THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN WITH AN EXPECTATION THAT I SHOULD HAVE THE LIBERTY TO LAY THE SAME BEFORE THE COURT OF ENQUIRY, BEFORE WHOM I WAS IMPEACHED AS AN ENEMY TO MY COUNTRY, AND CAST INTO PRISON [caption title]

Book Description

Boston. 1776.. Broadside, 14 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches. Main text printed in two columns. Slight wear around the edges. Old folds. Manuscript letter on verso. Near fine. A rare and remarkably interesting Revolutionary broadside, issued by a Boston Loyalist and religious dissenter from his prison cell, and with a manuscript letter by him on the verso. The case of Hopestill Capen raises numerous issues regarding dissent and liberty of conscience during the American Revolution, and highlights the plight of religiously-motivated conscientious objectors who either refused to fight or held their allegiance to the British crown, as well as crucial issues of habeas corpus and imprisonment without just cause. Hopestill Capen (d. 1807) was a prominent dry goods dealer in Boston in the decades leading up to the Revolution. In 1775 his shop became the headquarters for Ebenezer Hancock, the first paymaster of the Continental Army (the site is currently occupied by Boston's historic Union Oyster House restaurant). Capen was a member of the Sandemanians, a Presbyterian sect that remained loyal to the King and Parliament during the American Revolution. Unlike many Sandemanians, however, Capen and his family refused to leave Boston when other Loyalists evacuated the city. Capen was imprisoned in Boston on August 6, 1776 and was ultimately released on June 20, 1777, after confinement of nearly a year. In 1778 he was called on to repudiate his allegiance to King George III, refused to do so, and was again imprisoned. Throughout his imprisonment Capen argued that his loyalty to the King and Parliament was founded in his religious beliefs, which stressed an allegiance to prevailing civil authority. He also said that should the Revolution triumph, he would be loyal to American civil authority. Ultimately, Capen fled New England for Nova Scotia. Capen's printed text is dated August 29, 1776, from "Boston Goal," and he writes that he issued this broadside "to inform all whom it may concern the principles I have acted upon." Capen argues forcefully that he is under arrest as a prisoner of conscience: "this is a matter of conscience only with me, by which nothing but God's revealed-word in the Scriptures are any sure guide; and as I understand them I am bound in conscience to conduct." Capen goes on to say that "as to the charge of my being an enemy to my country, no accusation can be more unjust, for I think every person acquainted with me can testify to the strong attachment and love I have to my country and should chuse to live in it if I could without being persecuted for that which in my conscience I cannot do." He concludes by writing that the Boston authorities have nothing to fear from him or his co-religionists, and that if the Revolution should succeed he would be loyal to the new government: "whenever it shall appear to my conscience that a change of government has taken place, and is so established that the power is of God, I shall know myself to be as tenaciously bound to adhere to God's law respecting being subject to that power, and to do what I can for its support with chearfulness; and how near such a change is I cannot tell; or if it ever will be, time alone will bring forth." The present copy is enhanced by a manuscript letter in Capen's hand, written on the verso and dated "Boston Prison 16 Dec. 1776," which graphically states his plight. The letter is addressed to William Greenleaf, his jailer. Capen writes: "[it] is now one hundred and thirty three days since I was by unreasonable and wicked men commited to the prison under your charge where I have been clost kept in a felons room. And all this cruelty I have suffered not for the breach of any law whatever - but contry to the law of the great law- giver who is the maker and judge of all men - and for no other cause then my simply pleading conscience in obeying a plain scripture command. And you have never yet shewd me by what authority you have kept me thus in prison which you ought to have dun & now demand of you a coppey of my Commitment and I likewise demand of you my just liberty as I look on you answerable for all the consequences of unjust imprisonment." Evans notes that two copies of this broadside, "in the archives of the Secretary of State of Massachusetts," contain Capen's manuscript letter to his jailers dated December 16, 1776, as in the present copy. NAIP, Ford, and Evans combined locate a total of only five copies of this rare broadside, at Syracuse University, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Massachusetts State Library (the two copies with manuscript letters on the verso cited by Evans?), the British Library, and the Louisiana State Library. A rare and important broadside, illustrating the plight of religiously-motivated Loyalists during the American Revolution, and resonant of the struggles faced by many conscientious objectors in time of war. EVANS 14672. NAIP w020325. FORD 1947. John Howard Smith, "'Sober Dissent' and 'Spirited Conduct'": The Sandemanians and the American Revolution, 1765-1781" in the HISTORICAL JOURNAL OF MASSACHUSETTS (Vol. 28, no. 2, Summer 2000).

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