Postscript.
Some, to whom I had shown my Journal in manuscript, have thought that I had, now and then, expressed my feelings too unguardedly against some of the subjects of Great Britain, and some of my own countrymen. In consequence of this friendly remark, I have struck out a few passages, but have not been able to comply with all the wishes of my connexions. But, after all, had a political cant phrase or two been omitted, some good people would have been gratified, and the publication not the worse for it. I have severely suffered, felt keenly, and expressed myself honestly, and without malice. I may not have made due allowance for the conduct of certain officers and agents. I may not have entered, as far as I ought, into their situations; and there might have been reasons and excuses, that my chafed feelings prevented me from attending to. If so, the cool and candid reader, both here, and on the other side the Atlantic, will make that allowance which I could hardly make myself. I must, nevertheless, maintain, that I have expressed the feelings of the moment, and cannot now honestly alter my language; for whenever my soul calls up many occurrences in my captivity, my tongue and my pen will be found the faithful organs of my feelings.
I have endeavored to give due credit to the humane conduct of several sailors, soldiers, and private subjects of the enemy. But, if, at this period of peace, when it may be supposed that resentment was cooled down, I try to obliterate the impressions made by cruelty and by contempt, and find I cannot, then must the reader take it as a trait of the imperfect character of a young man, on whose mind adversity has not had its best effect.
If an animosity actually exists between the English and Americans, do you mend the matter by denying the fact? This animosity has been avowed to exist, within a few months past, in the parliament of England. The following article is extracted from a London paper.—In a debate, (Feb. 14th, 1816) a member said, "the spirit of animosity in America, would justify an increase of the naval force in the West Indies." This called up Lord Castlereagh, who said—"As to America, if it is said great prejudices exist there against us, it must be recollected that great prejudices exist here against her. It was," he said, "his most ardent wish to discountenance this feeling on both sides, and to promote between the two nations feeling of reciprocal amity and regard."
What has occasioned this avowed animosity in us towards the British? Our merchants, generally, feel not this animosity; neither is it to be found, in a great degree, amongst our legislators. How came we by it? Our sailors and our soldiers, who have been in British prisons, and on board British men of war, and transports, have brought with them this animosity home to their families and their friends. They tell them their own stories, in their own artless, and sometimes exaggerated way; and these are reported with, probably, high coloring; whereas, I have made it a point of honor, a matter of conscience, and a rule of justice, to adhere to truth; and am contented that the British reader should say all that fairness admits, to soften down the coloring of some of the pictures of British barbarity, provided he does not attempt to impeach my veracity.
Beside individual animosity, there may possibly be a lurking national one, thinly covered over with the fashionable mantle of courtesy. The conflicting interests of the two nations may endanger peace.—The source of national aggrandizement in both nations, is commerce; and the high road to them the ocean. We and the British are travelling the same way, in keen pursuit of the same object; and it is scarcely probable, that we shall be preserved in a state of peace, by abstract love of justice.
I have been disposed to allow that the conduct of our countrymen, while on board the prison ships, and at Dartmoor, was, at times, provoking to the British officers set over them; but never malignant, much less, bloody. It could be always traced to a spirit of fun and frolic, which our people indulge in beyond all others in the world; and this ought to be considered as one of the luxuriant shoots of our tree of liberty; for it is too harsh to call it an excrescence. It shows the strength, depth and extent of its roots, and the richness of the soil.
This Journal has not been published to increase the animosity now subsisting between the American and British people. So far from it, the writer pleases himself with the idea that this publication may remedy the evils complained of, or mitigate them; and cut off the source of deep complaint against the English, for their treatment of prisoners, should war rage again between the two nations. If the present race of Britons have not become indifferent to a sense of national character, their government will take measures to wipe off this stain from her garments. Let the nations of Europe inquire how the Americans treat their prisoners of war. If we treat them with barbarity, publish our disgrace to the wide world, and speak of us accordingly. But let them, at the same time, inquire how the English treated those of us who have had the great misfortune of falling into their hands; and let them be spoken of accordingly. My serious opinion is, that this little book will aid the great cause of humanity.
Although I, with some thousands of my countrymen, were inclosed in a large prison during the greater part of the war, it fared with us as with those people who seldom go out of their houses, who hear more news than those who are abroad in the world. It was, however, pretty much all of one sort; for we seldom saw any other American newspapers, than those of the fault finding, or opposition party. These were generally filled with abuse of the President, and of the government generally, and with praises of the English, which, in our situation, produced a strong sensation; as our support, our protection, our pride, our honor, were identified in the person of the President, and his administration. The efforts of the federal party in Massachusetts to embarrass and tie the hands of our government, and disgrace its brave officers, created in us all, a hatred of the very name of federalism. I record the fact, and appeal to all the prisoners who have now returned home, to confirm my assertion; and I declare I have erased not a little on this head, out of courtesy to a large and sanguine party; who have erred, and strayed from the right way, by not knowing the true character of the English.
I feel no animosity, or disrespect to any gentleman of the federal, or fault finding party; but they must excuse me for remarking, that their conduct, and their sentiments, as they appeared in messages, proclamations, speeches and resolves; and their combinations for withholding loans of money from government, with their denunciations of a war, waged professedly, and as we knew, really, for "Sailors' Rights," made an impression on our minds so decidedly against the federalists, that the very term federalism, was with us all, without one single exception, a term of deep reproach. Let him who doubts it, ask any prisoner who made a part of the six thousand confined in England during the two years of our late bitter war with the English, and he will be satisfied that I have "nothing extenuated, or set down aught in malice."
I hope and pray for UNION among ourselves; and that all party names and distinctions may be lost in that of AMERICANS.
"Henceforth, let Whig and Tory cease,
And turn all party rage to peace;
Rouse, and revive your ancient glory,
UNITE, and drive the world before you!"
Footnotes:
[A] Bivouacked is laying, sleeping, eating, and drinking on the ground with their arms, without tents, or any covering, and is only voluntarily resorted to, when the greatest danger is apprehended.
[B] By what I have just seen in the newspapers, I have reason for believing that Nova Scotia is like to be blessed with this gentleman for a governor.
[C] The Emperor Maurice being, says Montaigne, advised by dreams and several prognostics, that one Phoeas, an obscure soldier, should kill him, questioned his son-in-law, Philip, who this Phoeas was, and what was his nature, qualities, and manners; and as soon as Philip, amongst other things, had told him that he was "cowardly and timorous," the Emperor immediately thence concluded that he was cruel and a murderer. What is it, says Montaigne, that makes tyrants so bloody? 'Tis the solicitude for their own safety, and their faint hearts can furnish them with no other means of securing themselves, than in exterminating those who may hurt them. See his Essay entitled, Cowardice the Mother of Cruelty.—Vol. 2d, chap. xxvii.
[D] Fire places gave rank among the Romans. It was a privilege to be a Roman soldier, and in the best days of Rome no man was allowed to be in the ranks of their army, who had not a fire place in his house. In the reign prior to Queen Elizabeth, there were scarcely any beds, or brick fire places in the houses of the common people of London.
[E] What Mr. Adams has written on this subject, has put impressment, or man-stealing, beyond all future controversy. His masterly pamphlet was a warlike trumpet in the ears of our nation.
[F] If any man wishes to see the true character of the English, let him read the 8th chapter of Hume's History of England, especially where it treats of severities and barbarities toward the virtuous Mr. Prym.
[G] Our youngest readers need not be told, that by John Bull, we mean the English nation personified. See Dean Swift's admirable history of John Bull, his wife, and his mother, and his mangy sister Peg.
[H] Queen Elizabeth.
[I] The letter writer, we suspect, had not studied, carefully, the laws and customs of England, where all landed property belongs to the king; who allows the eldest male of a family to possess it during his good behaviour.
[J] This Oration was first printed in England.
[K] The celebrated Earl of Chatham.
[L] An Irish word, meaning: a distraction of attention by reason of words striking our intellect through both ears confusedly.
[M] Some of these were so exquisitely wrought, as not to disgrace the first cabinets in the world.
[N] Shirk—Shift, turn, twist, accommodate, and make the best of a disagreeable situation. It also means contrivance, cunning and evasion.
[O] See the Journals of English Navigators generally; and Captain Porter's Journal of his cruise in the U. S. frigate Essex.
[P] The Yankees first taught the British soldiery to brew spruce beer at the siege of Louisbourg. The reader may find directions for making it in general orders issued by General Amherst in Sept. 1758. See Captain John Knox's Historical Journal, Vol. I, page 184, where it says that one gallon of this beer costs, molasses and all, less than a penny sterling a gallon.
[Q] Lest some might suspect that I have recorded this rough treatment of the sick by an individual, as casting unjustly a reflection on many, I shall here subjoin a passage from a Journal of a tour and residence in Great Britain during the years 1810 and 1811 by a French Traveller—a very popular work in England and much commended by the Reviews there. The reader will perceive that he is much severer than we are. I have been carried, says the Traveller, to one of the Hospitals of this great town, supported by voluntary contributions. I shall relate what I saw. The physician seated at a table in a large hall on the ground floor, with a register before him ordered the doors to be opened; a crowd of miserable objects, women, pushed in, and ranged themselves along the wall; he looked into his book, and called them to him successively.—Such a one! The poor wretch leaving her wall, crowded to the table. "How is your catarrh?"—"Please your honour, no offence, I hope, it is the Asthma. I have no rest night and day, and"—Ah, so it is the Asthma; it is somebody else that has the Catarrh. Well you have been ordered to take, &c.—"Yes, Sir, but I grow worse and worse, and"—That is nothing, you must go on with it. "But Sir, indeed, I cannot." Enough, enough, good woman, I cannot listen to you any more; many patients to get through this morning—never do to hear them talk—go and take your draught.—The Catarrh woman made way for a long train of victims of corruption, cases of fever, dropsy, scrofula, and some disorders peculiar to women, detailed without any ceremony before young students. This melancholy review of human infirmities was suddenly interrupted by the unexpected entrance of a surgeon, followed by several young men, carrying a piece of bloody flesh on a dish. "A curious case," they exclaimed, placing the dish on the table; "an ossification of the lungs!—Such a one, who died yesterday—just opened. This is the state of his lungs.—See these white needles, like fish bones, shooting through here and there; most curious indeed."—Then they handled, and cut open, and held up between the eye and the light, these almost palpitating remains of an human creature who breathed yesterday. The symptoms of his disorder, and the circumstances of his death, were freely talked over, and accurately described in the hearing of the consumptive patients, who felt, I dare say, the bony needles pricking their own lungs at every breath they drew, and seemed to hear their own sentence of death pronounced.
The women being dispatched, 20 or 30 male spectres came in, and underwent the same sort of summary examination. The only case I recollect was that of a man attacked with violent palpitations, accompanied with great pain in the shoulders. His heart was felt beating hard through the sternum, or even under the ribs on the right side. "His heart has moved from its place!" The unhappy man thrown back on an arm chair—his breast uncovered—pale as death—fixed his fearful eyes on the physicians, who successively came to feel the pulsations of the breast, and reason on the cause. They seemed to me to agree among themselves, that the heart had been pushed on one side, by the augmentation of the bulk of the viscera; and that the action of the Aorta was impeded thereby. The case excited much attention, but no great appearance of compassion. They reasoned long on the cause, without adverting to the remedy till after the patient had departed, when he was called back from the door, and cupping prescribed!
The medical men next proceeded to visit the resident patients, I followed. The apartments were clean and spacious, and the sick not crowded, which is no doubt of the greatest importance. I was shocked, however, with the same appearance of insensibility and precipitation.
La le long de ses lits ou gemit le malheur,
Victimes des secours plus que de la douleur,
L'ignorance en courant fait sa ronde homicide,
L'indifference observe et le hazard decide.
These are the sentiments and feelings of a sensible French gentleman who had resided 20 years in the U. S. and whose journal of his Travels through England has been highly praised by the British Reviewers for its liberality, candor, justness and good sense. "By the mouth of two witnesses all things shall be established."
[R] Two celebrated American Frigates.
[S] When we have read in the American newspapers, which sometimes reached Dartmoor prison, the speeches and proclamations of the governor of Massachusetts, some of us have blushed at the degradation of our native state. That state which once took the lead in the opposition to Britain; and that Boston, once considered the cradle of liberty, has become among us, a name of reproach. Such are the effects of an unprincipled faction—a faction that are despised even by these Britons, who expected their assistance in dividing the Union; and founding "the kingdom of New-England."
[T] The mention of this celebrated member of the Essex Junto brings to our mind a fact in chemistry, viz. that the best of wine, when kept too long in a hot place, turns to the sharpest vinegar. Pickering's "fast anchor'd isle," is now (autumn of 1816) entirely afloat in an ocean that deserves not the name of pacific.