The Recorder, Or, Lady's And Gentleman's Miscellany

TAKE NOTICE.

In last week's paper, under the head of British Jacobins, there was stated an account of the cool barbarity of William Pitt to certain persons, whom he did not like. The preceding narrative places the British government in an opposite light. It shews that, even at the distance of twenty years from the commission of his crime, a British officer may be hanged for the murder of a common soldier.

With much concern we perceive that the federal government has not always deserved a similar encomium. In summer, 1799, commodore Truxton engaged with a French frigate. In the heat of the action, Samuel Sterret run one of the common sailors through the body. He wrote home an account of the engagement, and with the most inimitable impudence, the assassin boasted of the murder. This letter, with his name affixed, appeared in all the newspapers. And the Examiner, The Prospect Before Us, &c. &c. spoke of his conduct with all the horror which it demanded.

Mr. Adams was highly censured by the democrats, because he did not bring this ruffian to trial. Nothing of such an infamous nature has ever been heard of in the British navy, during the midst of battle. And pray what is the situation of an American seaman, if he may be shot like a snipe, or a woodcock, by one of his own officers? An act of congress expressly forbids the punishment of a sailor, till he has past a trial, and received sentence.

John Adams promoted sixteen of his friends to the office of additional federal judges, with salaries, which, to be sure, was the main object of two thousand dollars a piece. Their adversaries, having vaulted into the saddle of authority, are now kicking them out again; and many worthy people believe that this expulsion puts an end to the federal constitution.

Quere. Was not the blood of Neale Harvey of equal value to him with a salary of two thousand dollars to one of these sixteen judges? Is not murder, and especially such cowardly, such wanton murder, the most horrid of all crimes? If the federal constitution is yet above ground, for what reason has not Samuel Sterret been tried, sentenced, and hung?

When Mr. Jefferson got into the chair, we did expect that Samuel Sterret would be turned out of the navy. But notwithstanding the very numerous dismissals and reductions, no such thing has been thought of. In the course of last year, Captain Sterret, fell in with a Tripolitan corsair: he fought and took her. The president wrote a letter of thanks for his gallantry; and as Mr. Jefferson had never heard of the murder of Neale Harvey, his conduct on this occasion, is highly commendable. On the 31st of December, the senate sent a message to the house of representatives, in which they refer to captain Sterret. They propose a set of resolutions, that were said to be drawn with much spirit, and in which they request the president to present the captain with a gold medal with suitable emblems. The representatives altered this medal into a sword; and we presume that it has by this time been, or that it very soon will be presented.

Governor Wall was hanged, as aforesaid, for the murder of Armstrong. His lady is sister to lord Seaforth. She is allied to the duke of Norfolk, who ranks as the very first peer in England. She is connected with many other noble families. But all this could not save her husband from the halter. A privy council was held on purpose; and the king's pardon was finally refused. Compare the justice of the British privy council with the barbarous negligence, the marked contempt of justice, which pollutes the journals of an American congress.

The story had made so much noise in the newspapers, and produced such general disgust in the common men of the navy, that Sterret, if he had felt himself innocent, must have demanded his trial. But in truth it is impossible that he could have been acquitted. When a British sailor discovers improper tremor, in time of action, he is hurried off deck, and tried at leisure. This corresponds with justice and humanity. Citizens of America! let us hide our faces, when we think of this contrast.