We, however, take
the liberty of sending you copies of certain depositions which we
shall transmit to Congress, whereby it will be known to your Court,
that the United States are not unacquainted with the barbarous
treatment their people receive when they have the misfortune to be
your prisoners here in Europe, and that if your conduct towards us is
not altered, it is not unlikely that severe reprisals may be thought
justifiable from a necessity of putting some check to such abominable
practices. For the sake of humanity it is to be wished that men would
endeavor to alleviate the unavoidable miseries attending a state of
war. It has been said that among the civilized nations of Europe the
ancient horrors of that state are much diminished; but the compelling
men by chains, stripes, and famine to fight against their friends and
relatives, is a new mode of barbarity, which your nation alone has the
honor of inventing, and the sending American prisoners of war to
Africa and Asia, remote from all probability of exchange, and where
they can scarce hope ever to hear from their families, even if the
unwholesomeness of the climate does not put a speedy end to their
lives, is a manner of treating captives that you can justify by no
other precedent or custom except that of the black savages of
Guinea. We are your Lordship's most obedient, humble servants,
Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane.
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