be kept
of the new emissions for the immediate necessary exi
gencies of the war; and then yearly taxes, regulating
ads, &c. as in the case of borrowed hard caih before
observed, and as soon as gold and silver could be
obtained, to exchange dollar for dollar.
What I have further to observe, I shall reserve to
my next concluding essay on this fubjed. lam, Sir,
Your's and my country's true friend, and
ready to serve,
A true Patriot.
From Robertsons' Royal American Gazette,
April 15, 1779.
Genuine copy of a letter from Mr. Livingston,
titular Governor of New-Jersey, to his Excellency
Sir Henry Clinton, K. B. &c.
Elizabeth-Town, 29th March, 1779.
SIR,
" After having apologized for my delaying your
and Mr. Franklin's dinner, by being accidentally a
broad when you did me the honour a few days ago
to fend Col. Stirling to wait upon me to New-York ;
J beg leave to acquaint you, that I am possessed of
the most authentic proofs of a General Officer under
your command having offered a large sum of money
to an inhabitant of this state to assassinate me, in case
he could not take me alive. This, Sir, is so repugnant
to the character which I have hitherto formed of Sir
IJenry Clinton, that I think it highly improbable you
fnould either countenance, connive at, or be privy
to, a design so sanguinary and difgraceful. Taking
it however for granted, that you are a gentleman of
too much spirit, to disown any thing you think pro
per to abet, I give you this opportunity for disavow
ing such dark proceedings, if undertaken without
your approbation ; alluring you at the fame time,
that if countenanced by you, your person is more in
my power than I have reason to think you imagine.
I have the honour to be with all due refpedt,
Your Excellency's most humble servant,
(Signed)' WIL. LIVINGSTON."
General Sir Henry Clinton.
His Excellency's Answer.
SIR, New-York, April 10, 1779.
" As you address me on a grave fubjedt, no less
than life and death, and your own person concerned,
Icondefcend to answer you, but mult not be troubled
with any further correlpondence with Mr. Livingston.
" Had I a foul capable of harbouring so infamous
an idea, as assassination, you Sir, at lead would have
nothing to fear ; for be assured, I should not blacken
myfelf with so foul a crime, to obtain so trifling an
end.
" Sensible of the power you boast, of being able
to dispose of my life, by means of intimates of your's,
ready to murder at your command, I can only con
gratulate you on your amiable connections, and ac
knowledge myfelf, your most humble servant,
(Signed) H. CLINTON."
William Livingston, Esq. New-Jersey.
[Thus far from the Royal Gazette.]
To which His Excellency our Governor returned
the following Answer.
SIR, Elizabeth-Town, 15th April, 1779.
" I received your Excellency's letter of the 10th
instant this afternoon, and had an opportunity about
an hour thereafter, to fee a copy of it in the New-
York American Gazette, together with mine of the
29th of March, which occahoned it. Your Excel
lency by these publications, compared with a certain
paffagc in your letter, seems determined to close our
correlpondence, by precluding me from a reply.
But by the laws of England, Sir, (the best of which
we intend to adopt, leaving the rest to our old
friends ot the realm) he who opens a caufc, hath
the privilege of concluding it.
" It is the observation of foreigners, that America
has shewn her Superiority to Great-Britain, no less in
the decency of her writings, than in the success of
her arms. I have too great a rcfpedtfor my native
country, whatever I ought to have for Sir Henry
Clinton, to furnifh an instance in contradiction of so
honourable a remark.
" Perhaps, Sir, you entertain too exalted an
opinion of your own importance, in deeming it a
condescension in you, to answer a letter informing you,
in the most inpffenfive terms, of an overture made
by one of your General Officers to have me affafli
nated. Alas, how many a hopeful gentleman has
been made giddy by a Star and Garter ! It had doubt
less redounded more to your honour, and afforded a
stronger argument of your abhorring such infamous
measures, to have called upon me for the proofs, and
manifefted a proper resentment against the criminal,
than to flourish about the capability of your foul, and
to betray a want of politeuefs, so unusual in persons
of your rank and breeding ; and that without any
other provocation than my complaining to you of
the conduit of one under your command, so repug
nant to the law of arms, and the sentiments of hu
manity.
" That you bare a foul capable of harbouring so
infamous an idea as assassination, I was so far from
intimating, that I told you, 1 thought it highly im
probable you Jbould either countenance, connive at, or
be privy to, a design so sanguinary and difgraceful :
And I remember that when I used the word impro
bable, I had like to have said impoftble; but that I
was deterred, on recollecting numerous instances,
by the extreme difficulty of precisely afeertaining
the utmost poffibilit, of British cruelty. Whatever
your foul may be capable of, I should have ventured,
before the receipt of your letter, to have pronounced
it impossible for you to be capable of opprobrious
language. How far, Sir, I am now to believe this
impossibility, I leave you, in your cooler moments,
to determine.
" How trifling an end soever you may suppose
would be obtained by my aflaffination, you certainly
thought my capture, not long since, important
enough to make me a principal object of what was,
in a literal sense, a very dirty expedition.
" What could induce you to fay that I boasted of
the power of being able to dispose of your life, by means
of intimates of mine, ready to murder at my command,
lamat a loss to guess. Is there a word in my letter
either about your lift, or about murder ? Or is your
Excellency so haunted with the thoughts of murder,
from a consciousness of British barbarity, that you
cannot write three paragraphs, without being startled
at the Blocking fpeCtre : And if there are any inti
mates in the case, how do you know but that they
are intimates of your own ? I told you that your
person was more in my power than I bad reason to
think you imagined. But is there no such thing as
one person's being in the power of another without
murder 2 Indeed, Sir, from this specimen of your
inductions, you ought to be a much better General
than you appear to be alogician, or America need
be under no apprehensions about her independence,
during your administration.
" As to your mus not be troubled with any farther
correspondence with Mr. Livingfton, —believe me, Sir,
that I have not the lead passion for interrupting your
more ufeful correlpondence with the British Ministry,
by which the nation will doubtless be greatly edified,
and which will probably furnifh materials for the
most authentic history of the present war ; and that
you cannot be less ambitious of my correspondence
than I am of your's ; because whatever improvement
I might hope to receive from you in the art of war,
and especially in the particular branches of conduct
ing (a) moon-light retreats, and planning (b) secret
expeditions ; I should not expert, from our correspon
dence, any considerable edification or refinement in
the epiflolar, way. lam therefore extremely willing
to terminate it, by wishing you a fafe voyage across
the Atlantic, with the singular glory of having at
tempted to reduce to bondage, a people determined
to be free and independent. I am, Sir,
Your Excellencv's humble servant,
WIL. LIVINGSTON.
His Excellency General Sir Henry Clinton.
(u) Sir Henry informed the Mini/lry that in his re
treat at Monmouth, be took the advantage of the moon
light ; when in reality be did not begin his retreat till
feme hours after the moon was set.
(b) It is remarkable that of all the secret expedi
tions planned by this Gentleman, since he has had the
chief command of the British army (and those expe
ditions have been multifarious ) not one of them has
succeeded. It is therefore to be presumed that Great-
Britain proposes to obtain, by bis Generalfcip, a mes
untrifling end.
PHILADELPHIA, April 27.
In CONGRES S, April 14, 1779.
rrfHEREAS Congress, on the twenty firft day of
. August last, did resolve, That when any per
sons are desirous of going within the enemy's lines,
they shall apply to the Executive Power of the State
to which they belong; and if the said Executive
Power approve the motives and characters of the
persons applying, and shall be of opinion, especially
at so critical conjunctures as the preferit, that no
danger will ensue by granting such permission, that
they recommend them to the officer commanding the
troops next to the enemy, who, upon such recom
mendation, may at his diferetion permit the persons t#
go in.—For the better execution of the said resolution :
Resolved, That any officer, who shall permit a
person to go within the enemy's lines without such
recommendation, or the orders of the Commander
in Chief, cr the commander of a separate depart
ment, and shall thereof be duly convicted before a
Court-Martial, shall thereby forfeit his commission.
Extract from the Minutes,
CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.
Extract of a letter from Capt. J. B. Hopkins, to,the
Marine Committee of Congress, dated April 18,
1779, on board the fliip Warren, Boftcn harbour.
" I have the honour to acquaint you, that on the
13th March I failed from Boston in company with the
thip Queen of France, Capt. Olney, and the flrip Ran
ger, Capt. Simpson, and that on the 6th infant we
fell in with the armed schooner Hibernia, from New-
York, with 45 men, which we took, and on the 7th
at 4 o'clock, A. M. in latitude 36 40 difeovered two
fleets, one to leward confining of ten fail, the other to
windward of nine fail. We gave chafe to the wind
ward most, and at about two o'clock took seven fail,
confining of the following veffcls, viz.
Ship Jason, Captain Porterfield, mounting 29 fix
pounders, 150 men, convoy to the fleet bound from
New-York to Georgia, having passengers on board,
as per the cnclofed lift.
Ship Meriah, a letter of marque, mounting 16 fix
pounders, 84 men, very richly ladened with provisi
ons, dry goods, and accoutrements for a regiment
of horse.
Brig Patriot, brig Prince Ferdinand, brig John, brig
Batchelor, schooner Chance, ladened with provisions
and goods for the army, to a very large amount.
As soon as they were manned we thought best to
stand to the eastward, having had intelligence of a
large number of armed vessels being off Chefapcak and
Delaware Bays. On the 16th instant I arrived in this
port, (having parted with the fleet on the 11th in a
thick fog) the next day the Jason arrived, which is
a very fine ship ; also the schooner at Portsmouth,
which is a very valuable vessel. Several vessels are now
in fight, which I hope is some of the fleet. By the ac
tivity of Captains Olney and Simpson, we manned
the fleet in four hours.
Published by order of the Marine Committee,
J. BROW N, Secretary.
TRENTO N, APRIL 28.
STATE OF NEW-JERSEY.
House of Assembly, April 23, 1779,^1
r r W O petitions, one from sundry owners of a
, certain trad of meadows lying in the townffiip
of Newark and county of Essex, and the other torn
sundry other freeholders and inhabitants of thefiid
township of Newark, were presented to the IIpOTe
and read, praying, for the reasons therein set foto,
that a law may be palled enabling the owners of said
meadows to cred and maintain a dam and works fuf
ficient to prevent the tide from overflowing the fame.
Ordered, That the owners, petitioners, have
leave to bring in a bill agreeable to the prayer of their
petition, upon advertising such their intention two
weeks successively in each of the publick newspapers
of this state; and provided they serve such proprie
tors of said meadows not signing the petition, if any
be, who may be interested in, or affeded by the works
proposed to be ereded, with a copy of this order, at
ieaft two weeks previous to offering the said bill.
A true copy from the minutes,
William C. Houston, Clk. P. Tem.
N. B. The petitioners pray for a law to ered and
build a dam, bank and sluice over Maple-Island Creek
in any place the molt convenient, upon the meadows
of Doctor William Burnet, James Johnston, or Na
thaniel Camp, fen. upon making a reasonable com
pensation for any damage done by such dam or works.
Last evening His Excellency Mons. Gerard, the
Ambassador from the Court of France, with his suite,
arrived here, accompanied by Don Juan De Mirrallias,
under escort of a corps of Philadelphia Light Dra
goons, being on his way to Head-Quarters, at
Middle-Brook.
Extract of a letter from Albany, April 17, 1779.
" From the westward we have certain accounts,
that on Sunday last, the rith inst. 12 Indians and 2
tories came near Sir William Jdbnfton's old house,
and took four prisoners, one of whom however lucki
ly made his escape, and fays their intention was to
take two or more principal inhabitants to gain intel
ligence, but they miffed their aim. We hear they
have killed two people on their return, wMo endea
voured to escape their savage hands."
We hear the Commissioners, who lately met at
Amboy to agree upon a cartel for a general exchange
of prisoners, have broke up without fettling it.
At a Court of Oyer and Terminer held in Bergen