The Pennsylvania ledger, or, The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey weekly advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-06-01 00:00:00, page 2

Impressed with these sentiments, we warmly re
commend to you, to keep constantly in your view
the avowed end and purpose for which rhefe colo
nics originally associated, The redress of American
grievances, and Securing the rights of the colonists.
As upon the attainment of these great objects
we Shall think it our greatest happiness to be thus
firmly united to Great-Britain, we think proper to
inftrud you, that Should any proposition be happily
made by the crown or parliament, that may lead to
or lay a rational and probable ground for a reconci
liation, you use your utmost endeavours to cultivate
and improve it into a happy settlement and lading
amity, taking care to secure the colonics againd the
exercise of the right assumed by parliament to tax
them, and to alter and change the charters, con
ftuulions, and internal policy, without their consent,
powers incompatible with the essential securities of
the lives, liberties, and properties of the colonies.
We further indrud you, ;bat you do not without
the previous knowledge and approbation of the
Convention of this province, assent to any proposi
tion to declare these colonies independent of the
crown pf Great-Britain, nor to any proposition for
making or entering into alliance with any foreign
.power, nor to any union or confederation of these
colonies, which may necessarily lead to a separation
from the mother country, unless in your judgments,
or in the judgments of any four of you, or of a
majority of the whole of you, if all shall be then
attending in Congress, it Shall be thought absolutely
necessary for the preservation of the liberties of the
United Colonies; and Should a majority of the co
lonies in Congress against such your judgment, re
solve to declare these colonies independent of the
crown of Great-Britain, or to make or enter into
alliance with any foreign power, or into any union
or confederation of these colonies, which may ne
cessarily lead to a separation from the mother coun
try, then we inftruft you immediately to call the
Convention of this province, and repair thereto with
such proposition and resolve, and lay the fame be
fore the said Convention, for their consideration,
and this Convention will not hold this province
bound by such majority in Congress, until the re
presentative body of the province in Convention
assent thereto.
Desirous as we are of peace with Great-Britain
upon Safe and honourable terms, we wish you never
theless, and inftrud you, to join with the other co
lonies in such military operations as may be judged
proper and necessary for the common defence, un
til such a peace can be happily obtained.
At the fame time that we assure you we have an
intire confidence in your abilities and integrity in
the discharge of the great trust reposed in you, we
mud observe to you as our opinion, that in the re
lation of constituent and representative, one princi
pal security of the former is, the right he holds to
be fully informed of the conduct of the latter; we
can conceive no case to exist, in which it would be
of more importance to exercise this right than the
present, nor any in which we can fuppole the repre
sentative would more willingly acquiesce in the ex
ercise of it. We therefore inftrud you, that you
move for and endeavour to obtain a resolve of Con
gress, that the votes given by the colonies on every
question agitated in Congress, shall appear upon
the journals thereof; and if such resolve be obtain
ed, that you, at the expence of this province, pro
cure copies of the said journals, except such part
of them as relate to military operations, and mea
sures taken to procure arms and ammunition, and
from time to time lay the fame before the Conven
tions of this province, Shewing the part you, as re
presentatives of the province, take in such questi
ons.
And we further inftrud you, to move for and
endeavour to obtain a resolve of Congress, that no
perlon who holds any military command in the con
tinental, or any provincial regular forces, or marine
service, nor any perlon who holds or enjoys any
office of profit under the Continental Congress, or
under any government assumed since the present
controversy with Great Britain began, or which
Shall hereafter be assumed, or who directly or indi
rectly receives the profits or any part of the profits
of Such command or office, Shall, during the time
of his folding or receiving the fame, be eligible to
fit in Congress.
The experience we and our ancestors have had of
rhe mddnef and equity of the English constitution,
voder which we have, grown up to and enjoyed a
few of Felicity not exceeded among any people we
know of, until the grounds of the present contro
• rriy w^e laid by the minidry and parliament of
< o~a' -Britain, has most Wrongly endeared to us that
form of government from whence these blellings
have been derived, and makes us ardently wilh for a
reconciliation with the mother country, upon terms
that mtiyinfnre to thefemolonies an equal and per
manent freedom.
To this constitution we are attached, not merely
by habit, but by principle, being in our judgments
persuaded, it is of all known systems, bed calculated
to secure the liberty of the fubjedl to guard againd
delpotifm on the one hand, and liccntioufnefs on
the other.
From the Providence Gazette, May 18.
Mr. Carter,
By inserting the following letter, and the an
nexed Proceedings of 4 Court-martial, you will
oblige your humble Servant, Abra. Whipple.
To ESEK HOPKINS, Eftuire, Commander in
Chief of the American Fleet.
Honored Sir,
IH AVE had the honor to serve under you in
the last French war, and I believe to your fatis
fadion ; and Since my arrival at Philadelphia, where
I was appointed by the Honorable Continental
Congress to the command of the Ship Columbus, I
have itriaiy obeyed your commands, and done all
in my power for the honor of the fleet, to the bed
ofmy knowledge. The night that we fell in with
the Glasgow man of war, two of my Lieutenants
were on board the two prizes we had taken, and
fourteen of my bed seamen: When we were run
ning down on the Ship, getting in order to engage,
and quartering the men in the places of those that
were absent, the Glasgow suddenly hauling to the
northward, brought me to the southward of her,
and brought her directly into your and Capt. Hop
kins's wake. I hauled up for her, and made all
Sail with my three top-gallant fails; Capt. Hop
kins then beginning the fire, the Glasgow returning
the fame, and my being in her wake, and as far to
leeward as She, it indantly deadened all the wind,
which put it entirely out of my power to get up
with her. I used my utmost endeavour, but in vain.
Before I had got near enough for a clole engage
ment, the Glasgow had made all fail for the har
bour of Newport: I continued chace under all fail
that I had, except studding-sails, and the wind be
ing before the beam, She Siring her two stern chaces
into me as fad as poftible, and my keeping up a fire
with my bow guns, and now and then a broadside,
put it out ofmy power to get near enough to have
a close engagement. I continued this chace till
you thought proper to hoist a Signal for my return
into the fleet: I accordingly obeyed the signal, and
on our arrival at New London, I found that a re
port was Spread, from the Alfred and Cabot, that
I was a coward, and many other ill-natured and
falfe aspersions. If I did not do my duty, it pro
ceeded not from cowardice, but from want of
Judgment. The inhabitants of New-London, and
others, by means of those cruel aspersions, look on
me with contempt, as a man not serving the coun
try in my station :—The circumdance of having a
family of children to be upbraided with my sup
posed cowardice, and my own character rendered
infamous through the Thirteen United Colonies, is
an indignity I cannot bear. Isl am a coward, I
have no bufmefs in the service of this Continent: I
therefore request that there may be a Court Martial
called, that I may be tried by my brother officers
of the fleet, and either acquitted with honor, or
broke with disgrace. I ask no favour of them. If
I Should be broke^the public will then have a right
to deipife me. If I can obtain no Satisfaction in this
way, I Should be under a necedity to return you my
commission. I will then thank the Congress for
the honor they intended me, and curse those who
firft Spread the infamous report. I have never yet
mentioned the matter to any one. If your Honor
had let me come to Newport when the Scarboro'
man of war lay there, as was my request, I might
perhaps have convinced the world that I am not a
coward; but this is now out of my power.
I am your Honor's humble Servant,
Abraham Whipple
P. S. Your Honor will observe, that it was in
the night when we bore down upon the Glasgow,
which rendered it difficult to fee when She altered
her course.
Providence, April 30, 1776.
At a Court-martial held on board the Alfred, at
Providence, in the Colony of Rhode-Ifland, on the
16th day of May, 1776, by order ofESEK HOP
KINS, Esq; Commander in Chief of the Ameri
can Fleet, and at the desire of Abraham Whip
ple, Esq; Commander of the foip Columbus, for
an enquiry into his, the said Whiffles, conduct on
the 17th of April last, in a n engagement held with
the Glasgow Jhip of war.
PRESEN T,
Captain DUDLEY SALTONSTALL,
, President.
Capt. Nicholas Biddle,
John Hazzard,
Samuel Nicholas,
John Welsh,
Lieut. John Paul Jones,
Rhodes Arnold, } Members.
Hoyfted Hacker,
EliSha Hinman,
Jonathan Maltbie.
Matthew Park,
Henry Dayton, j
ABRAHAM WHIPPLE,Efquire, aforefaid,
appeared before this Court, and fays his Lhara^er
hands afperfed for cowardiff, on board the Co
lumbus, the 7th of Apr:'lad on an engagement
with the Glasgow Ship of war; therefore desires to
be heard touching the fame: Whereupon this Court
proceeded to hear him. He sets forth in his decla^
Laden on board the HOPE, Mr. John Williams,
Contractor, and Alexander Lunfdale, Master, the
undermentioned particulars, to be transported to
Boston, in North-America, (the danger of the seas
only excepted) and there delivered to the CommiSTa
ry of the artillery, or to such persons as the officer
commanding the Royal artillery shall appoint to
receive them. In further part of Col. Cleveland's
demand, ordered by the board the 26th of July last.
1000 carbines, witli bayonets and steel ram rods;
1000 carbine cartouch boxes; 1000 flings. Spare
travelling carriages, 24 pair heavy, and 12 pair light,
with traversing handspikes for ditto. Hand saws,
84 in a case. Sand bags, 5000 bulhel, and 5000
half bushel bags. Mantilets of cured hides, 100 in
20 cases. Broad-axes, 144. Hand hammers, 60.
Grindffones with troughs, 15. Falling-axes, 300.
Hand-hatchets, 500. ' Hand bills, 500. Wheel
barrows, 268. Hand-barrows, 250. Spades, 1000;
ditching ditto, 250 ; Shovels, 750 fliod, and 250
iron. Coils of rope, lof 4 and half inch, lof 2
and a half inch, and 2 of 2 inch, tarred rope;h
of 3 and a half inch, 1 of 2 inch, 2 of a half inch,
white rope.
Carpenters Tools, in setts.
Hand-saws whet and set, 6; tennon ditto, 6;
turning ditto, 9; broad-axes, helv'd, 6: adzes,
helv'd, 6; pin-mauls, 6; hammers, 6 claw, and 6
rivetting ditto. Chiffels, broad helv'd, 6; scribing
ditto, 6; heading ditto, 12; pareing ditto, 65 form^
ing ditto, 36; mortifying ditto, 24; large ditto, 11.
Gouges, 36 formers, 6 picking ditto, 12 trunnion
ditto. Pieces or pads, Stock and springs, 6, bits
for ditto, 72 ; draw-borers, helv'd, 24 ; Pincers, 6
pair: engineers augers, 8 to a sett, 6; iron squares.
6; brass chalk line rolls, 6; chalk lines, 12 knots;
iron cempaffes, 6 pair; Shafts for engineers augers,
12; two feet rules, 6; black lead pencils, 6 dozen;
6 dozen ditto for tennon saws; gimblets sorted, 124:
large spike ditto, 12; glue, 12 pound; copper glue
pots, 6; fifh-fkins 6; mallets, 6; bettys or small
iron crows, 6. Planes, long, with irons fixed, 6;
6 fore-planes, 12 Smoothing ditto; half inch grove,
one and a half Skew rabbit, one inch square ditto,
half inch ditto, three quarter inch beed, five eight
ditto, one and a quarter ogee, one inch three quar
ters, one half ditto, one inch quarter round, three
quarter inch, five eights ditto, one and half inch
philifters, plows with 6 iron, 6 of each, contained
in 6 chests. Hamber lines, 50. Eleven barrels
spikes, from sto 8 and half inches. Nails zqd.
385,000. Pick axes with helves, 500. Sledge
hammers with helves, 25. Augers with Shafts, 75.
1 500 copper hooped barrels of gunpowder, equal
to 75 tons.
STILLINGFLEET DUMFORD.
Office of Ordinance, Nov. 4, 1775.
Last Saturday week the brave Captain Mugford,
Commander of the armed schooner Franklin, after
feeing his prize Safe into Boston harbour, was go
ing out again, but the tide making against him, he
came to an anchor off Pudding Gut Point; the
next morning, by day break, the centry saw 13
boats from the men of war making forthem; they
got ready to receive them before they could board
the Schooner; She funk five of the 'boats, the re
mainder attempting to board, they cut several of the
crews hands off as they laid them over the gun
wale. The brave Capt. Mugford making a blow
at the people in the boats with a cutlass, he received
a wound in the bread, on which he called his Lieu
tenant and Said "lam a dead man, don't give up
the vessel you will be able to beat them, if not,
cut the cable and ru^ her on Shore," he expired in
ration, that for want of wind, and by means of the
Glafgows firing stern guns, together with his fir
™° b° w g uns > an d now and then giving a broad
tide, he was unable to make his attack closer than
he did. I his Court having heard sundry evidences,
who were present in different veflels during the en
gagement with the Glasgow, refpe&ing the matter
now before us, are of opinion that the said Whip
ple's condud on the 7th of April was agreeable to
what he hath Set forth in his said declaration; and
that his mode of attack on the Glasgow has pro
ceeded from Error in Judgment, and not from
Cowardice.
Signed, D. Saltonfall, N. Biddle,
% Hazzard, S. Nicholas,
Helf, J. P. Jones,
R. Arnold, H. Hacker,
E. Hinman, J. Maltbie,'
M° Parke, H. Dayton.
A true Copy from the Minutes,
Dudley Salton sta 11, Prefdent.
N E W-Y O R K, May 27.
By Express arrived here on Thursday Evening last
from Boson, we have the following important
Intelligence viz,
That tile Continental armed Schooner the Frank
lin, commanded by Captain Mugford, on the 17th
instant, took and carried into Boston a Ship from
England, about 300 tons burthen, mounting fix
carriage guns. She left England the 14th of April
in company with 9 fail of tranfpors, under convoy
of a frigate, bound to Boston. The following is an
invoice of her cargo, as delivered from the office of
ordnance.