The Yankee Tea-party; Or, Boston in 1773Watson, Henry C. (Henry Clay)
History
The Yankee Tea-party; Or, Boston in 1773
Watson, Henry C. (Henry Clay)
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Anecdotes
truer friends than themselves; and then seized the emissaries and their
papers and handed them over to Wayne and the mercy of a court-martial.
The men were tried as spies, found guilty and executed. A reward which
had been offered for their apprehension was tendered to the mutineers
who had seized them. But they refused it. One of them said that
necessity had wrung from them the act demanding justice from Congress,
but they wanted no reward for doing their duty to their bleeding
country. Congress appointed a commissioner to meet the mutineers at
Princeton, and soon after their demands were satisfied. A large part of
the Line was disbanded for the winter, and the remainder was well
supplied with provisions and clothing. About the middle of January, the
greater part of the New Jersey line, which was encamped near Pompton,
followed the example of the Pennsylvanians, and revolted; but different
measures were taken to quell them. General Washington ordered General
Robert Howe to march with five hundred men, and reduce the rebels to
submission. Howe marched four days through a deep snow, and reached the
encampment of the Jersey troops on the 27th of January. His men were
paraded in line, and he then ordered the mutineers to appear unarmed in
front of their huts, within five minutes. They hesitated, but on a
second order, they obeyed. Three of the chief movers in the revolt were
tried and sentenced to be shot. Two of them suffered, and the third was
pardoned as being less to blame. The two who were shot fell by the hands
of twelve of the most guilty of the mutineers. That, I think, was piling
it on rather too thick. General Howe then addressed them by platoons,
and ordered their officers to resume their commands. Clinton had again
sent an emissary to make offers to the mutineers; but the man heard of
the fate of the Tory and the British serjeant, and he took his papers to
General Howe instead of the men. These Jersey mutineers were reduced to
submission, without much difficulty. But the Pennsylvanians displayed a
determination to fight if their demands were not satisfied, and so they
gained their point."
"Perhaps," said Hand, "the Jersey troops had not as much reason to
revolt as the Pennsylvanians."
"I know they hadn't as much reason," said Kinnison. "They had suffered
as much for want of food and clothing, but their term of service was
more certainly known."
"How nobly the men treated the offers of Sir Henry Clinton!" said Hand.
"I should think the British government might have learned from that
affair, the spirit of the Americans, and the futility of efforts to
conquer men with such motives and sentiments."
"They might have learned it if they had wished to learn," said Pitts.
"They might have learned the same thing from the Boston tea-party. But
they determined that they had a right to act towards us just as they
pleased, and their pride was blind to consequences."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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