It is true our
enemies gained a vast deal of our property by the operation; but it
did not go into the hands of our particular creditors; so their
demands still subsisted, and we were still abused _for not paying our
debts!_
By the seventh article of the treaty of peace, it was solemnly
stipulated, that the King's troops, in evacuating their posts in the
United States, should not carry away with them any negroes. In
direct violation of this article, General Carleton, in evacuating New
York, carried off all the negroes that were with his army, to the
amount of several hundreds. It is not doubted that he must have had
secret orders to justify him in this transaction; but the reason
given out was, that, as they had quitted their masters and joined the
King's troops on the faith of proclamations promising them their
liberty, the national honour forbade returning them into slavery.
The national honour was, it seemed, pledged to both parts of a
contradiction, and its wisdom, since it could not do it with both,
chose to keep faith rather with its old black, than its new white
friends; a circumstance demonstrating clear as daylight, that, in
making a present peace, they meditated a future war, and hoped, that,
though the promised manumission of slaves had not been effectual in
the _last_, in the _next_ it might be more successful; and that, had
the negroes been forsaken, no aid could be hereafter expected from
those of the colour in a future invasion.
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