Page:Richard - Acadie, reconstitution d'un chapitre perdu de l'histoire d'Amérique, Tome 3, 1916.djvu/265

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suite^[1]. » Heureusement que l’honneur de la Pensylvanie fut racheté par beaucoup d’hommes importants qui se laissèrent toucher par tant d’infortune. Petit-fils de ces exilés qui, comme les Acadiens, avaient été chassés de leur patrie, Bénezet fit taire ses légitimes rancunes religieuses pour ne se rappeler que les souffrances dont les neutres français étaient les victimes. Il se dévoua à leur soulagement avec

↑ Casgrain. Pèlerinage… P. 170.
Huliburton est le premier à avoir affirmé ceci : « They landed in a most déplorable condition at Philadelphia. The Government of the Colony, to relieve itself of the charge such a company of miserable wretches would require to maintain them, proposed to sell them with their own consent ; but when this expédient for their support was offered for their considération, the Neutrals refused it with indignation, alledging that they were prisoners, and expected to be maintained as such, and not forced to labour. » I. P. 182. — Cette affirmation est répétée littéralement dans les notes d’une édition (l’Évangéline, parue à Londres, en 1853. — Or, le 24 mars 1856, William B. Read a donné devant la Société Historique de Philadelphie une étude dont le texte imprimé se trouve aux Archives de la Mass. Histor. Society, et dans laquelle il a voulu défendre la Pensylvanie d’une pareille accusation : « In this retrospect of a sad chapter of local history, I find nothing to wound the proper pride, or excite the blush of Pennsylvania, and no where a trace of truth to justify the wanton aspersion on our fame, that Pensylvania sold, or wished to sell, or thought of selling these, or any other human beings into slavery. The only color for it cornes in the shape of a very slight tradition embalmed in Mr. Vaux’s Life of Benezet. It is this : « Such was Benezet’s care of the Neutrals that it produced a jealousy in the mind of one of the oldest men among them of a very novel and curions description, which was communicated to a friend of Benezet, to whom he said : « It is impossible that all this kindness can be disinterested : Mr. Benezet must certainly intend to recompense himself by treacherously selling us. » — When their patron and protector, adds Mr. Vaux, was informed of the ungrateful suspicion, it was so far from producing an emotion of anger or indignation, that he lifted up his hands and laughed immoderately. » P. 88. — Pointless as this gossiping anecdote is, the aspersion on our character rests on no other foundation. » — Ainsi, d’après les documents produits par Read, et qui sont les seuls qui soient sur la question, il apparaît clairement que l’accusation portée contre la Pensylvanie n’a aucun fondement. Cf. Aux appendices toute cette étude, fort bien faite, de W. B. Read.

[1] Casgrain. Pèlerinage… P. 170.
Huliburton est le premier à avoir affirmé ceci : « They landed in a most déplorable condition at Philadelphia. The Government of the Colony, to relieve itself of the charge such a company of miserable wretches would require to maintain them, proposed to sell them with their own consent ; but when this expédient for their support was offered for their considération, the Neutrals refused it with indignation, alledging that they were prisoners, and expected to be maintained as such, and not forced to labour. » I. P. 182. — Cette affirmation est répétée littéralement dans les notes d’une édition (l’Évangéline, parue à Londres, en 1853. — Or, le 24 mars 1856, William B. Read a donné devant la Société Historique de Philadelphie une étude dont le texte imprimé se trouve aux Archives de la Mass. Histor. Society, et dans laquelle il a voulu défendre la Pensylvanie d’une pareille accusation : « In this retrospect of a sad chapter of local history, I find nothing to wound the proper pride, or excite the blush of Pennsylvania, and no where a trace of truth to justify the wanton aspersion on our fame, that Pensylvania sold, or wished to sell, or thought of selling these, or any other human beings into slavery. The only color for it cornes in the shape of a very slight tradition embalmed in Mr. Vaux’s Life of Benezet. It is this : « Such was Benezet’s care of the Neutrals that it produced a jealousy in the mind of one of the oldest men among them of a very novel and curions description, which was communicated to a friend of Benezet, to whom he said : « It is impossible that all this kindness can be disinterested : Mr. Benezet must certainly intend to recompense himself by treacherously selling us. » — When their patron and protector, adds Mr. Vaux, was informed of the ungrateful suspicion, it was so far from producing an emotion of anger or indignation, that he lifted up his hands and laughed immoderately. » P. 88. — Pointless as this gossiping anecdote is, the aspersion on our character rests on no other foundation. » — Ainsi, d’après les documents produits par Read, et qui sont les seuls qui soient sur la question, il apparaît clairement que l’accusation portée contre la Pensylvanie n’a aucun fondement. Cf. Aux appendices toute cette étude, fort bien faite, de W. B. Read.

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