IT is the nature of compassion to associate with misfortune; and I
address this to you in behalf even of an enemy, a captain in the
British service, now on his way to the headquarters of the American
army, and unfortunately doomed to death for a crime not his own. A
sentence so extraordinary, an execution so repugnant to every human
sensation, ought never to be told without the circumstances which
produced it: and as the destined victim is yet in existence, and in
your hands rests his life or death, I shall briefly state the case,
and the melancholy consequence.
Captain Huddy, of the Jersey militia, was attacked in a small fort
on Tom's River, by a party of refugees in the British pay and service,
was made prisoner, together with his company, carried to New York
and lodged in the provost of that city: about three weeks after which,
he was taken out of the provost down to the water-side, put into a
boat, and brought again upon the Jersey shore, and there, contrary
to the practice of all nations but savages, was hung up on a tree, and
left hanging till found by our people who took him down and buried
him.
The inhabitants of that part of the country where the murder was
committed, sent a deputation to General Washington with a full and
certified statement of the fact. Struck, as every human breast must
be, with such brutish outrage, and determined both to punish and
prevent it for the future, the General represented the case to General
Clinton, who then commanded, and demanded that the refugee officer who
ordered and attended the execution, and whose name is Lippencott,
should be delivered up as a murderer; and in case of refusal, that the
person of some British officer should suffer in his stead.
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