The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1778-11-10 00:00:00, page 2

Will to (ok t e ebfo& which yea ate cortimiffich
ed to pursue, by fomenting popular divifons and
partial cabal." '' Hut it is both your wifa and
your duty," you add, " to encourage and support
any men or bodies of men ' in their return of loyalty
to your Sovereign." Now if this is not a declara
tion of your wish to foment popular divifiens and
partial cabals 1 know not wLat,can be; and if your
manifefto was not fen! abroad for those purposes, I
am at a loss to Conceive for what purposes it was if
faed. You declare, you " think such conduct would
be ill fuifed to the generous natureof the offers made,
and unbecoming the dignity of the King and fta e
which makes them ;" but you do net scruple at the
fame infant to a& diametrically contrary to your
declaration " amply made known." By your con
dud you clearly advise us to place no confidence in
what you fay, and yet you go on proclaimings
Your Excellencies tell us, that, 6 if there are
any who think," " the independence of these"
States, " will in the refalt, be acknowledged by
Great-Britain, to them you answer without teferve,
that you neither p^ffefs or expect powers for that
purpose ; and that if GiW-Britain could ever have
funk so low as to adopt meh a measure, you fhculd
not have thought yourselves compellable to be the
infirmmeats in making a concession" of independence.
Here ate many words, let us fee what they amount
to.
There was no occasion for your Excellencies to
take the trouble to acquaint us, that you do not pof
fefs powers auth^rz ng you to acknowledge our in
dependence; becaufc the aft of Parliament, on which
your commiff : on is founded,,had long ago fully in
formed us upon that point. Whether you expert
such powers, is of but little moment. , Because you
d® net expert to receive such powers, it docs not
therefore follow, that such powers will not be pla
ced in the hands of other persons. The British Com
manders in Cnief have been changed; and so may
the British Commissioners and for the fame cause,
the want of success. We fee these things, and we
then fee how idle it is for your Excellencies to en
deavour to give to a very trifle, an air cf impor
tance. But you add, ' if you had received such
powers, you should not have thought yourselves
compellable to be the instruments in making a @on
ceff.cn of independence." It is trine, nothing can be
more legal than your opinion, that you would not
have be, compellable. But it is not in the lead
probable, that men as your Excellencies, who have
long been ufcd to obey the directions of their fupe
r:ors, and Who voluA'arny submitted to engage in a
business, in which others expressly reserved to them-
Lives a power, to disown all their important con
tra&s and to destroy ail their labours, I fay, it is not
very probable such men would be very scrupulous
about being the increments in making a conceffibn
of independence to America. However, I need not
press this point; you have not said, that you would
not be the instruments, yofhave only said, you
were not compellable. When profound states
men, as y >ur Excellencies are covert in their ex
preffions, they always have an important refervition.
I therefore admit your dictum upon the fubjea of
compulsion, and give you credit for what you mean;
nor can your Excellencies desire that I fhculd do
more.
You have declared that your Manifefto and Pro
clamation shall continue in force " forty days;"
and that; except Sir Henry Ciintori, you have “ re
solved te return to England a few weeks after the
date" of i\ And this is a very explicit declarati
on, that you dotpair your Manifeflo will be attend
ed with success; it is perfectly decisive. If you
expeaed success. you must have been sensible that
success would have requ red yotar stay in America
feyeral months ; but by limiting yourselves to " a
few weeks," and forty days .are near fix, you de
monstrate in the mol unequivocal manner, that you
aifolutely despair of success. The Americans have
withstood your most violent efforts to fubdee them,
and now even the timid Whigs and Tories must be
too prudent to submit to you ; when having seen the
British power in America broken, they now hear
you tell them, you despair they will do as you ad
vise. this I^ll stroke of your Excellencies, was
truly a maderly stroke in politics.
Until the publication of your inimitable Mani
fSo, we bad yet to learn that “ the policy, as
well as the benevolence of Great-Britain, have thus
far cheeked the extremes of war, when they tended
to !iteG a peopleftill omfidered as your fellow fob
lefG, and to deflate a country shortly to become a
gain afodrce of mutual advantage. For America had
t e.iin her eye, the ruins of Charles Town, Fal
^suth, Norfolk F.fopws, Bard^rown, Warren, Brif
rj and Bedford, ; and the deflations about Phila
delphia, on the banks of Hud^r/s river, in Wyo
ming, German Flatts, in Rhede Iflmd---a mournful
and wanton feerm of deftru&ion ! America had at
that momentalfo deeply imprefT.d in her mind, the
agonies of her sons in the prisons and prifen flips at
New York, where many hundreds died of hunger,
cold, fuffocaiion and filth, after having endured the
most taunting pointed and continued infalts of their
keepers. The wife who appeared at the prifon
door, with a morfe! . f bread and a blanket for the
wretch within, was beat down with a musket, The
officer en the part of America was prevented from
farnifhing the prisoners with food and raiment. In
themorning the prisoners were supplied with water
in those very tubs, which were but just emptied of the
excrements with which they had filled them during
the night. Great Britain has inßigated the fava, es
to massacre men, women and children. Her troops
have refufed to grant quarter in innumerable in
stances. The venerable General Mercer died of the
wounds he received after he fell and was made pri
soner upon the field of battle, as did Lieutenant
Lang, who received no less than nineteen bayonet
wounds after he had fallen. I write not at random:
I minutely know these transition's, which, with
many others of a similar nature, will by authority
be published to the world by affidavits. Your Ex
cellencies, Sir Henry Clinton excepted, may be
grangers to these horrid enormities, but they ae
true. They call down the vengeance es Heaven
upon your nation: That vengeance is new ffiakirg
your nation to the very centre : She feels the dread
ful ffiock, and trembles in despair !
It is mo less pleasant than ufefal, now and then,
to look into hiflory, and fee in what manner men,
in yeur and our cirenraffancer spoke and a&ed.
The allegiance cf Great Britain was in the year 1668
withdrawn from James the fecend, because he in
vaded their law, and fundamental cenftitution. The
allegiance of America in the year 1776 was with
drawn from George the third, for the fame reasons.
As longas King James thought he ceuld recover his
throne by force of arms, so l© n g ha spoke ih the lof
tiefl tone---Executioners were to be the avengers of
his wrongs : And in like manner, as long as the
Court of Great-Brifain thought they were able to
conquer America so long that Court demanded an
unconditional fabmiffion from America. In the year
1692, all King James's hopes of seizing the throne
were blasted, and on the 17th of April following, he
iffaed a declaration; profeffing that he desired ^ ra
ther to be beholden t.(>is fubjeAs love to him, than
to any other expedient whatever, for his reflorati
on :" Promising that he would be" ready to redress
all their grievances, and give all these securities of
which they should stand in need " if they would
submit to his authority. So in the year 1777 the
British government having loft a campleat ^my
finding they had not an ability so supply the men
and money necessary to carry on the war, and left
ing all hopes of conqtfeft, on the 13th of April fol
lowing, they appointed Commissioners to go out
and talk to us about " cordial reconciliation," of
refloring ^ free intercourse," and reviving " mutual
affbaion; and to prom^fe us " the irrevocable en
joyment of every privilege that is short of a total re
paration of interests," provided we would consent
to retain to a fubjedion under the crown of Great-
Britain. L is curious to observe how exaaiv pa
rallel the two cases arc. r
There was a sensible Whig " answer to the late
King James s last d c fr^ ” I beg leave to shew
your Excellencies in what light the people of Eng
day considered an invitation to return
to a fubjeftion under a caff off monarch. The wri
^ ' 1 challenge all the late
Ring s declaration makers, to give me but one An
gle inrtance from hi&ory, that ever a free people,
who from a just and recent fafe o f an invasion upon
their laws and fundamental constitution, had with
drawn their allegiance from him, did ever after
wards willingly and tamely submit to his govern
ment again. No, there is not one instance of this kind
in all the records of time, for, though scarce one
age has passed without feme remarkable revolution in
kingdoms and states; yet a thing cf this nature was
never yet heard of since thewerld w^." << But to
submit the dearest and most sacred things, that a man
can possess on earth, the liberties, laws, and funda
mental confktutions cfhis country, all that either h e
or his children after him can call or wish their own •
To submit all these, I fay, to a few feeble promises of
one that has broke to us much mo;e fo'emn ones be
fore, were amrdnefi that never a nation under Hea
ven was yet guilty ^ o A^ it is the easiest thin/in
! h - w ° rld to promio largely, when a man finds it
his inter, 4 to do f. ; f„ t j s ordinarily the last refuge
weak mods have r^rfe t% when all other means
of compulsion or perfofim fail. But at the tfr
time, -he that threatens lushly, when he thinksil
has power m hands 10 make his h/ea : s good, and
comes therefore to cajole with toft promT:sof goc!
treatment, when that power is [one; one muftdi
vert himself of common sense, The believe that that
man's mind is really changed for the better and does
not ascribe the change of his manner of treating with
us, to the change of his fortune."
Such were the sentiments of the people cf Eng
land upon King James's declaration : They are my
sentiments upon the p efent offers of Great Britain;
and I believe your Excellencies are convinced, they
are the sentiments upon the fame fu bje& cf that
part of the inhabitants of America whohave broken
the force of Britain, and are able to maintain the in
dependence of their country.
. judge then of the contempt with which we re
ceive your threats, that if we pofift in our inde
pendence, the question with you is, “ how faf
Great-Butairf may by every means in her power de
flroy America. Such a declaration on your part,/
does no honour to your niaflers, to your nation, or to
yourselves. It is an outrage upon humanity. It is
a proof cf a narrow and bale mird. But your Ex
ceilenc es will do well to. fotetee, that in case your
threat shall be be^un to be carried into execution,
that then it will be a question with us, hew far we
shall held General Burgoyne's army responsible for
the effects of your fury. I warn you, that as von
bu^nour towns, fe shall I urge to decimate your Ic*
giuns. I fay thus much, rather to shew you that
we have the means ®f retaliation in cur hands, than
because I apprehend you will drive us into such a
measure. You naveall along endeavoured to bully
us; an old custom is not cafily laid ahJe, and there
fore you continue to threaten. Ged has railed us
to independence, and we rest assured that Britain
cannot, deprive us of it. You have tried the art of
perfection, and Governor Johnftone has attempted
the art of corruption, to induce us to relinquish our
independence. Your arts have failed, year force
has failed, and we are not yet. and I trust never shall
be quite so mad as to compliment Great Britain with
our obedience. w. H. D.
Philadelphia, OA. 24, 1778.
EX CELLENTLISBONWINE, to
, be Sold by Hezekiah MerrTl, in Hart,
FORD.
LIVER OIL, to be Sold by Nehemiah
Street, in' Farmington.
LE ~A TH ITr BREACH ES, of t ^
heft quality to be fold by James Hays,
for Cash or Country Produce, at Southington, about
half a mile north of the meeting house.
W A ~N~~T E 1)' ~
A GOOD NEGRO GIRL, about 12
years old. Any pedon having such an 01e
to dispose of, may hear of a purchaser by ^dvir^
to the Printers.
ft \AKEN up by tie Subscriber, the 13th of
& Oflober last, a BLACK HORSE, with
a white face, one white eye, throe white feet, brand
2
ed on the left thigh L D. paces andjrots.
JONATHAN SEDGEWICK.
Hartford Wed Division, Nov, 6, 1778.
'« Obe fold for Cfh or Produce, by Ebenx-
JL %er Moor, a few rods north cf the S'ar-
House, in Haltlord; IMPORTED SA LT,
by the hogftrcdor fing^ buffieh Also, bed BohU
C TRAETr O 7^
ture of C.;pt. James Caldwell, last Thursday, a
D^i« Brown HORSE about 14 hands and a
half high a natural pacer, no brand, sh o d before,
locks femething like a ft&lli^ pretty large h^d.
Whoever will take up said herfe and romra him to
Cap. Caldwell, in Hartford, or tc. the Subferibr^
Derby, shall have a generous rewad and ch^
paid by
THOMAS CLARK.
Hartford, Nov: 6, 1,78.
STOLEN from the Subferber. at RoclivTfi
Ferry, last Wednesday night a BAY HORSE
four years old past has a fiat in his forehead, with a
plain faddie aromrt new the houfen lined and a
curb bridle troth ore re % Whoever will feeur,
said horse, laddie and hr die so that the owner may
have them, than receive Twenty Dollars R^rd,
and charges paid by
amos Matson.
Glaftenbury, Nov. §, 1778.