Latest / The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3 / 024 - Chapter 26 - Conclusion

Transcript

024 - Chapter 26 - Conclusion · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section twenty four of History of the Rise, Progress and
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: visit lirivox dot org. History of the Rise, Progress and
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Warren.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six conclusion. Among the many difficulties that occurred
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: in the negotiations for peace, the dramaans maide in favor
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: of the American loyalists, both by the British and the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: French ministry, were not the most easily accommodated of any
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of the impediments thrown in the way of conciliation. But
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: on mister Oswald's receiving a new commission from his court
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: soon after the Count de rittna Belle's visit to England,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: negotiations went forward. All difficulties were surmounted, and provisional articles
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of peace between Great Britain and America were signed by
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: both parties on the thirtieth of November one thousand, seven
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: hundred eighty two. In the meantime, the Pacific dispositions of
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the British Cabinet were, as observed, announced to the commanders
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: of their armies and fleets in America, and threw them
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: to Congress and the Commander in chief of the troops
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of the United States. But though the ideas of peace
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: were congenial to their wishes and flattering to their hopes,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: they still considered that they had much too apprehend before
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: they could quietly sit down in the enjoyment a domestic felicity.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: The Americans, on this intelligence, lost no part of their vigilance.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: They thought it more than ever necessary to be guarded
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: at all points against the machinations and intrigues of their enemies,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the emissaries of Britain, and the rancor and violence of
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: American refugees and loyalists. This description of persons were now
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: more than ever embidded by the idea that England was
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: about to be reconciled to the colonies on their own terms,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: absolute and unconditional independence. Their situation at that time indeed
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: appeared to be hapless enough. The corps of provincial troops
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: that had been exposed in the service of Britain and
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: had risked everything during the war, expected now to be
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: disbanded on the peace, when both officers and privates had
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: little to hold government according to the provisional articles, and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: still less from their country according to the stipulations of
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: the British negotiators. The whole body of loyalists were left
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: unprovided for any further than by engagement from the American
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Commissioners to suggest to Congress and to urge in their
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: behalf a recommendation to the several legislatures of the United States.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: The purport of this recommendation was a proposal that they
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: would suffer such as sat property to return for a
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: limited time to indeavor to recover or repurchase their confiscated estates.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Twelve months was the time agreed upon by the Commissioners
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: for the residents of the Tories in their native provinces
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: after the ratification of peace. Thus abandoned by their friends
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and cast on the mercy of their country, they had
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: little lentity to expect from their countrymen after a war
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of seven years in which many of them had perpetrated
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: every treacherous and cruel deed to facilitate the subjugation of
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: their native land and to consign succeeding generations to the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: shackles of foreign domination. No prospect now appeared before them
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: but to DeCamp in hopeless poverty and seek some unexplored
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: asylum far from the pleasant borders of their natal shores.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Instigated by despair and revenge, some of this class of
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: people had recently given new proofs of their vindictive feelings
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and new provocations to their countrymen. The most unjustifiable whither
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: and the most outligeous cruelties had been practiced on those
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: who were so unfortunate as to fall into their hands.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: The story of one halfless victim will be a sufficient
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: specimen of the atrocious length of felony to which man
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: may be prompted by disappointment and party rage. The Associated
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Board of Loyalists at New York impatient for the laurels
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: they had expected to reap from the ruin of their neighbors,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: their country, and the cause of freedom provoked at the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: desertion of their British patrons, and despairing of the triumph
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: they had promised themselves in the complete success of the
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: ministerial troops and the conquests of America by the arms
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: of Britain, adopted the unjust and dangerous of avenging on
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: individuals anything which they deemed injurious to their partisans, they
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: said in their own vindication, And perhaps they had too
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: much reason to allege that the troops of Congress in
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: many instances had not been less sanguine than themselves in
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the inflictions of summary punishment. Doubtless, both parties were far
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: from exercising that lenity and forbearance toward their enemies that
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: both humanity and equity require. This was often made a
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: pretext to justify enormities and even private executions at which
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: compassion and virtue shudder. Nothing of the kind had recently
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: occasioned so much public observation as the wanton burder of
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: a Captain Oddy, who, with some others had been captured
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: by a party of loyalists. He had been some time
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: their prisoner without any singular marks of resentment, but on
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the death of a man while a prisoner killed by
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the guards whom he was endeavoring to escape, Huddy was
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: brought out of his cell, deliberately conveyed to the Jersey shore,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and without a trial or any crime alleged against him,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: he was, in the most ludicrous manner hanged amidst the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: shouts of his enemies, who exclaimed at the solemn period
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: of execution, up goes Huddy, but Philip White. General Washington
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: considered this transaction as too insolent and cruel to be
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: passed over with impunity. It drew him into the painful
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: resolution by the advice of the principal officers of the
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Army to retaliate by selecting some British prisoner of equal
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: rent to suffer death unless Lieftencott, one of the associated
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Loyalists who commanded the execution of Huddy, was given up
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to justice. The designation of an innocent victim to suffer
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: death for the crime of an unprincipled murderer is the
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: circumstance from which the mind turns with horror, But according
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to the laws of war, there was no receding from
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the determination. However severe might be the fate of him
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: who was selected as the halfless victim. General Washington previously
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: demanded justice on the guilty perpetrators of the crime, but
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Sir Henry Clinton and other officers to whom he represented
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: the business waited a compliance for some time, and appeared
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: in some measure to justify the deed by asserting that
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: it was done only by way of example, to prevent
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: similar enormities which their partisans, the Loyalists, said they had
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: frequently experienced. Several British officers of the same rank with
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: HUTTI were prisoners in the American camp, and according to
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: the denunciation made by the American to the British Commander
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: in chief, they were brought forward with great solemnity and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: a lot cast with the sacrifice to be made to justice.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: This was done with which much tenderness, sympathy, and delicacy.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: When the law fell on Captain Askill of the Guards,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: a young gentleman of education, accomplishments, and family expectations, who
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: was only nineteen years of age, he was immediately ordered
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: into close custody until the trial and punishment of Captain
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Lippincott should take place. But his trial was conducted with
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: so much partiality and party agrimony that Lippencott was acquitted.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: After this, Sir Henry Clinton demanded the release of Askill,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: as on a legal trial, no guilt was affixed to
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: the transaction of Lippencott. This occasion much uneasiness to General
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Washington and to others. Although fully convinced of the iniquity
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: of the murderous party that procured the death of Honey,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Yet they wished for the release of Captain Asgill. Every
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: humane bosom revolted at the idea of seeing a youth
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: whose character was in all respects vaivor and amia condemned
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: to die, instead of a wretch whose hands stained with
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: blood and his heart hardened by repeated murder and crime,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: might have had an early acclaim to a halter. Great
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: interest was made by many British officers, and by Sir
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: guide Carleton himself for the life and release of Captain Asgill,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: but without effect, he remained a prisoner under the sentence
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of death, although execution was delayed until every compassionate heart
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: was relieved by the interference of eternal tenderness. The address
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: of Lady Askill, his mother, whose heart was wrung with
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: agonizing fears for the fate of her only son, procured
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: his release. After the first pangs of grief and agitation
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: on the nose of his critical an ass of his
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: situation had subsided. She wrote in the most pathetic terms
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: to the counter of Virgenes, urging that his influence with
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: General Washington and the American and Congress might be exerted
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: to save an innocent and virtuous youth from ignominious death
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: and restore the destined victim to the bosom of his mother.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: This letter brought were sentiments that discovered a delicate mind
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and improved understanding, and a sensibility of art under the
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: diction of Polish style, and replete with strong epithets of affection.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: The French minister showed to the King and Queen of
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: France as a piece of elegant composition, though on a
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: despotic throne, with the sovereign disposed us of the subject
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: by his fiat and cuts off life at pleasure without
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: regret or hesitation. The King of France and his royal
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: partner were touched by the distress of this unhappy mother
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and lent their interest with the liberation of her son.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: The Count de Vigennes was directed to send the letter
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to General Washington, which he did, accompanied with the observations
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: of the King and Queen, and combined with his own
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: request in favor of young Askill. The Commander in Chief
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: was happy to transmit to Congress the several requests and
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: observations which he had reason to expect would relieve him
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: from an affair that had embarrassed his mind, both as
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: a man of humanity and the commander of an army.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Congress immediately directed their captain Askill to be liberated from
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: imprisonment and left it his own option to choose his
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: future residence, on which he took leave of the Army
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and of America, and repaired to his friends in England.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: The reply of General Washington and the resolutions of Congress
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: relative to granting a passport to mister Morgan, secretary to
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: General Carleton, to call the Philadelphia, was not equally condescending.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: On his arrival at New York, Sir Guy Carleton had
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: requested that he might be promitmitted to send on some
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: letters of compliment to Congress. General Washington forward at the request,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: which drew out a resolve of Congress that the Commander
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: in Chief be hereby directed to refuse a compliance with
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the requests of General Carleton to grant a pass to
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: mister Morgan to bring dispatches to Philadelphia. It was also
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: resolved that no intercourse should be opened, or that any
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: of the subjects of Great Britain should be permitted to
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: pass or repass from the British to the American posts,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: while the provisional articles of peace were held in suspense.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: This was not only a judicious but a necessary precaution.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: In the Congress of the United States at this period,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: a small circumstance of intelligence or information might have given
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: a pretext to defeat a pending negotiation for peace. The
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: fleets and armies of Britain still kept their station in America,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: while the clashing interests of foreign nation with regard to
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: American claims were not yet adjusted, and while the loyalists
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: were clamorous and vindictive watching the opportunity of impeding the
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: present ventures, which, if ratified, must leave them in a
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: hopeless state of despondency. At the same time, it set
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: their countrymen on a point of elevation, contrary to their predictions,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: their wishes, and their interests, which had prompted them to opposition,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and for which they had hasted their ease, their lives,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: and the friendship and esteem of their former associates and friends.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: These people certainly had high claims of gratitude from the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: British government for their unshaken loyalty through the sharp conflict
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: that suffered the colonies from the Government of Britain and
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: themselves from their native country forever. End of Section twenty
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: four