The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1779-11-10 00:00:00, page 1

your conduct in endeavouring to exculpate a set of
men, whom I knew to deserve the censure of their
country. —But, Sir, when I was informed by that
venerable gentleman, from whose character you en
deavoured to detract, by prefixing a quondam to his
honorable titles, that you, whilst a commissary in
our army, had been a /peculator in rum and flour;
that you had purchased several hogsheads of the for
mer, and fold them again at an advanced price for
your own private emolument; I fay, Sir, upon being
thus informed, my indignation rose, and I could not
but deem your conduC t " infamous and detestable,"
and confider you, if guilty of it, as deferring " of
being turned out of employment with disgrace, of
being banished from the society of virtuous men, and
of being looked upon with as much abhorrence as a
robber." Influenced solely by a regard for the pub
lick weal, I presumed to call upon you in the Gazette
and ask you refreCting the truth of this account. —I
left my name for you at the Printer's. —I engaged, if
you denied the charge, you should hear farther from
me. —Where is the meanness, where appears the
timidity of my conduct? Could I have acted more
generously, or more frankly accused you, after re
ceiving such information ? Let the publick determiner
I now come to your defence, which is prefaced
with a detail of motives fufficient, in your opinion, to
deter you and your brethren from diflioneft practices,
and with a with, that, if they have not had this desir
able effect, you may be dismissed from office, and held
up to view as melancholy objects of human depravity.
I heartily join you, my friend, though 1 would
rather you had said bung up as examples to others,
provided no commissions were granted to any depart
ment on the purchase of hemp. Pardon me, Mr.
Dunham, I cannot help laughing at this unmeaning
jargon.—Pray, have not all offenders fufficient, nay
similar motives to engage them to be virtuous ? Or,
has any person attempted to prove, that commissaries
and quartermasters ought not to be honest? Surely,
you and your writer were very dull, or very much at
a loss indeed !—Your defence itfelf is of the fame
species ; you deny what you was never accused with,
you confefs the charges exhibited against you, and
endeavour to palliate your conduct, by observations,
for which those, under whom you act, are, 1 believe,
but little obliged to you. Pray, Sir, at what time of
year did you receive orders to desist from the purchase
of flour? What quantity was then on hand, and what
quantity was procured at the moderate price you
mention? Had the purchasing commissaries, in the
State of Pennsylvania, similar directions? I with you
to answer these questions, perhaps it may unravel some
of the mysteries of your -department, or perhaps it
may remove some suspicions refpecfing their conduct.
I shall fay nothing farther concerning your defence.
J only wish, for the good of my country, that Con
gress would raise the commissions on all kinds of pur
chases to such a Height, that gentlemen, who have
condescended to become commissaries and quarter-
To AZARIAH DUNHAM, Esquire.
SI R,
T BELIEVE you are so well acquainted with my
circumstances for some weeks past, that you
will readily pardon the delay which has at
tended this my answer to your address.
I acknowledge with you, Sir, that risking
one's life, and spending one's all, are claims
to consequence very frequent at this day; but, Sir,
I must observe, they are claims, to which neither
you, nor the chicken-hearted gentleman who writes
for you, can ever pretend.
That you was at a loss what to do with Mr. Timo
leon, appears not only from the firft sentence, but
from the whole of your elegant production. Indeed
had it not been for the pretty words, meannefi and
timidity, and the pretty idea of mixing them, I believe
you would scarce have sallied forth this second time.
I shall only fay, that, whatever bafhfulnefs you may
have observed in my former address, you shall, for
the future, have no cause to complain, that I do not
life " open and explicit terms."
I did not mean to insinuate, that your character is
not fair and reputable—a very different cause induced
me to smile at feeing you step forth the Champion ;
and I believe whoever knows you, and whoever re
fpeds you, thinks with me, that you acted a part
v< ry inconsistent and truly ridiculous.
I with not, Mr. Dunham, to " stab the reputation
or to wound the feelings of an honest man;" 1 with,
Sir, to fee the truth investigated, and to contribute
my mite towards checking the prevailing villainy of
the times. I verv unexpectedly took up my pen to
address you; just before I fat down for this purpose,
I was speaking in favour of your honesty and fidelity,
tho' I could not but at the fame time disapprove of
NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
[Vol. ll.]
WEDNESDAY, November io, 1779.
commissary and quartermaster departments, whose
fouls I know to be superior to every species of fraud;
you should not therefore give me your permission to
indulge my inclination in trying to prove, that they
matters, may not be under the necessity of becoming
traders, to support themselves and their families.—l
will not deny a word of what you fay, concerning
your zeal and activity in your office; on the contrary,
I will do you the justice to declare, that, tho' I be
lieve you have also committed iniquity, and tran/greffed
with your brethren, few, if any, have done greater
justice to the community, or more warmly exerted
themselves to procure proper supplies for the army,
and to make their purchases at the lowest possible
rates. As to your forty-pound stroke, it is too little to
deserve an anfwer —Do you imagine that, commiffary
like, I wished to give such a price for an ordinary
plantation ? At what rate, good Sir, do you pay for
a yoke of ordinary oxen ?—I suppose, when you de
clare, that you never attempted, in a publick News
paper, to prove that the depreciation of our money
was twenty to one, you mean to inlinuate, that I am
the author of the True Patriot. —You are unlucky,
Mr. Dunham, in your conjectures on this head; in
your firft address, you fix the matter upon a Divine,
a President, or a Judge—and now, Sir, you father
those productions upon poor Timoleon, a farmer of
Somerset; and I assure you, Sir, I have no more
connection with the writer of those pieces, than I
have with the Pope of Rome.
I would now proceed and attack, agreeable to
promise, the commissary and quartermatter depart
ments at large; but alas! you, their GOLIAH, have
fhamefully deserted them —After marching forth with
great parade, at the very appearance of an antagonist,
you have retired under cover of a negative proposition,
and fufpeCting that even here you may receive consi
derable annoyance, you have resolved to secure a
retreat into the citadel of your own personal honesty.
If, Sir, I should now inform you, that two or three
of your deputies were apprehended by the magistrates
of a certain town, whilst purchasing cattle at double
and treble the current price, on suspicion of their
being Tories who had procured a quantity of counter
feit money from New-York—ls I should relate to
you, that a commissary up the North-River, was last
winter thd purchaser of a large quantity of rum at
Seven Pounds per gallon, which two of his relations
purchased at Philadelphia, evidently with publick
money, at Four Pounds per gallon, he and they
(haring the profits, which amounted, clear of rx
pences, to Five Thousand Pounds—ls I tell you that
a few mouths ago, a commissary, in Hunterdon
county, purchased a quantity of wheat at Ten Dol
lars per bushel, and afterwards paid for it Twelve,
and (till advised the farmer to waitlonger for his mo
ney, as he was sure wheat would soon be Twenty
Dollars per bushel—ls, Sir, I inform you that last
week, whilst the court of sessions was held at Newark,
the quartermasters there received orders to give
Fifty Pounds per ton, for new hay, when the inha
bitants had no idea of asking more than One Hundred
Dollars; in consequence of which they, to their cre
dit be it spoken, memorialized Congress on the fub
jeH—lf, without attending to particular instances of
villainy, I should roundly assert, that the present de
preciated state of our currency is, in a very great
meafine, owing to the mifeondud of those who have
purchased for the army; and if, in confirmation here
of, I should, among a variety of other arguments
adduce inflances redounding much to your own ho
nour, and that of others of your brethren of the sass,
plainly evincing, that it has been, and is greatly in
your power, to regulate the prices of the neceffarles
of the army —I fay, Sir, if I should thus proceed to
shew, that a great number of your brethren have in
deed been Harpres who have preyed upon our vitals,
What is to be my answer from Mr. Dunham ?
" What I have averred, amounts only to a negative
proposition.—All I have to do, is to challenge those I
have dealt with, to convift me.—l must be supposed
innocent, till they can prove me otherwise, —I did not
undertake to juftify every individual, who purchases
for the publick.—Thofe who are honest and attentive,
need no vindication, and those who are not, deserve
none. —Others, when arraigned, must defend them
selves." You have turned out just such a hero as I
thought, and all the reward you need expert for
" your extraordinary zeal and labours,', 'is the ridi
cule of the honest part of your brethren, who certainly
must laugh at your unnecessary defence of your repu
tation—and the hearty curses of such as know them
selves to be guilty, who, having looked upto you as
an able defender of their cause, must be chagrined at
their disappointment.
I can single out, Sir, a number of gentlemen in the
TH E
have all been villains; —but, Sir, you should be as
honefl in tranferibing the expressions of your opponent
as you fay you have been in disposing of the publick
money.
I have much more to fay to you, but I have already
tranfgrefla&the bounds to which I ought to have li
mited m,^lf. —I possess not a sentiment, Sir, which
I dare not utter. I utter none, which I dare not
defend: I should therefore now subscribe my name to
this address; but as you difeover so great an aversion
from knowing me, and as I wish not to intrude upon
gentlemen, I shall again call myfelf,
Your molt obedient servant,
Somerset, June 29, 1779. TIMOLEON.
collins;
Notwithstanding all the reflexions which
have been cast upon your correspondent the
True Patriots I cannot but think, that could his
scheme take place, it would be the most just and equi
table of any yet proposed. If I took up his plan, it
was for substance this, viz. that what our currency
had depreciated, should be funk immediately by the
community, And either hard money borrowed, or new
emissions made, in order to exchange the remainder,
dollar for dollar; and then to have a regulating aft
passed, to keep the money good, and prevent mono
poly, extortion, &c. Had this plan been executed at
the time it was proposed, I humbly conceive, that it
would have saved us many millions of expence, and
prevented our money from degenerating into almost
blank paper, and enabled us to carry on the war with
infinitely less perplexity and much greater certainty
of success. It is well known, that our enemy's greatest
hope and expectation is derived from the depreciation
of our currency, which they have endeavoured to
accomplish by entry means in their power. I think
the True Patriot has fufficiently proved, that it isjuft ;
that they who have received their money, at the rate
of fifteen or twenty for one, ought to fink it in the
fame proportion, if it'is right to tax money at all ;
and that it is right that money should be taxed either
b, lessening the interest, or deducing a part of it,
must be evident to every impartial enquirer after
truth. That plan, which (all things confidercd) will
do the least injustice to the community, ought to be
adopted ; and who can fay, that it is not just to punith
the guilty, and exempt innocent fufferers? Sed " hie
labor, hoc opus est:" here is the difficulty; but sup
posing the innocent should fuffer by a tax of ten or
fifteen for one upon their money, would they not then
be as well off as at present, with the whole, if the
remainder would purchase the fame? Surely they
would. They therefore cannot be losers by such an
exchange; and the community in general would, in
my humble opinion, be much advantaged by having
the expence of the war diminished, our national debt
lessened, and our enemies confounded.
A FRIEND to LIBERTY.
r l 'O be fold by the fubferiber, living in Kingwood
1 township, Hunterdon county, a Plantation con
taining 175 acres of land, situate, lying and being in
the township of Amwell, adjoining to Peter Young's,
within a mile and a half of William Chumberling's
mill. Said plantation is now in the possession of James
Matthews; there is a house and barn on said place,
a good bearing orchard, some peach and cherry trees,
a spring of good water near the door, 7 or 8 acres of
meadow cleared, and more to be made; there are
about 70 or 80 acres of cleared land, the rest timber.
Any person inclining to purchase said plantation, may
know the terms by applying to the fubferiber,
Nov. 2 . zwf ' JOHN GULICK.
To the P ÜBLI C K.
lIEREAS Richard Stevens and John Mehelm,
' Efqrs. in the Pennsylvania and New-Jersey pa
pers, have, as trustees for felling and disposing of part
of the real estate of William Alexander, Earl of Stir
ling, among others, advertised two certain traXs of
land near Croffwicks, adjoining Plumfted's and Wil
lock's land, containing about 526 acres; and where
as the greatest part of one of said tracts of land, the
beginning of which is at a poplar handing on Croff
wick's creek, is now in the possession of James and
Peter Sexton, by conveyance from Thomas Plumfted
to James Sexton, and from James Lawrence, John
Leonard, Thomas Reynolds to Peter Sexton, where
by we the fubferibers look upon ourselves to be the
true and lawful owners of so much of said land as is
included in the above-cited conveyances: therefore
we do hereby forwarn all persons from purchasing,
as we are determined to dispute the title with any
person or persons purchasing the fame.
JAMES 'SEXTON,
Nov. 2. 3wf PETER SEXTON.
[Numb. 98.]