Western Sun & General Advertiser, Volume 19, Number 5, Vincennes, Knox County, 8 March 1828 — Page 1

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WESTERN BUimllffljy

BY ELIHU STOUT.J

V1CENNNES, (IND.) SATURDAY, MARCH 8, i28.

Vol. 19. No. 5.

THE WESTERN BUN IS published at g2 50 cents, for 52 numbers; which may be discharged by the pay mcnt of g2 at the time of subscribing. Payment in advance, being the mutual interest of both parties, that mode is solicited. A failudc to notify a wish to discontinue at the expiration of the time subscribed for, will be considered a new engagement; no subscriber at liberty to discontinue, until all arrearages arc paid Subscribers must pay the postage on their papers when sent by mail. Letters by mail to the Editor on business must be paid, or they will not be attended to. Produce will be received at the Cash Mjrket Price, for subscriptions, if delivered within the year. Advertisements not exceeding thirteen lines, will be inserted three times for one dollar, and twenty-Jive cents for each after insertion longer ones in the same proportion. Persons sending Advertisements, must specify the number of times they w ish them inserted, or they will be continued until ordered out, and must be paid for accordingly.

FROM THE INDIANA HErUBLICAN. Six Militia men. Oh, that mine head was a fountain, Et mine eyes a liquid stream, then couid I shed tears enough" over dcpia ved and fallen humanity I ilr virion On serious reflection tli i s morning respecting the tragical fate ol the un fortunate Harris and his companions, who fell beneath the hand of tyranny, the above thoughts irresistablv forced themselves upon my mind These poor men were condemn cd by an illegal court-martial, instituted bv gen. Jackson, for no other offence than claiming and exercising a right to go home after their legal term of service had expired, and, by order of the same oppressor, hurried into eternity, on four days notice, without being allowed time to settle their wo Idly affairs bid farewcl to their wives and child i en, oprepare to meet their final judge in another world. The act was therefore illegal, unauthorized, crue',and tyrannical. Let any man fancv himself or his friends in the situation of Hirris and the others, and he can then do ly appreciate the deed. How then, can any

humane man honestly 5c consistently- suppoit Andrew Jackson? A Citizen of Indiana. Uv way of reply to the above, I extract the foil nving articles from the Public Advertiser, and at the same time request the Kd ltor of the Indiana Republican to afford it room in his paper assuring him that the courtesy will a a.iy time be rccipiocatcd by me. Sun. Editor " HEAR THE IVITXESS. From the f.ouisvtlle Public Adx'ertiser. THE SIX MIU I'lA MEN. A full and authentic investig ition of the case of the six Tennessee militia men. is em braced in the following extracts of leUets which recently passed between major A I. Ca'npbell, near this place, and colonel G C. Russcl,of the United S'a cs army. Colonel Kussel superintended the execution of the six militia men referred to, and is now among the decided friends of Mr. Adams. Extract of a letter fom maj. A E Camp'dl to col G. C. Kussel, dated July 23, IS27. 1 st. Did you not command the 3d regiment . of United States infantry, at Mobile, in 1815, and, as commanding officer at the time, did you not cause the sentence of the coutt martial to bx executed on the celebrated fellow, Harris, with 'our other militia men, and one regular soldier ? 2d. Dd or did not the laws nf the country authorize the draft of those men for the term ol six m nths, and were they not actually drafted and mustered int.) service fur thai term ? 3d. Was not this celebrated Harris, arid another of those five, actually hired suVsi tutcs, paid or contracted with by those tjjp ' employed them for the full term of 6 months ? , 4fh. Could any of those convicted prisoners have written to general Jackon. suing f : their lives, without your having a knowledge thereof ? 5th. Did Harris write and cnd to general Jackson, the letter attributed to him, which has been published in many cf the public journals of our country ? 6th. What was the general and special character of this fellow. Harris i 7lh. What was the magnitude of the crimes those men were charged with ? 8th. What was the strength of the evidence that supported those charges ? 9th. If any what were the extenuating or excusable circumstances in faor of those wicked, or at least deluded men ? 10th. What were the relative situation cf our military force and country with regard to the opposing force of the enemy, at the respective times of the mutiny, ttial and execution of thoc ill fated men ? 1 1 ill Were there not others, (and if so, liow many,) convicted at the same time, and for the same offence of those six ? 1 2th Were not all the others recommend

ed by thccourt martial to the meicy of the

commanding general f

14th. Did not genl. Jackson pardon every

one so recommended !

14th. Could general Jackson, by any cor

rect and intelligent principle of i.uu&nty, mercy, or military discipline, have pardf oed those six criminals that were executed 1 5th. Did not general Pinckncy, within a year or two before the time referred to also order the execution of three soldiers for a similar, or perhaps minor crimes, to those committed by the si:: referred to ? 16th. And did you ever hear an intelligent and honest man, either in military or civil life reproach him therefor I Extract of a letter fron col. G C Russl to maj A. L Campbell, dated July 29, 1827. 44 Your letter of yesterday's date, requesting me to answer sixteen interrogatories, explanatory of the mutiny, desertion, trial, conviction, and execution of some militia, in 1815, Sec. Sec. was received last night, and 1 shall answer them. To the 1st. I answer, that I was the colonel of the 3d regt of t fantry,at the time five militia and one regular soldier wcte shot, near Mobile, in 18 15, pursuant to the sentence of a court martial, approved by genl. Jackson, then at New-Orleans, which agiecab!y to his order, was carried into effect under my superintendancc, in presence of all the troops then off duly; but major general Mcintosh of the Georgia militia, was the commanding officer of that wing of the forces under gen Jackson's ordeis, and not I. Among the men which weie executed, theic was a man named Harris. 2d. It was said and believed, that Harris, and one or two o'hers of the six that were shot, were hired substitutes, for the term for which the regiment had been drafted and mustered, and that was six months. 4th Sc 5th While the prisoners were confined, they might have written without the knowledge of anv one but the guard. Tnc privilege of writing, I believe, never was denied to men in their situation. It is, however, unlikely that Harris o" any of thcotheis addressed gen Jarkson to spare his or their lives for they did not know what the result of their rial was. before the promulgation of the sentence; which was accompanied by an order to be carried into effect in a few days

afterwards; so that a letter couid not have

lance was adopted suited to the occasion, anu v.c were as well prepared as it was possible with our men and means, to oppose them This was the precise state of the opposing for

ccs, when Harris and live more ot the nntr

leaders of the mutiny and desertion, with one regular soldier, (who slept on his post,) weie shot, From what I saw ol the British, lying on Dauphin island and the Point of Mobile, where 1 was sent with a flag of tmce, their force was more numeious than ours, their's consisted of old troops, ours mostly ot militia, from Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi, wi.li but few regular Infantry and artillery, k six or seven hundred Chickasaws, Chociaws and Creeks. 1 1th, 12th, 13th. At the same time that Harris and the other five principal offenders were found guilty, I think one hundred and

ninety-two more were convicied and from

house for leave to sit during the hours of its sionotthe house; and neaily every day, sinco ihat leave was granted, has been entiieiy occupied, to the almost total neglect of other public and private dutie3,in the laborious exanimation of witnesses, pursuant to the resolution under which the committee were acting. It is but justice here to remaik. that the original expectation of the committee, under the resolution ufieicd by them to !h house, was to have made an expeditious in quiry into one or two manufacturing in ercsts, lather to enable them to determine what farther protection these interests really required, than with the expectation, within ihe limited time which they had allowid to themselves for the purpose of being able to collect and report to the house, a body of evidence upon

several important branches of out domestic manufactures, so digested and arranged as to

facts disclosed on the trial, those were only ! be of any essential service to the house or considered as the followers of the 6 sentenced j the public, as a source of correct informto suffer death and weie to be let off by ha- ation upon these complicated subj. cts. ving their heads shaved, to forfeit the pay due 1 he amendment, howevtr, which was mado them, end be drummed or turned out of the I to the resolution by the house, so as to give lines. I do not recollect that tiie court re-1 to the committee the authority to send for co'i-mendtd that the general should remit the and examine persons upon oath, in relation to punishment nr nut, but he did remit that part the present condition ot our manufactures, & of the sentence which imposed the use j to leport the minutes of such examination to of the rr.Z'.r if nothing more. jthis house," it will readily be seen, added 14th. In tr.c then state of things, as before : greatly to he labor which the committee had described thought not, and I can nevtr proposed for themselves ; as, by that amendentertain ar.u other opinion The exeeu ion mcnt, it was made the duty of the committee? of the whole pose. although paintu! to behold, ! should they think proper to examine witnes-

was nothing more than a due administration of J scs, to take their testimony in detail, and in

justice ; nor did

questioned, until

1 ever hear it doubted or I s-uch order as to render it at least passably inin the summer of 1 824, S tclii&ible to the house. T his additional labor

reached

gen

9

Jackson from Harris, befote

when the whole affair was so perverted and

misrepresented, that a stranger, if he believed the tale, must have thought that the general and all his officers delighted in shedding innocent hlood for amusement. I fell bound to correct ho abstii s'oiy, when and wherever I heard it, and I have always continued to do St). 15th & '6th. Io the summer of 1814, under the oulers of major general Pinckncy, sonic men were shot, lor sleeping on post and desertion One w.,s paidoncd, ;nd one more wou'd huvc been shot, had he not (iied of lever before t!u day of execution artived For this no b'ame was ever east upon general

the time appoints d for his execution. But to' Pinckncy. because the necessity or propriety allow that Harris did w rite to the gcucial, to j of it was never doubled, have naid anv attention to it, would have be-l r

trayed a weakness and indecision in him, that. J in the then position of affairs, might Ira v? h' en I

productive ol latal consequences lor ue l;u! no kriQivl'd'se c'a treaty ''At'i.'c:: having been

Mat vhy fro?y tin; committee on manu-

k ... r-.i,., m ; x

iicun i). m. (,o tnc

signed at Ghent, till more than a month alter the approval of the sentct c:e, ami .Jti en oi twenty day after its execution At such a time, the least relaxation in discipline tnij.;h. have proved ruinous to the count?. 6th. Harris was a sort of a preacher of that denomination Cabed baptists. He was in pro fession a saint, and in icality (under s'icli a ga?b of sanctity, with great ptctensions to learning S: know ledge,) a mischievous man enough, amongst more ignorant people than himself 7th. Mutiny and desertion arc the highest crimes known to the law for the go eminent of the armv. Sth. The evidence in support of the charges against the militia was posit ivc, and free bom a shadow of doubt. They committed ihe offence in broad day light ; in the presence of the troops that remained faithful, the agents of the contractors, and every bedv on the ground. IHh. They were without justification or excuse, though so long as they hoped for life, they 'alleged as an excuse, their pretended bei cf that no law existed to hold them to service moic than three months, in w hie!) they had been sustained by the opinions of some of their officers. However, bciore their cx ccution they abandoned, his excuse, ai they knew belter and said that those offices who encouraged them to the fatal deed, ought to die e.s well as they. 10th. When the mutiry and desertion took place at fort Jackson, I believe that the British force, afterw ards repulsed by the garrison on Mobile iVmt, in the attack on that place, had showed, themselves in the then Spanish harbor of per.sacola, and prob ibly lieutenant colonel Nicholas had UsueJ his gasconading proclamation, to the people of Louisiana and elsewhere, and at that time, the rcgulat force in Mississippi and Louisiana consisted of the 2d, 3d, 7th, and Sth regiments of infantry, (none of them but little more than half full, and sonic not that,) detachments of the 2-iih and 44th, with a few companies of artillciy, p.r.d the militia under Pipkin, to which the mutineers belonged. At the time of the trial." the intended invasion of the country conh

.s o

oJ.) in

I III lULtl UUUII

posing antics on un

altejaYcVi

loiiowimr re

compamed b ;i hi! of the s'.ve:it ncis

pot ts. The commir.c; on manufactures, to which liavcb. cn r ,..;t ri d i no nuoierous ptt'.tioi.s a-id oiemoii ds on the siSject ol hairier

pt oir ct ing (imi.so.i imports, R-port : That they eoM.mcn. cd their examination of the v '.ri -jus subjt cts referred to them, im mcf'i.vcly alter the appoiu riient ol ihe com m'ttee was announce d '.olhe house ; that they sought in vain, from the documents, referred to them, for information sufficiently speciff upon the subjects embraced in those documents to enable them to cLlerminc ihe effect of th'-, existing laws upon the various interes'S upon which they were intended to operate ; or to measure the additional protection which the complaining interests rtquircd, or their pre sent condition would w an ant the committee in recommending Under this absence of ac curate infoi matioti, and constantly busied in searching the vo.lumnious executive tcports from the treasury department, and other state papers, from which is to be learned the situation of foieign trade, and the character and amount of our foieign importations, and in obtaining from than department the returns of that trade, for the last year, the committee waited until the petitions and memorials upon which most memorials seemed to be placed by the friends of th. piotecting system, had readied their hands, through the only authorized channel, t warrant ti-eir acting up on them, and until about the 2Gih ol Decern ber last past, when, still finding themselves unsupplied with the precise facts uponvhich alone they w ere vv illi::g to act upon important and highly responsible subjects committed to their charge, they came to the resolution of submitting their resolution to ihe house, and of asking the power to send for persons and papeis, w hich would enable them to determine, with precision and certainty, the true conditions of those interests, and more especially of those manufacturing interests which had preferred their claims for protection to ihe nationattislature. This resoh&jum was presented to the house on the f:rst day of its session, after the committee adopted it, and on its passage, no time was lost iti learning the names of witn sses

j ded to the care of genl. Jackcon, was known.! for whom it should, in the opinion of the com-

n ittee,bc dcsirahie to send, anu ucspatcmng summonses by mail, to be served

l'his labor beirg performed, the committee '

an 1 such measures, us the slate of the nation's !

resources would allow, had been put in requisition to oppose it ; and at the time the men were shot, the Pr tish forces that had been driven from before New. Orleans had taken then the fort at Mobile Point, had received a reinforcement of twelve or fifteen hundred men, under colonel Bell, and had everything in readiness to come up Nothing prevented them but adverse winds, which continued until the treaty of peace was received. To prevent advantage or surprise, a system of vigi-

at once began their examinations ot such wit

nesses, members of the house and others, as were within their reach, and believed to be possessed of valuable and practical information upon anv of the subjects before them The examination of these witnesses was no' completed, when the arrival of some, attend ing under summonses, was annoonct d. An application was then immediately made to the

was in no other way exceptionable to the committee than as it rcndeied somewhat doubtful theii ability to give their report to the houso within the time within which they had signified that it would be received. But, even under this apprehension, so desirous were tho committee of a full development of facts, that the amended resolution met their approbation ; and they entered upon their duties, determined, if possible, to realize the expectations of ihe house, so far at least as regarded a report within the time they had indicated. They have examined little short of thirty witnesses, and the testimony of each, hastily written and by way of question and answer, and annexed 10 this report, will show what facts have been collected by the examination, as well as the extent of the labor which tho committee have performed. The testimony ol each witness, after it was taken, has been careluby read over with him, and so corrected as to meet the fuil assent of the witness as to its accuracv. The leading subjects presented to the committee for addi mnal ptotction, are iron and several manufactures of it woo and its fabrics, hem. Si some of the manulaclures from it, flax and its manufactures, ,ui domestic t!isti.xd spirits ftom grain, panicuiar dt sxiiptioii ol glus, and fi-e and pi mud cottons Upon ail tlr.se subjects, witnesses haver been examined, and their testimony, berew uh leported, comprises the evidvrncc uponach subject, which the committee e taken under the resolution of the house, and en, bodies most oi the information npo;i which ttn.y hac acted in determining ihe lealures of iho bill which they have agicrd upon. I he examination of the witness s by tho committee were not costd until baiurdy night last and .Monday of tne present week was entirely occupied in correcting and arranging ti:e testimony loken, aid which hud not been com ectcd. thus leaving but two day3 to them to digist their bil ana piepute this haitly leport. Under ttu s ci; cuu,san. es, it

cannot be exp 'Ctd ihai o minute examination of the vafious subject included in the bill prepared bv the committee, wiii be .cue into ; much less that a discussi n of ti c great question involved in the system of extt r ding protection to the languishing iuieiests of tho country by an inciease of duties upon imports, will be attempted. The former would be a task requiiit g time and caie, combined with extensive research ; and the latter, even if time were allowed to the committee, is a subject much better suited to a discussion in this house, than in the report of oneofits committees. The committee, therefore, do not attempt to go into the reasons which have governed them, but merely to give a concise history of their doings. After examining all the witnes-es w ho had attended pursuant to summonses, up to Satutday night last, and also all the manufacturers and others, who, up to that time, had, to the knowledge of the committee, arrived in this city, for the purple of giving the committee information upon any of the subject! before them, and after having spent the day, on mondav of the present wrc k. in the correc tion and very hasty arrangement of the testimony taken the committet pt oceedfd to consider and arrange the terms ard provisions of the bill they should report, and a te'erenre to it is made for the detailed information as to wht havebei' their conrlumn. The first subject which wu b (rtir d in tho '-ill. is that of iron. :rd cm si 'erir.g thr importance of the arncle. as me ol both national and individual nccciiity, the charts ia tho

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