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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: War and Peace
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO LORD HOWE. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. V (1776-1777) [1890]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. V (1776-1777).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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TO LORD HOWE.

My Lord,

I am sorry that I am under the disagreeable necessity of troubling your Lordship with a letter, almost wholly on the subject of the cruel treatment, which our officers and men, in the naval department, who are unhappy enough to fall into your hands, receive on board the prison-ships in the harbour of New York. Without descending to particulars, I shall ground my complaint upon the matter contained in the enclosed paper, which is an exact copy of an account of the usage of the prisoners, delivered to Congress by a Captain Gamble, lately a prisoner himself in New York. If this account be true, of which I have no reason to doubt, as Captain Gamble is said to be a man of veracity, I call upon your Lordship to say, whether any treatment of your officers and seamen has merited so severe a retaliation. I am bold to say, it has not. So far from it, that the officers and seamen, taken on board armed ships, have been treated with the greatest humanity, and not forced to enter on board any of our public or private vessels of war; and those, taken in the merchant service, have been immediately set at liberty.

From the opinion I have ever been taught to entertain of your Lordship’s humanity, I will not suppose, that you are privy to proceedings of so cruel and unjustifiable a nature; and I hope, that, upon making the proper inquiry, you will have the matter so regulated, that the unhappy creatures, whose lot is captivity, may not in future have the miseries of cold, disease, and famine added to their other misfortunes. You may call us rebels, and say that we deserve no better treatment; but, remember, my Lord, that, supposing us rebels, we still have feelings equally as keen and sensible as loyalists, and will, if forced to it, most assuredly retaliate upon those, upon whom we look as the unjust invaders of our rights, liberties, and properties. I should not have said thus much, but my injured countrymen have long called upon me to endeavor to obtain a redress of their grievances; and I shall think myself as culpable as those, who inflict such severities upon them, were I to continue silent.

I enclose your Lordship a list of the captain and crew of an armed boat belonging to Georgia, taken by the Rover, a man-of-war, Captain Stanhope. There are a sufficient number of prisoners in Georgia, belonging to your navy, to make an exchange. If the measure meets your approbation, it will be very agreeable to both parties. I lately sent in Lieutenant Boger, who belonged to the Liverpool frigate. Captain Bellew of the same frigate took a Captain Burke, and sent him into New York for the express purpose of having him exchanged for Boger. I should therefore be glad to have Captain Burke sent out. There are two captains of merchantmen, by the name of Bell and Getshius, on board the Whitley prison-ship. If your Lordship will grant them their liberty upon parole, I will engage to send two British masters in exchange for them. I am, &c.