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GENEALOGY 974.9 N421DAB V.5
M
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION 1
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01802 7364
GENEALOGY 974.9 N421DAB V.5
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/documentsrelatin05stry
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840
DOCUMENTS
RELATING TO THE
REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY
OF THE
STATE OF NEW JERSEY.
archives
STATE
VOLUME V.
ORSBY V.5, ser 2
JE ZAL DELIC
NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS RELATING TO NEW JERSEY,
OCTOBER, 1780-JULY, 1782.
1780-/782
EDITED BY
AUSTIN SCOTT.
TRENTON, N. J. STATE GAZETTE PUBLISHING CO., PRINTERS. -- 1917.
ЮТ ЗМЕТА
УЯОТГІН УЯЛИОІТИЛОМАЯ
HMUJOV ZLVLE ОБ ИЕМ ЛЕВСЕХ
УЧЕЛЕНИИ от питания втолятуй язаляетяй
Cr YJUI-o ядаютоО
TTODa NITaUA
МОРРИЗОНТ
00 001
1921350
ARCHIVES
OF THE
STATE OF NEW JERSEY.
SECOND SERIES. V ... V.
ZHVIHOHA ZLVLE OF ИЕМ ЈЕВРЕЛ
вніяна «ибона
This volume was prepared and edited by authority of the State of New Jersey at the request of the New Jersey Historical Society and under the direction of its Com- mittee on Colonial Documents. That committee at present is constituted as follows :
AUSTIN SCOTT, ERNEST C. RICHARDSON, JOSEPH F. FOLSOM, A. VAN DOREN HONEYMAN, JAMES J. BERGEN, HIRAM E. DEATS.
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PREFACE.
The editor hopes that the volume will serve the purpose of reviving for many a reader some part at least of the life the Jerseyman led in the final years of the War for Independence. We must, however, remember that the newspaper of that day was not the omnium-gatherum of ours. To many a matter which from other sources we' know to have been of considerable interest, the reporter of 1780 gave not the cold respect of a passing glance. For example, in September of that year, the Supreme Court, sitting in Trenton, gave a momentous decision which excited interest and from various places in the State, protest, though receiving final and general acquiescence. This was the case of HOLMES V. WALTON, arising under , the "seizure laws," which prohibited illicit trading with the enemy. The doctrine then, and for the first time laid down, has ever since been the law-namely, that an ordinary law violating the organic law is void, and it is a judicial function when the issue is presented, so to declare it. But the GAZETTE, published in Trenton, does not mention the case.
We do, however, gather from this paper a fairly good notion of what the people of the State were doing and thinking as they were passing from the old political and civic relations to the new order.
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PREFACE.
The manuscript copies of newspaper extracts from October, 1780, to July, 1782, mostly from the NEW JERSEY GAZETTE, had been made under the direction of Mr. William Nelson, the editor of former volumes, and 166 pages of the present volume had been put in type before his death, August 10, 1914. There remained in manuscript copy, 1,004 pages. In order to bring this matter within the compass of a moderate sized volume, the present editor, with the sanction of his colleagues in the Committee on Colonial Documents, changed the form of printing; the attempt to reproduce the display style of the newspaper was abandoned, smaller sized type was chosen, repetitions for the most part eliminated and acts of the Legislature indicated only by title and not re-printed at length. These changes mar somewhat symmetry of ap- pearance, but they were necessary if the matter was to be contained in one not too bulky volume, and this seemed very desirable.
It is to be noted that on page 167 and subsequent pages the source of the extracts is made to precede, and not, as in previous pages and previous volumes, to follow the extracts.
The index was prepared by the present corresponding secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society, Mr. A. V. D. Honeyman.
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NEWSPAPER EXTRACTS
ONE GUINEA Reward.
M
ISSING since Sunday four o'clock in the afternoon the 10th inst. a yellow negro BOY, about 14 years of age, thick set, named BILL, lately belonging to Mr. Watson of Amboy, a few months ago lived with Dr. Bard; it is supposed he is lurking amongst some of the Amboy refugee negroes. This is to caution any person or persons to conceal him or carry him off, as they will be prosecuted as the law directs. The above reward will be given by
MEDCEF EDEN, Brewer, on Golden-IIill. -The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, No. 5911, October 2, 1780.
MR. COLLINS,
Please to give the enclosed a place in your useful paper.
T O think what we please and to speak what we think, is an essential right of a freeman; and as it is the privilege, so it is the duty of every honest man in this land of liberty to examine all ques- tions of a public nature, touching the welfare and happiness of the government under which he lives. In this light we may view a late publication in your paper, signed with the name of the author, on the subject of manumitting slaves. The gentleman's design reaches far- ther, and appears to be more comprehensively beneficial to this class of men than the late law in Pennsylvania, but how far it may be consistent with sound policy, and the present situation of our affairs, will, in my poor opinion, bear some discussion. In this view I mean chiefly to take up the argument ; in the course of which I shall ad-
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[1780
dress my reasonings to him as an inhabitant of this state, and a citi- zen of the United States in general.
The knowledge of human nature is a science at once the most useful and difficult, as it is that which must help us to direct and adopt the spirit of the laws by which men are to be governed. A strict moralist may lay down rules for the conduct of human life, and flatter him- self into a belief that because they are the most just they are practi- cable; but in most cases an attempt of this nature would only serve to convince him of his errors, and the futility of his opinion. The business of the closet is one thing, that of persuading or convincing mankind very different. Solon the Athenian lawgiver felt the force of this truth when he was asked if he had given his countrymen the best laws, his celebrated answer was, "I have not given them the best I could, but the best they were capable of receiving." Now it appears, if we were to judge of his understanding or his virtue from his laws alone, we should not probably do him justice. But there is some- times the perfection of policy in measures which are not perfectly virtuous ; and the reason is the same that Solon gave, to wit, "they are the best the people are capable of receiving," or in other words, that the nature and situation of things will admit.
Thus we see that even a general knowledge of human nature, and. the best intentions, tho' they may help us to make wise and good in- stitutions, yet is not all-sufficient without fully considering the pecu- liar state and condition of the people on which they are to operate. If Solon had not done this, his plan of government would in all proba- bility have turned out a fanciful, ineffective, Utopian scheme.
It seems as if there was some weight, and that not inconsiderable, due to the customs of nations; even those which, when strictly ex- amined, may not be very righteously founded. Our Saviour, consist- ently with this idea, did not hestitate to pay tribute to Caesar, tho' he knew his power was ill gotten, and that he was a tyrant.
Arguments drawn from Scripture authorities when veiled in ob- scurity, as they are apt to weigh improperly with some men, ought to be cleared from the mists that surround them ; and in persuance of this idea, it may not be an unacceptable task to explain what the accursed thing was which was among the Israelites, and prevented for a time their conquering their enemies .- When Joshua came to the land of the Amorites he sent three thousand men against Ai, who were defeated, and the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men, Josh, vii. 5 .- Joshua hearing of this, applied to the Lord to know the cause of this misfortune, and the Lord said, "Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them ; for they have taken of the accursed thing, and they have also stolen, and dissembled also, and have put it even amongst their own stuff." Josh. vii. 11.
Achan, the son of Charmi, being, among others, examined before Joshua, made the following confession -- "When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them,
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1780]
and behold they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it." Josh. vii. 21. This was directly in the face of the following commandment: "The graven image shalt thou burn with fire, thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is in them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be ensnared therein; for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God." Deut. vii. 25 .- "Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thy house, least thou be a cursed thing like it, but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed thing." Deut. vii. 26.
But the author in question has, with what boldness I leave the world to judge, in effect made a commandment for us, and an accursed thing, which he first pronounces us guilty of, and then roundly deals out a judgment of his own making, also against our endeavours to defend ourselves from the enemy, for having this accursed thing among us. This kind of reasoning seems to savour pretty much of the arts practiced by the church of Rome in the plentitude of her power, many of the offences and punishments being of her own in- vention.
For my own part, never having put on the yoke of implicit faith, with respect to any such authority, I disclaim the absurd jurisdic- tion ; being of the opinion that the causes of our misfortunes are merely human, and very different from that which he ascribes them, for I believe truly we have many accursed things among us.
But the gentleman having chosen the ground of scripture, the fol- lowing authority does not seem inapplicable to the point in question :
In that part of the Levitical law relating to the year of Jubilee, chap. xxv. 45, 46, are these words-45. "Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land, and they shall be your possession .- 46. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a pos- session ; they shall be your bondsmen forever: but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall rule one over another with rigour."
In these parts of the Levitical law perpetual slavery seems rather more than permitted under the Jewish nation, and of course it could not have been deemed an accursed thing.
Having just mentioned an authority of no small weight, drawn from the sacred writings, I shall now endeavour to shew from the reason of facts taken from profane history, that the practice of hold- ing slaves among other nations has not been deemed mo .? offensive than it was of old among the Jews. Plutarch tells us in his life of Solon, "that the slaves in Attica were absolutely the property of their masters, and as such were used as they thought fit; they were for- bidden to wear clothes or to cut their hair like their masters; they were likewise debarred from anointing and perfuming themselves and from worshipping certain deities; they were not allowed to be called by honourable names, and in most other respects were used like dogs."
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In Sparta the cruelties practiced upon their IIelots or slaves, were still more barbarous. There was a certain custom among those people called Cryptia, that is, Ambuscade, such as had the care of educating the Spartan youth picked out the stoutest of them, and having armed them with daggers, sent them to destroy their unhappy slaves, which they did by falling upon them in the night or day when they were at work, without any crime being pretended against them; once a day they received a certain number of stripes, for fear they should forget they were slaves.
Among the Romans the method of treating slaves was arbitrary and cruel in the highest degree; they were subject to the will of their masters, who could do and really did with them as they pleased.
It has also been the policy of almost all the maritime nations of Europe to employ slaves in their colonies, particularly in the West- Indies, where they live miserably, and are used with great rigour.
Having thus stated the facts let us now consider what befel these people and nations in consequence of their having this pretended accursed thing among them .- Athens became the school of polite- ness, of the liberal arts and science, and after the full enjoyment of all earthly happiness, submitted in her turn to the inevitable fate of all human things.
Sparta, more rigid in her moral and political maxims, flourished for the space of seven hundred years, and maintained an enviable rank in the government of the world. Rome, Imperial Rome, the mistress of nations, the wonder and envy of mankind, for many hun- dred years ruled over. the earth with despotical power.
The nations of Europe who have employed slaves in their West- Indies colonies have uniformly grown rich by their labour, and in- creascd in strength, and the individuals among them immediately concerned in the business enjoy a great share of ease and happiness ; and even these states, from Georgia to New-Hampshire, all of them have grown and flourished with the pretended accursed thing among them beyond the example of other times, or nations enjoying in reality for many years the fancied happiness of the golden age of the poets.
I hope no one will do me the injustice to think I am an advocate for slavery ; my design in what I have as yet said is only to shew the fancifulness and enthusiastick turn of the argument made use of in the performance in question, which seems calculated rather to work on the imaginations than the good sense and sound judgment of the public, whilst other obvious reasons of irrefragable force with respect to the justice of the measure might have been substituted in their place.
I think, though it may be right and highly praiseworthy to set free the children of slaves to be born after a certain time, there are many weighty reasons of policy against freeing the present, race of slaves at this crisis.
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1. That at this time when many parts of the state in the neigh- bourhood of the enemy are laid waste and rendered desolate by the ravages of that army, and many families driven from their lands depend in a great measure on the labour of their slaves for a liveli- hood, it would be unreasonable to deprive them of their only support.
2. That as all slaves are in reality as much the property of their masters as the gold and silver for which they were bought, or may be sold, according to every idea of law and custom prevailing among us, they cannot be deprived of them without being paid the value, which will be a new and heavy tax upon the publick.
3. That there will be a considerable number of superannuated, diseased, and vagabond slaves, to be maintained at the publick cost, which will also be a heavy tax.
4. That the quantity of labour will be considerably lessened at a time when every nerve should be strained to furnish money and supplies for the maintenance of the army, on which our own liberty and property depends.
5. Because they are unfit for good commonwealth's men from their having all the habits of servitude deep rooted in their minds.
6. Because they are treated with a humanity unknown in other parts of the world, and are better off than the generality of white poor, who are obliged, those who have families, from their necessities to work harder than the slaves in general in this state.
But what shall we say when we consider the writer as a citizen of the United States, to the interest of all which some attention and duty are owing. What will an inhabitant of Georgia or the Caro- linas think of these examples in the more northern parts of the American Republick at this distressing and critical time, when his very existence as a man, and that of his family and friends, depends on the obedience of the slaves, who are so much more numerous than the white inhabitants? The evils consequent upon so large a body of slaves, idle, ignorant, and helpless as they are in those countries, being liberated, or even possessed of the spirit of disobedience, would now be irremediable. Will the people of those states, deprived of the labour of their slaves, be able to furnish their respective quotas of the taxes towards sinking the present money, and the farther im- portant purposes of carrying on the war? I cannot but imagine that if the writer were now in this predicament, struggling with losses and misfortunes, the actual suffering of which would add a poig- nancy and weight to reasons of policy, he would find them operate in such manner as to induce him to change his opinion, which, if it becomes a measure of government, will, in my opinion, be attended · with consequences pernicious if not fatal to the common cause.
I have heard within these few days that there is a probability of the law in Pennsylvania, for freeing the children of the present generation of slaves, being altered, if not repealed, on the ground of inexpediency. A WHIIG.
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NEW JERSEY IN THE REVOLUTION.
[1780
FISH-KILL, September 28.
On Monday last his Excellency Gen. Washington passed through this town, on his way from Hartford, and his ar- rival at West-Point was announced by the discharge of thirteen cannon, about eleven o'clock same day.
About the time of his Excellency's arrival at the fort, a most horrid plot was discovered, the infamous Gen. Ar- nold at the head of it; who, it is supposed, has been cor- rupted by the influence of British gold, having agreed to deliver up the fort at West-Point; for which purpose he drew a plan of all the works at the Point, and gave it to a spy, Major John Andre, Adjutant General of the British army, and first Aid of Sir Henry Clinton. Arnold, on Thursday last, early in the day, came to Mr. Joshua Smith's (brother to the honorable William Smith) at Haverstraw. Smith, who is now in custody, says, that Arnold told him that there was a person on board the Vul- ture, a British frigate then in the river, whom he greatly wanted to see; he mentioned Col. B. Robinson, who he said, was coming, under pretence of serving the British, to make interest to obtain his estate and return. Arnold proposed to Smith to go on board the frigate; Smith ac- cordingly, in the night, went on board, where he saw Col. Robinson and Major Andre. Col. Robinson refused to come ashore, but Major Andre did; they found Arnold waiting for them on the shore, and they had a long private conference ; after which Arnold went to Smith's house with the Major, and Smith secured the barge. Next day Arnold requested Smith to furnish the Major with a suit of clothes, lest he should be suspected, as his were British regimentals ; . which he did. They were prevented going on board the frigate the following day, our gun boats being in the river. On which they agreed to go by land, and Arnold supplied Andre and Smith with passes to conduct them below our lines. Having provided horses they set off on Saturday
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morning; and Smith conducted him past our guards, and, as he thought, out of danger, and then left him ; but a party of our militia soon after met and secured him, and notwith- standing his large offers of cash and goods, to let him pass, which they nobly disdained, brought him to Head-Quar- ters; and on Tuesday last he was removed to West-Point, in order to have his trial with Joshua Smith, his conductor, who was secured on Monday night.
Arnold hearing of General Washington's approach, seemed greatly confused, called for his horse, and rode im- mediately to the landing, where he ordered a barge to set off with him, who carried him on board the Vulture, where he now remains: 'Tis said he sent a letter to General Washington, to assure him, that neither his wife nor Aid were in the secret of his nefarious conduct.
This hasty narrative, contains all the particulars we have heard of this tragical affair. We expect in our next to give our readers a more correct account of it.
PHILADELPHIA, September 30.
As the publick curiosity and anxiety must naturally be raised to a high pitch by the providential detection of the perfidy and treachery of a late distinguished general offi- cer of the United States, we shall endeavour to give our readers such particulars as have come to our knowledge, and are well authenticated.
On Monday last Congress received a letter from General Greene inclosing one from Col. Hamilton, one of General Washington's aids, informing him that a scene of the black -. est villainy had been just disclosed : that Arnold was gone off to the enemy : Col. Andrie, General Clinton's principal aid and confidant, was apprehended in disguise in our camp: that West-Point (where Arnold was commanded) was to be the sacrifice, and that all the dispositions were made for delivering it up last Monday night: that he
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had pursued Arnold as far as Verplank's point, from which the letter was dated, but without success : that tho' it was not probable the post would now fall, yet it was possible, and especially as the wind was fair; therefore he recommended to Gen. Greene (who commands the army in General Washington's absence) to put it under march- ing orders, and detach a brigade immediately.
The letter from General Greene confirms the above ac- count, but adds no material particulars.
As soon as these letters were read, the contents were communicated to the Vice-president and Council of this state, and the Justices of the Supreme Court, who di- rected an immediate seizure of all Arnold's papers, which was made, and tho' no direct proof of his treachery was found, the papers disclose such a scene of baseness and prostitution of office and character, as it is hoped this new world cannot parallel. His participation of the plunder of this city when he held the command after the evacuation of the enemy, is now found by the agreement, signed be- tween him and his accomplices to share the profits of that shameful business. It appears that he and some others, whose names will probably in due time be made known, now have subsisting contracts with persons in New-York for merchandize.
In making an estimate of his estate he enumerates his share of the sloop Active, tho' he found witnesses to swear before the grand jury that he had no share in her. In short, his whole command appears to have been a scene of the basest traffick and publiek plunder. In August last he directs his wife to draw all she can from the commis- saries, and sell it or store it, tho' at that very time the army was destitute of provisions. In the private corres- pondence of his family and himself are contained the most sarcastic and contemptuous expressions of the French na- tion, and of an eminent personage of that country, whose hospitality and politeness they were at that time frequently experiencing. The illiberal abuse of every character op-
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posed to his fraudulent and wicked transactions exceeds all description. .
Prudence forbids our mentioning the names of those persons who appear by his letters to have supported and abetted him in his nefarious practices : nor is it necessary, as the journals of a great assembly and the countenance he received in this city from some persons, will easily direct the public judgment. The attempts to stigmatize the President and Council of this state, and to saddle it with the payment of the sloop Active, must now appear in their proper light and fill the authors with shame and remorse.
Our correspondent concludes with a remark on the fal- lacious and dangerous sentiments so frequently avowed in this city, that female opinions are of no consequence in public matters. The Romans thought far otherwise, or we should not have heard of the Clelias, the Cornelius and Anias of antiquity : and had we thought and acted like them we should have despised and banished from social intercourse every character, whether male or female, which could be so lost to virtue, decency and humanity, as to revel with the murderers and plunderers of their country- men. Behold the consequence. Col. Andrie, under the mask of friendship and former acquaintance at Meschi anzas and Balls, opens a correspondence in August, 1779, with Mrs. Arnold, which has doubtless been improved on his part to the dreadful and horrid issue we have described, and which but for the over-ruling care of a kind Provi- dence, must have involved this country and our Allies in great distress, and perhaps utter ruin.
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