The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1779-01-19 00:00:00, page 2

no« i§ yen &, mn rev Doming up fa the ground
Where you had taken port : They implied, that I
was guilty either of d (obedience of orders, of want
of conduct, or want of courage. Y.ur Excellency
will therefore infinitely oblige me, by letting me
know on which of these three articles you ground
your charge that I my prepare for my juttficaJon,
which I have the happtnefs to be confident, I can
do to the army, to the Congress, to America and to
the World in general. Your Excellency mut tgive
me leave to observe that neither yourfelf nor those
about your person, could, from your situation, be in
the lead judges of the meri s or demerits of our man
re vres, and. to (peak with a becoming pride, I can
aifert, that to these manoeuvres, the success of the
day was entirely owing. I can boldly fay, tha had
we remained on the firll ground, or had we advanc
ed, or had the retreat been conduced in a manner
different from what it was, this whole army and the
inte efts of America, would have risked being facri
ficed. I eve had. (and I hope ever shall have) the
greater refpecl and veneration for General W fhing
ton ; I think him endued with many great and good
qualities, but in this instance, I must pronounce,
that he has been guilty of an all of cruel injustice,
towards a man who has ce^nly feme preteifiona
to the regard of every servant of this country ; ands
I think, Sir, I have a right to demand some reparation
for the injury committed ; and unless I can obtain it,
1 roust in justice to myfelf when the campaign is
closed, (which I believe will close the war) retire
from a service at the head of which it placed a man,
capable of offering fich injuries ; but, at the fame
time, in juflice to you I must repeat, that I, from
my foul believe, that it was not a motion cf your
own oreafl but instigated by some of those dirty
Ear<igs who will forever insinuate themselves near
perfoas in high office; for I am really convinced,
that, when General Washington alls from himfelf,
no man in his army will have reason to complain of
injustice or indecorum.
I am, Sr, and I hope ever shall have reason to
continue, your most fiacerely devoted humble servant.
CHARLES LEE.
His Excellency Gen. Washington.
Head-Quarters, English Town, June 28,1778.
S I R,
I RECEIVED your letter (dated through mi flake
the firfl of July) exyreffed, as I conceive, in
terms highly improper. lam not confeious of hav
ing made use of any very singular expressions at the
time of my meeting you, as you intimate. What I
recoiled to have said, was dictated by duty, and
warranted by the occafton. As soon as circumstan
ces ,ill admit, you shall have an opportunity either
of juftifying yourfelf to the array to Congress, to
America, and to the world in gereral ; or of ccr inc
ing them that you are g ilty of a b each of orders,
and of m {behaviour before the enemy on the 28. h
in' 1 , in not attacking them as you hid been direded,
and in making an unnecessary difo. derly and fhame
ful retreat. I am, Sir, your mod obedient servant,
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
Major General Lee,
SI R, Camp, June 28, 1778.
IB g your Excellency's pardon for the inaccuracy
in mis dating my letter. You cannot afford me
greater pleasure thin in giving me the opportunity
of Shewing to America the fufficiency of her respec
tive servants. I trust that the temporary power of
office, and the tinsel dignity attending it, will not
be able, by all the mists they can raise, to offifcate
the bright rays of truth : In the mean time your Ex
cellency can have noobje&ion to my retiring from
the army. lam Sir, your most obedient humble
servant, CHARLES LEE.
General Washington,
SI R, Camp, -June 30, 1778.
SINCE I had he honour of addressing my letter;
by Col. Fitzgerald, to your Excellency, I have
reflected on both your situation and mine, and beg
leave to obfe:ve that it will be for our mutual con
venience, that a Court of Inquiry should be immedi
ately ordered ; but I could wish it might be a Court-
Martial ; for if the affair is drawn into length, it
may be diffi ult to colled the necessary evidences,
and perhaps might bring on a paper war betwixt
the adherents to both parties, which may occasion
tome disagreeable feuds on the continent, for all are
not my friends, nor your admirers. I must entreat
therefore from your love ofjuftice, that you will
immediately exhibit your charge, and that on the
firft halt I m^y be brought to a trial. I am, Sir,
your mort obed.ent humble servant,
CHARLES LEE.
His Excellency General Washington,
The Court met by several adjournmentstill the 12th
of Augutt.
The Court having considered the firft charge a
gainfl Major-General Lee, the evidence and his de
fen^, 1^ 6fOpinion that Ke is guilty of difobe^-
ence of orders, in not at acking the enemy on the
28(h June, agreeable to repeated inltrudions ; being
abeach or the latter part of Art. §, Sec. 2, of the
Articles of War.
The Court having considered the second charge
against Major-General Lee, the evidence and his de
fence, are of opinion, lie is guilty -of mifbehaviour
before the enemy on the 28th of fine, by making an
unnecessary, and in some few intlances, a disorderly
retreat, being a breach of the tyh Arc. of the 13th
Sec. of the Articles of War.
The Court having considered the third charge a
gain. Major General Lee. are of opinion, that he is
gu.lty of dihefeca to the Commander in Chief in
two letters, da ed ift July, and 28m June ; being a
breach of the 2d Art. 2d Sec. of the Articles of War.
The Court do fenience Major General Lee to be
suspended from any command in the Arm es of the
United States of North-America, for the term of
twelve months.
STIRLING M. G. and Prefident#
The Court ad ourned without day.
[Congrefs, it is laid, have confirmed the foregoir g
fentence.J
TOt H £ PUBLI C.
CONSIDERATIONS on the designed advanta ei,
and real d,i (advances of the all making Conti
ncn'al Bills a legal tehder.
r. — r^HE tender all, which was made 0& 26,
1776, obliges all the inhabitants to receive
a paper dollar as being in value equal to a silver dol
lar. And if any min demands or receives more
for houses, lands goods, or any commodity what
ever, in Continental bills, than if he was pud in hi
ver and gold, he forfeits the whole.- - And every
informing officer is obliged by oath to make pre
sentment; &c.
2. The design of this a& was to prevent the de
preciation of continental bills : to keep a paper dol
lar of equal value with a silver one, to procure hoa
fes, lands, labor, produce and all the necessaries of
life. The two regulating alls which have fi^ce
been made, were designed to fix labor, country pro
duce &c. at a certain price# The country in ge
neral refufed to submit to either cf the regulating
alls, and they were, bothuf them, repealed. The
country, to a man, when felling for Continental
bills, refife to comply with the true defyn of the
tender all and break it openly and publ cly every
day with impunity, and without so much as one
legal process ; and yet it is kept in force with ref
pe& to contrasts made before it existed, which, in
effed, it vacates; and also with refpeft to the
daily labor of all the servant, of the public, while
employed in the service of the public; depriving
them of their just dues, whereby individuals ate
greatly abused and distressed, and the public fafey
of the country grealy endangered. For the rest of
the country, in fall, take liberty to demand and re
ceive, fix times as much in paper as in silver. for
every thing they fell without being prosecuted in
one in lance. They publicly use this liberty every
day, and are publicly juftified in so doing by the
repeal of the regulating alts. An unprecedented
affair ! Had the late regulating alls been kept in
force with respell to the farmer, and not with refpe&
to the day laborer, the mechanick and merchant :
or had it been kept In force in Connecticut, and all
the other Bates left at liberty, there had been a pa
rallel ; but as things now Band, there is not, and
perhaps never was, in any country, an all in its ope
ration parallel with the tender a&. The advanta
ges designed by it have not, and cannot be obtained :
The disadvantages of it cannot easily be enumerated.
3. Among the disadvantages of this all these are
obvious. I. It tends to banish from the minds of
men all ideas of right and wrong, to habituate the
country to dishonest pradices, and to deprave its
morals to that degree, as finally toplunge it into ruin.
2. If those who are bound by oath to prosecute all
breaches of this law rteglell so to do, they are guilty
of perjury. If all breaches of the tender all should
be informed agaioft and puafhed according to law,
the country would refufe to supply the army with
necessaries, the army would disband, and inevita'le
ruin be the consequence. Lit things go on as they
are now going, and, 3, near one quarter of the very
best friends of the country, are, in effell, out-lawed.
i. e. they may be deprived of their just rights by this
all ; and, in fallj have been, and are deprived of
theirjuft rights, to the amount of many millions by
this all. And there is, and can be no remedy in
law, while this all flands in force. For, in its ope
rations, it eftabliffies iniquity, and renders it illegal
to do justice. For instance. The soldier is entitled,
in justice, to 40 s. per msnth money as good as sil
ver, to purchase any of the necessaries of life. But
fix paper dollars are equal to but one silver dollar to
procure any of the necessaries of life. The soldier
is forbid, under penalty of forfeiting his whole debt.
to demand op 16 ree^ve off fishing id &ftntetWh
lance the depreciation of'the bills. Nor can the
congress or our assemblies legally allow one farthing
on this account. It is incontinent with the letter
and spirit of this law so :0 dr. So that this all
which was defined to eftabliffi jultcc, does in re
ality render jutice illegal# Boun ies, as alls of „ace,
may be given and received# But justice may not,
as such be demanded or received. 4. Dilhoneft'
men, all the county over make use of this law. to
juftify tha most gross, open, barefaced dishonesty,
between man and man, in the fight of he fun, with
out the least remorse or Ihame. Nor is there an,
way to detell their wickedness and to put ther bt6
filerte. but to shew that the tender ell however
well designed when made, is, in its operations, di*
rellly contrary to the law of nature ; whch to do,
is to condemn public authority in keeping it in forces
5. The injury done to thon sands by the mans of
this all is so great that publicauthority is losing its
weight every day# Thearrny on which our all de
pends, are bn the point of disbanding, the whole
country in a Bate of internal convulsion ; idlenefs>
prodigality, debauchery, profanenefs along with dif
honeny, coming in open us like a Rood I so that cur
very enemies, who have found them elves unable
tc conquer us In the field are Waiting to fee us ruin
onrfelves at home. The tender all and the want of
fu fficient taxation are the political can fes of all these
ev:li.
Should it he said, that the Continental bills would
not pass in pay at all, if the tender all should be re
pealed but cepreciate down to nothing, it may be
remembered, that old tenor was a legal tender, and
continued to depreciate as long as it lived : and that
our proc, paper money never was a legal tender, and
never did depreciate at all, but ever passed current,
as good as silver. And bad there been fu fficient
taxes from the beginning of this War, the continental
bills would have passed along with silver and would
have beeh of equal value, without a tender all. Nor
has the sender all atall prevented, but rather promoted
their depreciation. For it has exhibited a motive,
the most powerful motive in the woild to high prices
for all country produce. For iff can fell my wheat
at 3 I. per buffiel, and other articles in proportion, t
can with one hundred pounds pay an bid debt of
1500 I, and so save 1400 I. clear, and bejuftified,Bs
an honest man, by the law of the land, as it is under
stood and prallifed upon all over the country. TherC
would need a miracle,- considering the internal de
pravity of men, equal to that of parting the red sea,
to prefeat the depreciation of the bills, with such a
temptation in view# --A tax of a dollar on the pound
every quarter, to continue till a paper dollar would
buy as much as a silver one, would make the money
pass with fufficient velocity, and at the fame time
put an end to the prodigality, and increase the in
dustry and real riches of the country#
Should it be said, that such a tax would fain pso?
people ; a little reflt&iori may lead every n an to fee,
that it would have the direll contrary tendency, for
now as money is so cheap and easy to be ^ot $ it is
ten times as easy for the poor man to p^y his quota,
as it will be when the money comes to he ten times
better, and ten times a, hard to -et. If a poor man
has but one coty, and his quota of the debt is 40 h
his one cow will new pay his whole debt Whereas
it will take ten such cows when money is become
good. It is for his interest therefore, at the ra eof
nine hundred per cent, to fell his cow now, and pay
his quota of the continental debt, altho' he should
be obliged to hire a cow of his neighbor, and make
pay by dry labour. Should any man already great
ly in debt, spend his time and fubflance at the tavern,
and borrow money at the rate of ten or fifteen hun
dred per cent, to defray the daily expence of his fa
mily, would it not be thought to be the duty of the
felell men ofthe town to take care of him. If the
weak and ignorant, if dishonest men and tories raise
a clamor against taxation, while every sensible ho
nest friend to the country is'zealous in its favor, as
absolutely necessary to the present public fafety, and
future good of the country, wisdom will teach the
wife to whose voice to lend an ear. A vigorous ad
ministration would give new life to the body politic.
The repeal of the tender all and Efficient taxes would
remove the two political causes of all our political
Cifeafes, and restore health to the body politic, and
only let the news of this reach the ears of our ene
mies, and they would soon leave our coasts. These
sentiments. are humbly submitted to the confiderati
of the public, by
ARISTIDE S.
P. S, Were we obliged in every instance to
pay as we fell, the present motive to high prices
would cease to exist. Laws which instead of re
straining are powerful motives to political vices are
not good laws. Laws which do not tend to the
general good, but the contrary, ought to be repealed^
" Righteoufoefs exalteth a nation. He that rule,th