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292 AN APPEAL. |
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paraded through the streets after a crucifix, and joined in a procession in praying for a departed soul out of purgatory; and for this, they gave the example of Congress, and other American leaders, on a former occasion at Philadelphia, some of whom in the height of their zeal, even went so far as to sprinkle themselves with what they call holy water."
At another time Rivington published : " On the receipt of the last manifesto from the English commissioners, one of the Congress had the resolution to make the following short speech: ' I have listened to this manifesto with great attention, and am not ashamed to acknowledge that it breathes a spirit of candor and resolution by which I am considerably influenced. No man in this august assembly will dare to express a doubt of my sincere attachment to the true interest of my country. I am convinced that the interest of America is inseparable from that of Britain, and that our alliance with France is unnatural, unprofitable, and absurd. I therefore move that this phantom of Independence may be given up.'
"He had hardly uttered the words before the president sent a messenger to fetch the Polish Count Pulaski, who happened to be exercising a part of his legion in the court-yard below. The Count flew to the chamber where the Congress sat, and with his sabre in an instant severed from his body the head of this honest delegate. The head was ordered by the Congress to be fixed on the top of the liberty pole of Philadelphia, as a perpetual monument of the freedom of debate in the Continental Congress of the United States of America." |
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