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 this 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. I have tracked the humble story of the Acadian exiles through authentic and official proofs, with little or no aid from contemporary correspondence, though much may exist that I have not had access to. There is no allusion to the Neutrals in the Shippen papers, or in that far more interesting and valuable collection — the Hamilton MS. ; and Dr. Franklin, who wrote letters and pamphlets on almost every subject, and who was in Philadelphia when the Neutrals came and for months afterwards, is silent about them. I have no doubt, however, that my vindication rests upon truth.
And closing this little essay, written rapidly, and at such short intervals as I have been able to snatch from daily drudgery, I cannot but recall the moral with which I began, made more pointed by the reflection the sad history suggests, that no kindness, no charity, no compassion can heal entirely the wound which religious persecution inflicts on the heart of man — no sympathy, slow or active, can full to rest resentments which a sense of such wrong excites. These poor Catholic fugitives died in their faith. They hugged it to their wasted broken, and the stain of their agony rests upon the English name. It is made bosoms more closely, because they were persecuted and exiles. They died heart immortal, as I have said, in poetry of the English language — for Evangeline will live long after the feeble, persecuting statesmen of George the Second’s reign are forgotten. Let those (and there seems a sort of centenary cycle in matters of this kind) who would persecute or proscribe for opinions’ sake, and limit by political exclusion the right to worship God in the form which he who worships choses — who would, if let alone, join in the hunt of exile of those who, like the Acadians, cherish the faith of their childhood and their ancestors, let them read this story and beware of the sure retribution of history.
Should the opportunity occur, and what is far more uncertain, the inclination continue, I hope of some future day to read a paper, as desultory as this, on the next visit of the French to Philadelphia, when twenty-five years later they came here triumphant, our welcome auxiliaries ; when French noblemen and French priests were about the streets and, when perhaps, as we may hope, they walked across the Potters’ Field, which I remember, to Pine and Sixth streets, to look at the moulderings remains of the Neutrals huts or trace out the Neutral graves.
