The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1782-06-12 00:00:00, page 1

NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
To SIR GUY CARLETON.
IT is the nature of companion to associate with
misfortune; and I address this to you in be
half even of an enemy, a Captain in the Bri
tish service, now on his way to the head-quar
ters .of the American army, and unfortunately
dootied to death for a crime not his own.—A sen
tence f) extraordinary, an execution so repugnant
to every human sensation, ought never to be told
without the circumstances which produced it : and
as the destined vidim is yet in existence, and in your
hands rest his life or death, I shall briefly Rate
the case and the melancholy consequence.
Captain Buddy, of the Jersey militia, was at
tacked in a small fort on Tom's river, by a party
of refugees in the British pay and service, was made
prisoner together with his company, carried to
New-York and lodged in the provost of that tity;
about three weeks after which, he was taken out of
the provost down to the water-fide, put into a boat
and brought again upon the Jersey fliore, and there,
contrary to the practice of all nations but savages,
was hung up on a tree, and left hanging until found
by our people, who took him down and buried
him.
[Vol. V.]
The inhabitants of that part of the country where
the murder was committed, sent a deputation te
General Wafhingtdn with a full and certified state
of the fa&. Struck, as every human breast mult
be, with such brutish outrage, and determined
both to punilh and prevent it for the future, the
General represented the case to General Clinton,
who then commanded, and demanded that the re
fugee officer who ordered and attended the executi
on, and whose name is Lippincut, should be deli
vered up as a murderer; and in case of refufal, that
the perlon of some British officer should fuffer in
his dead. The demand, though not refufed, has
not been complied with; and the melancholy lot
(not by selection, but by calling lots) has fallen up
on Captain Afgil, of the guards, who, as I have al
ready mentioned, is on his way from Lancaster to
camp, a martyr to the general wickedness of the
cause he engaged in, and the ingratitude of those
he has served.,
The firft reflexion which arises on this black bu
f.nefs is, what fort of men must Englishmen be, and
what fort of order and discipline do they preserve in
their army, when, in the immediate place of their
head-quarters, and under the eye and nose of their
commander in chief, a prisoner can be taken at plea
sure from his confinement, and his death made
a matter of sport.
The history of the most savage Indians does not
produce instances exa&ly of this kind. They, at
ieaft, have a formality in their punilhments. With
them it is the horridness of revenge, but with' your
army it is the still greater crime, the horridness of
diversion.
The British Generals who have succeeded each
other, from the time of General Gage to yourfelf,
have all affected to speak in language they have no
right to. In their proclamations, their addrefTes,
their letters to General Washington, and their fop
plications to Congress (for they deserve no other
name) they talk of British honour, British genero
sity and British clemency, as if those things were
matters of fad; whereas we, whose eyes are open,
/ho speak the fame language with yourselves, many
f whom were born on the lame spot with you, and
ho can no more be mistaken in your words than
Iyour adions, can declare to all the world, that
i far as our knowledge goes, there is not a more de
lable charaAer, nor a meaner or more barbarous
<emy than the present British one With us you
ve forfeited all pretention to reputation, and it is
y by holding you like a wild beast, afraid of
r keepers, that you can be made manageable.—
to return to the point in question.
'hough I can think no man innocent who has
nt his hand to destroy the country which he did
not plant, and to ruin those he could not enslave;
abftra&ed from all ideas of right or wrong on
WEDNESDAY, June 12 , 1782.
the original question, Capta n Afgil, in the present
case, is not the guilty man. The villain and the
victim are here separated characters. You hold the
one and we the other. You disown or affect to dis
own and reprobate the conduct of Lippincut, yet
you give him fanduary ; and by so doing you as ef
fectually become the executioner of Afgil, as if you
put the rope on his neck and difmifled him from the
world.
Whatever your feelings on this extraordinary case
may be are best known to yourfelf. Within the
grave of your own mind lies buried the fate of Af
gil. He becomes the corpse of your will, or the
lurvivor of your justice. Deliver up the one and
you save the other ; withhold the one and the other
dies by your choice.
On our part the case is exceeding plain; an of
ficer has BEEN TAKEN FROM HIS CONFINE
MENT AND MURDERED, AN , THE MURDERER IS
within your lines. Your army have been
guilty of a thousand instances of equal cruelty, but
they have been rendered equivocal, ana Weltered
from personal detention. Here the crime is fixt;
and is one of those extraordinary cases which can
neither be denied nor paliated, and to which the
custom of war does not apply; for it never could
be supposed that such a brutal outrage would ever
be committed. It is an original in the history of
civilized barbarians, and is truly British.,
On your part, you are accountable to us for the
personal lafety of the prisoners within your walls.
Here can be no mistake; they can neither be spies
nor fufpe&ed as such; your fecutity is not endan
gered, nor your operations fubje&ed to mifearriage,
by men immured within a dungeon, They differ
in every circumstance from men in the field, and
leave no pretence for severity or punishment. But
if to the dismal condition of captivity with you,
must be added the constant apprehensions of death ;
if to be imprisoned is so nearly to be entombed ;
and, if after all, the murderers are to be protected,
and thereby the crime encouraged, wherein do you
differ from Indians either in conduct or character.
We can have no idea of your honour or your
justice in any future tranfadion, of what nature it
may be, while you Shelter within your lines an out
rageous murderer, and facrifice in his stead an ofli
cer of your own. if you have no regard to us, at
least spare the blood which it is your duty to save.
Whether the punishment will be greater on he,
who, in this case, innocently dies; or on he whom
fad necessity forces to retaliate, is, in the nicety of
sensation, an undecided quellion? It rests with you
to prevent the {offerings of both. You have nothing
to do but to give up the murderer, and the matter
ends.
But to protea him, be he who he may, is to pa
tronize his crime, and to trifle it off by frivolous
and unmeaning enquiries, is to promote it. 1 here
is no declaration you can make, no promise you
can give, that will obtain credit. It is the man
and not the apology that is demanded.
You fee yourfelf pressed on all fides' to spare the
life of your own officer, for die he will if you with
hold justice. The murder of Captain Huddy is an
offence not to be borne with, and there is no secu
rity we can have that such actions or similar ones
shall not be repeated, but by making the punish
ment fall upon yourselves. To destroy the last se
curity of captivity, and to take the unarmed, the
unrefilling prisoner to private and sportive executi
on, is carrying barbarity two high for silence. The
evil must be put an end to; and the choice of per
sons rests with you. But if your attachment to the
guilty is stronger than to the innocent, you invent
a crime that mull destroy your character; and if
the cause of your King needs to be lo supported, for
ever cease, Sir, to torture our remembrance with
the wretched phrases of British honour, British ge
nerosity, and British clemency.
From this melancholy circumstance, learn, Sir,
a lesson of morality. The refugees are men whom
your predecessors have instructed in wickedness the
better to lit them to their maker's purpose. To
TH £
merican vessels of war blocked up the federal out
lets at the north fide of the island, some others tock
their Rations in the offing, the South-Carolina
keeping off and on until 5 o'clock, when fire tock
her flation as near to the bar of the harbour as she
could, and within gunshot of fort Nassau, their prin
cipal fort, with a design to draw the enemy's atten
tion that way, while the traniports were preparing
to land the troops, during which time General Ca
gigal sent a flag from this ship, in a Spanilh tender,
to Governor Maxwell, requesting him to mention
the terms on which he would surrender the Baha
ma islands to his Catholic Majesty. In the mean
time I directed the transports to follow the leading
vessel, who repeated' our signals for anchoring be
tween Salt-Key and Ilog-Ifland, that General Ca
gigal might debark when he deemed proper. The
next day at nine o'clock, Governor Maxwell sent
one of the principal inhabitants on board the South-
Carolina with piopofals, which were not accepted:
l then wrote the Governor a letter, the copy of
which is enclosed. All the American vefftls conti-.
nued as near their Rations as the winds, shoals and'
circumstances would admit. Ihe Spanilh trans- 1
ports, with the armed vessels and galleys, kept an
choring as ordered, and at three o'clock Generl
Cagigal, with all his officers who had a paffageru
this ship, departed with a view of making prep^ra-
make them ufeful they have made them vile, and
the consequence of their tutored villainy is now de
feending on the heads of their encourageis. They
have been trained like hounds to the feent of blood,
and cherished in every species of dilfolute barbari
ty. Their ideas of right and wrong are worn away
in the constant habitude of repeated infamy, till
like men pra&ifed in executions, they feel not the?
value of another's life.n
1 he talk before you, though painful, is not dif-'
ficult; give up the murderer, and save your offi-'
cer, as the firft butfet of a necessary reformation.
COMMON SENSE.
Philadelphia, May 31, 1782.
PHILADELPHIA, June 4.
The following is a copy of Commodore Gil
lon's letter to His Excellency Governor MAT
thews, of South-Carolina, giving, an account of
the taking of New-Providence, and the other Ba
hama Islands.
On board the South-Carolina, May 15,
1782, in lat. 28 Poo north, and long.
76 ° 30 weft from London.
THE letters and papers now transmitted to
your Excellency, will acquaint you with"
my proceedings relative to the South-Carolina, since
I had the honour of writing to you last. My corre
spondence with His Excellency General Cagigal,
Captain-General of the Island of Cuba, with seve
ral papers accompanying them, will informyou more
particularly of the expedition against the Bahama
Blands. The assistance the South-Carolina recciv'
ed in her refits at the Havanna,.the aid she had h
other Spanilh ports, with many other reasons ni
unknown to your Excellency, were, among other,
powerful reasons for my acceeding to General C
gigal's request of taking the command of thesea‘
forces destined against these islands, which consisted
of fifty-nine Spanish and American vessels, the par
ticular description of which is enclosed.
We failed from the Havanna the 22d ult. a cur
rent prevented our taking our departure from thence
until the 28th ; the 30th we took our departure
from the Matanzas; the firft inst. made the Dou
bleheaded Shot; the second saw the Biminis, and
at noon were abreast of the Great Isaac locks, our
firft rendezvous, where we altered our plan of go
ing through the gulph of Florida, and of making
Egg-Island (which is about twelve leagues to wind
ward of Providence) our second rendezvous, ar
determined to attempt the passage between the Gre'
Isaac rocks, the berry islands, and the grand Ba
hama island, in which we succeeded so well, that
on the sth instant we were before the island of Pro
vidence with all the fleet. While some of the A-
[Numb. 23;.