The Life of George Washington, Vol. 2 (of 5)
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He has refused his assent
to laws the most wholesome Not altered.
and necessary for the public
good.
He has forbidden his
governors to pass laws of
immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended Not altered.
in their operation till his
assent should be obtained;
and when so suspended he
has utterly neglected to
attend to them.
He has refused to pass
other laws for the accommodation
of large districts of
people, unless those people
would relinquish the right of Not altered.
representation in the
legislature, a right inestimable
to them, and formidable to
tyrants only.
He has called together
legislative bodies at places
unusual, uncomfortable, and
distant from the depositary of Not altered.
their public records, for the
sole purpose of fatiguing
them into compliance with his
measures.
He has dissolved representative He has dissolved representative
houses repeatedly _and houses repeatedly for
continually_, for opposing with opposing with manly firmness
manly firmness his invasions his invasions on the rights of
on the rights of the people. the people.
He has refused for a long
time after such dissolutions to
cause others to be elected,
whereby the legislative
powers, incapable of annihilation,
have returned to the people Not altered.
at large for their exercise,
the state remaining, in the
mean time, exposed to the
dangers of invasion from
without and convulsions
within.
He has endeavoured to
prevent the population of
these states; for that purpose
obstructing the laws for the
naturalization of foreigners, Not altered.
refusing to pass others to
encourage their migrations
hither, and raising the
conditions of new appropriations
of lands.
He has _suffered_ the He has _obstructed_ the
administration of justice administration of justice
_totally to cease in some _by_ refusing his assent
of these states_, refusing his to laws for establishing
assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
judiciary powers.
He has made _our_ judges He has made judges dependent
dependent on his will alone on his will alone for the
for the tenure of their offices, tenure of their offices, and the
and the amount and payment amount and payment of their
of their salaries. salaries.
He has erected a multitude He has erected a multitude
of new offices, _by a of new offices, and sent hither
self-assumed power_, and swarms of new officers to
sent hither swarms of new harass our people and eat out
officers to harass our people their substance.
and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us in He has kept among us in
times of peace standing armies times of peace standing armies
_and ships of war_ without without the consent of our
the consent of our legislatures. legislatures.
He has affected to render
the military independence of Not altered.
and superior to the civil
power.
He has combined with He has combined with
others to subject us to a others to subject us to a
jurisdiction foreign to our jurisdiction foreign to our
constitutions and constitutions and
unacknowledged unacknowledged
by our laws, giving his assent by our laws, giving his assent
to their acts of pretended to their acts of pretended
legislation for quartering legislation for quartering
large bodies of armed troops large bodies of armed troops
among us; for protecting by among us; for protecting by
a mock trial from punishment a mock trial from punishment
for any murders which they for any murders which they
should commit on the inhabitants should commit on the inhabitants
of these states; for cutting of these states; for cutting
off our trade with all off our trade with all
parts of the world; for imposing parts of the world; for imposing
taxes on us without taxes on us without
our consent; for depriving us our consent; for depriving us
of the benefits of trial by _in many cases_ of the
jury; for transporting us beyond benefits of trial by jury;
seas to be tried for pretended for transporting us beyond
offences; for abolishing seas to be tried for pretended
the free system of English offences; for abolishing the
laws in a neighbouring province, free system of English laws
establishing therein an in a neighbouring province,
arbitrary government, and establishing therein an
enlarging its boundaries, so arbitrary government, and
as to render it at once an enlarging its boundaries, so
example and fit instrument for as to render it at once an
introducing the same absolute example and fit instrument for
rule into these _states_; for introducing the same absolute
taking away our charters, rule into these _colonies_;
abolishing our most valuable for taking away our charters,
laws, and altering fundamentally abolishing our most valuable
the forms of our governments; laws, and altering fundamentally
for suspending our the forms of our governments;
own legislatures, and declaring for suspending our own
themselves invested with legislatures, and declaring
power to legislate for us in themselves invested with
all cases whatsoever. power to legislate for us in
all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government He has abdicated government
here, _withdrawing his here _by declaring us out
governors and declaring us of his protection and waging
out of his allegiance and war against us_.
protection_.
He has plundered our seas,
ravaged our coasts, burnt our Not altered.
towns and destroyed the lives
of our people.
He is at this time transporting He is at this time transporting
large armies of foreign large armies of foreign
mercenaries to complete the mercenaries to complete the
works of death, desolation works of death, destruction
and tyranny already begun and tyranny already begun
with circumstances of cruelty with circumstances of cruelty
and perfidy unworthy the and perfidy _scarcely
head of a civilized nation. paralleled in the most
barbarous ages and totally_
unworthy the head of a
civilized nation.
He has constrained our
fellow-citizens taken captive
on the high seas to bear arms
against their country, to Not altered.
become the executioners of
their friends and brethren, or
to fall themselves by their
hands.
He has endeavoured to He has _excited domestic
bring on the inhabitants of insurrections among us and has_
the frontiers the merciless endeavoured to bring on the
Indian savages whose known inhabitants of the frontiers
rule of warfare is an the merciless Indian savages
undistinguished destruction of whose known rule of warfare
all ages, sexes and conditions is an undistinguished destruction
_of existence_. of all ages, sexes, and
conditions.
He has excited treasonable
insurrections of our
fellow-citizens, with the Struck out.
allurements of forfeiture and
confiscation of our property.
He has waged cruel war
against human nature itself,
violating its most sacred
rights of life and liberty in
the persons of a distant people
who never offended him,
captivating and carrying them
into slavery in another
hemisphere, or to incur
miserable death in their
transportation thither.
This piratical warfare, the
opprobrium of INFIDEL powers,
is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN
king of Great Britain.
Determined to keep open a
market where MEN should be
bought and sold, he has
prostituted his negative for Struck out.
suppressing every legislative
attempt to prohibit or to
restrain this execrable commerce.
And that this assemblage
of horrors might want no fact of
distinguished die, he is now
exciting those very people to
rise in arms among us, and to
purchase that liberty of which
he has deprived them, by
murdering the people on whom he
also obtruded them; thus paying
off former crimes committed
against the LIBERTIES of one
people with crimes which he
urges them to commit against
the LIVES of another.
In every stage of these
oppressions we have petitioned
for redress in the most Not altered.
humble terms; our repeated
petitions have been answered
only by repeated injuries.
A prince whose character is A prince whose character is
thus marked by every act thus marked by every act
which may define a tyrant is which may define a tyrant is
unfit to be the ruler of a unfit to be the ruler of a
people _who mean to be free. _free_ people.
Future ages will scarcely
believe that the hardiness of one
man adventured, within the
short compass of twelve years
only, to lay a foundation so
broad and so undisguised for
tyranny over a people fostered
and fixed in principles of
freedom._
Nor have we been wanting Nor have we been wanting
in attention to our British in attention to our British
brethren. We have warned brethren. We have warned
them from time to time of them from time to time of
attempts by their legislature to attempts by their legislature to
extend _a_ jurisdiction over extend _an unwarrantable_
_these our states_. We have jurisdiction over _us_. We have
reminded them of the reminded them of the
circumstances of our emigration circumstances of our emigration
and settlement here; _no one of and settlement here; we _have_
which could warrant so appealed to their native justice
strange a pretension; these and magnanimity, _and we
were effected at the expense have conjured them by_ the
of our own blood and treasure, ties of our common kindred
unassisted by the wealth or to disavow these usurpations
the strength of Great Britain; which _would inevitably_
that in constituting indeed interrupt our connexion and
our several forms of government, correspondence. They too have
we had adopted one been deaf to the voice of
common king; thereby laying justice and of consanguinity.
a foundation for perpetual _We must therefore_ acquiesce
league and amity with them; in the necessity which denounces
but that submission to their our separation, _and hold them_
parliament was no part of our as we hold the rest of mankind,
constitution, nor ever in idea enemies in war, in peace
if history may be credited; friends.
and_ we appealed to their
native justice and magnanimity,
_as well as to_ the ties of our
common kindred, to disavow
these usurpations which _were
likely to_ interrupt our
connexion and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to
the voice of justice and of
consanguinity, _and when
occasions have been given them
by the regular course of their
laws, of removing from their
councils the disturbers of our
harmony, they have by their
free election re-established
them in power. At this very
time too, they are permitting
their chief magistrate to send
over not only soldiers of our
common blood, but Scotch and
foreign mercenaries to invade
and destroy us. These facts
have given the last stab to
agonizing affection, and
manly spirit bids us to renounce
for ever these unfeeling
brethren. We must endeavour
to forget our former
love for them, and hold them
as we hold the rest of mankind,
enemies in war, in
peace friends. We might have
been a free and a great people
together; but a communication
of grandeur and of
freedom, it seems, is below
their dignity. Be it so, since
they will have it. The road
to happiness and to glory is
open to us too. We will tread
it apart from them, and_
acquiesce in the necessity
which denounces our _eternal_
separation.
We, therefore, the We, therefore, the
representatives of the United representatives of the United
States of America in general States of America in general
congress assembled, do, in the congress assembled, _appealing
name and by the authority of to the supreme judge of the
the good people of these world for the rectitude of our
_states, reject and renounce all intentions_, do in the name,
allegiance and subjection to and by the good people of
the kings of Great Britain, these _colonies, solemnly
and all others who may hereafter publish and declare that these
claim by, through or united colonies are and of
under them; we utterly dissolve right ought to be free and
all political connexion which independent states; that they
may heretofore have are absolved from all
subsisted between us and the allegiance to the British crown,
people or parliament of Great and that all political
Britain; and finally we do connexion between them and the
assert and declare these colonies state of Great Britain is, and
to be free and independent ought to be, totally dissolved_;
states_, and that as free and and that as free and independent
independent states, they have states they have full
full power to levy war, power to levy war, conclude
conclude peace, contract alliances, peace, contract alliances,
establish commerce, and to do establish commerce, and to do
all other acts and things all other acts and things
which independent states may which independent states may
of right do. of right do.
And for the support of this And for the support of this
declaration, we mutually declaration, _with a firm
pledge to each other our lives, reliance on the protection of
our fortunes, and our sacred divine providence_, we mutually
honour. pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred
honour.
The words expunged from the original draft are distinguished by
italics, as are the words that were introduced by congress.
* * * * *
NOTE--No. VII. _See Page 229._
"My reasons for this measure," said the Commander-in-chief in his
letter to General Lee, ordering him to cross the Hudson, "and which I
think must have weight with you, are, that the enemy are evidently
changing the seat of war to this side of the North river; that this
country, therefore, will expect the continental army to give what
support they can; and, if disappointed in this, will cease to depend
upon, or support a force by which no protection is given to them. It
is, therefore, of the utmost importance that at least an appearance of
force should be made, to keep this state in connexion with the others.
If that should not continue, it is much to be feared that its
influence on Pennsylvania would be very considerable; and the public
interests would be more and more endangered. Unless, therefore, some
new event should occur, or some more cogent reason present itself, I
would have you move over by the easiest and best passage. I am
sensible your numbers will not be large, and that the movement may not
perhaps be agreeable to your troops. As to the first, report will
exaggerate them, and there will be preserved the appearance of an
army, which will, at least, have the effect of encouraging the
desponding here; and, as to the other, you will doubtless represent to
them, that in duty and gratitude, their service is due wherever the
enemy may make the greatest impression, or seem to intend to do so."
* * * * *
NOTE--No. VIII. _See Page 268._
In a postscript, it is stated, that an accurate return could not be
obtained, but that from the best estimate he could form, the whole
force in Jersey fit for duty was under three thousand; all of whom,
except nine hundred and eighty-one, were militia, who stood engaged
only until the last of that month. The continental troops under
inoculation, including their attendants, amounted to about one
thousand.
In a letter of the sixth of March to Governor Trumbull, calling on the
state of Connecticut for two thousand militia to be marched to
Peekskill, after complaining of the militia he had called from the
southern states, who came and went as their own caprice might direct,
he says, "I am persuaded, from the readiness with which you have ever
complied with all my demands, that you will exert yourself in
forwarding the aforementioned number of men, upon my bare request. But
I hope you will be convinced of the necessity of the demand, when I
tell you, in confidence, that after the 15th of this month, when the
time of General Lincoln's militia expires, I shall be left with the
remains of five Virginia regiments, not amounting to more than as many
hundred men, and parts of two or three other continental battalions,
all very weak. The remainder of the army will be composed of small
parties of militia from this state and Pennsylvania, on whom little
dependence can be put, as they come and go when they please. I have
issued peremptory orders to every colonel in the regular service, to
send in what men he has recruited, even if they amount to but one
hundred to a regiment: if they would do this, it would make a
considerable force upon the whole. The enemy must be ignorant of our
numbers and situation, or they would never suffer us to remain
unmolested; and I almost tax myself with imprudence in committing the
secret to paper; not that I distrust you, of whose inviolable
attachment I have had so many proofs; but for fear the letter should
by any accident fall into other hands than those for which it is
intended."
* * * * *
NOTE--No. IX. _See Page 382._
Justice to the unfortunate demands that an extract from the
correspondence between Generals Burgoyne and Gates on this subject
should be inserted.
The British general had complained of the harsh treatment experienced
by the provincial prisoners taken at Bennington, and requested that a
surgeon from his army should be permitted to visit the wounded; and
that he might be allowed to furnish them with necessaries and
attendants. "Duty and principle," he added, "make me a public enemy to
the Americans, who have taken up arms; but I seek to be a generous
one; nor have I the shadow of resentment against any individual, who
does not induce it by acts derogatory to those maxims, upon which all
men of honour think alike." In answer to this letter, General Gates,
who had just taken command of the American army, said, "that the
savages of America should, in their warfare, mangle and scalp the
unhappy prisoners who fall into their hands is neither new nor
extraordinary, but that the famous Lieutenant General Burgoyne, in
whom the fine gentleman is united with the soldier and the scholar,
should hire the savages of America to scalp Europeans, and the
descendants of Europeans; nay more, that he should pay a price for
each scalp so barbarously taken, is more than will be believed in
Europe, until authenticated facts shall, in every gazette, confirm the
truth of the horrid tale.
"Miss M'Crea, a young lady, lovely to the sight, of virtuous
character, and amiable disposition, engaged to an officer of your
army, was, with other women and children, taken out of a house near
fort Edward, carried into the woods, and there scalped and mangled in
a most shocking manner. Two parents with their six children, were all
treated with the same inhumanity, while quietly resting in their once
happy and peaceful dwelling. The miserable fate of Miss M'Crea was
particularly aggravated, by being dressed to receive her promised
husband; but met her murderer employed by you. Upwards of one hundred
men, women and children, have perished by the hands of the ruffians to
whom, it is asserted, you have paid the price of blood."
To this part of his letter, General Burgoyne replied, "I have
hesitated, sir, upon answering the other paragraphs of your letter. I
disdain to justify myself against the rhapsodies of fiction and
calumny, which from the first of this contest, it has been an unvaried
American policy to propagate, but which no longer imposes on the
world. I am induced to deviate from this general rule, in the present
instance, lest my silence should be construed an acknowledgment of the
truth of your allegations, and a pretence be thence taken for
exercising future barbarities by the American troops.
"By this motive, and upon this only, I condescend to inform you, that
I would not be conscious of the acts you presume to impute to me, for
the whole continent of America, though the wealth of worlds was in its
bowels, and a paradise upon its surface.
"It has happened, that all my transactions with the Indian nations,
last year and this, have been clearly heard, distinctly understood,
accurately minuted, by very numerous, and in many parts, very
unprejudiced persons. So immediately opposite to the truth is your
assertion that I have paid a price for scalps, that one of the first
regulations established by me at the great council in May, and
repeated and enforced, and invariably adhered to since, was, that the
Indians should receive compensation for prisoners, because it would
prevent cruelty; and that not only such compensation should be
withheld, but a strict account demanded for scalps. These pledges of
conquest, for such you well know they will ever esteem them, were
solemnly and peremptorily prohibited to be taken from the wounded, and
even the dying, and the persons of aged men, women, children, and
prisoners, were pronounced sacred, even in an assault.
"In regard to Miss M'Crea, her fall wanted not the tragic display you
have laboured to give it, to make it as sincerely abhorred and
lamented by me, as it can be by the tenderest of her friends. The fact
was no premeditated barbarity. On the contrary, two chiefs who had
brought her off for the purpose of security, not of violence to her
person, disputed which should be her guard, and in a fit of savage
passion in one, from whose hands she was snatched, the unhappy woman
became the victim. Upon the first intelligence of this event, I
obliged the Indians to deliver the murderer into my hands, and though
to have punished him by our laws, or principles of justice, would have
been perhaps unprecedented, he certainly should have suffered an
ignominious death, had I not been convinced from my circumstances and
observation, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that a pardon under
the terms which I presented, and they accepted, would be more
efficacious than an execution, to prevent similar mischiefs.
"The above instance excepted, your intelligence respecting the cruelty
of the Indians is false.
"You seem to threaten me with European publications, which affect me
as little as any other threats you could make; but in regard to
American publications, whether your charge against me, which I acquit
you of believing, was penned _from_ a gazette, or _for_ a gazette, I
desire and demand of you, as a man of honour, that should it appear in
print at all this answer may follow it."
* * * * *
NOTE--No. X. _See Page 405._
Lord Suffolk, secretary of state, contended for the employment of
Indians, in the war. "Besides its policy and necessity," his lordship
said, "that the measure was also allowable on principle, for that it
was perfectly justifiable to use all the means that God and nature had
put into our hands."
This moving the indignation of Lord Chatham, he suddenly rose, and
gave full vent to his feelings in one of the most extraordinary bursts
of eloquence that the pen of history has recorded: "I am astonished,"
exclaimed his lordship, "shocked to hear such principles confessed; to
hear them avowed in this house or even this country. My lords, I did
not intend to have encroached again on your attention, but I can not
repress my indignation. I feel myself impelled to speak. My lords, we
are called upon as members of this house, as men, as christians, to
protest against such horrible barbarity. That God and nature had put
into our hands! what ideas of God and nature that noble lord may
entertain I know not, but I know that such detestable principles are
equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What, to attribute the
sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian
scalping knife! to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering,
devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims! such notions
shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every
sentiment of honour. These abominable principles and this more
abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I
call upon that right reverend and this most learned bench to vindicate
the religion of their God, to support the justice of their country. I
call upon the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their
lawn, upon the judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save
us from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your lordships, to
reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I
call upon the spirit and humanity of my country, to vindicate the
national character. I invoke the genius of the constitution. From the
tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble
lord, frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his country. In vain
did he defend the liberty, and establish the religion of Britain
against the tyranny of Rome, if these worse than popish cruelties and
inquisitorial practices are endured among us. To send forth the
merciless cannibal thirsting for blood!--against whom?--Your
protestant brethren--to lay waste their country, to desolate their
dwellings, and extirpate their race and name, by the aid and
instrumentality of these horrible hell-hounds of war! Spain can no
longer boast preeminence of barbarity. She armed herself with
blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico, but we more
ruthless, loose these dogs of war against our countrymen in America,
endeared to us by every tie that should sanctify humanity. My lords, I
solemnly call upon your lordships, and upon every order of men in the
state, to stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of
the public abhorrence. More particularly I call upon the holy prelates
of our religion to do away this iniquity; let them perform a
lustration to purify their country from this deep and deadly sin. My
lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more, but my
feelings and indignation were too strong to have said less. I could
not have slept this night in my bed, nor reposed my head upon my
pillow, without giving this vent to my eternal abhorrence of such
enormous and preposterous principles."