The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-05-26

the United States, page 502, reproach is cast
upon the memory of General Sullivan for MOI
including in the ultimate for peace IN llol
when member of Congress, full concession on
the part of Great Britain of the right to hsn IN
British waters. The next year, when cendl-
date for the chief magistracy of New Hamp-
shire, he gave his reasons upon TINS polnt
These reasons will be found as stated by him
in the Military Service and Public Life of Gen
eral Sullivan, by Col. Thomas Q. Amory, pub
lisbed in 1868, Pages 206-7-S.
His explanation setthe matter at rest and APP,
pears sufficiently conclusive now. The right
of fishing in British waters had 1een embraced
in the general instructions to our ministers
which it was not proposed to supersede, but the
time was not opportune for urging what might
prolong hostilities, and endanger the cause OF
independence. 1t was before Yorktown when
| our resources and expectations were at thelr
lowest ebb and it would not have been sensi-
BILE to have attached, at such crisis, too much
importance to the right to fish. The wisdom
of his course is a fair subject for criticism.
But when the historian estimates that the
omission was in consequence of undue 1ntiu-
ence, the statement assumes another character
and it becomes natural to seek to ascertain II
any ground for such an accusation exists.
After the Indian campaign of 1779, his health
impaired, his availabl, means exhausted, ana
| his family distressed, General Sullivan resign
ed from the army and, after an acute attack OF
illness, was sent to the Congress at Philadel-
phia. He had been selected against his own
| Wishes but consic cradle part of the territory
| of New Hampshire on the east side of the Con-
necticut was in jeopardy and her claims left of
| the river were disputed by Vermont and New
| York. He was familiar with the merits of the
| controversy, and his 'ces, as he was also an
able lawyer, being regarded Indispensable, he
| felt constrained to accept the position. The
| country was generally impoverished, and the
| State treasury could afford very inadequate
1 supply even for his expenses on the road.
| Congress owed him sixteen hundred dollars
| for actual advances, and some thousands for his
| allowances as commander-in-chief and for de-
probation. Every dollar being, however, in
| request to keep the armies in the field payment
| of his advances. though they we're voted, and
| in gold, was deferred and his other claims re-
| NAMED unadjusted until after the peace In
| consequence of this disappointment, General
| Sullivan found himself without means and
| wrote urgently home for remittances. The mail
| was captured and carried to New York. His
letter, printed in Rivingtons Gazette, came
thus to the knowledge of Luzerne, the repre-
sentative of France in Philadelphia, at whose
house from his command at the sege of New
port, and acquaintance with the French Ian
guage, he was a welcome guest. Amidst the
general poverty, Luzerne alone had means, and
of his own accord volunteered loan OF seventy
gnineas to General Sullivan who had every
reason to suppose he should be able to repay it
out of bis reimbursement from Congress.
During the summer of 1879, while General
Sullivan was engaged in the Indian campaign,
the Penobscot expedition which ended IN dis
aster was made. Daniel Sullivan, eldest BROTH
er of the general and also their two younger
brothers, James who died in 1908, Governor OF
Massachusetts,, and Eben, who held commits
sion as colonel in the Revolutionary army, took
an active part both in tho civil and military
service. Daniel resided in Sullivan, OF which
place he was one of the original founders.
md which took its name from MIN.
Having minute men under his com
mand he led them in the attack on Castine,
not many miles from his own home The fol-
lowing winter, in February, 1880, Captain
Mowatt, who, in the beginning of the war had
burnt Falmouth, sailed at night in his frigate,
the Allegiance, into Frenchman's Bay. f.
party of sailors and marines invested Sulilvan'S
house, effected an entrance, and captured him
while asleep. They set fire to the building,
and leaving his wife and children in the dead
of winter, in the snow, with no protection but
a man-servant, they carried him to Castlne.
Daniel Sullivan declining their usual proffers,
if he would resume his allegiance to the crown,
was sent to the Jersey prison-hulk IN New
York. He was thence permitted to go to Pnli-
adephia, charged with a sealed letter to his
brother John, then member OF the Congress,
the contents of which there is no reason to sup
pose Daniel knew. 1t was a base overture from
Sir Henry Clinton, the commander of the
British army to abandon the cause OF indie
pendence. AS Sullivan had made every sacri-
flee of health and fortune to the cause, his IL
deity and character should have spared him
the British officers, high in rank, resort
ed to corruption to effect what, fortunately for
America was not in the power OF their arms.
Not wishing to endanger his brother, who,
unable to effect an exchange at the moment,
was compelled to return as prisoner, Sullivan
contented himself with communicating the
transaction to the French minister. Lnzarne,
in his official correspondence with his govern
ment, related the details, and mentioned a
loan, which he had been induced by Sullivaas
t,1et co. ffa aim,
tho French archives, and although it contains
every proof that General Sullivan conducted
himself throughout as man OF honor, and
faithful to every obligation, the historian,
without the slightest ground, attempts to cou-
pie the loan with the instructions, and mt
mates that General Sullivan was unduly influ-
enced in his vote to favor France. When the
volume appeared, Sullivan's descendants de-
manded the evidence on which the charge was
made. The letters which they were permitted
to copy contained no proof whatsoever of want
of good faith in him, but showed that his
course was entirely free from reproaeh.
The family of General Sullivan published the
letters with all the circumstances of his career
necessary to show that the imputation was not
only unsupported by any evidence, but wholly
inconsistent with what was too well known for
mistake. They appealed to the Historical So
cieties of the country to examine the subject,
and determine if any justification of the charge
existed. Governor Bell, president of the New
Hampshire society, and Mr.. John wallace,
president of that of Pennsylvania; the former
being the native State of General Sullivan,
and of which he had been thirty years in the
public service, and for three its chief maglS-
trate, and the latter where the Congress sat,
generously responded to the appeal in behalf of
their societies, and as chairman OF their respec-
tive committees prepared reports duly APPROX
ed, vindicating General Sullivan from any vio-
lation of what was becoming and right.
These reports were printed in the second edi-
ton of the original pamphlet entitled, WAS
General Sullivan Pensioner OF Luzerne?"
We sustain the views taken by til ise socie-
ties in their reports that "the allegations OF
Mr.. Bancroft, impugniug the integrity of Gem
eral Sullivan are unsupported BY the evidence
and are unworthy of credence."
Mr. Washburn, in the chair, strongly sup
ported the conclusions of Mr.. Williamson. All
the evidence, he said, shows that the money
received by Gen. Sullivan from the French
minister, was loan from personal friend.
His views on the fishery question were those of
most Americans and need no explanation.
On motion of Mr. Sewall, Mr.. Williamson's
paper was accepted and endorsed by the So
ciety.
A paper by Hon. Albert W. Paine of Ban
COR on the Territorial History of Bangor and
vicinity, was read by Mr.. Washburn-Mr.
Paine being absent-of which the following is
an abstract:
THE TERRITORIAL HISTORY OF BANGOR.
The city of Bangor began to be populated in
1863, when Jacob Boswell and his family first
located themselves on the banks of the Pencb-
scot, in what is now the first ware of the city,
short distance above the outlet of the Ken
duskeag. The whole region was to them
dense wilderness, wild and uneultivated, free
from government dictations, a part of the great
mythical 'Norombega'' signaiized in history
and song. The governmental right to this ter
ritory was in dispute, for while under the
Plymouth colony, England was tacitly the I'M
disputed owner of the whole region, and by
grant had it embraced within its title, France
had quietly been recognized as having the
right of supremacy and control. After Louis
burg however, England became the undisput-
ed owner of the country free from opposing
claims.
Immediately after these latter events Gov.
Pownal, commanding at Fort Point, came up
the river May 23d, 1859, three miles above ma
rine navigation on the Penobscot, east side,
and claimed the country for British territory
l r - -. L. t.--s In a