protect, rendered it absolutely necessary to interpose some check, and to convince those of illiberal disposition, that menaces might draw after them some what more than disregard; yet I must say that, the circumstances of the times considered, there are fewer instances of this sort than might have been expected. Hitherto I have not relaxed an hour in those measures, which appeared most likely to accelerate the evacuation of this place, and of convincing those, whose minds are open to conviction, that real conciliation was the great object of my wish. With respect to the rents of houses which, your Excellency remarks, are not paid over to the owners without the lines, it may be proper to observe, that rents, on both sides, are, by the peace, as it should appear, become a matter of account; confiscations, as well of personal as real property, have, by each party been made, and will, I trust, by each, be finally renounced; your renunciations indeed will be much the more valuable, but will yet bear no proportion to those boundless concessions we have made; many are the considerations which ought on both sides to produce reconciliation and friendship; many are the considerations, besides those arising out of compact, which ought, on your side, to induce so conciliatory an act; but there are some, Sir, of indelible obligation which should spontaneously arise, and which I trust will universally prevail. As to that part of your letter which respects the relinquishment of a certain part of the territory of the State of New York, at present included within our lines, and which your Excellency thinks may be done upon certain accommodations; I admit that so large a part of the State cannot be withheld for an hour without inconvenience, but it is an evil which I know not how to remedy without incurring greater evils, and of this I am by daily experience more and more convinced. I wish that all the blessings of peace could, on all sides, be possessed in a day, but there must be some mutual inconveniences and some unavoidable delay, and whilst all the advantages you are to receive are in hasty preparation to be delivered up, a due and patient regard should, on your side be had, to the convenience and security of those from whom they are to be received; more than this I do not look for, and this I am undoubtedly entitled to expect, nor have I any propositions to make on this subject, not being aware of any proportional good to be obtained by subjecting those I command, or those I protect to unnecessary ill; and it is on this ground I have expected, that, if any propositions are to pass on this point, they are to come from your Excellency. I have received the information you have been pleased to give me, concerning the measures taking in West Chester, with great satisfaction. I shall, therefore, hope that all such barbarities are at an end, as have been committed, not by a few banditti or obscure persons, availing themselves of the absence of justice, but by fifty armed men, ordered out and led by Captain Isaac Honeywell, Junr., a person dignified by places of confidence. It has been said he acted agreeable to instructions, and that since these enormities he has received, not marks of disapprobation, but of favor of his exploits on that expedition your Excellency may be more particularly informed by the depositions delivered to Chief Justice Morris on the 1st instant by Captn. Bibby, Dep'y Adjutant General. I have also attestations of great violence committed on men under my protection, who, on the faith of the late treaty, have passed into the different States, but I have considered these acts as the effects of interested rage in individuals only, and I daily expect that the governing powers of these States will effectually interpose. I enclose the copy of a deposition of William Hunt, which I think deserving of your Excellency's attention. I do not wish to press considerations, which I am sure your own good sense and liberal principles will very amply supply. I am, Sir, Your Excellency's Most obedient and most humble Servant, His Excellency Governor Clinton Guy Carleton. [No. 5101.] President Boudinot Forwards the Heath-Washington Correspondence to Several States as an Object Lesson. Circular Philadelphia, 20 June, 1783. Sir, I am honored with the commands of Congress to enclose to your Excellency copies of two letters from the Commander in Chief, and of an address to him from the officers of the Northern Army. * The design of Congress in this measure is to call the attention of your Legislature to the Resolution of Congress of the 2d of May last, as a subject of great and important consequence to our brave and worthy Fellow Citizens, who have suffered so much and so patiently for the common Good of our Country, during seven or eight tedious and dangerous campaigns. Their sufferings deserve the careful attention of the States, who, I doubt not, will rejoice in an opportunity of rewarding their Toils by a strict fulfilment of all the public engagements. I have the honor to be, with great respect, Sir, Your Excellency's Most obedient & very humb. Serv't. See Document 5082-page 196.-STATE HISTORIAN. Elias Boudinot. MANUSCRIPT VOL. [No. 5112.] Governor Clinton Further Expostulates with Sir Guy Carleton for His Obstructive Tactics, Especially Regarding the Public Records of the State. Poughkeepsie, 1st July, 1783 Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the Receit of your Excellency's Letter of the 18th Ulto. It arrived in my absence from home which must be my Apology for not answering it sooner. For Reasons assigned in my Letter of the 23rd of May, as your Excellency has not thought proper to propose any Time on which you would be willing to contract the Limits of your present military Controul-I shall forbear to enter in a farther Discussion of that Subject, and confine myself to such of your Excellency's Communications as relate to the renting out the Houses belonging to Persons who had abandoned their Estates and to Disorders said to have been committed in Westchester County by some of the Inhabitants of this State. Your Excellency must be sensible that the Articles of Peace are the only Criterion by which we are to determine the Propriety of Measures on either Side, and I flatter myself, that if the Reasons assigned by your Excellency for retaining and renting out the Houses in Question are brought to this Test and candidly reviewed, they will be discovered to be unavailing. The Articles are explicit that the British Troops are to be withdrawn from the Country with all convenient Speed, and neither ex pressly nor by Implication is there a Right reserved to the British Commander in Chief, for the Exercise of any Authority or for any Measures not necessary for the Convenience and Security of his Troops and I cannot view as requisite to either of these Purposes, the withholding of the Houses or the Receit and Appropriation of the Rents on the Part of your Excellency. On this Principle also I must beg Leave to contest a Sentiment in your Excellency's Letter intimating that you was obliged to introduce a Check to the Menaces and Insults of some of the Claimants for Houses in order to protect those whom you not only esteem for their personal Worth, but whom you found yourself obliged to protect. I presume, Sir, that whatever Protection these Persons are entitled to they derive from the Treaty, and to grant them any other Kind of Protection would be a Substitution of Force in the Stead of Compact and would tend to destroy a Spirit of Harmony and Conciliation which must cease in some Degree whenever a Want of mutual Confidence is discovered to have taken Place. Your Excellency observes that Rents on both Sides are by the Peace become a Matter of Account; that Confiscations as well of personal as real Property have by each Party been made and will be finally renounc'd. On the most attentive Perusal of the Articles of Peace, I cannot find a Provision for Matters of Account, nor have I ever before heard that Great Britain had confiscated any of the Property of the Subjects of the United States except Captives at Sea, and it does not appear from the Treaty that they are to be restored. I cannot see, therefore, how the Reasoning contained in these Observations of your Excellency will justify the withholding the Rents of the Houses from the Proprietors residing without the British Lines. If the Rents in |