To George Washington from David Green (alias Alexander Howard), 27 February 1797
From David Green (alias Alexander Howard)
New York prison [New York City]1
Feby 27th 1797
Please your Excellency
I in behalf of a Numbers of prisoners at present Confined in the Goal of this City who have at Different Courts within a year past Received sentence of Confinement for Life to hard Labour and Solitude the Charges or Indictments are all one or two Excepted that of Forgery, Numbers for that of Uttering Bank Paper which was said to be Counterfeit and I believe from the Conversation I have had with them as fellow prisoners that some know not whether the sd Notes were Counterfeits or not.2 A hard Case that in a free Country Innocence should Suffer, but the Arbitrary power which Inverts the Breasts of some of the Officers in this State is unequalled in any Government. an Instance has Come to public enquiry in the Case of Richard Varick Mayor of this City, whereas he has been the instigation of unlawful punishment, and publicly Arraigned for the Same,3 the prayer of us all is as we are Young men who with the Assistance of God will become good members of Society, if liberated from this Cruel Confinement, and as your Excellencys presidency will soon be resigned to the great Grief of many, that you will think proper to remember us unfortunate Sufferers as many of us bled in the late war wherein We laboured for freedom.
A proclamation or other Order for our liberty would never be forgot with the Ardent prayers of many.4 I remn yr Excellency most Obt humble and Devoted servant, but unfortunate Sufferer
Alexander Howard In behalf
of 17 Convicts
for Life to hard
Labour and Solitude, with
many others for a Stipulated
time
ALS, DLC:GW.
Alexander Howard was the alias for David Green (born circa 1771), a native of Warrington, England, who was working as a clerk and accountant in Albany by the mid–1790s. In May 1796, Green was convicted of forgery and given a life sentence in the New York State Prison, from which he escaped in 1801. The Albany Gazette for 23 March 1801 gave the following description of Green, then 30 years old: “an accountant, usually resided at Albany, fair complexion, brown hair, 5 feet 10 1.2 inches high, and pitted with the small pox.”
1. The Argus, or Greenleaf’s New Daily Advertiser (New York) for 12 May 1796 reported Green’s temporary confinement “in the gaol of this city,” where he was detained during ongoing construction of the New York State Prison. The “gaol” may refer to the formerly infamous Provost, which served as a military prison during the Revolutionary War and as a debtor’s prison after the war. Commonly referred to as the “Jail” or new jail, the Provost was built in 1758 in a field adjacent to City Hall, located at that time at the northern end of Broad Street. It is also possible that the “gaol” refers to Bridewell, a name given to several New York City prisons. One Bridewell was constructed at City Hall in 1775. It stood near Murray Street and was in the vicinity of the Almshouse and Gallows. The Gallows housed criminals sentenced to death for forgery and other crimes (see , 13–16; see also James Walton to GW, 29 March 1790, and n.1; , 137; and , 90). The New York State Prison, located on the east bank of the Hudson River in upper Greenwich Village, received its first prisoners in late November 1797. The Time Piece (New York) for 4 Dec. 1797 reported that the state prison “was opened” on Tuesday, 28 Nov., “for the reception of criminals, and about seventy of that description were conveyed there … from the old jail.” Green must have been among them, as he appears in an account of the prisoners relocated (see n.2 below). The state prison was intended to house prisoners with sentences of upwards of three years (see , 608).
2. The Argus, or Greenleaf’s New Daily Advertiser (New York) for 12 May 1796 announced that Green was convicted “for passing a forged bill of exchange, purporting to be drawn by Messrs. Browne, Benson, and Ives, merchants, of Providence, on Mr. Nicholas Cook, of this city merchant.” The report added: “A like sentence was passed on Amanda Coe, for uttering a counterfeit note of the bank of the U.S.” An “Account of the Prisoners received into the [New York] State Prison during the year 1797” lists a total of twenty-one white men and one black man who had been convicted either of forgery or of “passing counterfeit Money.” The majority of the other inmates in the state prison in 1797 had received convictions for larceny or burglary (N-Ar). An “Abstract of the Prisoners” for 1797 described all the inmates incarcerated for forgery and counterfeiting money as American-born, except for three, who were from England (Green), Ireland, and Germany (N-Ar).
3. Green probably refers to an incident that took place in 1795, which involved the arrests and imprisonment of ferrymen who were accused of insulting a city alderman. The accused were denied counsel and prohibited from calling character witnesses during their trials. New York City mayor Richard Varick evidently name-called the accused and sought to make an example of them and of members of the lower classes, whom he reproached for disrespecting social superiors. A formal investigation of the court proceedings ensued, but officials sided with the courts. Varick again faced public scrutiny for “sending nine men” from Bridewell prison “on board a British frigate,” after they were wanted for deserting the ship. Varick was declared “innocent” of that charge in early 1796 (Argus, or Greenleaf’s New Daily Advertiser [New York], 4 Feb. 1796; see also Paul Cushman, Richard Varick: A Forgotten Founding Father: Revolutionary War Soldier Federalist Politician & Mayor of New York [Amherst, Mass., 2010], 130–33).
4. Neither a proclamation regarding the prisoners nor a reply to Green from GW has been found.
The Federal Gazette & Baltimore Daily Advertiser for 16 March 1801 printed a report, dated 11 March at New York, which announced that on 9 March, Green and seven other state prisoners “effected their escape by converting a large knife into a saw, with which they worked through the floor of their room into the one immediately underneath, the bolted door of which they forced, and liberated themselves before any measures could be taken. …” A reward in the amount of $240 was offered for their apprehension.