Yet he
did all he could, actuated, as he always was, by the purest motives of
benevolence and humanity.
"The authority to exchange naval prisoners," to quote from this
introduction, "was not invested in Washington, but in the Financier,
and as the prisoners on the Jersey freely set forth in their petition,
the former was comparatively helpless in the premises, although he
earnestly desired to relieve them from their sufferings.
"It will be seen from these circumstances that no blame could properly
attach to General Washington, or the Continental Congress, or the
Commissary of Prisoners; the blame belonged to those who were engaged
in privateering, all of whom had been accustomed to release, without
parole, the crews of the vessels which they captured, or enlist them
on other privateers; in both cases removing the very means by which
alone the release of their captive fellow seamen could be properly and
safely effected.
"From the careful perusal of all the information we possess on this
interesting subject, the reader will arise with the conviction that,
by unwarrantable abuses of authority; and unprincipled disregard of
the purposes of the British Government in some of its agents, great
numbers of helpless American prisoners were wantonly plunged into the
deepest distress; exposed to the most severe sufferings, and carried
to unhonored graves.
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