Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-05-25
ALEXANDRIA,:
MONDAY. MAY 95, 1918.
ALAS, POOR PUTNAM !.

the world, Old Israel rutnam, 10 at ''''s
day dragged forth from his grave, and
the imputation of Cowardice -Cowardice
Of all things! dashed 10 the eyeless Sack
cts of his skeleton. This is the most sin
gular and unexpected outrage upon the
authority of history that we have ever
heard Of; and without pretending to de.
eide upon the particular transaction at
Bunker's Hill, sad to be now alluded to,
we scruple not to affirm that, If any one
could by sufficient evidence prove that
Putnam was 4 Coward the testimony ol
history is not worth stale herring, nor
the universal opinion, or the unanimous
voice OF society any more to be believed
than the word of the vilest habItual liar
Unless history and the universal ac-
claim of almost all the people who were
competent to decide upon his character
have cUnspired to impose upon the credu-
lity Of the world, the valor OF Putuam
stands established by a number OF deeds
of hardihood, TO ,chich Coward must
be utterly incompetent. His feat in the
VOLTS dcn--his escape from a superior
force Of the British by galoping down
steep precipice-his general estimation
too among the circle IN which he moved,
should, ore would thiek, shield him for
ever from suspicion Of cowaTdlce. How
is it-by what secret nrcromancy did he
accomplish the reputation he possessed
from his outset in life, till Gen. Dearborn
condescendcd TO rob him of the sad i'm
munities Of the tomb, and in contradic-
ton to that Godlike maxim "de mortuiS
nil Hist bonum." to !raduce him in the
dust !-How did it happen that the vig'-
liant chiefs of the revolutionary war re-
NAMED silent, or why did not General
Dearborn himself, in proper time step
forth and intercept the honors which were
so lasishly showered by the American
people upon Putnam, that the very chill
dren were taught to lisp his name, and
that his deeds Of Pith we're enumerated
amongst those stories which in school and
story-book. stir up the young blood Of our
brave ar;less boys, and animate them to
emulation in arms l-lf Gen. Dearborn's
suggestion be true, then, as | said be-
fore-is no one character to be judg'd b.
the evidence of his.ory-and the roice OF
tie psopls-that cabalistic puf-which
furnishes political impostors with such
powerful instrument of deception, to be
any more needed than The sense!ess howl
of a dog baying the moon of light night.
For the authenticity of history in gene
raj we feel little disposed to contend be.
cause we have constantly rising before
US proofs that the most simple transaction
will be so deface,i even in the immediate
fresh relations Of it, that of two or three
or four witnesses, no two shall be found
to relate il alike. We have before US at
this moment strong instance-An at
tempt was made in Paris, last February,
to assassinate the Duke of WeIiington;-
the Paris papers had each particular pa
ragraph upon the circumstance-they are
oil detailed uerbatim in the London Nor
ming Chronicle Of the 10th February,
which we have now on our tabe.-and
they disagree in the representation Of it.
| The .Noniieur says that tine shot did not
strike the duke, nor eren his carriage-
80 saws the Journal du Commerce. Ane-
Their states that If the wiadow of the car
riase had been down, the duke would
have been killed, as rife ball struck the
strong plate glass and shattered it to pie
ces-.And lastly, an account BY express,
brings the intelligence that "no person
was woundcd-the carriage even was net
hurt."-Such are the materials of which
history is composed bat the reputa-
ton Of Putnam did not rest on the quilts
Of histo,ians-the rita roce evidence OF
the world, in his life time, supported it
the hearts of the American people cver-
lowed with It-and brayery-aud as we
understand mere bravery, not over much