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 Warning of “the most rigorous and exemplary punishment” to deserters who do not return by May 1, 1778. News from Philadelphia that, “it is talked, that a bill will be brought into the Assembly this sitting, for confiscating all gold and silver coins which shall be offered for payment in any sale or bargain, except such coins as shall legally bear the impression and authority of the United States or of some particular State. One half to the State, the other half to the informer. The disaffected, now finding they have bought gold too dear, are endeavoring to hedge, by paying it away at a fraudulent price.”
Thomas Paine’s lengthy letter to John Dunlap, signed “Common Sense,” on pages 1-2, attacks inaccuracies in Gouverneur Morris and William Henry Drayton’s "Observations on the American Revolution, published according to a Resolution of Congress. By their committee.” Paine Starts with a list of important documents, including the Declaration of independence, and then takes issue with the skip between September 1776 and April 1778. “The insolence of the enemy after the engagement on Long Island, and their barbarity after taking Fort Washington, were far greater than their vigor at any one time of that campaign. I speak this from far better knowledge than either Mr. Morriss or Mr. Drayton can have, as I was out with the army from the first marching of the associators early in August, and after their return was with General Green[e] at Fort Lee till the evacuation and continued with the army till after their passing the Delaware on the eighth of December. I had began the first number of the Crisis while on the retreat at Newark, with a design of publishing it in the Jersies, as it was Gen. Washington’s intentions to have made a stand at Newark, could he have been timely reinforced instead of which, near half the army left him at that place, or soon after, their time being out. / …The enemy…had it in their power to carry every thing before them..,and in full expectation of conquest, their confidence betrayed them into carelessness, and enabled General Washington to defeat them by a spirited and judicious improvement of their neglects: And I ask Mr. Morriss and Mr. Drayton, when it was that their, the enemy’s, ‘full tide of success began to ebb away?’ Truth will, and history ought to say, that it turned at Trenton and was additionally impelled by the subsequent, and more masterly, stroke at Princeton. These two actions disabled and laid the enemy dormant for more than six months afterwards; and by throwing a spirit of joy into the continent gave life and vigor to the recruiting service for the next campaign. They were hard bought victories, under every disadvantage of winter and misfortune. But the tide, once turned, went on, and the conquest of Burgoyne was, properly speaking, the high water mark of our success. / Why Mr. Morriss and Mr. Drayton have, in utter silence, passed over the affairs of Trenton and Princeton, and taken a flight from Staten-Island to Saratoga, I cannot conceive.”
Also in this issue is an account of Benedict Arnold’s march from Cambridge to Quebec, notice of Benjamin Franklin chosen president of the American Philosophical Society, and a full printing from the Pennsylvania Assembly of “An Act for relief of the poor of the city of Philadelphia, the district of Southwark, and the townships of Moyamensine, Passyunk, and the Northern Liberties.” Also, ads for sale of slaves, and for sale of the town of Port Royal, Penn.
March 20, 1779. The Pennsylvania Packet. Philadelphia: John Dunlap. 4 pp.
Inventory# 21556.03 SOLD
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