Send an E-Postcard of: Extract of a Letter regarding fate of the
insurgents published in the Hamsphire Gazette (c) Pocumtuck
Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image. This letter,
supposedly from a "gentleman in the eastern counties" to a
friend serving in General Benjamin Lincoln's army of militia,
was printed in the Hampshire Gazette in February, 1787. Its
author agreed with Samuel Adams that, while "In monarchy the
crime of treason may admit of being pardoned or lightly
punished, but the man who dares rebel against the laws of a
republic ought to suffer death." He favored pardoning repentant
rebels so long as they "uphold the peace," but recommended
withholding the vote from them "for a certain number of years."
To do otherwise would be foolhardy: "How absurd is it, that the
very men, whom you have this day declared rebels, shall on the
morrow, merely from the circumstance of defeat, have a right to
appoint magistrates, and constitute