The Pennsylvania journal, or, Weekly advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-06-05 00:00:00, page 1

PHTLADELP H I'A.
In CONGRESS, Ma, 21, 1776.
Refolded,
THAT all persons taken in arms on board ^ny prize, be
deemed prisoners, to be taken care of by the Supreme
executive power in each Colony to which they are brought,
whether the prize be taken by veffeis fitted out by the Conti
nent, or by others.
That such as are taken be treated as prifooers of war, but
with “humanity, and be allowed the fame rations as the troops
in the service of the -United Colonies; but that such as are
Officers supply themfclves and be allowed to draw bills to pay
for their fubfifhpee and eloathing.
That officers made pr-ifoners in the land service be allowed
the fame indulgence.
That the officers be not permitted to reside in or near any
fra port town, nor public poll road, and that the officers and
privates be not fuffered to reside in the fame places.
That in case the officers cannot draw or fell their bills, the
Congress will allow for each of thcra Two Dollars a week, for
board and lodging; to be repaid by said officers before they
ire released from their captivity.
That no tavern keepers frpply any officers who are prison
ers. on rhe credit of the Continent.
That the capitulations entered into with prisoners at the
time of their Surrender be punctually observed.
That such officers as Surrender prisoners of war be put on
their parole, unless Congress Shall otherwise dtrc&.
that the FORM of the PAROLE be as follows:
I -being made a prifoncr of war, by the array of the
Thirteen United Colonies, in North-America, do pronrife and
en g 2 g e . °" my "otd and honour, and on the faith of a gen
tleman, to depart from hence toe—in the province of
being the place of my destination and residence, and there,
or within fix mites thereof, aro remain during the present war
between Great Britain and the said United Colonics, or until
the Congress of the laid United Colonies, or the Assembly,
Convention, or Committee er Council of Safety of the said
Colony shall order otherwise; and that I will not diredtly or
indirectly give any intelligence whatsoever to the enemies of
thrtW;*d CuLct %ex do orfayany thing in oppoftim to,
or in prejudice of Kic meafufts aum proceedings of ^y c^l
- for the said Colonies during the prefeut troubles, or un
til 1 am duly exchanged or discharged. Given under my hand
this day of A. D. 17,6
That (he said Parole befigued by the officers.
That such as refufe to fubfcribc the parole be committed to
piifon.
That David Franks, Esq; Agent to the contractors for via
fyalling the troops of the King of Great Britain, be permitted
to supply the priforeivwith provisions and other necessaries,
and to fell his hilisfor such sums of money as are necessary
for that purpose.
And to enable him toco this to the Satisfaction of his em
ployers, that a commissioned officer ire permitted once a month
to visit the prisoners so victualled and supplied, in order to
count their numbers and certify the rolls.
That such of the prisoners as are not supplied by Mr.
Franks be furnished with provisions not czeecrii?g the rations
allowed to privates in the service of the continent.
That the women arid children belonging to prisoners be fur
nifhed with fuhfidarice ^hd supplied with firing and other
things absolutely necefTary for their Support.
That no prisoners be enlided in the Continental Army.
That the prisoners he permitted to exercise their trades and
to labour in order to Support thcmfelvcs and families.
That the Committees of Tnfpe&ion and Observation, for
the counties, diftri&s or towns, assigned for the residence of
prisoners, be impowered to Superintend their conduct, and
10 cases of profs mify/hiviour to confine them, and report to
their refpe&ive AffembHes, Conventions or Committees or
Council of Safety the proceedings had on such occafious.
That a [iftof the prisoners in each Colony be made out by
•lie Committees of thecounties, Towns or diftras where they
fide, and transmitted to the Amenably, Convention, or
Council or Committee of Safety of such Colony respectively,
who shall lend a cony thereof to Congress.
That the said AGemhlies, Conventions, and Committees or
Councils of Safety be imps wired to contra with proper per
fops for the rroft rerfonable terms forfupplying such of the
prisoners, their wives and children, intheir refpe&ive Colo
ny as are not supplied by Mr. Franks.
That the said S ffcmblics, Contentions, and Committees,
or Councils ofS^ety, be authorized and requeued to take 'he
paroles of the officers, and to cause a ftri& obfetvance of the
terms on which they me enlarged, and allo to take Special care
that none of thole confined by order of the Congress be fiif
ftred to efeape; alfp to advance the allowance of Two Dol
lars a week to ezch of the officers who cannot draw or fell
their bills, and to draw for the fame on the Frefidcat of the
Congress.
That the. said Affembhes, C&venrions, Committees or.
Council of Safety of the Colonies respectively, in which pru-'
oners are, or foab chufe, or be appointed to reude, be im
power.ed to remove such prisoners from place to place within
the firtie Colonies, as often as to such Aftemblies, Conven
tions,' Committees or Councils of Safety it shall feeni proper,
having regard to the former refolurbws of Congress concerning
piifoperl. Extract from the Minutes,
PubliSheu by Order of Congress.
CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.'.
to rauanrifrufla^* # fc nteofe ira maMt^t*-4ti A #-^^ l &^«rcw~n -'^-.CTLAIII^^-- mrii-zum
TO BE SO' D, for CASH,.
T, YANbREVr CALDWELL, a few barrels of excellent
f) COf CEE, afc a few pieces of foiped Russia buen, fit
for Gentlemans jackets or breeches.
FENNSYLVANIA
WEDNESDJ r.
WEEKLY
AN D
June 5, 177^.
: f^
From the PBov;denc?. 'Gazette, Ma, 18.
Mr. Carter,
By inferring the following letter; and the annexed proceed
ings es a Court-martial, you will oblige your humble
servant, Abra. Whipple.
To Efek Hopkins, Efouire , Commander in QieJ of she American Fleet.
Honoured S< R ",
I HAVE had the honour to serve under you in the last
French war, and I believe to your fatisfa&ion; and since
my arrival at Philadelphia, where I was appointed by the
Honorable Continental Congress to the command of the fb.ip
Columbus, I have ftri&ly obeyed your commands, and dune
all in my power for the honour of the fleet, to the best of
my knowledge. The night that we fell in with ,the Giafgow
man of war, two of my Lieutenants were on Doard the two
prizes we had taken, and fourteen of my bed Ramen : When
we were running down on the ffiip, getting in order to en
gage, and quartering the men in the places of those that
were absent, the Glasgow suddenly hauling to the northward,
brought me to the fourth.ward & her, and brought her direct
ly into your and Capt. Hopkins's wake. I hauled up for her
and macle all fail with my three top gallant fails; Capt. Hop
kins then "beginning the fire, the Glasgow returning the fame
and my being in her wake, as far t 6 leeward as five, it in
stantly deadened all the wind, which put it entirely out of
my power to get up with her. I used ray utmost endeavour,
but in vain. Before I had got near enough for a close engage
ment, the Glasgow had made all fail for the harbour of
Newport: I continued chace under all fail that I had, ex
cept Budding fails, and the wind being before the beam, (he
firing her two ftero chaces into me as faft as poffibß, and my
keeping up a fire with my bow guns, and now and then a
broadtide, put it out of my power to get near enough to have
a clofc engagement. I continued this chace till you thought
proper to hoist a fgnal for my return into the fleet: I ac
cordingly obeyed the signal, and on our arrival at New- Lon
don, I found that a report was spread, fiom she Alfred and
Cabot, that I was a Coward, and many other ill-natured asd
falfe aspersions. If I did not do my duty, it proceeded not
from cowardice, but from want of judgment. T.Fe inhabi
tants of New-London, antyothfirs, by means of those cowl
ifyerife^s, look fta the w c^^ftt, o^a :^u o>ifc/vQ
the country in my Ration :— The circamfbnce of having a
family of children to be upbraided with my foppofed cow.
ardice, and my own character rendered infaprous through the
Thirteen United Colonies, is 20 indignity I cannot bear. If
I am a coward, I have uo business in the service of ,', Con
tinent : I therefore requeftthat there may baa Court Martial
called, that I maybe tried by my brother officers of the fleet,
and either acquitted with honour or bioke with disgrace. I
ask no favour of them. If I Should be broke the publick
will then have a right to despise me. ,If I, ca, obtain 11,0 fa
tisfa&on in this way, I should be underaneerffity to- return
you my tommiffion. I will then thank the Coogrefs for the
honour they intended me, and curse those who firil spread
the infamous report. I have never yet mentioned the mat
ter to any one. If year Honor had let : me come to Newport
when the Scarborough man of war lay there, as was my re
quest, I might perhaps have convinced the world that I am
not a coward; but this is now out of my power.
T am your Honor's humble servant, ABRAHAM WHIPPLE.
P. S. Your honor will observe, that it was in the nigl>t
when we bore down upon rhe Glasgow, which rendered it
difficult to fee when she altered her cowrie.
Providence, April ^o, 1776.
At a court-martial "beid on board the Alfred, at Providmce, in the
Colony of Rhode-lfland, on the. x6lh da, of May, 1776, b, order
of ESEK HOPKINS, Fja; Commander in Chief of the Ameri
can Fleet, and at the defre of Abraham Whipple, Est;
Commander of the frip Columbus, for an enquiry into his, the
said Whipple's conduct on Jhe ,1b of April last, in an engage
ment held with the Glafgre ftip of var.
P R ES E N T.
Captain DUDLEY SA LT ON.S T A I. L,
Freudent.
Capt. Nicholas Biddle, John Hazzard, ?
Samuel Nicholas, J°hn \/e!(h, I^
Lieut. John Paul Jones, RhodesArnnld, I
Haytied ' Hacked, Eliflia Hinman, >*
Jonathan Maltbie, Matthew Parke, |p
ife^ry Dayton, 'J
ABRHAM WHIPPLE, Efe,; aforefaid, appeared before
this court, and fays his character (lands afyerfed for cowar
dice, on board the Columbus, , the 7th of April last, in an en
gagement with the Glasgow ^ip of war; therefore defies to
be heard touching the farce : Whereupon this court proceed
ed to hear him. He sets forth in his declaration, that for
want of wind, and by means of the Glasgow's firing Bern
guns, together with his firing bow guns, and now and then
giving a broadside, he was unable to make his attack clofcr
than he did. This court having heard fuadfry evidences, who
were present in different veffch during the Engagement with
the Glasgow, refpe&iag the m^rc# row before us, ate of
opinion that the said .Whipple/ condua on the ,'h of April
was agreeable to what he h^° <et forth in his said declita
tum; and that hi, mode of wack oh the Glasgow has pro
ceeded from error in judgment, end not from %wardicc.
Signed, D S&liorfWri, N. Eiddie, .
7. Hazzard, Nicholas,
'f. Welfo, , P. faxes,
R. Arabia, B Hecker,
E. Homan, , Mcf.lri,
M, Parke, A.Ogton.
A true Copy from the Mior'es,
Pud: ey hALTo^VJ Feffort,"
T H E
LONDO N, March 5.
HOUSE or L ORD S,
LORD Lyttleton urged the provocation given by the
Americans in seizing our provinces, burning our towns,
and defying our forces; his Lordihip also attacked the Duke
of Grafton, and said, he wondered at the,want of confiftenc,
in the noble Duke, who was himfelf the firebrand that lit up
the flames that now confu are both Great-Brit&n and America,
as the ad that firft gave rife to the dispute palled when he
presided at the treasury board. Lord Lyttleton concluded
with faying that the dignity of Great-Britain was at flake, and
that America nuift be taught submission. ,
The Duke of Grafton rose to clear himfelf from the charge
made by Lord Lyttleton, and called upon several of the
Lords now in admihiftration to deny it; that he and the Lord
who held the feais when the tea a& passed, both opposed the
mcafure, but were over-ruled in the cabinet; though even had
it been their own measure, he did not fee that they deserved
any great blame, as government took off one (hilling a pound
on the export duty, and laid on only three-pence, by which
means the Americans were relieved from a tax of pine pence
in the pound.
Lord Camden followed the Duke of Grafton, and after
corroborating what his Graee had said zefpeding the tea aft,
he enquired in what Light the treaties on the table were to be
confidcred; were they te be deemed treaties of alliance or
treaties of subsidy, or did adroniftratioa consider them as
mixtures of both? They contained, he said, in the main, an
agreement of Great-Btitain to pay the Landgrave of Hesse,
the Prince of Anhalt, and the Duke of Brunswick, so much
money for furnifhing so many men, and they were sprinkled
with certain pompous phrases ofaaUiance; but did they aflign
a reason for any alliance? Was Hesse concerned in our quar
rel with America? Was (he inclined from fear of being attack
ed by America to begin firft, and thence found it her political
ihtefeft to join us? No—there was not a fludow of faft to
prove such a fuggeftiou. The elaufes of mutual alliance were
therefore founded on fallacy, and the treaties were clearly
mere treaties of subsidy. Afttr this fort of feifqueftion and
answer, bis Lordship declared that the Hessian troops who
were to,- employed agaiaß America, were mercenaries ia
lo- ^n^q and w&jl LnltEt tkc&;,<4; .he ..a
long and dreadful description of the many difficulties and dan
gers which might atife to this country from the employment
'of hirelings, who flood recorded as troops not to be ttlifted;
who, as Sir Walter Raleigh defcribed^bem in the history of the
world, were " {editions, unfaithful, disobedient, devourers
and deflroyrrs of all places and Countries, whercunto they arc
drawn; as being held by no other bond, than their own com
modity. Yea, that which is mod fearful among such hirelings
is, that they have often, and in time of greatest extremity,
not only refufed to fight in their defence who have entertained
them, but revolted unto the contrary part; to the utter ruin
of those princes and dates that have trusted them.
After enforcing this quotation by a variety of probable
conclusions, his Lordfliip went into a comparison of the
riches of Great-Britain and America ; he said that gold and
silver were merely commodities that they were not entitled
to the name of wealth ; that they were only Valuable iu„
trinkets and trifles to decorate palaces and great men's houses,
but that the produce and industry of a country constituted
its real affluence, that we had, by our fatal meafurcs of late
years, rooted out of America that luxury which was our Sure
ty, and which preferred them to us ; we bad taught them
industry and thrift; the very arts which our forefathers
wifely aimed at keeping them ignorant of, we had obliged
them to learn ;, we had sent them neecOity, the true Miner
va, the great miftref, of invention ! and they had for force
time been fuccefsftilly Rudying under her auspices. They
now lived frugally, and wore their ow® mannfa&res, glo
rying more in their rough cloths and fluff gowns than in the
gotg-P^s tw o hundred pound dieff&s of our nobility ; they
were therefore effcntially rich, and th^y would equal us in
currency, as soon as a specie not liable to be counterfeited
could be discovered. His Lordship begged to know the cause
of the quarrel with America, and the object of the war.—
Was not the one the right of taxation, and was not the
other a war of conquest ? If so, how inexpedfent? how ru
inous the prefect treaties? Did any Lord imagine that Ameri-
Gt would lay down her arms till the was vanquished, and
when conquered, what was (he but a (lave ? —Why not then
treat with her before these mercenaries are landed, the very
news of whose coming in all probability would render recon
ciliation irnpracticable ? It would ffirely he unteafonable and
absurd to expert that America, who had been forced to take
up arms in her own defence, would lay therv down before
(he treated with Great- Britain. His Lordthip willed that
Cemmifoners, properly empowered, bad been sent to the
Congress, the requisitions of America might then have been
learnt, their seasonableness properly confidcred, and the fa*
tal quarrel happily terminated. As the case now flood, who
could fay when the dispute would end, or how we were co
.maintain ft another y-at ? In the last war the exp nee of the
fifft year was two millions, in the course of fix years it grew
into twelve millions. The expenceof rhe present year was
ten millions, and where was the extraordinary supply for the
next year to be raised ? We were taxed already a-lmoft be
yond bearing, and his Lordship knew not where another tag
could be lard. After defcanring with great eloquence on the_
fatal confeqnences which wcud probably follow the press nt
meases, his loTdfhip invefogaud the different condor of
Rorn+atid Carthage refpe&ing their colon es, and Shewed
rial no advantage could be derived to the mother country
,/nm'fuch colonic, a , were" deprived of their freedom, and
told with s,ranv and dUporftn.
ADVERTISER.
journal;
June 5, 1776,
THi
Numb, ifal