"If our allies had a superior fleet here, I should have no doubt of a favorable issue to the war: but, without it, I fear we are deceiving both them and ourselves, in expecting we shall be able to keep our people much longer firm, in so unequal an opposition to Great Britain. "France surely intends the separation of these states, forever, from Great Britain. It is highly her interest to accomplish this; but by drawing out the thread too fine and long, it may unexpectedly break in her hands. "God bless you, my dear child; and grant that we may again meet, in your native country, as freemen,—otherwise that we may never see each other more, is the prayer of Your affectionate father, them. Our militia turn out with great spirit, and have, in several late actions, behaved bravely; but they are badly armed and appointed. General Greene with about 1200 regular troops and some militia, is in South Carolina where he has taken all the enemy's posts, except Charleston. The enemy's capital object, at this time, seems to be Virginia. General Phillips died lately in Petersburg; upon which the command of the British troops then devolved upon Arnold. But lord Cornwallis, quitting North Carolina, has since joined Arnold, with about 1200 infantry and 300 cavalry, and taken the chief command of their army in Virginia, now consisting of about 5000 men. They have crossed James river, and by the latest accounts were at Westover; their light horse having advanced as far as Hanover court house. They have burnt Page's warehouses, where the greatest part of the GEORGE MASON TO HIS SON THEN IN FRANCE, York River tobacco was collected; they had before burned most of the tobacco upon James river, and have plundered great part of the "As to the money you have spent in Europe, adjacent country. The Marquis de la Fayette provided you can satisfy me that it has not is about twenty miles below Fredericksburg been spent in extravagance, dissipation or idle with about 1200 regulars and 3000 militia, wait-parade, I don't regard it. It is true, I have a ing the arrival of general Wayne, with about | large family to provide for; and that I am 1500 regular troops of the Pennsylvania line.. We have had various accounts of the sailing of a French fleet, with a body of land forces, for America; should they really arrive it would quickly change the face of our affairs, and infuse fresh spirits and confidence; but it has been so long expected in vain, that little credit is now given to reports concerning it. "You know, from your own acquaintance in this part of Virginia, that the bulk of the people here are staunch whigs; strongly attached to the American cause, and well affected to the French alliance; yet they grow uneasy and restless, and begin to think that our allies are spinning out the war, in order to weaken America, as well as Great Britain, and thereby leave us at the end of it, as dependent as possible upon themselves. "However unjust this opinion may be, it is natural enough for planters and farmers, burthened with heavy taxes, and frequently dragged from their families upon military duty on the continual alarms occasioned by the superiority of the British fleet. They see their property daily exposed to destruction, they see with what facility the British troops are removed from one part of the continent to another, and with what infinite charge and fatigue ours are, too late, obliged to follow: and they see too, very plainly, that a strong French fleet would have prevented all this. G. MASON." DATED JAN. 8, 1783. determined from motives of morality and duty to do justice to them all; it is certain also that I have not lost less than £10,000 sterling by the war, in the depreciation of paper money and the loss of the profits of my estate; but think this a cheap purchase of liberty and independence. I thank God, I have been able, by adopting principles of strict economy and frugality, to keep my principal, I mean my country estate, unimpaired, and I have suffered little by the depredations of the enemy. I have at this time, two years' rents (you know mine are all tobacco rents) in arrear and two crops uninspected; so that if a peace happens, it will find me plentiful handed in the article of tobacco, which will then be very valuable. The money it has cost you to relieve the distresses of your unfortunate countrymen was worthily expended, and you will receive retribution, with large interest, in heaven-but in order to shorten the time of credit and also to entitle myself to some proportion of the merit, I shall insist upon replacing to you every shilling of it here. I hope you will therefore keep an exact account of it. "I beg you will freely communicate to me the situation of your affairs; and if there should be a necessity of making you remittances, I will endeavor to do it at all events, though it must be by selling some of the produce of my estate at an undervalue. I am now pretty far advanced in life, and all my views are centred in the happiness and welfare of my children-you will therefore find from me every indulgence which you have a right to expect from an affectionate parent. I have been for some time in retirement and shall not probably return again to public life; my anxiety for my country, in these times of danger, makes me sometimes dabble a little in politics, and keep up a correspondence with some men upon the public stage. You know I am not apt to form opinions lightly and without due examination. And I can venture to say that the French court and nation, may confide in the honor and good faith of America. We reflect with gratitude on the important aids France has given us; but she must not, and I hope will not attempt to lead us into a war of ambition or conquest, or trail us around the mysterious circle of European politics. We have little news worth communicating-nothing of consequence has happened here this campaign; the enemy having generally kept close within their lines, and the American army not strong enough to force them. We have a long time expected the evacuation of Charlestown; the enemy have dismantled their out works and embarked their heavy artillery and some of their troops. However, by the last accounts (in December) they had still a garrison there. By late accounts from Kentucky, we are informed that general Clarke with 1200 volunteers had crossed the Ohio river and destroyed six of the Shawnese towns, destroying also about 2,000 barrels of their corn and bringing off furs and other plunder to the value of £3,000, which was sold and the money divided among his men; this will probably drive these savages near the Lakes or the Mississippi. Upon Clarke's return the Chickasaws sent deputies to him to treat for peace. Every thing was quiet in the new settlements, and upwards of 5,000 souls have been added to them since last September. The people there are extremely uneasy lest the free navigation of the river Mississippi to the sea should not be secured to them upon a treaty of peace; if it is not, it will occasion another war in less than seven years: the inhabitants think they have a natural right to the free, though not the exclusive navigation of that river; and in a few years they will be strong enough to enforce that right." GEORGE MASON TO A FRIEND. Extract of a letter from colonel George Mason, of Virginia (while serving in the general convention), to a friend in that state. PHILADELPHIA, June 1st, 1787. "The idea I formerly mentioned to you, before the convention met, of a great national council, consisting of two branches of the legislature, a judiciary and an executive, upon the principle of fair representation in the legislature, with powers adapted to the great objects of the union, and consequently a control in these instances, on the state legislatures, is still the prevalent one. Virginia has had the honor of presenting the outlines of the plan, upon which the convention is proceeding; but so slowly, that it is impossible to judge when the business will be finished; most probably not before August-festina lente may very well be called our motto. When I first came here, judging from casual conversations with gentlemen from the different states, I was very apprehensive that, soured and disgusted with the unexpected evils we had experienced from the democratic principles of our governments, we should be apt to run into the opposite extreme, and in endeavoring to steer too far from Scylla, we might be drawn into the vortex of Charybdis, of which I still think, there is some danger; though I have the pleasure to find in the convention, many men of fine republican principles. America has certainly, upon this occasion, drawn forth her first characters; there are upon this convention many gentlemen of the most respectable abilities; and, so far as I can yet discover, of the purest intentions; the eyes of the United States are turned upon this assembly, and their expectations raised to a very anxious degree. May God grant, we may be able to gratify them by establishing a wise and just government. For my own part, I never before felt myself in such a situation; and declare, I would not, upon pecuniary motives, serve in this convention for a thousand pounds per day. The revolt from Great Britain, and the formations of our new governments at that time, were nothing compared with the great business now before us; there was then a certain degree of enthusiasm, which inspired and supported the mind; but to view, through the calm sedate medium of reason, the influence which the establishments now proposed may have upon the happiness or misery of millions yet unborn, is an object of such magnitude, as absorbs, and in a manner suspends the operations of the human understanding." "P. S. All communications of the proceedings are forbidden during the sitting of the convention; this I think was a necessary precaution to prevent misrepresentations or mistakes; there being a material difference between the appearance of a subject in its first crude and indigested shape, and after it shall have been properly matured and arranged." AN EXTRACT FROM THE LAST WILL AND "In the centre of the hall, at a little table, sat the commissary general Clarke, the indefatigable scourge of these very marauders, general Richard Butler, and the hon. Mr. Parsons-there was present, also, a captain Denfry, who I believe is still alive, and can attest this story. On the part of the Indians an old council sachem and a warrior chief took the lead: the latter, a tall, raw boned fellow with an impudent and villainous look, made a boisterous and threatening speech, which operated Testament of Colonel George MASON, effectually on the passions of the Indians, who OF VIRGINIA. "I recommend it to my sons, from my own experience in life, to prefer the happiness of independence and a private station to the troubles and vexation of public business: but if either their own inclinations or the necessity of the times should engage them in public affairs, I charge them on a father's blessing, never to let the motives of private interest or ambition induce them to betray, nor the terrors of poverty and disgrace, or the fear of danger or of death, deter them from asserting the liberty of their country, and endeavoring to transmit to their posterity those sacred rights to which themselves were born." GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE, COMMANDER OF THE WESTERN DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA. INTERESTING NO TICE OF HIM. set up a prodigious whoop at every pause. He concluded by presenting a black and white wampum, to signify they were prepared for either event, peace or war. Clarke exhibited the same unaltered and careless countenance he had shown during the whole scene, his head leaning on his left hand and his elbow resting on the table: he raised his little cane and pushed the sacred wampum off the table, with very little ceremony-every Indian at the same moment started from his seat with one of those sudden, simultaneous and peculiarly savage sounds which startle and disconcert the stoutest heart, and can neither be described nor forgotten. Parsons, more civil than military in his habits, was poorly fitted for an emergency that probably embarrassed even the hero of Saratoga-the brother and father of soldiers. At this juncture Clarke rose-the scrutinizing eye cowered at his glance; he stamped his foot on the prostrate and insulted symbol, and ordered them to leave the hall-they did so apparently involuntarily. They were heard all that night debating in the bushes near the fort. The raw-boned chief was for war, the old sachem for peace: the latter prevailed, and next morning they came back and sued for peace." [While his countrymen on the sea-board were contending with the British regulars, col. George Rogers Clarke was the efficient protector of the people of the frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania from the inroads of the savage allies of the "defender of the faith." The history of his exploits would fill a volume -and for hair-breadth 'scapes and hardy enterprise, would hardly have a parallel. The character of this veteran is well developed in the following extract, recently published in the A GALLANT SOLDIER OF VIRGINIA, WHO (Philadelphia) "National Gazette," from "the note of an old officer."] "The Indians came into the treaty at Fort Washington in the most friendly manner, except the Shawnees-the most conceited and most warlike of the aborigines; the first in at a battle-the last at a treaty. Three hundred of their finest warriors, set off in all their paint and feathers, filed into the council house. Their number and demeanor, so unusual at an occasion of this sort, was altogether unexpected and suspicious. The United States stockade mustered seventy men. JOHN CHAMPE, ATTEMPTED THE SEIZURE OF THE TRAITOR [Some person in a late Compiler having asked, with at least the semblance of sincerity, whether Slaughter or Champe was sent to arrest the traitor Arnold? I beg leave to inform him, upon the testimony of Henry Lee, that Champe was the distinguished soldier selected for this highly honorable, and most confidential business, by major Lee, at the charmed with his expeditious consummation of the first part of his enterprise, retired to rest. Useless attempt! The past scene could not be obliterated; and, indeed, had that been practicable, the interruption which ensued would have stopped repose. request of General Washington. Lee, in his | and taking his cloak, valise, and orderly book, memoirs of the war in the southern states, he drew his horse from the picket, and mountthus describes the hero, and his adventure:-]ing him, put himself upon fortune. Lee, "He was a native of Loudon county, in Virginia, about twenty-three or twenty-four years of age; that he had enlisted in '76-rather above the common size-full of bone and muscle; with a saturnine countenance; grave, thoughtful and taciturn-of tried courage and inflexible perseverance, and as likely to reject an offer coupled with ignominy, as any officer in the corps; a commission being the goal of his long and anxious exertions, and certain on the first vacancy." [It will be proper here to premise, that although Champe was young, ardent, and devoted to his country's cause, and thirsting for military fame; yet his noble and magnanimous soul revolted at the idea of doing any thing underhanded, or that had even the shadow of a deviation from the paths of chivalry, and the high notions of honor which glowed in every American bosom.-At last, however, Champe, convinced that no action stamped with the approbation of the commander-in-chief, could be other than laudable and worthy of a soldier's best exertions, engaged in the enterprise with alacrity and zeal; and after all the plans of Washington were fully explained to him by Major Lee, it was determined, to give a greater chance of success, that Champe should enter the enemy's lines as a deserter! and accordingly he did desert.]—"Evidently discernible as were the difficulties in the way, no relief could be administered by major Lee, lest it might induce a belief that he was privy to the desertion, which opinion getting to the énemy, would involve the life of Champe. The sergeant was left to his own resources and to his own management, with the declared determination that, in case his departure should be discovered before morning, Lee would take care to delay pursuit as long as was practicable. "Giving to the sergeant three guineas, and presenting his best wishes, he recommended him to start without delay, and enjoined him to communicate his arrival in New-York as soon thereafter as might be practicable. Champe pulling out his watch, compared it with the major's, reminding the latter of the importance of holding back pursuit, which he was convinced would take place during the night, and which might be fatal, as he knew that he should be obliged to zig-zag in order to avoid the patroles, which would consume time. It was now eleven o'clock: He returned to camp,* * From Lee's marque, where they had been consulting on the best plan of the proposed desertion. 'Within half an hour, Captain Carnes, officer of the day, waited upon the major, and, with considerable emotion, told him that one of the patrole had fallen in with a dragoon, who, being challenged, put spur to his horse and escaped, though instantly pursued. Lee, complaining of the interruption, and pretending to be extremely fatigued by his ride to and from head-quarters, answered as if he did not understand what had been said, which compelled the captain to repeat it. Who can the fellow that was pursued be? enquired the major; adding, a countryman, probably. No, replied the captain, the patrole sufficiently distinguished him to know that he was a dragoon; probably one from the army, if not certainly of our own. This idea was ridiculed from its improbability, as during the whole war but a single dragoon had deserted from the legion. This did not convince Carnes, so much stress was it now the fashion to lay on the desertion of Arnold, and the probable effect of his example. The captain withdrew to examine the squadron of horse, whom he had ordered to assemble in pursuance of established usage on such occasions. Very quickly he returned, stating that the scoundrel * was known, and no other person than the sergeant major, who had gone off with his horse, baggage, and orderly book-so presumed, as neither the one nor the other could be found. Sensibly affected at the supposed baseness of a soldier extremely respected, the captain added that he had ordered a party to make ready for pursuit, and begged the major's written orders. "Some little delay was thus interposed, but | the party, (whose object he was no stranger to,) it being now announced that the pursuing party was ready, major Lee directed a change in the officer, saying that he had a particular service in view, which he had determined to entrust to the lieut. ready for duty, and which probably must be performed in the morning. He therefore directed him to summon cornet Middleton for the present command. Lee was induced thus to act, first to add to the delay, and next from his knowledge of the tenderness of Middleton's disposition, which he hoped would lead to the protection of Champe, should he be taken. Within ten minutes Middleton appeared to receive orders, which were delivered to him made out in the customary form, and signed by the major. 'Pursue so far as you can with safety, sergeant Champe, who is suspected of deserting to the enemy, and has taken the road leading to Pauler's Hook. Bring him alive that he may suffer in the presence of the army; but kill him if he resists or escapes after being taken.' "Detaining the cornet a few minutes longer in advising him what course to pursue, urging him to take care of the horse and accoutrements, if recovered—and enjoining him to be on his guard, lest he might, by his eager pursuit, improvidently fall into the hands of the enemy, the major dismissed Middleton, wishing him success. A shower of rain fell soon after Champe's departure, which enabled the pursuing dragoons to take the trail of his horse; knowing, as officer and trooper did, the make of their shoes, whose impression was an unerring guide. "When Middleton departed, it was a few minutes past twelve; so that Champe had only the start of rather more than an hour-by no means as long as was desired. Lee became very unhappy, not only because the estimable and gallant Champe might be injured, but lest the enterprise might be delayed; and he spent a sleepless night. The pursuing party during the night, was, on their part, delayed by the necessary halts to examine the road, as the impression of the horse's shoes directed their course; this was unfortunately too evident, no other horse having passed along the road since the shower. When the day broke, Middleton was no longer found to halt, and he pressed on with rapidity. Ascending an eminence before he reached the three Pidgeons, some miles on the north of the village of Bergen, (Jersey) as the pursuing party reached its summit, Champe was discovered not more than half a mile in front, resembling an Indian in his vigilance. The sergeant at the same moment discovered and giving spur to the horse, he determined to outstrip his pursuers. Middleton, at the same instant put his horses to the top of their speed; and being (as the legion all were) well acquainted with the country, he recollected a short route through the woods to the bridge below Bergen, which diverged from the great road just after you gain the three Pidgeons.-Reaching the point of separation he halted, and dividing his party, directed a sergeant with a few dragoons to take the near cut, and possess, with all possible despatch the bridge, while he with the residue followed Champe; not doubting but that Champe must deliver himself up, as he would be closed between himself and his sergeant. Champe did not forget the short cut, and would have taken it himself, but he knew it was the usual route of our parties when returning in the way from the neighborhood of the enemy, properly preferring the woods to the road. He consequently avoided it, and persuaded that Middleton would avail himself of it, wisely resolved to relinquish his intention of getting to Pauler's Hook, and to seek refuge from two British galleys, lying a few miles to the west of Bergen. "This was a station always occupied by one or more galleys, and which it was known now lay there. Entering the village of Bergen, Champe turned to his right, and disguised his change of course as much as he could by taking the beaten streets, turning as they turned; he passed through the village and took the road towards Elizabeth town Point. Middleton's sergeant gained the bridge, when he conceived himself ready to pounce upon Champe when he came up; and Middleton pursuing his course through Bergen, soon got also to the bridge, when to his extreme mortification he found that the sergeant had slipped through his fingers. Returning up the road, he enquired of the villagers of Bergen, whether a dragoon had been seen that morning preceding his party? He was answered in the affirmative, but could learn nothing satisfactory as to the route he took. While engaged in enquiries himself, he spread his party through the village to take the trail of Champe's horse, a resort always recurred to. Some of his dragoons hit it just as the sergeant, leaving the village, got in the road leading to the Point. Pursuit was renewed with vigor, and again Champe was discovered. He, apprehending the event, had prepared himself for it, by lashing his valise, (containing his clothes and orderly book) on his shoulders, and holding a drawn sword in his hand, having thrown away its scabbard. |