council, deliver or send to the secretary of the said council, all or any of the original accounts and estimates aforesaid, and shall also deliver or send to the said secretary, copies of the book aforesaid, or any part or parts thereof, upon reasonable notice. "And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all losses of negroes or mulatto slaves and servants who have been deluded, and carried away by the enemies of the United States, and which have not been recovered or recompensed, shall be comprehended within the accounts and estimates aforesaid, and that the commissioners and assessors of any county, which hath not been invaded as aforesaid, shall nevertheless inquire after and procure accounts and estimates of any damages suffered by the loss of such servants and slaves, as is herein before directed as to other property. "And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the charges and expenses of executing this act, as to the pay of the said commissioners and assessors, shall be, as in other cases, with the witnesses, rewarded for their loss of time and trouble, as witnesses summoned to appear in the courts of quarter sessions of the peace; and the said charges and expenses shall be defrayed by the commonwealth, but paid in the first instance out of the monies in the hands of the treasurer of the county for county rates, and levies, upon orders drawn by the commissioners of the proper county." We have not yet had time to hear what has been done by the other assemblies: but I have no doubt that similar acts will be made by all of them; and that the mass of evidence produced by the execution of those acts, not only of the enormities committed by those people under the direction of British generals, but of those committed by the British troops themselves, will form a record that must render the British name odious in America to the latest generations. In that authentic record will be found the burnings of the fine town of Charlestown, near Boston; of Falmouth just before winter, when the sick, VOL. II. Ꭱ the aged, the women, and children, were driven to seek shelter where they could hardly find it; of Norfolk in the midst of winter; of New London, of Fairfield, of Esopus, &c. &c.; besides near a hundred and fifty miles of unsettled country laid waste, every house and barn burnt, and many hundreds of farmers with their wives and children butchered and scalped. The present British ministers, when they reflect a little, will certainly be too equitable to suppose that their nation has a right to make an unjust war, (which they have always allowed this against us to be,) and to do all sorts of unnecessary mischief, unjustifiable by the practice of any civilised people, which those they make war with are to suffer, without claiming any satisfaction, but that if Britons or other adherents are in return deprived of any property, it is to be restored to them, or they are to be indemnified! The British troops can never excuse their barbarities. They were unprovoked. The loyalists may say in excuse of theirs, that they were exasperated by the loss of their estates, and it was revenge. They have then had their revenge. Is it right they should have both? Some of these people may have merit with regard to Britain; those who espoused her cause from affection, these it may become you to reward. But there are many of them who are waverers, and were only determined to engage in it by some occasional circumstances or appearances; these have not much of either merit or demerit; and there are others who have abundance of demerit respecting your country, having by their falsehoods and misrepresentations brought on and encouraged the continuance of the war. These, instead of being recompensed, should be punished. It is usual among Christian people at war to profess always a desire of peace; but if the ministers of one of the parties chose to insist particularly on a certain article which they know the others are not and cannot be empowered to agree to, what credit can they expect should be given to such professions? Your ministers require that we should receive again into our bosoms those who have been our bitterest enemies, and restore their properties who have destroyed ours; and this while the wounds they have just given us are still bleeding. It is many years since your nation expelled the Stuarts and their adherents, and confiscated their estates. Much of your resentment against them may by this time be abated; yet if we should insist on and propose it as an article of our treaty with you, that that family should be recalled, and the forfeited. estates of its friends restored, would you think us serious in our professions of earnestly desiring peace? I must repeat my opinion that it is best for you to drop all mention of the refugees. We have proposed indeed nothing but what we think best, both for you as well as ourselves. But if you will have them mentioned, let it be in an article which may provide that they shall exhibit accounts of their losses, to commissioners hereafter to be appointed, who shall examine the same, together with the accounts now preparing in America of the damages done by them, and state the account: and that if a balance appears in their favor it shall be paid by us to you, and by you divided among them as you shall think proper; and if the balance is found due to us, it shall be paid by you. Give me leave however to advise you to prevent the necessity of so dreadful a discussion, by dropping the article, that we may write to America, and stop the inquiry. I have the honor to be, &c. B. FRANKLIN. σε TO R. R. LIVINGSTON, ESQ. Passy, Dec. 5, 1782. You desire to be very particularly acquainted with every step which tends to a negotiation." I am therefore encouraged to send you the first part of the Journal, which accidents and a long severe illness interrupted; but which, from notes I have by me, may be continued if thought proper. In its present state, it is hardly fit for the inspection of Congress, certainly not for public view. I confide it therefore to your prudence. The arrival of Mr. Jay, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Laurens, relieved me from much anxiety, which must have continued, if I had been left to finish the treaty alone; and it has given me the more satisfaction, as I am sure the business has profited by their assist ance. Much of the summer had been taken up in objecting against the powers given to Great Britain, and in removing those objections, in using any expressions that might imply an acknowledgment of our independence, seemed at first industriously to be avowed. But our refusing otherwise to treat, at length induced them to get over that difficulty, and then we came to the point of making propositions. Those made by Mr. Jay and me before the arrival of the other gentlemen you will find in the enclosed paper, * See page 112 of this vol. No. I., which was sent by the British plenipotentiary to London for the king's consideration. After some weeks an under-secretary, Mr. Strachey, arrived; with whom we had much contestation about the boundaries and other articles which he proposed; we settled some, which he carried to London, and returned with the propositions; some adopted, others omitted or altered, and new ones added; which you will see in paper No. II. We spent many days in discussing and disputing, and at length agreed on and signed the PRELIMINARIES, which you will receive by this conveyance. The British ministers struggled hard for two points; that the favors granted to the royalists should be extended, and all our fishery contracted. We silenced them on the first, by threatening to produce an account of the mischief done by those people; and as to the second, when they told us that they could not possibly agree to it as we requested it, and must refer it to the ministry in London, we produced a new article to be referred at the same time, with a note of facts in support of it, both which you have, No. III. § Apparently it seemed that to avoid the discussion of this, they suddenly changed their minds, dropped the design of recurring to London, and agreed to allow the fishery as demanded. You will find in the preliminaries some inaccurate and ambiguous expressions that want explanation, and which may be explained in the definitive treaty; and as the British ministry excluded our proposition + This * See documents at the end of this dispatch. § See documents. |