Abraham Carlisle and John Roberts
Trials: 1778

Defendants: Abraham Carlisle, John Roberts
Crime Charged: Treason
Chief Defense Lawyers: George Ross, James Wilson, William Lewis, Elias Boudinot
Chief Prosecutor: Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant
Judges: Thomas McKean, William Atlee, and John Evans, justices of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date of Trials: Carlisle: September 25, 1778; Roberts: September 30, 1778
Verdict: Guilty
Sentence: Death by hanging

SIGNIFICANCE: John Roberts and Abraham Carlisle were victims of a politically motivated sentence for treason. The judiciary of Pennsylvania wanted to show its toughness toward collaborators with the enemy. Though guilty, they were no more so than other collaborators who escaped death.

The Revolutionary War was still in progress in late June of 1778, when the British army, because of a change in its strategy, abandoned Philadelphia and marched to New York. In British America's largest city, Philadelphia, they left a residue of property damage and hard feelings among American patriots toward those Philadelphians who had collaborated with the British during the year that they controlled the city.

Collaborators

As early as mid-July this resentment took political form. Citizens' organizations were formed in Philadelphia to gather evidence against collaborators with the British during the occupation and bring them to justice. In addition, there were threats of extralegal activity, physical attacks, and harassment against persons accused of having supplied the British with information or goods, or having cooperated with them in any way. Newspapers printed the names of suspects.

Thomas McKean, chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, anxious to avoid the possibility of vigilante justice against collaborators, set the court system in motion as quickly as possible to handle their cases. Through August and September, he and his two fellow justices sat in the city hall collecting evidence and interviewing accused persons. McKean, who believed that moderation toward dissidents was good policy in wartime, released all the accused on bond, commenting that no credible evidence had yet been produced against them. The Philadelphia grand jury, however, after hearing the evidence, brought in 33 indictments for the September court, most of them for treason—collaboration with the enemy—which was punishable by death under state law.

Abraham Carlisle was one of the first defendants brought to trial. A prosperous, elderly carpenter, he had guarded the city gates under the British rule, and was therefore charged with having accepted a commission from them. Several witnesses testified to his service as a guard, but his defense lawyers argued that he could not be convicted of treason, since no written commission was produced. The jury deliberated 24 hours and found him guilty. His conviction was appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and was upheld. The State Executive Council, which had the power to commute Carlisle's sentence, turned down numerous appeals to do so, including one from Justice McKean, who had originally pronounced it.

A few days after Carlisle's conviction, and after several other defendants had been acquitted of charges of treason, the case of John Roberts came up. Roberts, like Carlisle, was a prosperous older citizen, in this case a miller. He was charged with recruiting men to join the British army. Testimony showed that he had in fact attempted to persuade men to enlist in the British forces, but his defense lawyers argued that his efforts were unsuccessful and that he could not be convicted unless the prosecution showed that someone had actually enlisted as a result of Roberts's persuasion. They also objected to the introduction of his confession, which could not, they said, be used as evidence in a trial for treason. These arguments failed to convince the jury, which found Roberts guilty as charged. His case, like Carlisle's, was appealed to the Supreme Court and the State Executive Council, and the sentence affirmed by both authorities. Carlisle and Roberts were hanged on November 4, 1778.

Chosen as Examples

There is little doubt that both men received fair trials. They had first-rate counsel—James Wilson, a lawyer for both, was a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and one of the best lawyers in America. But on the basis of the evidence presented, both men were guilty of treason under Pennsylvania law. The question about their trials relates to the comparative fairness of their sentences. Several other defendants, shown to have committed equally serious offenses, were acquitted on technicalities or given much lighter punishment by the same court. It seems clear that Carlisle and Roberts were singled out for harsh treatment on the basis of something other than their acts.

That basis was political necessity. McKean was convinced that it was essential for the courts to take control of the punishment of collaborators, and for them to show that they were prepared to be severe, in order to head off the danger of private revenge and mob violence in a wartime situation. In other words, a few defendants had to be sentenced to death to show that the courts meant business. McKean, not a bloodthirsty man, hoped that the sentence could be reversed at a higher level—hence his petition to the State Executive Council.

Carlisle and Roberts were selected because their guilt was clear and because they were older men of some prominence in the community. McKean, in an earlier case not involving treason, had commented that it did little good to execute a poor, obscure defendant, since his death would have less effect on people's behavior than that of a defendant who was of high status and widely known. By sending the two men to be hanged, the courts showed that wealth and prominence were no protection against strict justice.

Carlisle and Roberts were both Quakers. There were suggestions at the time, which have been repeated since, that their deaths were part of a persecution of Quakers by the Pennsylvania authorities, who resented the Quakers' refusal to fight on the American side because of their peace testimony. In fact, the pro-British actions of both men were inconsistent with the peace testimony of the Society of Friends. They were disowned by the Philadelphia Meeting, which refused to seek a pardon for either man, although it deplored the severity of their sentences. No other Quakers were put to death.

Other collaborators who stayed in Philadelphia suffered no private violence or vigilante justice in the years after 1778. After the war ended, most of them were accepted by their neighbors. The executions of Carlisle and Roberts may or may not have been related to this outcome.

—Hendrik Booraem V

Suggestions for Further Reading

Oosterhout, Anne M. "A State Divided: Opposition in Pennsylvania to the American Revolution."

Contributions in American History, no. 123. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.

Rowe, G. S. Embattled Bench: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the Forging of a Democratic Society, 1684-1809. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1994.