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Letter to Editor
November 27, 1777
The Newport Gazette
Newport, Newport County, Rhode Island
What is this article about?
Soldiers address the public and civil officers, arguing that while they defend the country, their families face starvation due to inflated prices from greedy merchants and farmers. They urge civil rulers to act against economic exploitation to support the troops.
Clipping
OCR Quality
95%
Excellent
Full Text
Messieurs PRINTERS,
Please to insert the following in your next, and you will oblige a lover of his country.
To the Public, with the civil Officers, as the Fathers of the Age,
We the soldiery, are now embarked in the common cause, and stand for the defence of our country.
We pause—but with the pause, ask this solemn question; shall our wives and children starve at home, while our bodies become the bulwark of the States? Your regulating bill, we confess, inspired; then we became the Public's—
—Then maintain your word, while we defend you.
Death is esteemed by us a rugged monster; yet poverty more rugged still: for the one delivers us from, the other brings more evils with it, and if we escape the former, the latter will be our certain doom.
If 'tis said, who shall be deemed in fault, this is the answer; the greedy Merchant begins first to devour, and then the unsuspicious honest Farmer, plays on the string of avarice, calling it self defence: and we who work for wages, are caught between the whetted steel.
Yet at last the Merchant connives; for while the Farmer claims 50l. per cent. the Merchant calls for a 100l. so the Farmer is wronged, the Soldier robbed, and the few swallow up the many.
Let these hints excite our civil rulers to their duty.
AMICUS PATRIÆ.
Please to insert the following in your next, and you will oblige a lover of his country.
To the Public, with the civil Officers, as the Fathers of the Age,
We the soldiery, are now embarked in the common cause, and stand for the defence of our country.
We pause—but with the pause, ask this solemn question; shall our wives and children starve at home, while our bodies become the bulwark of the States? Your regulating bill, we confess, inspired; then we became the Public's—
—Then maintain your word, while we defend you.
Death is esteemed by us a rugged monster; yet poverty more rugged still: for the one delivers us from, the other brings more evils with it, and if we escape the former, the latter will be our certain doom.
If 'tis said, who shall be deemed in fault, this is the answer; the greedy Merchant begins first to devour, and then the unsuspicious honest Farmer, plays on the string of avarice, calling it self defence: and we who work for wages, are caught between the whetted steel.
Yet at last the Merchant connives; for while the Farmer claims 50l. per cent. the Merchant calls for a 100l. so the Farmer is wronged, the Soldier robbed, and the few swallow up the many.
Let these hints excite our civil rulers to their duty.
AMICUS PATRIÆ.
What sub-type of article is it?
Persuasive
Political
Social Critique
What themes does it cover?
Commerce Trade
Military War
Politics
What keywords are associated?
Soldiery
Defense
Starvation
Prices
Merchants
Farmers
Poverty
Civil Rulers
What entities or persons were involved?
Amicus Patriæ.
Messieurs Printers And To The Public, With The Civil Officers
Letter to Editor Details
Author
Amicus Patriæ.
Recipient
Messieurs Printers And To The Public, With The Civil Officers
Main Argument
while soldiers defend the country, their families starve due to price gouging by merchants and farmers; civil rulers must intervene to fulfill promises and prevent poverty among the troops.
Notable Details
Compares Death To Poverty As Rugged Monsters
Blames Greedy Merchants And Avaricious Farmers
References Regulating Bill That Inspired Enlistment
Urges Civil Rulers To Duty With Hints