among you, is highly commendable, and justified by every principle of equity and policy. The necessity of exem plary punishment throughout the States, is become evident beyond a doubt, and it were to be wished every one of the thirteen would imitate the judicious conduct of New York. Lenity and forbearance have been tried too long to no purpose; it is high time to discard what the clearest experience has shown to be ineffectual.

“But in dispensing punishment, the utmost care and caution ought to be used. The power of doing it, or even of bringing the guilty to trial, should be placed in hands that know well how to use it. I believe it would be a prudent rule to meddle with none but those whose crimes are supported by very sufficient evidence, and are of a pretty deep dye. The apprehending innocent persons, or those whose offences are of so slender a nature as to make it prudent to dismiss them, furnishes an occasion of triumph, and a foundation for a species of animadversion which is very injurious to the public cause. Persons so apprehended generally return home worse than they were, and by expatiating on their sufferings, first excite the pity towards themselves and afterwards the abhorrence towards their persecutors, of those with whom they converse. I believe it would also be, in general, a good rule, either to pardon offenders entirely, or to inflict capital and severe punishments. The advice given by a certain general to his son, when the latter had the Roman army in his power, was certainly very politic; he advised him either to destroy them utterly, or to dismiss them with every mark of honor and respect. By the first method, says he, you disable the Romans from being your enemics; by the last, you make them your friends. So with respect to the tories; I would either disable them from doing us any injury, or I would endeavor to gain

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their friendship by clemency. Inflicting trifling punishments only embitters the minds of those on whom they fall, and increases their disposition to do mischief without taking away the power of doing it.

"I shall communicate your additional resolve to the general, and consult him on what you mention, and shall let you know his opinion in my next; mine, however, is, that those who appear to be of such a character as to be susceptible of reformation, should be employed; but it is a delicate point.

"As to news, the most material is, that from intelligence received from Rhode Island, it appears the enemy are abandoning it. This is a preparatory step to the intended operations of the enemy.

"In a private letter from Philadelphia, I am informed that a treaty of a very particular nature is on the point of being concluded between the court of France and the States of America. There is a prospect of opening a trade with Sweden."

The same spirit is seen in a letter written by Hamilton to Governor Livingston :

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"A number of disaffected persons having been taken up and brought to his Excellency, he has ordered an examination into their cases to know who of them were subject to a military jurisdiction, and who came properly under the cognizance of the civil power; also to discriminate those who were innocent or guilty of trivial offences from those whose crimes were of a more capital and heinous nature, directing that those of the former character should be dismissed, and those of the latter referred to you for further trial and punishment. The examination, at which I was present, has been accordingly made, and the enclosed list of names will inform you of those who have been deemed proper subjects for a legal prose

cution; and who are herewith sent under guard to be disposed of as you shall direct. I have transmitted you a bundle of papers, in which you will find the information and evidence that support the charges against them, and the confession they made in the court of inquiry. Many of them have nothing against them but what is to be found in their own acknowledgments. How far these may operate in fixing their guilt you can best determine. Several of them have been taken in arms, and others were beyond a doubt employed in enlisting men for the service of the enemy. You will readily concur with his Excellency in the obvious necessity of inflicting exemplary punishment on such daring offenders, to repress that insolent spirit of open and avowed enmity to the American cause, which, unhappily, is too prevalent in this and some of the States."

“The examination," he also writes, " in this instance is somewhat irregular and out of the common order of things. But in the present unsettled state of government, the distinction between the civil and military powers cannot be upheld with that exactness which every friend to society must wish. His Excellency desires to avoid nothing more, I flatter myself you will believe me, than deviations from the strict rules of propriety in this respect, or the least encroachments either upon the rights of the citizen or of the magistrate. It was necessary to make inquiry for the sake of the discrimination before mentioned, and tenderness to the innocent to save them from long and unmerited confinement, commended the measure."

A few days after, he again wrote: "A spirit of disaffection shows itself with so much boldness and violence in different parts of this State, that it is the ardent wish of his Excellency, no delay which can be avoided might

be used in making examples of some most atrocious offenders. If something be not speedily done, to strike a terror into the disaffected, the consequences must be very disagreeable. Among others, all security to the friends of the American cause will be destroyed; and the natural effect of this will be an extinction of zeal in seconding and promoting it. Their attachment, if it remain, will be a dead, inactive, useless principle. And the disaffected, emboldened by impunity, will be encouraged to proceed to the most dangerous and pernicious lengths." Soon after he wrote in behalf of Washington to Congress: "In this State" (New Jersey), "I have strong assurance that the spirit of disaffection has risen to a great height; and I shall not be disappointed, if a large number of the inhabitants in some of the counties should openly appear in arms, as soon as the enemy begin their operations. I have taken every measure in my power to suppress it, but nevertheless, several from Jersey and Bergen have joined their army, and the spirit becomes more and more daring every day." The correspondence as to the exchange of prisoners having been resumed by General Howe, his letter was enclosed to Congress, with a comment in behalf of Washington by Hamilton.

"As General Howe has called upon me again for my final decision upon the subject, and Congress are fully possessed of it, having received transcripts of every paper respecting it, I wish them to take the matter under their earliest consideration, and to inform me as soon as they can, whether the grounds on which it has been conducted by me, are agreeable to their ideas, and whether my objections are or are not to be departed from. The dispute, so far as General Lee is concerned, rests at present on their declaring him exchangeable, as other prisoners are, on the principle of equality of rank, to ensure

which, or his safety, Lieutenant-colonel Campbell and the Hessian field officers are detained. The other objection to returning their prisoners is, that a great proportion of those sent out by them were not fit subjects of exchange when released, and were made so by the severity of their treatment and confinement, and, therefore, a deduction should be made from the list.

"Good faith seems to require that we should return as many of theirs, at least, as we received effectives from them; I mean such as could be considered capable of being exchanged; and perhaps sound policy, that the agreement subsisting for exchanges would continue. On the other hand, it may be said, that our prisoners, in general, in the enemy's hands at present, will have greater security by our retaining them, and that General Howe will be less apt to relinquish any part of his claim the more the number in our hands is diminished by an exchange.

"I confess I am under great difficulty in this business. But what is more particularly the cause of this application, is the latter part of the first paragraph of the enclosed copy: 'and for your determination respecting the prisoners now here, that I may make my arrangements accordingly.' This is couched in terms of great ambiguity; and I am really at a loss what interpretation to give it; whether he intends that his conduct respecting them shall be as I advise (this appears more favorable than can well be expected), or that, if the previous demand is not answered in a satisfactory manner, he shall consider them on a different footing from that on which our former prisoners were, and the agreement totally dissolved. We are told Government offered the prisoners they took to the India Company, and they have procured an act dispensing with that of the habeas corpus in particular cases of per