against all invasions whatsoever. This you will please to make known to my brethren in this county.
I am, gentlemen, with great respect, your humble servant, R. S. [H]
To the committee of observation for Kent county, on Delaware.
H[ezekiah] Niles, Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America (Baltimore, 1822), 260-261.
167. The Arrest of a Loyalist Parson (1776)BY REVEREND JONATHAN ODELL
Odell was a New Jersey man, of old New England stock, and was rector of Burlington. He escaped to New York, became chaplain of a loyalist regiment, and wrote many satirical poems against the Revolution. — Bibliography: Tyler, Literary History of the Revolution, II, ch. xxix. — See No. 1 66 above.
YOU may possibly have heard that I attempted to send a Letter to you above a twelve month since, and that my Letter being intercepted embarassed me not a little with Committees and Conventions, who were willing to find offence where none was intended. I told them and have had several occasions of telling them since, a very honest truth, that I did not mean to dissemble my sentiments concerning the measures of Congress, but that I had made it a Rule to myself from the beginning of our troubles, not to interfere directly or indirectly in Public Affairs, and tho' I neither could nor would make any sacrifice of my principles or duty, either as a Loyal Subject or a Minister of the Church of England, yet my political conduct should be inoffensive, if they would allow a passive conduct to be so, and in short that I presumed it reasonable in me to expect I should be indulged in the unmolested enjoyment of my private sentiments so long as I did not attempt to influence the sentiments or conduct of other men, and that private sentiments ought not to be made matter of public notice, much less of public censure. I concluded such a tenor of conduct in our situation was not only necessary but at the same time becoming the characters of Clergymen and especially of Missionaries and therefore would be approved of by the Society. But this specific system did not screen me in particular from much jealousy and misrepresentation.
A Parole was demanded of me, limiting me to within 8 miles of Burlington & binding me to forbear all political correspondence on the subject of the public dispute, not to furnish any provisions nor to give
