General Burgoyne in his letter to General Gates, complaining of the unsuitable accommodations provided for his officers, had unfortunately added these words: the publick faith is broken." This it was, that gave the alarm to Congress. They knew, that the British Generals had more than once asserted, that no faith ought to be kept with rebels, and they were fearful that this previous intimation on the part of Burgoyne, would be made a pretext for his joining some of the British garrisons in America, instead of going to England with his troops, if permitted to embark. It was in vain that General Burgoyne explain ed the meaning of this objectionable passage of his letter it was in vain he offered for himself and all his officers to sign any obligation which might be dictated to him, to abide by the terms of the convention. Congress were inflexible in their determination to detain the troops until the Court of Great Britain should ratify the convention. They alleged in justification of their conduct, that a compact broken in one article was no longer binding in any; and that they had a right by the laws of nations to suspend the execution, where they had reason to suspect an intention to violate it. These might be legal excuses, but we dare not approve them as honourable to Congress. They are justly chargeable with bad faith towards Burgoyne in the first instance: the subsequent long detention of his army must be chargeable to his own Government; for had they been disposed to treat their fallen general with the respect due to his valour, or the delicacy due to his misfortunes, the convention might have been fulfilled in all its parts in the course of a few weeks; whereas, as we shall hereafter see, his troops remained prisoners for more than twelve months.

The treatment of prisoners of war is generally, in all wars, and among all nations, a subject of much discussion and of mutual complaint and recrimination. Nothing like a regular and satisfactory cartel for the exchange of prisoners had yet been established between the two adverse Commanders in Chief; and letters were continually passing from one to the other on the subject of their treatment. In some of these Sir William Howe accused Washington of unjustifiably loading the royal prisoners with irons, a charge without the least shadow of foundation, and to which the indignant chief thus replied, in a letter of the 14th of November." If there is a single instance of a prisoner of war being in irons, I am ignorant of it; nor can I find, on the most minute inquiry, that there is the least foundation for the charge. I wish you to particularize the cases you allude to, that relief may be had, if the complaints are well founded.-Now we are upon the subject of grievances, I am constrained to observe that I have a variety of accounts, not only from prisoners who have made their escape, but from persons who have left Philadelphia, that our private soldiers in your hands, are treated in a manner shocking to humanity; and that many of them must have perished through hunger, had it not been for the charitable contributions of the inhabitants. It is added in aggravation, that this treatment is to oblige them to enlist in the corps you are raising. 1 must also remonstrate against the cruel treatment and confinement of our officers. This I am informed is not only the case of those in Philadelphia, but of many in New York. Many of the cruelties exercised towards the prisoners are said to proceed from the inhumanity of Mr. Cunningham, Provost Marshall, without your

knowledge or approbation. I transmit the depositions of two persons of reputation who are come from Philadelphia, respecting the treatment they received. I will not comment on the subject: it is too painful."

In reply to Washington's wish to have the cases particularized, in which the royal prisoners had been ironed, Sir William mentioned Major Stockdon of the New Jersey Volunteers, and a Captain of the same regiment, who had been captured at Princeton, and hand cuffed.

Washington admitted that this was true, but declared that it was without his privity or consent, and that relief had been ordered as soon as he was apprised of it: "But surely this event, (said he,) which happened so long ago, will not authorise the charges in your letter of the 6th."

The American officers, prisoners at New York, had been at first quartered upon the inhabitants on Long Island; and upon the promise of the Commissary General of Prisoners, to pay two dollars a week for their board, had lived in tolerable comfort. But upon the failure of the Commissary's resources, they had been removed on board the prison ships, where in common with the privates, they suffered every species of privation, for a period of several months, until on the 10th of December they were again removed to Long Island, upon the engagement of Mr. Lewis Pintard, agent of the Commissary General, to pay for them at the rate of two silver dollars per week. In his letter to Mr. Boudinot, the Commissary, he observed that the convalescents had nothing but salt meat given to them on leaving the hospitals, that the consequence was they relapsed almost immediately, and were dying very fast. Mr. Boudinot was called before the board of war on the 21st December, and from the evi20

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dences produced by him, it appeared that there were 900 privates and 300 officers prisoners in New York, and about 500 privates and 50 officers in Philadelphia-"That the privates in New York have been crowded all summer in sugar houses, and the officers boarded on Long Island, except about 30, who have been confined in the provost guard, and in the most loathsome jails. That since the beginning of October, all these prisoners, both officers and privates, have been confined in prison ships, or the provost.That the privates in Philadelphia have been kept in two publick jails, and the officers in the state house. That from the best evidence which the nature of the subject will admit of, the general allowance to prisoners, at most, does not exceed four ounces of meat, and as much bread per day, (often so much damaged as not to be eatable,) and often much less, though the professed allowance is from eight to ten ounces. That it has been a common practice with the enemy, on a prisoner's being first captured, to keep him three, four, or even five days, without a morsel of provisions of any kind, and then to tempt him to enlist, to save his life. That there are numerous instances of prisoners of war perishing in all the agonies of hunger, from their severe treatment. That being generally stripped of what clothes they have when taken, they have suffered greatly for the want thereof during their confinement."

Such was the report of five of our most respectable officers, founded upon the best evidence of which the nature of the subject would admit. What American is there who can hear these sufferings of our Revolutionary soldiers recited, and not feel his resolution new strengthened to cherish the independence pur

chased at such a price? We desire not to rekindle the extinguished flame of hatred, or open anew the cicatrised wounds of either country. Would to Heaven rather, we could bury these scenes in eternal oblivion; but the exactions of duty forbid us to suppress the record, and truth compels us, while we make it, to cry shame upon the British name. The Congress had some reason to fear that British Generals would hold no faith with rebels, when such was the treatment dealt out to those whom the fortune of war placed in their power. But the treatment which the friends of liberty and the heroes of our independence suffered from the European royalists, was mildness, compared to that which they often experienced at the hands of their own countrymen who had adhered to the cause of British tyranny.

A short time after the return of the devastating expedition of Sir Henry Clinton up the Hudson, during which his officers boasted that they had not left a house standing on its banks, General Tryon, the former Governour of New York, sent a Captain Emmerick, with a hundred men, on a similar expedition to Philip's Manor, within a few miles of General Parsons' guards. After burning several houses, they seized upon the women and children, stripped off their clothing and turned them naked into the streets, in the cold weather of the 18th of November-the men were stripped to their shirts and breeches, haltered, and thus led in triumph to the British lines!-General Parsons, whose soul revolted at such acts of wanton barbarity, though it was in his power to have retaliated upon several tory families in the vicinity of his guard, contented himself with writing a calm, expostulatory letter to General Tryon, in which he painted the