John Dodge

“ Governor Hamilton, De Jeane and Le Mote, were afterwards taken by the brave Colonel Clarke, of Virginia, at Fort St. Vincent, and are now confined in irons in a goal in Virginia (by order of the Legislature of that State) as a retaliation for their former inhuman treatment of prisoners, who fell into their hands, particularly Mr. Dodge, who has the pleasing consolation of viewing his savage adversaries in a similar predicament with himself when in their power——though it is not in the breast of generous Americans to treat them with equal barbarity. ”

“ I sometime since left the place of my nativity in Connecticut, and, in the year 1770, settled in Sandusky, an Indian village, about half way between Pittsburgh and Detroit, where I carried on a very beneficial trade with the natives, until the unhappy dispute between Great-Britain and America reached those pathless wilds, and roused to war Savages no ways interested in it.
In July, 1775, Capt. James Woods called at my house in his way to the different indian towns, where he was going to invite them, in the name of the Congress, to a treaty to be held at Fort-Pitt. the ensuing fall ”

“ On the first of June I arrived at Quebec, where I was conducted to Mr. Printices the Provost Marshal! Ha! ha! says he, Mr. Dodge, are you here? I have often been told you were a damn'd rascal doing all you could against government. It is a pity Governor Hamilton did not hang you when he was about it, as he would have saved government a great deal of trouble. From hence I was conducted on board the prison ship Mariah, with a number of Farmers, taken off their plantations by the Savages. ”

“ I was sent for and carried before the Commandant, where, on being examined who was the person in my house, I frankly told him it was a young man whom I had bought of the Indians when they were going to burn him, and that I meant to send him to Canada to be out of the way of the Savages, but De Jeane, like other men of bad principles, thinking no man could do a good action without sinister views, said that he believed I had purchased him to serve my own ends, and that he would find them out, which the Commandant ordered him to do as soon as possible, and I was ordered to prison. ”

“ This talk so dismayed the Indians, that they came to me and said they would not go to the treaty, at the same time telling me what the Governor of Detroit had said to them. On this Mr. James Heron and myself having the cause of our country at heart, asserted that what the Governor had said was false and told them that the Colonists would not hurt a hair of their heads, and if they would go to the treaty, that I, with Mr. Heron, would be security, and pledge our property, to the amount of four thousand pounds, for their safe return. ”

“ That Governour Hamilton gave standing rewards for scalps, but offered none for prisoners, which induced the Indians, after making their captives carry their baggage into the neighborhood of the fort, there to put them to death, and carry in their scalps to the Governour, who welcomed their return and success by a discharge of cannon; that when a prisoner brought [a] live, and destined to death by the Indians, the fire already kindled, and himself bound to the stake, was dexterously withdrawn and secreted from them by the humanity of a fellow prisoner ”

“ It appears to them that the prisoner Dejean, was on all occasions the willing and cordial instrument of Governour Hamilton, acting both as judge and keeper of the jail, and instigating and urging him by malicious insinuations and untruths, to increase rather than relax his severities, heightening the cruelty of his orders by the manner of executing them; offering at one time a reward to one prisoner to be the hangman of another, threatening his life on refusal, and taking from his [Pg 22] prisoners the little property their opportunities enabled them to acquire. ”

“ They have seen that the conduct of the British officers, civil and military, has in its general tenor, through the whole course of this war, been savage & unprecedented among civilized nations; that our officers and soldiers taken by them have been loaded with irons, consigned to loathesome and crouded jails, dungeons, and prison ships; supplied often with no food, generally with too little for the sustenance of nature, and that little sometimes unsound and unwholsome, whereby so many of them have perished that captivity and miserable death have with them been almost synonimous ”

“ Fathers: From the information I have had of the commandant of Detroit, with distrust I accepted your invitation, and measured my way to the council fire with trembling feet. Your reception of me convinces me of his falsehood, and the groundlessness of my fears. Truth and he has long been enemies. My [Pg 17] father, and many of my chiefs, have lately tasted death. The remembrance of that misfortune almost unmans me, and fills my eyes with tears.
The following is another letter by Dodge:
Fort Pitt Decr 13th 1781. ”

“ Their prisoners with us have, on the other hand, been treated with moderation and humanity; they have been fed on all occasions with wholesome and plentiful [Pg 23] food, lodged comfortably, suffered to go at large within extensive tracts of country, treated with liberal hospitality, permitted to live in the families of our citizens, to labour for themselves, to acquire and to enjoy property, and finally to participate of the principal benefits of society while privileged from all its burthens. ”

“ I remained in this dismal situation three days, when De Jeane came and [Pg 36] took out one of the criminals who was in the dungeon with me, and held a short conference with him, then came and told me, the Governor had sent him to tell me to prepare for another world, as I had not long to live, and then withdrew. I enquired of the criminal, who was a Frenchman, what De Jeane wanted with him? But he would not tell me.
The evening following he told his brother in distress, that De Jeane had offered him twenty pounds to hang Mr. Dodge (meaning me) but that he had refused unless he had his liberty ”

“ They find that his treatment of our citizens and soldiers, captivated and carried within the limits of his command, has been cruel and inhumane; that in the case of John Dodge, a citizen of these states, which has been particularly stated to this Board, he loaded him with irons, threw him into a dungeon, without bedding, without straw, without fire, in the dead of winter and severe climate of Detroit ”

“ New-York currency. Thus being a second time robbed of my property, I lay a prisoner [Pg 53] as contented as possible, without any thing material happening until the first of May.
On the first of May 1778, I was put on board a vessel to go down to Quebec, and by some of my friends furnished with provision and necessaries for the voyage; but of these I was robbed by De Jeane, and had it not been for some gentlemen, passengers in the same vessel, I must have suffered with hunger. ”

“ They find that Governour Hamilton has executed the task of inciting the Indians to perpetrate their accustomed cruelties on the citizens of these States, without distinction of age, sex, or condition, with an eagerness and activity which evince that the general nature of his charge harmonized with his particular disposition ”

“ It enclosed the proceedings of the Virginia Council concerning Hamilton.
Dodge was a great traveler in his day. Born in Connecticut in 1751, he went to Sandusky, Ohio, in 1770, thence to Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) , thence back to Sandusky, thence in succession to Detroit, Michillimackinac (Mackinac) , Detroit, Quebec, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Fort Pitt, Vincennes (Indiana) , Kaskaskia (Illinois) , Ste. Genevieve (Missouri) , and New Orleans. We find mention of the man at these places and it is very probable that his travels were much more extensive. ”

“ Sometimes at liberty, engaged in trading, and sometimes confined in jail as a rebel, he remained in Detroit and Mackinac till May, 1778, when he was sent down to Quebec, at which place he arrived on the first day of June.
In the reports of rebel prisoners at Quebec in June and July, 1778, are three entries referring to Dodge as follows: "John Dodge, 24 years old, from Connecticut, a trader settled at Detroit for seven years, sent down by Lieutenant Governor Hamilton. His commercial effects at Detroit. Taken up on suspicion of having been in arms with the rebels." ”

“ The council commenced; the Indians, who are always fond of fishing in troubled water, offered their assistance, which was refused, with a request that they would remain in peace, and not take up the hatchet on either side. On the whole, these Indians [Pg 32] were well pleased with the talk from the Congress, and promised to remain quiet.
The Commissioners thinking it proper, sont the Continental belt and talk by some of the Chiefs to the Savages who resided about the lakes. These Chiefs being obliged to pass Sandusky, in their rout, Mr. ”