The New-Hampshire gazette and general advertiser. [volume], August 02, 1783, Image 1

About The New-Hampshire gazette and general advertiser. [volume] (Portsmouth [N.H.]) 1781-1784

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NEW-HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE.
e CENERAL ADVERTISET®R:
¥ol. XXVIL |
Te the Citizens of NEw-Hampsuire.
UPOVobferving in the New Hampshire
Gazette of the' 72th inst. 2 most tcuni
lous, abusive and illiberal pertormance, sign«
ed CinciNNaTUs, indirectly charging me
with having been remi(s in performing the
duties of my-office as Attorney General, ei
ther through inatieption and idleness; or the
influence ot bribery and corription, and be
ing totally unversed in slander, and conse
quently unable to reader railiog for ratling,
1 shall teave the abusive writer to enjoy, in
imagination, the pleasure of supposing him
felf the author of an unanswerable produc
tion, the gennine picture of his malevolent
Eeart, and appeal to your reason and judg
ment, by which 2]lone I must stand either ac
guitted or condemned. @ ,
The crime with .which I am 2ccufed, is,
fuffering the estates of abfentces to remain
unappropriated,thereby witholding from the
- bis fßipend, from diftrefied widows and
helpless orphans the means of support, -It T
am not miftakenin the author of that iilibe
ral performance, I will venture ta assert, that
among the several clafies, whose cause he
pretends to espouse, he cannot produce 2 sin
gle witness in favor of his tenderness or hu
manity ; the whole would unite in declaring
that his generosity i circumficribed by the
contradted limits ot his own felfith & unfeel
ing bosom ; but base & ungenecrous as my-ac
gufer is, if I have been negligent in the per
formance of my duty, I with not to escape
your censure. . ks e e e
. Upon my retarn from the army, where I
endured (at least) a common share of fuffzr
ings with my fellow soldiers, I found myfelf
under 2 necessity of reafluming my former
pradtice at the bar, and the last year: was
without my privity, appointed Attorneys
General for this state;; upon being informed?
of the appointmeit; I wrote aletter direéted?
go the Comuniittee of Safety, fignifying my’
dziermination to d:cline the honor intended
me by the Affembiy,(which was then under
adisurnment,)but through the persuasion of 2
number of my friends, ! was prevailed upog
to delay my answer until the meeting of th%
Superior Court at Exeter,.in September ?afif;;;_%&
wien with.reluCtance ! accepted the office, |
but, with this' express reservation, s¥That F}
was not to Le called upon to acl in bzhalt of
the fizte Fgaintt thote persons for whom E
had been previously engaged '! the persons
ware particulacly mensioned, & among them
C)l. George Doyd was namied, whose estate
fn particular I doubt not the author of- that
ungentiemauly parforicance wishes to be fin
gericg in the charalter of trustee ; I had
been engaged as council for Col. Boyd since
the year 1765, and had been employed. by,
Mrs. Boyd,to aflifl io preserving so much of)y
hisefiate as would secure her and her chil
dren against poverty and distress ; it was ac: )
cdingly agreed by the Justices of the Supe
rior Court before the President of . the slate,
tisat whenever aétions in which I had been
before engaged were brought on, some other |
person thouid be appointed to »(t in behalf ”
of the fiate ; and to prevent this maliciouss
wrriter frem foggefling that I might have
been emplosed by Mrs, Boyd after myap
pmifiimcm, I refer him to the Clerk of the
Aff:mbly, who gave me the firft jnforma
tien of my having beea appointed, and to
ST URDAY, Alcu s7l 2, .1%287.
whom 1 immediztely tomniupicated my be
ing engaged for Col, Boyd’seflate, . - .
. Thete preliminaries being thus publicly
{ettled, 1 entered upon the duties of the oftice
inSeptember last : it was not pofiblethat 1,
who had been ab{ent almost eight yeare, ne
ver in the Legislature, and 2 perfeét firanger
to most of the ablentees,and 1o their estates,
could “in-a single hour be able to :afcertain
their property, and at: that time draw bills
againit them ; howewver, it being mentioned
in the charge to the Grand Jury, 1 enquired
of them whether they koew of any such
eflates, to which they answered in the ne
gative, this was the cafealfo in Straffid and
Hil'fborough counties, and it is weli known’
that in Cheshire the juri{diftion of New-
Hampfthire was difpuied, by four or fivé
hundred men affumbied inmartial-array,and
the authority of the state was with difficulty
restored in that county ; and Grafton prior
to that period was nearly in the-fame f{ifu
ation ; all'this was within two monthsafter
my gccepting the cflice, a {fpace much too
short for ascertaining and describing the pro
perty of absentees, ¢ven if the betore men
tioned circumfiances had not taken place, -
_‘Early in the following winter-we recziv
ed information ‘that the preliminary artis
¢les were signed at Paris, on. the -30th of
November preceeding(lefs than three months
atter I came intooffice) by the fifth article
of which it is exprefily agreed*‘that theCon
grefs thali recommend to the Legiflaturesof
the refpetive flaies,to provide for the redti
tution of all efiates, rights and properties,
which have been confifcated, belenging to
real Britith fubjeéls’; and alfoof thg estates,
rights and praperties of persons resident in
diftri€ls in pofleflion of his. Majesty’s armsy
and who bave not born arms against the {aid
United Statee,” and by the article 6ith, ““that
there fhali be. no future cenfifcation made,
nor any prosecutions comnienced-againft any
person or persons, for or.by ireafon of tbe
part which he or they may have taken in
the present war, and that ne person fhall.on
that account fuffer any furure loss or damage,
either in his person, libertyor property,” these
preliminary articleswereratified atVerfailles,
on the zoth of January, and came to hand
before the {pring circuit coinmenced ; how
much: more explicit.: the: definitive trea
ty may be ;. and what obligations may fiill
be laid upon the United States for the refto
ration.ef confifcated properiy,time alone can
discover. - , 4 s L
. This being a true slate of the fadls, I now
appeal to your candor ;. whether as Attorney
General of this fiate, I could have been juf
tified in, 2fliling to appropriate and make
sale of estates, which, by being entrusted to.
the management of. shis Pfeude CINCINNA
TUS and others of his stamp, who have more.
art to. procure offices than honefly to execute.
them,might have neted tothe treasury one
eighth ot their real value, by means of which:
we might have had the g}oub!q plesfure of
distributing one eighth part among the fol.
diers, widows and orphans, whom hg men
tions ; and of répaying it_at the eight dol
lars for every onereceived : had I been thus
inattentive to the interest of my fellow citi
zens, and regardless of my own,l should have
justly merited the cenfuie of every individual
in the slate, - |
* This writer obférves that “New Hamp
shire to her glory bas been amorng the fore
moflt to cenfifcate the properiy of retugees 10
the use of the Lrave d=fendsrs of the Crom
monwealth” - and he might -have zdded
with firiét truth, (Rat-the property of abien
tees, which hss l)ficcn» f,:pprr::::ri:zitd and
foid in this slate, though in.itfelf:cf grear
value, bras fecarcely yielded 101 he freajury 2
sum futficient to pay tor the pacer,which he
has stained with Lis mializions peo; Wis ex
ceedirgly fortunate for ths inhabiiants of
New Hampfhire,that ity are not bound by
the articles of pesce, t - make reftitusion for
the efiates of whe late Gavernor \Wentworti
and Col. Holland ; forin tßatcale they mufi
have been taxed to refued cmoncy, which
they never received, and to make refiitution
for the sale of property from which they re
ver derived the leafl advantage, . l.am sen
sible that the judicioas part of niankind,and
the true friends to this fiate, would have ad
vised the publit to take poflifiion of 21l the
eflates of abientees, and let therm on the most
advantageous termg, uniil it could be known
where the property -was finally to centre 3
bad this measure been -adopted, those two
cftates and some-others: might now have af
forded tq the o 1 phag, (be iridow and the sols
dier that welis!, of which they are at present
totally d=fiture; perhdpsths i Quating fate
of our currency,: and many other reasons,
may be 2fligned in exgufe: of the measures
adopted refpefting: the hefort-mentioned
cflates ; but, howeverjuflifable. those pro«
ceedings may have been, it could never be
deemed even pardimable inany person 2s a
public servant, 10 2ppropriate and mzke sale
of estates, which the preliminary articles of
peace informed bim fhiov!d be reflored,or ta
inflitute prosecutions, which. were by those
articles prohibired frem being carried on.
. I wish this writer would point out to the
public, these persons who have eflates unap
propriated, and bave born arms agsinft the
United States; 1 {urely know of none, nor.do
I know of any estates belonging to:abfen
tees, of any considerable value, which yet
remains .unappropriated,’ except -those- of
Mr, Fisher and Colonel Bayd, the former of
whom is said to be absent by leave of :Ihe
Convention; and the laiter I have already
said I could not in bonor, - 2nd was not re
quired by office to appearagaintl : it may be
enquired why I'took up forCol.Boyd's estate?
towhich I anfwer,thatasa lawyer notengag
ed by the state, I had an undoubted right,and
more . especially ss I suppose Mr. Boyd not
to have done the fen thousandth part so
much against the American cause, as some
others, who by a great display of zeal, firive
like Simpronius, to cover the deep hidden
villany: of thetr fouls, . ......7 .. .«
. Boyd prompted .by ambition, accepted a 2
mandamus ; but. forbore to revile American
measures, which others, now. in office, cen
sured without reserve, - | e f
. Boyd went off in the fall of 1775, for the
purpefe of taking care of his effeéts in En
gland ; and permit e to erquire, whether
no other gentlemen from the fame town
where Mr. Boyd formerly lived, as well as
from other parts of the continent, departed
under the fame pretence, and at the fame
tim@' L ~ vy i ‘ : ‘
T am bappy that my condué, 25 a servant to
b Y 0y
t‘&y@o '396'