Burgoyne to Heath. Decber 16, 1777. Sir, I am obliged to you for your communication of the vote of the Congress : and as I conclude it may be held decisive, I beg the favour of you to pass a letter from me to General Pigott to desire the transports may sail for Boston the first fair wind. The letter shall be ready this afternoon, and, if you will have the kindness to dispatch it by an expeditious messenger I will readily pay the expense. I send you the parole signed by the British Officers, the German one will be ready this afternoon. I have made a point to oblige you by leaving out all preamble and condition to the names, although the officers feel yet a disappointment in their quarters at Watertown. I beg leave to remind you of the lists promised me of prisoners of war in this State, and likewise of the release of Cornet Grant an exchanged officer. M: G: Heath. I am, Sir, Your most obedient Burgoyne to Heath. Sir. Cambridge, January 13th 1778, Having confined myself in the letter transmitted to you yesterday entirely to the prosecution of Colo: Henley, I have now to take notice of the other matters contained in your favour of the 10th Instant. You state Sir, that the insults and abuses offered to your troops have been unparallelled unless you have been grossly misinformed." Consider the character and conduct of Colo: Henley, from whom I am to suppose your reports have come, and then say whether you have not reason to suspect misinformation. Nor is he the only person to impose upon you. Cambridge and Boston abound with ill designing men who propogate calumny in order to colour persecution. The whole air is contaminated with lies. Be aware Sir of such reporters. They are your enemies as well as mine: They strike at the character of your State. The difference of our conduct gives me a right to make this expostulation: when I complain I offer proof of the grievance. You recriminate upon hearsay. You next inform me, Sir, that if it can be made appear that any of the Soldiers sent to the Guardships by your order are innocent they shall be released. By what means shall we make innocence appear when men are dragged to imprisonment at a long distance and without any possibility of appeal or communica tion of their cases? In the present instance however, I take you at your word. Innocence shall appear and you shall be the judge. Eighteen men are under confinement for an insult in which one man alone was concerned; this is an undisputed fact. It necessarily follows to Physical demonstration, that seventeen are innocent. Now show me upon what principle you detain them: implicitly avow the act and refuse to make an apology. You treat with singular contempt the idea that such of the troops of the Convention as break your orders ought to be tried and punished by mine. In the first place Sir, though my poor Military erudition must be brought to shame in your opinion I must avow that idea: and with all due respect to your erudition I must next request, that if you again quote my words you will do so without variation or emendation. I do contend that to commit offenders to the punishment of their own Officers in the first instance, and in every case that will allow it, is consonant to reason and justice. I do not mean to deny that if upon experience it was found we were partial in our Judgments, or in our punishments, you have a right to take justice into your hands: but you ought at the same time to remember that you make yourself responsible to God and man that the innocent do not suffer. I do assure you it never was my intention to let drop the complaint for which you call upon me against your Officers for enlisting men into your service. I inclose you copies of agreement and a certificate of a muster master. I have the originals ready if you require them. To the positive testimony in these few cases I could add the strongest circumstantial proof that till very lately the practice was publickly countenanced by your officers in general. I add Sir, the cases of M Dechambault and Cap Swettenham as stated in letters to me and Maj Kingston, and the deposition of Lieut. Wilkinson concerning the assault committed on him on thursday last; and I can collect many other enormities of the same sort. I come now to the last paragraph of your letter in which you recapitulate and sum up all abuses, riots, rescues, insults, &c that you are informed have been committed by these troops, and you conclude with a suspicion of highway robbery. It might have been more decent Sir, to have left that insinuation to your Printers in Boston: and indeed it would have better answered your purpose: for I observe in the paper of yesterday it is not suspected, but boldly and positively asserted, that the robbery of Mr. Hopkins was by Three regular Soldiers. My answer to all this is, that most of the accusations are false: others are exaggerated : and none are countenanced by me. That there have been levities, indiscretions, faults of omission, of neglect, and of liquor, I am ready to believe but I have never spared any efforts to correct them and they have been pretty well atoned by the beating, imprisonment, and death received at the hands of your people. Upon the whole it is with satisfaction and pride I reflect that were all these complaints verified, and compounded into one mass, they still would not, from their nature, weigh a feather in the estimation of Justice against the articles of grievance in the opposite scale. M: G: Heath. I am Sir Sir, You will readily believe that it is as painful to me, as it can be troublesome to you, to find matter of complaint the continual subject of our correspondence. I am nevertheless under the necessity of laying before you two reports from the Commissary General of the Convention troops. I am persuaded you will take immediate measures to redress that which concerns the badness of Provisions, and I hope you will not spare a reprimand to your Commissary for making out an account, which I am confident you mean't to be genuine, clear, and conclusive, in a manner that will appear to any impartial person, as purposely ambiguous, and designed to leave an opening for disputes, and to create delays. You will consider Sir, that in waiting for this account nine or ten days have been already lost since you consented to Mr. Clarke's journey to Sir William Howe. I will now reduce this matter to a very short compass: and have only to request that you will furnish me with the price demanded for the Ration supposing it to be paid in Gold or Silver, and likewise the price of the Cord of wood, Candles, and other articles, not belonging to the ration and I am willing to leave the quantities received to be settled by the respective Commissaries at more leisure. As this cannot possibly require time, I beg the favour of you to prepare passports for M'. Clarke to set out the day after tomorrow. I return you my personal thanks for sending Captain Piper here, and assure you no improper use shall be made of that civility. Sir, Kingston to Heath. Cambridge Jany: 30th 1778. I am at a loss to account for your putting a Field Officer of the British Service at so great a distance as to answer him by another hand. In Europe, letters from Gentlemen are answered by Men of the first Quality-even Princes in the most polished Courts observe this decorum-and the King of Prussia, whose Greatness will be remembered as long as history is read, answers himself the letters he receives even from his own subjects. Am I to believe such a letter as your Secretary's could be approved of by a Gentleman in your station? Accustomed to write with candor as well as freedom I stand upon the words of my letter-and despising all tortured "illiberal" constructions, must insist upon it that in All Cases of letters submitted for inspection (if they are not allowed to pass) there is an implied faith for their return. Of this, Sir, You must be as much convinced as myself, or any Gentleman. There could be no ground of quarrell between L'. Col: Kingston and M. Gen' Heath, the "throwing dirt or wiping it off," I disdain as much as I do the expressions. The honour of this Country is not impeached by me, with respect to our situation it is only concerned in keeping it's faith, and for the sake of thousands on both sides I hope it will never be affected in so delicate a point. "Detection" of the contents of open letters does very little credit to Genius.— "Conviction" strained by the help of words that were never mine, from letters submitted for approbation or rejection, is an idea of Justice new indeed, and ought to be a stranger to the human Heart. "The Liberality customary in Europe " we are entitled to,—and I think, Sir, upon a candid reading of my letter of the 27th you will disclaim that very illiberal production of the Secretary P. S. You will please to observe the word "destitute" was none of mine but applied by the Secretary. To M: Gen'. Heath. I am Sir, Endorsed, Your most obedient From Col: Kingston ansuer to his Letter &c. Jany: 30. 1778. REPRINTS CORRESPONDENCE OF WASHINGTON EXTRACTS BY WILLIAM GORDON, THE HISTORIAN OF THE REVOLUTION To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, The following are extracts from letters of the late General Washington, to whose papers I had free access, when residing at his house for weeks, while procuring materials for the History of the American Revolution; and of some written to myself. St. Neot's, April 14, 1800. To Mr. Lund Washington, Mount-Vernon. 66 Yours, W. GORDON 'November 26, 1775. Let the hospitality of the house, with respect to the poor, be kept up. Let no one go hungry away. If any of these kind of people should be in want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not encourage them in idleness. I have no objection to your giving my money in charity, when you think it well bestowed. What I mean by having no objection is, that it is my desire that it should be done. You are to consider, that neither myself nor my wife are now in the way to do these good offices. "G. W." 66 In a Letter of Jan. 23, 1778, the General thus writes: I have attended to your information and remark, on the supposed intention of placing General L. [meaning Lee, before captivation] at the head of the army; whether a serious design of that kind had ever entered into the head of a member of Congress or not, I never was at the trouble of inquiring. I am told a scheme of that kind is now on foot by some, in behalf of another gentleman-but whether true or false, whether serious, or merely to try the pulse, I neither know nor care; neither interested nor ambitious views led me into the service-I did not solicit the command, but accepted it after much entreaty, with all that diffidence which a conscious want of ability and experience equal to the discharge of so important a trust, must naturally create in a mind not quite devoid of thought; and after I did en |