The Virginia gazette — Williamsburg, Va., 1777-01-10 00:00:00, page 1

I
- jANUARY lo, 1777. NUMBER m.
si ssiZssctGAZETTE.
ALWAYS FOR LIBERTY sssiss' ' ' LND THEPUBLICKGOOD.
High HEAVEN 10 (;RAclous LNUS .sssictsi-sisiss-usi .sszssct-si- dlvss
The AMERIC AN Cltlb'ld'.
N U M B E R. [.
By the author of COMMUN SENSE.
HESE are the times that try men's
shuls. The summer soldier, .md the
sunshinc pruriot, will, in this criiia, shrisik
from the service of his country; but he
that standsit, now, deserves the love and
thmks of man and woman. 'I'ymuny,
like hell, is not easily conquered; yet vxe
have this consolation with us, that the
harder the conflict the more ghrious the
triumph. W'lmt we obtain luu chcap ctssxe
esteem too lightly; itis dcamess only that
gives every thing its value . Heaven knows
how to set a proper price upon us goods,
and it would he strange in.!em is (I) cclts
tial an article as FRLEDONI (huuld not
be highly rated. Britain, xxisih an army
to enforce her tyranny, lms declared, th at
she has a right, not only to tax, bur. si- to
bind us in all cast: wimt/bever;" simai is
being bound in that manner is not (} -vsi r\ ,
then is there not such a thing ;tssss (l.:vcs-si,
upon earth. Even the exprefliau is impi
ous.1 for so unlimited a power can belong
only to GOD .
Whether the independence ot me cou
siincnc was declared too soon, or delayed
too long, I will not now enter into an ar
ument. My own simple opinion is, that
find it been eight. mouths earlier it. would
have been much better. We did not make
a proper use of last winter; neither could
We, while we were in & dependent state.
However, the fault, if it were one, was
all our own; We have none to blame but
ourselvefi. But no great deal is'lost yet;
all that Howe has been doing for this
month past is rather a_ ravage than a con
quest, which the spirit of the ]erseys, a
year ago, would have quick?! repulscd,
and which time and a little re olution will
soon recover.
ctsi I have as little superffltion in me as any
man living ; but my secret opinion has ever
been, and still is, that GoD Almighty will
will not give up a people to militar de
struction, or leave them unsupportc ly to
perish, who had so earnestly and so repeat—
edly sought to avoid the calamities of war,
by every decent method which wisdom
could invent. Neither have I so much of
the infidel in me as to suppose that he has
rel'mqu'tshed the government of the world,
and iven us up to the care of devils; and
as I o not, lcannot see on what grounds
the king of Britain can lookup to Heaven
for help against us. A common murderer,
a highwayman, or a house—breakcr, has
as good a pretence as he.
9" " T he [zrcssbnt winter (meaning the
" last) is worth an age, z'srightly emplqyed;
" but {[In/t', or neglected, the whole conti—
ctsi nent-will parta/ee of the evil . And there
* * if no pzmzfflnnent that man does not deserve,
" be he who, or what,!or where he will,
" that may he the mean: ofsacrificing (:
" jea/Zm/Z) precious and uflzfizl."
Common Szsssz.
[! is surprising to see how rapidly &
panick will sometimes run through a coun
try. All nations and ages hewe been sub—
ject. to them. Britain lus trembled like
an .:gue at the report of a French fleet of
fIat-bouomed huats; and in the 14th
century, the whole English army, after
ravzxging the kingdom of France, was
driven back like mm petrificd Wikh scar ;
us'd this brave cxploit vsi as performed by a
few broken sorus collected and heuclcd by
a woman, joau of Asc. vVould that
Heaven might inspire some jersey maid to
spirit up her coumrymcn, and save her
fair fellow sufferers isixum l'uvnge and m—
viahm-sm'. Yet panickb, in some cases,
have their uses; they produce as much
good as hurt. Thc'n' durmion is always
short; the mind soon grows thrsimgh them,
and quuircs a sirmcr habit than before.
But lll'cil peculiar udvsimnssc is, that they
are the wuchllones os sincuily and hypo
crisy, a-sid bzing (lings and men to light,
wh'zctch might otherwise have lain for ever
,
unuucovere (1, In met, mey 11."va an nsiuuc
effect on s. cret traitors which an imagina
ry apparaiion would upon & private mur
derc r. They fist out the hidden thoughts
of man, and hold them up in pnbiick to
the world. Mzmy a disguised 'l'ory has
]ateiy shewn his head, that shall penitenti
ally solemnise with curses the day on which
Howect arrived upon the Dalawarc.
As ] was with the troops at Fort Lee,
and marched with them to the edge of
Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted with
many circumstances, which those, who
lived at a distance, know but little or
nothing of. Our situation there was ex
ceedingly cramped, the place being- on a
narrow neck of land, between the North
river and the Iluckinsnck. Our force was
inconsiderable, being- not one fourth so
great as Howe could bring against us.
We had no army at hand to have relieved
the garrison, had we shut ourselves up
and stood on the defence. Our ammuni-ss
tion, light artillery, and the belt part of
our .stores, had been removed, 'upon the
apprehension that Howe would endeavour
to penetrate the ]erseys, in which case
Fort Lee could be of no use to us; but it
must occur to every thinking man, whether
in the army or not, that these kind of field
sorts are only for temporary phrposes, :md
last in use no longer than the enemy directs
his .force against the particular object
which such sorts are raised to defend . duch
was our situation and condition at Fort
Lee on the morning ofthe zoth of Novem
ber, when an officer arrived with insorma
tion, that the enemy, with zoo bonts,
had landed about seven or eight miles
above. Major- general Green, who com
manded the garrison, immediately ordered
them under arms, and sent express to his
excellency general Washington at the
town osHackinsuck, distant bv the way
of the sorry six miles. Our slrst object
was to sccure the bridge over the Hackin
sack, which lay up the river between the
enemy :md us, about lix milcsitrom us, and
three from them. General Wuihiugtun
arrived in about three quarters of an hour,
and marched at the head of the troops
to wards the bridge, which pl.:cc ] expect—
ed we should have a bruzh for; however,
they did not choose to dispute it with us,
and the greatest part of our troops went
over the bridge, the rest over the scrry,
except some which pulscd at a mill on a
small creck, between the bridge and the
serry, and made their way through some
marshy gruunds up to the town of [lack—
insuck, and there passed the river. VVe
hrought ussus much baggage as the ws?
'0us could comain; the rest was lol
'l'he simple ()Isixj-.;c't was to bring off the gar
rison, on:] to march them until they could
be strengthcned by the jers.-y or Pumltyl
vnnict m'u'itia, so as to be enablul to make
a stand. We staycd four days at Newark,
collected in our out poits, with some of
the jerscy militia, aml marched out. twice
to meet tne enemy on lmoz mauon of men
being advancing, though our numbers
were greatly inferiour to thcins. Hnwe,
in my little opinion, committed & g-jrcat
sierrour in generalship. He "fight ]!JVC
seized all our stores ac Brunswick, and in
tercepted our march into Pennsylvania;
but if We believe the power of hell to be
limited , we mustlikewise bcl'zevethat their
agcnts are under some providcntid con
(soul.
I shall not now attempt to give all the
particulars ofour retreat to the Dsi'Jware ;
suffice it for the present to say, that Zss-si-th
officers and men, thou gh greatly harrasscd
and satigucd, frequently without rest,
covering, or provision, the inevitable con
sequence: of' a long- retreat, bore it with
amanly and martial spirit. Alllhcir wishes
were one, which was, that the country
would :urn out, and helptodrive the enemy
back. Voltaire has remarked, that King
w ifliam never appeared to fall advantage
but in difficultics and in action ; the same
remark may be made on general VVASH
s'I—l
INGTUN , lUs Luc cult llld uuu. Luuc :;
a natural sirmness in some minds whch
cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which,
when unlocked, discoversa cabinet of sor
titude ; and ] reckon it among those kinds
of publick blcffings, which we do not im
mediately see, that G 0 0 hath blessed him
with uninterrupted health, and given him
a mind that can even llourish upon care.
I shall conclude this paper with some
miscellaneous retnarks on the state of our
affuirs, and shall begin with alkiug the
following question, Why is it. ,lhat the
enemy hath left the New quland provin
ces, and made these middle ones the seat
of war? The answer is easy : New Eng
land is not insested with Turics, and we
arc. ] have been tender in raising the cry
against. these men, and used numberlesi;
arguments to show them their danger, but
it will not do to lsssixcrsizticsi :] wousi-l to either
their folly or their h. scx'ci'ct'. 'The peziod
is now arrived in which siizhsr siucy or as: