take to decide," says an able historian, "whether the fears manifested by Congress had a real foundation, and we shall abstain as well from blaming the imprudence of Burgoyne, as from praising the wisdom, or condemning the distrust of Congress. It is but too certain, that in these civil dissensions and animosities, appearances become realities and probabilities demonstration. Accordingly, at that time, the Americans complained bitterly of British perfidy, and the English of American want of faith."
| APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III. |
I.—BURGOYNE'S PROCLAMATION.
By John Burgoyne, Esq., lieutenant-general of his majesty's armies in America, colonel of the queen's regiment of light dragoons, governor of Fort William, in North Britain, one of the representatives of the Commons of Great Britain, and commanding an army and fleet employed on an expedition from Canada, etc., etc.
The forces entrusted to my command, are designed to act in concert, and upon a common principle, with the numerous armies and fleets which already display in every quarter of America, the power, the justice, and, when properly sought, the mercy of the king.
The cause in which the British arms is thus exerted, applies to the most affecting interests of the human heart; and the military servants of the crown, at first called forth for the sole purpose of restoring the rights of the Constitution, now combine with love of their country, and duty to their sovereign, the other extensive incitements, which form a due sense of the general privileges of mankind. To the eyes and ears of the temperate part of the public, and the breasts of suffering thousands, in the provinces, be the melancholy appeal, whether the present unnatural rebellion has not been made a foundation for the completest system of tyranny that ever God, in his displeasure, suffered for a time to be exercised over a froward and stubborn generation.
Arbitrary imprisonment, confiscation of property, persecution, and torture, unprecedented in the' inquisition of the Romish church, are among the palpable enormities that verify the affirmative. These are inflicted, by assemblies and committees, who dare to profess themselves friends to liberty, upon the most quiet subjects, without distinction of age or sex. for the sole crime, often for the sole suspicion, of having adhered in principle to the government under which they wore born, and to which, by every tie, divine and human,
pp. 230-32. An English writer, speaking of this matter, uses the following language: "The troops were long detained in Massachusetts; they were afterwards gent to the hack parts of Virginia, and none of them were released but by exchange. It was obviously the aim of Congress to keep five thousand men out of the field; but the means which they employed for the accomplishment of their purpose were dishonorable, and they lost more in character than they gained in strength. Honesty is the best policy for nations, as well as for individuals: but the conduct of the Americans in the matter under consideration, had more of the trick and artifice of low traffickers, than of the fearless integrity becoming the rulers of a powerful people. Some of the allegations by which they attempted to justify themselves were false, and some frivolous. They affected to distrust British faith and honor; but it is easy for a man at any time to accuse his neighbor of bad intentions, if that were to be sustained as a valid plea for his own dishonesty."
