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measures were taken to quell them. General Washington ordered General
Robert Howe to march with five hundred men, and reduce the rebels to
submission. Howe marched four days through a deep snow, and reached the
encampment of the Jersey troops on the 27th of January. His men were
paraded in line, and he then ordered the mutineers to appear unarmed in
front of their huts, within five minutes. They hesitated, but on a
second order, they obeyed. Three of the chief movers in the revolt were
tried and sentenced to be shot. Two of them suffered, and the third was
pardoned as being less to blame. The two who were shot fell by the hands
of twelve of the most guilty of the mutineers. That, I think, was piling
it on rather too thick. General Howe then addressed them by platoons,
and ordered their officers to resume their commands. Clinton had again
sent an emissary to make offers to the mutineers; but the man heard of
the fate of the Tory and the British serjeant, and he took his papers to
General Howe instead of the men. These Jersey mutineers were reduced to
submission, without much difficulty. But the Pennsylvanians displayed a
determination to fight if their demands were not satisfied, and so they
gained their point."
"Perhaps," said Hand, "the Jersey troops had not as much reason to
revolt as the Pennsylvanians."
"I know they hadn't as much reason," said Kinnison. "They had suffered
as much for want of food and clothing, but their term of service was
more certainly known."
"How nobly the men treated the offers of Sir Henry Clinton!" said Hand.
"I should think the British government might have learned from that
affair, the spirit of the Americans, and the futility of efforts to
conquer men with such motives and sentiments."
"They might have learned it if they had wished to learn," said Pitts.
"They might have learned the same thing from the Boston tea-party. But
they determined that they had a right to act towards us just as they
pleased, and their pride was blind to consequences."
"One may look through Greek and Roman history in vain to find men
holding such noble and patriotic sentiments, while harassed with want of
every kind," said Hand, growing eloquent.
"Ah! those were times to try the metal men were made of," said Colson.
"The men who took up the sword and gun for freedom were resolved to win
their country's safety or die in the attempt, and such men will not be
bought at any price. Arnold was a mere
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