The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

The Petition referred to in our last, as connected with the letter addressed to Mrs. Abigail.

The following petition, the genuine mark of a lady now in South-Carolina, no less remarkable for the goodness of her heart than the superiority of her understanding, was signed by all the ladies of Charlestown, excepting four, and was presented a few days before the execution of Col. Hayne, but without any effect.

To the Right Honorable Lord Rawdon, Commander in Chief of his Majesty's forces in South Carolina, and to Colonel Balfour, Commandant at Charlestown.

My Lord and Sir,

We should have reason to reproach ourselves of having omitted a proper occasion of manifesting the tenderness peculiarly characteristic of our sex, if we did not profess ourselves deeply interested & affected by the imminent and shocking doom of the most unfortunate Mr. Hayne, and if we did not intreat you in the most earnest manner graciously to avert, prolong or mitigate it.

We do not even think, much less do we intend to imply, in the remotest degree, that your sentence is unjust; but we are induced to hope that every end it proposes may be equally answered as if carried into execution; for to us it does not appear probable, that any whom it is intended to influence and deter from similar delinquency, will be encouraged with the hope of impunity by reason of any favor shewn him, as they must surely reflect, that it was owing to certain causes and circumstances that will not apply to them. We presume to make this intercession for him, and to hope that it will not prove fruitless, from the knowledge of your disposition in particular, as well as from the reflection in general, that humanity is rarely separable from courage, and that the gallant soldier feels as much reluctance to cause, by deliberate degrees, the infliction of death on men in cold blood, as he does ardor in the day of battle and heat of action, to make the enemies of his country perish by the sword. He may rejoice to behold his laurels sprinkled with the blood of armed and resisting adversaries, but will regret to see them wet with the tears of unhappy orphans, mourning the loss of a tender, amiable and worthy parent, executed like a vile and infamous felon. To the praises that men, who have been witnesses and sharers of your dangers and services in the field, may sound of your military virtues and prowess, we trust you will give the ladies occasion to add the praises of your milder and softer virtues by furnishing them with a striking proof of your clemency and politeness in the present instance. May the unhappy object of our petition owe to that clemency and politeness, as our prayers, and to his own merits, in other respects, what you may think him not entitled to, if policy and justice were not outweighed in his behalf. To any other men in power than such as we conceive you both to be, we should employ on the occasion more ingenuity & art, to dress up and enforce the many pathetic and favourable circumstances attending his case, in order to move your passions and engage your favour; but we think this will be needless, and is obviated by your own spontaneous feelings, humane considerations and liberal reasoning: nor shall we dwell on this most excellent character, the outrages and excesses, and perhaps murders, prevented by him, to which innocent and unarmed individuals were exposed in an extensive manner; nor shall we here lay any stress on the most grievous shock his numerous and respectable connections must sustain by his death, and aggravated by the mode of it; nor shall we do more than remind you of the complicated distress and sufferings that must befall his young and promising children, to whom, perhaps, death would be more comfortable than the state of orphanage they will be left in. All these things, we understand, have been already represented, and we are sure will have their due weight with men of your humane and benevolent minds. Many of us have already subscribed to a former petition for him, and hope you will regard our doing it again, not as an importunity, but earnestness; and we pray most fervently, that you will forever greatly oblige us, by not letting us do it in vain.

We are, my Lord and Sir, with all respect, your very anxious petitioners and humble servants.