Clinton’s proposals were rejected with disdain. “See, comrades,” said one of them, “he takes us for traitors. Let us show him that the American army can furnish but one Arnold, and that America has no truer friends than we.”
They seized the two emissaries, and delivered them, with Clinton’s papers, into the hands of General Wayne.
The court of inquiry sat January 10, 1781, at Somerset, N. J., with the court composed of General Wayne, president, and General William Irvine, Colonel Richard Butler, Colonel Walter Stewart and Major Benjamin Fishbourne. The court found John Mason and James Ogden guilty and condemned them to be hanged.
Lieutenant Colonel Harmar, Inspector General of the Pennsylvania Line, was directed to carry the execution into effect. The prisoners were taken to “cross roads from the upper ferry from Trenton to Philadelphia at four lanes’ ends,” and executed.
The reward which had been offered for the apprehension of the offenders was tendered to the mutineers who seized them. They sealed the pledge of patriotism by nobly refusing it, saying: “Necessity wrung from us the act of demanding justice from Congress, but we desire no reward for doing our duty to our bleeding country.”
The whole movement, when all the circumstances are taken into account, should not be execrated as a military rebellion, for, if ever there was a just cause for men to lift up their strength against authority, these mutineers of the Pennsylvania Line possessed it. It must be acknowledged that they conducted themselves in the business, culpable as it was, with unexpected order and regularity.
A great part of the Pennsylvania Line was disbanded for the winter, but was promptly filled by new recruits in the spring and many of the old soldiers re-enlisted.
General Assembly Occupies New State
Capitol, January 2, 1822
