CHAPTER XXVII — THE LOYALISTS
166. A Tory's Recantation (1775)
BY R. H. AND A COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE
This piece shows some of the processes applied to the refractory to make them adhere to the measures of the majority, and discloses one of the functions of the committees of correspondence. — Bibliography of the loyalists : Tyler, Literary History of the Revolution, I, chs. xiii-xvii, xxii; L. Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists, Introduction; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VII, 185-214; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 141.
I ACKNOWLEDGE to have wrote a piece, and did not sign it, since said to be an extract of a letter from Kent county, on Delaware, published in Humphreys' Ledger, No. 3. It was not dated from any place, and is some altered from the original. I folded it up and directed the same to J. F. and Sons. I had no intention to have it published ; and further, I let them know the author thought best it should not be published ; nor did I think they would. — I am sincerely sorry I ever wrote it, as also for its being published, and hope I shall be excused for this, my first breach in this way, and I intend it shall be the last.
R. H.
To the committee of correspondence for Kent county, on Delaware. May 2d, 1775.
Sir. — The president of the committee of correspondence, by and with the advice of such other of the members of that committee as he was able to collect and consult, this day laid before the committee of inspection for this county, your letter wherein you confess yourself to be the author of the Kentish letter (commonly so called) published in 3d No. of Humphreys' Ledger.
The committee took the same into consideration, and have unanimously resolved that it is unsatisfactory, and you are requested to attend the committee at their next meeting on Tuesday the 9th inst. at French Battell's, in Dover, and render such satisfaction to the committee, as
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