ws of the
State _under which the claim shall be made_.

"But if the service of such negro, mulatto, Indian, or other
person, captured below high water mark, shall not be legally
claimed _within a year and a day from the sentence of the
Court_, he shall be set at liberty."

It should be carefully observed that the above law refers only to
_recaptures_. It would be interesting to know the views the committee
entertained in reference to slaves captured by the ministerial army.
Nothing was said about this interesting feature of the case. Why
Congress did not claim proper treatment of the slaves captured by the
enemy while in the service of the United Colonies, is not known.
Doubtless its leaders saw where the logic of such a position would
lead them. The word "another" was left out of the original measure,
and was made to read, in the one that passed, "_a State or citizen_;"
as if it were feared that, by implication, a Negro would be recognized
as a _citizen_.

By the proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton, already mentioned in the
preceding chapter, Negroes were threatened with sale for "the public
service;" and Mr. Jefferson in his letter to Mr. Gordon (see preceding
chapter), says the enemy sold the Negroes captured in Virginia into
the West Indies. After the capture of Stony Point by Gen. Wayne,
concerning two Negroes who fell into his hands, he wrote to
Lieut.-Col. Meigs from New Windsor on the 25th of July, 1779, as
follows:--

"The wish of the officers to free the three Negroes after a
few Years Service meets my most hearty approbation but as
the Chance of War or other Incidents may prevent the officer
[owner] from Compling with the Intention of the Officers it
will be proper for the purchaser or purchasers to sign a
Condition in the Orderly Book.

" ... I wou'd cheerfully join them in their Immediate
Manumission--if a few days makes no material difference I
could wish the sale put off until a Consultation may be had,
& the opinion of the Officers taken on this Business."[593]

In June, 1779, a Spanish ship called "Victoria" sailed from
Charleston, S.C., for Cadiz. During the first part of her voyage she
was run down by a British privateer; but, instead of being captured,
she seized her assailant, and found on board thirty-four Negroes, whom
the English vessel had taken from plantations in South Carolina. The
Spaniards got the Negroes on b