NEW-HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE,
~ RRO O U Wik .
i & ENE RA L A D.‘V ERT ES kR
{Zol. XXVI.]
o Sir GUY CARLETON.
% Tis the nature of compassion to affoci- -
"8 ate with misfortune ; and I addrefsthis
1o you in behalf even of an enemy, a
‘B Captain in the Britith' service now on
, his way tothe Head Quarters of the
American Army, and wnfortunately doomed
to death fora crime not his own.—A " sen
tence so extraordinary, an-execution so re
pugnant to every human {enfation, ought ne- .
ver to be told widheut the circumitances
;which producedit : and asthedeftined vict
im is yet in exifledice, and in your hands rest
his life or death, 1 shall briefly (tate the case
and the melancholy confeguence,
Captain Huddy, of the Jeriey militia, was
attacked in a-small fort on Tom’s river, by a
party of refugees in the Britith pay and fer
vic® was made prisoner, together with his
company, carried to New-York, and lodged
in the provost of that city ; about three
"‘wecks atter which, he wastaken out of the
provost down to the water fide, put into a
boat and brought again upon theJerfey shore
and there, contrary to the praétice of all na
tions but savages, was hung up on atree, and
left hanging until found by our people, who
took him.down and buried him, -:
. The inhabitants of that part-of the coin
- try where the murder was committed, {fent a
deputation to General Wathington, with a
#ail and certified state of the faét. . Seruck,as
every humane breast must be, with such bru
tith ontrage, and determined both to punifth
and prevent it for .the future, the General
represented the case to General Clinton,who
then commanded, and demanded that the
refugee officer who ordered and attended the
execution, and whoife name is Lippencut,
should be delivered up as 2 murderer ; anc -
4n case of refufal, that the person of some
Britith cffizer thould {uffer in his {tead. The
gemand, though not refufed, has not been
- complied with ; and the melancholy lot (not
by fele&tion, but by casting lots) has fallen
vpon Capt. Afgil, of the guards, who, as I
have already mentioned; is. on hisway from
Lancaster to camp, a.martyr to the general
wickedness of the cause he engaged in, and
the ingratitudeof those he has served.
- The firft refle€tion which arises -on this
" black business, is, what fort of men must En
glithmen be, and what fort of order and dif
* gipline dp they prefetve in their army, when
in the immediate place of their Head Quar
ters, and under the eye and nose of their
commander in chief, a prisoner can be taken
2t pleasure from his confinement, and his
-death made a matter of sport.
- T'he history of the most savage Indians
, does nat produce instances -exactly of .this
- kind.” They, at least, have a formality in.
their punithments, With them it is the
" horidnefs of revenge, but with your army it
+3s the flill greater crime, the horridness of
;;dive.rfion‘. s | [y
| . The British Generals who havesfotceeded
leach other, from the time of General Gage
- o _yourfelf, have all affeted to speak tn
Sk&,nguagc they bave no'right to.’ In their
iproclamations, their addresses, their letters
" #0 General Washington, and their fupplica
. tions ro Cengrels (for fhey deserve no éther.
_Ai¥me) thé)r talk of Britith. honor; British
-generosity and Britith clemency, as if thofs
SATURDAY . JTuwe 22, 4 2.8 2.
things were matters of. fa&t ; whereas, we.
whote eyes are open, who speak the fanie
language with yourselves, many of whom
were born on the fame {pot with you, and
who can no more be mistaken in your words
than in your attiogs, can declare to all the
world, “that so far as our knowledge goes,
theré is not 2 ‘'more detestable charaéler, nor
a meaner or more barbarous enemy than the
present Britith one. With us you have for
teited all pretention to’ reputation, and it is
only by holding youlike a wild beast, afraid
of your keepers, that you can be made ma
nageable.—But to return to the point in
questions .0 : : '
¥l aough I can think. no man innocent
who has lent his hand to defiroy the country
w.hich he did not plant, and to ruin those he
could not enslave, yet abiirafted frony all’
ideas of right or wrong on the original quefi
ion, Capt. Afgil, in'the present case, 15 not
the guilty man.: The villain and the yictim
are here separated characers. You hold:the
one and we the other, Youdifown oraTeét
to disown and reprobate the conduct of Lip
pencut, yet you give him lanétuary ; and by
so doing you as affeétually become the exe
cutioner of Afgil, as if you put the rpe on
his neck and diimiffed ¥ m trom the world.
Whatever your feelings on this extraordi
nary case may be, are be#t kadwn to your-~
{felf. Within the graveof your own mind lies
buried the fate of Afgil. He becomes the.
gorpfe of your will, or the {urvivor of your
justice. Deliver up the one ard you.fave
the other ; withold the one and the other
dies by your choice.. = .
On our part the case is exceedingly plain ;
andfficer has been taken from his confingment
and murdered, and the murderer is within your
lines. Your army have been guilfy of a
thousand instances of equal crueliy, bt they
haye been rendered equivocal and theltered -
from personal deteéion., Here thecrime is
fixt ; ‘and is one of those extraordinary cases,
which can ‘neither be denied nor palliated,
and to which the guftom of war does not ap
ply ; for it never could be supposed thatfuch:
a brutal outrage would ever be-committed.
It is an original in the history of civilized
barbarians, and is truly Britith, - ° R
. On your part, you are accountable to us
for the. personal fafety of the prisoners within
your walls. - Here can be nomifiake; they
can neither he spies, nor fufpeéted as such
your security is not endangered, nor your
operations fubjetted to mifcariage, by men
‘immured within a dungeon, They differ in
every circumflance from men in the field,
and leave no_pretence for severity or pun
‘ithment. But if to the dismal condition of
captivity with you, must be added the con
stant apprehensions of death ; if tobe impri-.
foned isfo nearly to be entombed ; &if after
all, the murderets are to be protected, and
thereby the crime encouraged, wherein do
you differ from Indians, either in charaéter
3 OPC,(’)fldll&. P S S Tk ALY
. We can have no idéa of )’O-‘"-..1‘0“0' or yout
‘juftice in any future transaction, of what
- nature it maybe’whfle YGU shelter- \V"hll}
your line an “outrageous ‘murderer,” and fa
crifice in his stead En officer of your own, If
you haveno regasd to us, at least spare the
blood which it is your duty to save. Whe
ther the punishment will be greater on. -him
who, in this case, innocently dies, or on him
whom {dd neceflity forces to rétaliate, is,
in the nicety of sensation, an undefided
guetlion ? It refls with .you to prevent the
tufferings of both. ~ Youhave nothing to do
buv to give up the murderer, and the matter
endy, ’ ¥ e
‘But to proteét him, be he who he may, is
to patronize his crime ; and to‘trifle it off
by frivolous and unmeaning inquiries, is to
pramote it. There is no declaration you
can make, no promise youcan give, that will -
obtain credit, Itis the man and not. the
apology that is demanded.
You fee yourfelf preflad on all (des so
spare the life of your own officer, for die he
will if you withbe!d justice. The murder
of Captain Huddy is an offitnce not to be
borne with, and there is no security we can.
bhave, that such altions, or fimifar enes, shall
“not be repeated, buc by making the punith- -
inent fall upon yourselves, To defiroy the
iaft security of captivity, and 1o t2ke the un=
armed,the’ unresisting prisoner to private and
{portive execution, is carrying barbarity too
hiech for silence. ‘The.evil must be put an
ecd to;. and the choice of persons rests with
you, But ii your attacitment to the guilty
is stronger than to; the innocent, yod invent.
a crime that must deftrov your charaétér ;
and it the cause ofyour King needs to be so
supported; forever cease, Sir; to torture our
remembrance with the wretched phrases of
Britith bonor, Britith generciity, and Britilh
clemgnoy. ... =~ O EIRAT Tl
From this melancholly circumstance learn
Sir, a’lefTon of morality,” The refugees are
men whom your predeceflors have inftruéted”
in wickednels, the better to fit them to theiz
master’s purpsfe. To make them ufeful,
they have made them vile ; #nd the con
sequence of their . tutored villainy is how
descending on the headsof their encouragers,
They bave been trained like hounds so the
scent of blood,and cherished in ecvery species
of diffoluote barbarity.. Their ideas of right
and wrong are worn away in the cénftant
habitude of répeated infamy, ’till, like men
practifed in execuiions, they feel not the va
eof anethershife, = . @ 2 450 ¢
The task before yeu, though painful, is
not-difficult ; give up the murderer, and save
. your-ofticer, as the firft outset of 2 neceflary
peformiadion; 7 - o s D e MR
-~ COMMON SENSE,
Philadelphia, May 31, 1782, =
i LON D O N, March'2r,
. One of the greatest exertions made by the
Fiench in naval architefture this war, was
building the Royal Louis at Brest : she care
“ries 112 brass guns, chosen .cut of 240, cast
for the purpose ; the lower deckers 54 pound=
ers, the:middle deckers 36, and the upper
ones 24 pounders, which is such a weight of
metal as no other ship now in the world can
boast ; her full compliment is 1340 men 3
~and her burthen 2700 tons.- Her timbers
~ are proportioned to her size, and were chief«
" ly imported from Silesia, by way of Hame
burgh, It is calculated, that her bvilding .
cost nearly as much as four 74’s. Two other
~ ships of equal size and force, and to be buii¢
on the some model, are now on the flocks
~at Brest, and expeéted to belaunched during
‘the course of the year 1784,
(Vs
6. 1338.]