The New-York gazette, and the weekly Mercury — New-York [N.Y.], 1779-06-28 00:00:00, page 6

She would as feon break her treaty with you as with
Britain, if (he could gain by it ; and you must be
conscious, that it was not from affe&ion to you or
to the rights of mankind, but to serve her own am
bitious purposes, that (he joined in your cause. By
duplicity, intrigue, perfidy and violence, France has
gained more provinces in Europe than you had to
'bellow in America; and die gained them without a
claim half so plausible as you gave her to the 'Thirteen
United States. Burgundy, Alsace, the Netherlands
&c. &c. can fully teltify this, as well as the poor
Corfcans within our memory,who were fold to France
by their late republican matters and tyrants. The
Ccrficans and French protestants will, doubtless,
join heartily in your panegyric.
What you can rationally expeft from France at
present, is beyond my comprehension. She is unable
to protest her own trade or foreign settlements, how
then can (he protest or assist you? She cannot lend
you money, for she has it not to lend ; and even
your bills on France have been protested. Her King's
palaces and gardens are going to ruins for want of
money to repair them. The Agents of France are
soliciting loans for the support of her present arma
ments, in every neighbouring state that has money
to spare ; yet her credit is so low, that they can Scarce
ly procure a single livre. If you think, atleaft,,that
such a diversion will be made by the french war,
that this continent will be neglected by Britain, and
you permitted to establish your independency, you
will find yourselves egregiously mistaken. The war
with France will be principally on that element,
where Britain confefledly surpasses any power in the
world, in strength, dexterity and skill. She can line
this coast with ships of war, and still retain a fuffi
cient force to crush the naval power of France. Your
ally, for his own preservation, must abandon you,
and leave you to your fate. With all the infamy of
a French faction, yet without French assistance, you
muft%ruggle against your “ gigantic, adversary;"
who, besides superior strength, has right and justice
on his fide, and the cause of liberty and the protestant
religion to animate his exertions.
Your paper currency and the French alliance were
the principal supports of your rebellion. I have
therefore dwelt the longer on them. In shewing the
credit of the one to be irretrievably left, and the
other to be of no advantage, but dangerous and dif
graceful in the highest degree, I have so far pointed
out your present state. I r.owproceed to other parti
culars, which shall be briefly difeuffed.
Before I enter on these, give me leave to inform
you that Britain will not give up this contest, nor
abandon America. Whatever hopes of this kind
you may have entertained, whatever reports to this
purpose you have propagated to buoy up the spirits of
your partizans,be assured they were falfe and ground
less. Britain is determined to assert her just claim,
and she will contend as earnestly for her American
colonies, as die would for any county in England,
were it invaded—set this down therefore as an indu
bitable truth.
Your hopes of foreign loans are by this time va
nished. France cannot, Holland or Spain will not
lend you money. In conjunction with France, you
have endeavoured to drag Spain into the war. But
the present diftra&ed state of the Spanish government
is an effectual bar to it. Besides, every maxim of
found policy, every didate of common sense for
bids Spain to countenance your rebellion—it would
be teaching her own colonies to rebel—it would be
setting up a rival power in the vicinity of her colo
nies, which in time might wrest them from her. —
Accordingly, Spain is deaf to all your inflammatory
exhortations to war.
What then are your internal resources with which
you are to encounter your “ gigantic adversary,
6c prepared at all points, and of whom even mighty
" warriors were greatly afraid ?"—to use your own
most military and elegant phraseology. Men and mo
ney are the sinews of war. The cash account has
been already examined—You must depend on a
wretched currency, which is pad all hope, or the
possibility of being retrieved—-no, not even by the
sale of the western wilderness, the last anchor of
your hope.
America is thinned of its inhabitants. Seventy
ihoufand men, and those generally the most ufeful
and industrious are already swept away. In a coun
try so extensive and so thinly inhabited as America,
this loss must be severely felt. Those that remain,
are harraffed with perpetual musters, and called from
their necessary labour to attend the operations of
war. If a few determined republicans, and such as
are vested with power, and are amassing fortunes by
the public ruin, be excepted; the firft enthusiastic
zeal for revolt and enterprize is subsided, even among
your partizans. The people in general are heartily
Tick of the eonteft. The calamities they have if j
sered, the ruin that threatens, joined to your uef
potifm, have brought them to their senses. they
are averse to taking arms, and ardently wilh for
peace.
Is not this indeed the case ? Why clfe are you re
duced to such difficulties intaifing an army? Scarce
ly any will inlitt even for a few months. I hose
that do inlift, are tempted by exorbitant premiums;
nor would these avail, Were not the poor wretches
seduced by artful fallehood>—fuch as accounts of
victories never obtained—pubric rejoicings lor those
vi&ories--great and good news from Europe, alto
gether fictitious-loans, fleets and armies coming
over, which never had an exigence, &e. &c. -
Whence is the backwardness of the militia to turn
out when called on? Or whence those violent and
arbitrary methods to draft the militia, and keep up
the appearance of an army r Do not these things
evidently (hew that the people at large are averse to
your measures, that their hearts are not with you ?
So galling has been your yoke, so infuppprtable
your tyranny, and so detested by the colonies, that
many thousands of them would this moment
cheerfully set fire to their own houses, and destroy
them, provided this would contribute to deliver them
from their present thraldom, and redone to them
the bleflings of peace and liberty wh.cn th. y former
ly enjoyed. When lb many of your {objects a:c
lukewarm, so many others difaffeCted, and others
again so highly exafoerated, your usurped power muff
rest on a very tottering foundation. Even in your
army, distrust and difaffectiGn prevail. If halfado
zen of your soldiers are seen converting togetner,
they are instantly dispersed by an officer. 1 his 1
have been assured of repeatedly by deserters.
§, You frequently and loudly complained that go
vernment had employed the savages to scalp you.- -
You did this, when government actually reftiained
the savages, and would not employ them ; and when
you were using every method in your power to gain
the savages, that you might employ them against go
vernment. Such of the Oneidas, Hou'atunnuk or Stock
bridge Indians and others, as had been previously
perverted from loyalty, joined you, and have fought
your battles. You lately sent a number of commis
sions to Indian Chiefs, and attempts were made by
the most flagrant falfehoods, to seduce them from the
King-—your artifices however proved abortive.
For these and other reasons it is become absolutely
necessary for government to employ the Indians;
and employed they will be. You have imposed this
disagreeable necessity on the Parent State. With
very little encouragement, such a number of Indians
may be brought on your frontiers, that in conjunc
tion with the loyalists, whom you have driven to des
peration, and compelled to join the Indians, they
would cut out work enough for all the forces you
can muster. Doubtless every precaution and me
thod will be taken to prevent the cruelties which at
tend an Indian war ; but it is to be feared that your
barbarities to the savages will in some degree defeat
those precautions. You have cut off numbers of the
Indians, you have deftrmyed their houses and settle
ments, because they would not take up the hatchet
to support your rebellion. This will naturally Si
mulate them to revenge, and all the consequent hor
rors must be laid to your charge.
Whilst your western frontiers are thus exposed to
the ravages of an incensed enemy, the whole line of
sea coast on the east is open to the British fleet and
army. To the southward and northward also you
will feel the power of the British arms. In every
quarter you are vulnerable, and in every quarter you
will be prefled ; whilst difaffeftion and distrust, in
ternal feuds and animosities weaken and consume
your strength.
To compleat the whole, this country, formerly
the most plentiful perhaps in the world, and most
abounding in provisions of every kind, is now
threatened with famine. The old stock, which our
non-exportation kept on hand, is now confirmed or
destroyed. The Americans must entirely depend
upon their annual crops for future subsistence ; these
are scarcely half as large as they were formerly, and
are liable to the fame consumption and deftru&ion
that have already swept off much greater quantities
of grain. In most places the lower clafles are in
want of bread ; I have been afl'ured that some have
even perished for want of that and the other neces
saries of life. These wants will unavoidably in
crease, if the war continues ; and your warmest par
tizans in different provinces have declared it as their
opinion that a general famine is approaching.
Such is the state of your affairs which an impartial
survey of them presents to us. Yet still you breathe
war and defiance, and multiply your insults and
cruelties, like the devoted Jews when they compelled
the mild and onerous Tirus to inAid such sere
puniihment on them. In my conscience, 1 thik
there is not in the whole compass of hihory a case
to be found so parallel to yours as that of the levs
at the period I mention. Without an object to corn
penfate for the calamities fuffered by this countr ,
without aoy rational profpe& of success, and withoit
ability to protect the people whose guard anfhip v< u
have afiumeu, you iubjedt them to all the miseries
of civil war; and Jiag them, contrary to their incli
nation and principles, to be fliughtered like fhtep,
in the field ofbattle. This leaves you utterly inex-
Cufable in the fight of God and man, and covers you
with guilt of the deepest dye!
What then can your profpeas be in such a fixation ?
They must be gl omy and wretched indeed. Your
apprehensions must be terrible when you take time
to reflect. But none can form a just idea of the
sensations peculiar to your situation, except such at
are plunged equally deep in guilt and rebellion.
Whatever terrors a consciousness of your demerits
may suggest, I am clearly of opinion that you have
more tp dread from the resentment of your much in
jured countrymen than from the refentme^ Go
vernment or the sword ofjuftice. Th -; nances are
very numerous wher# usurpers, whr rcie instrumen
tal in bringing ruin on a people by such methods as
you have practifed, have la n victims to the rage of
thole people, and h.vc been torn to pieces by them,
however they might have been once idolized. P yate
rage, impatient at thd taniy progress of public uf
tice, whir h mav be fi ^ily eluded, hath fuacche ' u %
from its hand, and devoted them to infant destruc
tion. Beware of a similar fa e: Human nature is
the fame now that it was formerly.
When matters are app:oachingto this crisis, it is
not improbable that overtures of accommodation will
be made by your Congress to the Biitilh Commander
in Chief; or that they will authorize their deputies^
in Europe to attempt fomethieg of the k nd. With
how good a grace such overtures can come from y u,
after what has happened, I leave your own feelings
to determine.
It is certainly a matter of serious consideration both ~
to government, and to the good people of this coun
try, whether a treaty of any kind should be held
with the Congress---whether men, who have so
much prostituted their usurped power, should ever be
admitted to have any hand in the settlement of the
colonics. Certain I am, that good policy on the part
of America, as well as of Britain, utterly forbids it.
That this country will have a generous constitution,
as much freedom and as great privileges, as any part
of the British dominions, is what I firmly and religi
ously believe. No well informed person can doubt it.
But these benefits should immediately flow from go
vernment to the people, through their legal, consti
tutional aflemblies; not through the unhallowed
mediation of usurpers, who have laboured to ruin
the whole empire, and would be attended with the
most pernicious consequences.
Before 1 conclude this letter, I cannot forbear pay
ing the tribute of applause which is due to the loyal
ists of America--a tribute which truth and justice de
mand. If your invention was strained to devise cru
elties for their trial, they have sustained the fliock
with no less firmnefs and intrepidity. They have
exhibited instances of und viating loyalty, of unsha
ken attachment to principle, to the dilates of con
science, and to the jntereft of their country, which
would do honour to any people, in any place, or at
any period. They have literally forsaken all,
that they might adhere to these. Insults and perse
cution, bonds and imprisonment, confifcation and
death, have been their bitter portion ; yet their for
titude surmounted these, and they triumphed over
you in their fufferings ; Your compassion was with
held from them, but they commanded your esteem;
and they had what you cannot have, the testimony
of a good conscience to support them. Tho' privy
to each others sentiments, and under the strongest
inducements of felf-prefervation, emoluments and
popular applause, to be treacherous; yet there is no
instance where they violated the mutual confidence,
or betrayed the trust which they reposed in each
other : On the contrary, they have, at the rifque of
their lives, always readily afforded whatever aid and
affectionate affittance was in their power, to their
loyal brethren, when in distress, or under difficulties.
Such conduct, which is the result of a steady adher
ence to the voice of duty and conscience, reflects
luftre on human nature, and in some measure atones
for the baseness, perfidy, and other atrocious crimes
with which some of their deluded brethren disgrace
America at this day.
PAPINIAN.