The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1780-10-31 00:00:00, page 1

To SIR HENRYCLINTON.
Tfy HEN I had the honour to address
you on a former occasion, I did not
suppose it would have fallen to my part,
to have experienced a second time, so Sin
gular a diftindtion. You were then de
feending from the small degree of emi
nence you had so difficultly acquired; to
mingle your fame with that of your for
gotten predecessors. Even your friends
beheld you, like one of those comets,
whose faint appearance neither produces
fear nor aftonifhrrent, and whose course
after a few hours of idle curiosity, is only
to be seen in the records of the astrono
mer. The hopes of your flatterers, and
the expectations cf your enemies were
equally averse from a revival of your re
putaLcr.--.lndolence at one time, parade
at another, and senseless variety of seem
ing enterprizes, half formcd, or termi
nating withouteffed, had justly fixed your
character, and marked it with that bewil
dered exprcffion, which it was thought
no experience could better. But you have
lived to enjoy a triumph ever public opi
nion, and to ere& a new fame on the ta
lents cf another. With a submission that
shews you at leafl possessed of a certain
portion cf prudence, you committed the
manapenert of your councils to a man of
Superior abilities. From this moment Mr.
Andre became the firft miniver to his
commander, and your affairs felt the in
fluence cf such a director. But Sir Henry,
thy sagacity forefawno evil in his attempts,
rcr could his penetration provide against
his -own shipwreck.---Flattered with the
baubles, cf favcuritfrc, he gave frefh life
to your hopes, and drew you from the
closet where you were sadly anticipating
the horrors of finking authority.--. What
others viewed as impossible, appeared to
him only as difficult, and he embraced your
interest from the fame passion that made
Caesar a king, and, perhaps, Brutus an
assassin. Such arethe errors of ambition,
or the madness of elevated minds.
The redu&ion cf Charlcftown produced
the firft change in yourcharadler. I will
rather suppose that you affirmed the com
mand cf this expedition, from a princi
ple peculiar to men cf your fp rit, than
that the mcafure was the result cf advice.
You were fcrfible that you had net left to
fear from the success of another, than
from veer own mismanagements. To you
all vi&cr ; es but ycur cwn, brought with
them fl e force of a punishment: And as
ycur cummiflcn inrefed'vpu with a li
bertv to 2x51: where you pleased in Ameri
ca, wu thought this experiment the only
ore tint remained. Minifry feared this,
but without limiting ycur power, they
ccvid net guard ag ainhycur interference.
TUESDAY, October 31, 178 c. THE . NUMBER 823.
CONNECTICUT COUR AN £
AMD TMM
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER-
HARTFORD: Printed by HUDSON AMD GOODWIN, kiar the Great-Bridge.;
Cornwallis felt the injury, and commence
ed your enemy; submitted to be a secon
dary a&or where he should have been the
principal; and you succeeded with a force
that made it impossible to fail.---But the
execution of the enterprise, clogged with
the charaderiflics of your character,
brought with it consequences you little
apprehended.-- You fat down before a
place which you should have carried by
assault: With an army cf ten thousand men,
and a competent naval fuperiorify, you
invested a town cf large, extent, fortified
only by sandy entrenchments, faifed in
two months, without covered way, desti
tute of out-works, open in feyeral places
on the water fide, exposed every where to
an open attack, and defended by a garrison
inefficient by one half.---To remain forty
two days before such a place, with open
trenches, and display all the apparel of a
regular siege, transfers the whole glory
to the garrison: In all this, perhaps, you
may have been governed by the rules of
prudence, if not of enterprize.---But when
we contrast your condu& with that of
the American troops, in supporting an
irceffant fire, ftbjc& all the while tothe
danger cf a furprize, and to open attacks,
the success of which was almod certain
had you taken proper measures, your very
friends, Sir Henry, lose fight of your
triumph in contemplating their firmnefs
and fortitude.
This is the result of your expedition
when flript of the pomp of a long labour
ed letter, which was to give you a rew
exigence at St 'James's, and your Ministry
a frefh motive for carrying on tie war.
Any other people but one devoted to pu
nishment from the course of their crimes,
knowing the circumstances of their success,
would have en ployed the event to have
conditioned for peace. But your nation
in ptirfuing the meteor it had raised,
though force new ground was passed over,
found themselves no nearer their 6bje&.
Still they were as children fooled by the
amusive figure of a magic lanthorn, and
continued vain dupes to the dexterity of
their jugglers.
In all courts but that of Great-Britain,
the capture of Charleftown will have
ccafed to operate in your favour. The
firft moment of its impression was yours,
the succeeding one a panegyric on Ame
rica. It was told and talked of by your
Court and its runners, as if the sudden
fubdudion of at least the southern fates
was a natural eonfequence.--.ln this pa
rexifm cf success an elated Minifler hur
ried out to the world, a Gazette Extraor
dinary, to publish your letter; where you
speak of Lord Cornwallis's cxpe&ed pre
sence on the frontier cf North-Carolina,
ar.d a frnall expedition into Cape Fear ri
ver, to favour the revolution you locked
for higher up the cquhtry*. To have
made these boaflings efficient they should
have been followed by a fecund account
of cities taken, and provinces fubd cc;
but instead of this, the} ^uft red of
North-Carolina palling a vote of the ks
to Brigadier General Smallwood, and of
Congress promoting him to the rank of
Major-General, for his behavior n Jie
late battle near Cambden, in the flare of
South-Carolina. How will ycur employers,
colour your assertions, and their f^hy,
when, after such ao ela,>fe of time, Corn
wallis is so remote from the front ^ # rs of
North-Carolina. It will not be enou hto
tell the world, that he gained an advan
tage, where it was led to believe he had
no enemies to oppose. Nay Cornwallis,
will lose even the honour cf a vidor r , when
it is known, that although the Amer can
troops were inferior in numbers, they
were fcperior in courage; and that they
recovered by the latter what they left by
the former:' Nor, after the defection of
the militia, did they submit to a retreat,
till their enemy wete disgraced by their
refiftar ce.-.-But leaving these matters,
we find you in New-Ycrk, returned from
ycur ftclen expedition, in all the p^pp
of an Eastern conqueror; swelled with
the praises of your parafiter, and flatter
ed with the prefect of frefh marled of
royal diftin&ion. With such an array as
you commanded you looked forward to
an adive campaign in rhi< quarter.- .Pre
vented from this, by the exertions cf the
fates, and confined to your garrison after
the engagement at Springfield, you tat
down gloomy and disappointed. You saw
the the campaign (pending tfelf in abor
tive parade, when the powers of corrup
tion were called on to close it in eclat.
Weft. Point was to be the obje&, and
General Arnold its betrayer. From what
medium of intelligence you gained a
knowledge of his principles; whether
you argued from your own heart to his,
or received it from himfelf, we shall
leave to the better explanation of time.
Nor shall we enquire, why one so high
in military reputation as Arnold, acquir
ed too under such a splendor of ctrcum
flances, as justly entitled him to that rank
which he held in Europe, should thus
dispose of his fame, and his moral cha
racter. For the fake of hiynan nature, it
were to be wished that a veil could be for
ever thrown over such examples of depra
vity. But from time to t?me, society is
disturbed by their appearance. In Arn
*Sir Henry Clinton's letter, dated Charles
town, 4th of June, 1780,