“D HARTLEY. [L.S.]
                                        “JOHN ADAMS, [L.S.]
                                        “B.  FRANKLIN, [L.S.]
                                        “JOHN JAY, [L.S.]"[609]

     “TREATY OF PEACE AND AMITY, BETWEEN HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY
     AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

     “[Ratified and confirmed by and with the advice and consent
     of the Senate, Feb. 11, 1815.]

“Article I. * * * Shall be restored without delay, and without causing any destruction, or carrying away any of the artillery or other public property originally captured in the said forts or places, and which shall remain therein upon the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, or any ‘slaves or other private property.’ * * * *

     “Done, in triplicate, at Ghent, Dec. 24, 1814.

                                        “GAMBIER, [L.S.]
                                        “HENRY GOULBURN, [L.S.]
                                        “WILLIAM ADAMS, [L.S.]
                                        “JOHN OUINCY ADAMS, [L.S.]
                                        “J.A.  BAYARD, [L.S.]
                                        “H.  CLAY, [L.S.]
                                        “JONA.  RUSSELL, [L.S.]
                                        “ALBERT GALLATIN. [L.S.]"[610]

It was not a difficult matter to retake Negroes captured by the enemy, and then treat them as prisoners of war.  But no officer in the American army, no member of Congress, had the moral courage to proclaim that property ceased in a man the moment he donned the uniform of a Revolutionary soldier, and that all Negro soldiers captured by the enemy should be treated as prisoners of war.  So, all through the war with Britain, the Negro soldier was liable to be claimed as property; and every bayonet in the army was at the command of the master to secure his property, even though it had been temporarily converted into an heroic soldier who had defended the country against its foes.  The unprecedented spectacle was to be witnessed, of a master hunting his slaves under the flag of the nation.  And at the close of hostilities many Negro soldiers were called upon to go back into the service of their masters; while few secured their freedom as a reward for their valor.  The following letter of Gen. Washington, addressed to Brig.-Gen. Rufus Putnam, afterwards printed at Marietta, O., from his papers, indicates the regard the Father of his Country had for the rights of the master, though those rights were pushed into the camp of the army where many brave Negroes were found; and it also illustrates the legal strength of such a claim:—­

     “HEAD QUARTERS, Feb. 2, 1783.