Committee of Correspondence for the Town of Sandwich, came duly
to hand. Capt. Tobey, the bearer, was kind enough to deliver to
the Committee of this Town, appointed to receive Donations for
the relief and employment of the sufferers by the Boston Port
Bill, a charitable collection from the Congregational societies
in Sandwich, amounting to nineteen pounds and three pence, for
which he has our Treasurer's receipt. I am to desire you, in the
name of our Committee, to return their sincere thanks to our
worthy brethren, for the kindness they have shown to those
sufferers by so generous a contribution for their support under
the cruel hand of oppression. It affords us abundant satisfaction
to have the testimony of such respectable bodies of men, that
the inhabitants of this Town are not sufferers as evil doers, but
for "their steady adherence to the cause of liberty," and we
cannot but persuade ourselves that the Supreme Being approves our
conduct, by whose all powerful influence the British American
continent hath been united, and thus far successful, in
disappointing the enemies of our common liberty, in their hopes,
that by reducing the people to want and hunger, they should force
them to yield to their unrighteous demands.
I am, Sir, in the name of the Committee, with sincere good
wishes, your friend and countryman,
_________________________________________________________________
1Member of the committee of correspondence of Sandwich,
Massachusetts.
2The actual date of this letter would appear to have been
February 25, from a prior manuscript copy in the library
of the Massachusetts Historical Society. All letters here printed
from the Collections, 4th ser., vol. iv., are
contained in a volume of manuscript copies, from which apparently
the texts in the Collections were edited. The
text of the Collections has been followed in the present volume.
THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF BOSTON TO JOHN BROWN.1
[MS., Committee of Correspondence Papers, Lenox Library.]
BOSTON, Feb 21 1775
SIR/
Agreable to the Order of the Provincial Congress, the Committee
of Correspondence of this Town have written Letters to some
Gentlemen of Montreal and Quebeck, which are herewith inclosd. We
have also sent you Twenty Pounds as directed by the Congress. We
hope you will make the utmost Dispatch to Canada, as much depends
upon it. We are with sincere good Wishes.
Your humble Servants,
_________________________________________________________________
1Of Pittsfield Mass.
THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF BOSTON TO INHABITANTS OF THE
PROVINCE OF QUEBEC.1
[MS., Committee of Correspondence Papers, Lenox Library.]
BOSTON, Feb 21 1775
GENTLEMEN/
At a Time when the British Colonies in North America are
universally complaining of the Oppression of a corrupt
Administration, the Necessity and Advantage of a free
Communication of Sentiments as well as Intelligence must be
obvious to all. Hence it is that the Committee of Correspondence
appointed by the Town of Boston, have long been sollicitous of
establishing a friendly Intercourse with their Brethren and
Fellow Subjects in your Province. Having receivd Direction for
this important Purpose from our Provincial Congress sitting at
Cambridge on the first of this Instant,2 we take the Liberty of
addressing a Letter to you Gentlemen, begging you would be
assured that we have our mutual Safety and Prosperity at heart.
It is notorious to all the Colonies, that at the Conclusion of
the last War, a System was formd for the Destruction of our
common Rights & Liberties. The Design of the British Ministry was
to make themselves Masters of the Property of the Colonists, and
to appropriate their Money in such a Manner as effectually to
enslave them. The Ministry had influence enough in Parliament to
procure an Act, declaratory of a Right in the King Lords and
Commons of Great Britain to make Laws binding his Majestys
Subjects in America in all Cases whatsoever; and also to pass
other Acts for taxing the American Subjects with the express
Purpose of raising a Revenue, and appropriating the same for the
Support of Civil Government & defraying the Charges of the
Administration of justice in such Colonies where his Majesty
should think proper. The Principle upon which these Acts was
grounded, is in our opinion totally inconsistent with the Idea of
a free Government; for there can be no Freedom where a People is
governd by the Laws of a Parliament, in which they have no Share
and over which they can have no Controul; and if such a
Legislature shall give and grant as much of our Money as it
pleases without our Consent in Person or by our Representatives
what are we but Bond Servants instead of free Subjects? These
Revenue Laws have in their operation been grievous to all the
Colonies & this in a particular Manner. Our own property has been
extorted from us, and applied to the purpose of rendering our
provincial & only Legislature an insignificant Body; and by
providing for the Executive & judiciary Powers in the Province
independent of the People, to place them under the absolute Power
& Controul of a Minister of State. Our righteous and stedfast
opposition to this System of Slavery, has been artfully held up
to our fellow Subjects in Britain as springing from a latent
Design to break off all political Connections with the Parent
Country and to set up an independent Government among ourselves.
The Letters of Bernard, Hutchinson and Oliver have been detected;
by which it appears how great a Share they have had in
misrepresenting & calumniating this Country, and in plotting the
total Ruin of its Liberties, for the Sake of enriching &
aggrandising themselves & their families. The two last named were
Natives of the Colony, of ancient families in it, and having by
Art & Intrigue gaind a considerable Influence over an
unsuspecting People, and thereby a reputation in England, they
found Means to get themselves advancd to the highest Seats in
this Government; and they improvd these Advantages, to put a
period to our free Constitution, by procuring an Act of
Parliament to disanul the essential parts of our Charter &
constitute an absolute despotick Government in its Stead;
fourteen regiments are now assembled in this Capital, and
Reinforcements are expected, to put this Act into Execution. The
People are determined that this shall not be done. They are
united & firmly resolvd to withstand it at the utmost Risque of
Life and Fortune. A Scene therefore may open soon, unless the
Ministry hearken to the Voice of Reason & Justice, which the
Friends of Britain and America must deprecate.
In the same Session of the British Parliament the Act for
establishing a Government in the Province of Quebeck was passed;
whereby our Brethren & fellow Subjects in that Province are
deprived of the most valueable Securities of the British
Constitution, for which they wisely stipulated, & which was
solemnly Guaranteed to them by the Royal Proclamation. These new
Governments of Quebeck and Massachusetts Bay, of a kind nearly
alike, though before unheard of under a British
King, are looked upon by the other Colonies from Nova Scotia to
Georgia, as Models intended for them all; they all therefore
consider themselves as deeply concernd to have them abolishd; and
it is for this Reason, that, although the Advantage of Delegates
from your Province could not be had at the late Continental
Congress, the Quebeck bill was considerd then not only as an
intollerable Injury to the Subjects in that Province but as a
capital Grievance on all. It is an inexpressible Satisfaction to
us to hear that our fellow Subjects in Canada, of French as well
as English Extract, behold the Indignity of having such a
Government obtruded upon them with a resentment which discovers
that they have a just Idea of Freedom & a due regard for
themselves & their Posterity. They were certainly misrepresented
in the most shameful Manner, when, in order to enslave them it
was suggested that they were too ignorant to enjoy Liberty. We
are greatly pleasd to hear that Remonstrances are already sent to
the Court & Parliament of Britain against an Act so disgraceful
to human Nature, and Petitions for its repeal. We pray God to
succeed such noble Exertions, & that the Blessing of a free
Government may be establishd there & transmitted to their latest
posterity. The Enemies of American Liberty will surely be
chagrind when they find, that the People of Quebeck have in
common with other Americans the true Sentiments of Liberty. How
confounded must they be, when they see those very Peoples upon
whom they depended to aid them in their flagitious Designs,
lending their Assistance to oppose them, cheerfully adopting the
resolutions of the late Continental Congress & joyning their own
Delegates in another, to be held at Philadelphia on the l0th of
May next. The Accession of that Colony in particular will add
great Reputation & Weight to the Common Cause.
We rejoyce in the opportunity of informing you that the Assembly
of the Island of Jamaica have warmly espousd our Interest. We
have seen a Copy of their Petition to the King in which they
declare . . . .
We promise ourselves that great Good will be the Effect of this
ingenuous Application in Behalf of the Northern Colonies.
As it is possible you may not have seen the Kings Speech at the
opening of the Parliament we inclose it. Lord Dartmouth in a
Circular Letter to the Governors in America, a Copy of which we
have seen is pleasd to say "The Resolutions of both Houses to
support the great CONSTITUTIONAL Principles by which his Majestys
Conduct hath been governd, and their entire Approbation of the
Steps his Majesty has taken for carrying into Execution THE LAWS
PASSED IN THE LAST SESSION, will, I trust, have the Effect to
remove the FALSE IMPRESSIONS which have been made upon the Minds
of his Majestys Subjects in America, and put an End to those
EXPECTATIONS OF SUPPORT in their UNWARRANTABLE PRETENSIONS, which
have been held forth by ARTFUL & DESIGNING MEN." Dated Whitehall
Decr 20 1774. What Ideas his Lordship has of the Consistency of
the Quebec Act with constitutional Principles, which deprives the
Subjects in Canada of those darling Privileges of the British
Constitution, JURORS and the HABEAS CORPUS Act, and in all Crown
Causes, consigns them over to Laws made without their Consent in
person or by their Representatives, perhaps by a Governor &
Council dependent upon the Crown for their Places & Support, & to
be tryed by Judges equally dependent, we will leave to your
Consideration. The Boston Port Bill is another act passed the
last Session & it is executed with the utmost Rigour. How
consistent was it with the great Principles of the Constitution
founded on the Laws of Nature & reason, to punish forty or fifty
thousand Persons for what was done in all Probability by only
forty or fifty. His Lordship may possibly find it very difficult
with his superior understanding to prove that the Destruction of
the Tea in Boston was, considering the Circumstances of the
Action, morally or politically wrong, or, if he must needs think
it was so, could his Lordship judge it inconsistent with the Laws
of God for a Tribunal to proceed to try condemn and punish even
the Individuals who might be chargd with doing it without giving
them an opportunity of being heard or even calling them to
answer! Such however is the Policy, the Justice of the British
Councils. Such his Lordships Ideas of "great constitutional
Principles"! Nothwithstanding the great Confidence of the Noble
Lord, we still have the strongest "Expectations of Support," not
as his Lordship would have it, in the "unwarrantable Pretensions
held forth by artful & designing Men," but in the rational & just
Claims of every unpensiond & disinterested Man in this extended
Continent.
We beg that you will favor the Committee of Correspondence by the
return of this Messenger with your own Sentiments and those of
the respectable Inhabitants of your Colony; and shall be happy in
uniting with you in the necessary Means of obtaining the Redress
of our Common Grievances.
We are Gentlemen with sincere good Wishes,
Your Friends & Countrymen,
_________________________________________________________________
1A similar letter was at the same time addressed to residents of
Montreal; their reply, dated, April 28, I775, is in
Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, pp. 751,
752. Cf., W. V. Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, vol.
ii., p. 275.
2The session began February 1; the resolution referred to was
adopted February 15. Journals of each Provincial
Congress of Massachusetts, p. 100.
TO GEORGE READ.
[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th ser., vol.
iv., pp. 233, 234; the text is also in W. T. Read, Life and
Correspondence of George Read, pp. 101, 102.]
BOSTON, Feb. 24, 1775.
SIR,
By your letter of the 6th instant, directed to Mr. David
Jeffries, the Committee of this Town appointed to receive and
distribute the donations made for the employment and relief of
the sufferers by the Boston Port Bill, are informed that a very
generous collection has been made by the inhabitants of the
County of New Castle on Delaware, and that there is in your hands
upwards of nine hundred dollars for that charitable purpose. The
care you have taken, with our worthy friend Nicholas Vandyke,
Esq., in receiving these contributions, and your joint endeavors
to have them remitted in the safest and most easy manner, is
gratefully acknowledged by our Committee; and they have directed
me to request that you would return their sincere thanks to the
people of New Castle County, for their great liberality towards
their fellow subjects in this place who are still suffering under
the hand of oppression and tyranny. It will, I dare say, afford
you abundant satisfaction to be informed that the inhabitants of
this Town, with the exception only of a contemptible few, appear
to be animated with an inextinguishable love of liberty. Having
the approbation of all the sister Colonies, and being thus
supported by their generous benefactions, they endure the most
severe trials, with a manly fortitude which disappoints and
perplexes our common enemies. While a great continent is thus
anxious for them, and constantly administering to their relief,
they can even smile with contempt on the feeble efforts of the
British administration to force them to submit to tyranny, by
depriving them of the usual means of subsistence. The people of
this Province, behold with indignation a lawless army posted in
its capital, with a professed design to overturn their free
constitution. They restrain their just resentments, in hopes that
the most happy effects will flow from the united applications of
the Colonies for their relief.
May Heaven grant that the councils of our sovereign may be guided
by wisdom, that the liberties of America may be established, and
harmony restored between the subjects in Britain and the
Colonies,
I am, your very obliged friend and humble servant,
TO ISAAC VAN DAM.1
[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th ser., vol.
iv., pp. 191, 192.]
BOSTON, Feb. 28 1775.
SIR,
Your letter of the 30th December, addressed to John Hancock,
Esq., has been laid before the Committee appointed by this Town,
to receive and distribute the donations made for the employment
and relief of the sufferers by the Act of Parliament, commonly
called the Boston Port Bill. I am directed by the Committee to
return you their hearty thanks for the care you have generously
taken in the disposal of a parcel of corn, (free of charge,)
which was shipped for that charitable purpose, by our friends in
Essex County, in Virginia, on board the schooner Sally, James
Perkins, master, driven by stress of weather to St. Eustatia. An
account of sales of the corn was inclosed in your letter,
together with a bill of exchange drawn by Mr. Sampson Mears on
Mr. Isaac Moses of New York, for one hundred seventy-one pounds,
eight shillings, that currency, being the amount thereof.
The opinion you have formed of the inhabitants of this Town, as
having so virtuously dared to oppose a wicked and corrupt
ministry, in their tyrannical acts of despotism, must needs be
very flattering to them. The testimony of our friends so fully in
our favor, more especially of those who are not immediately
interested in the unhappy contest between Britain and her
Colonies, must strongly excite this people to a perseverance in
so righteous a cause.
Be pleased, Sir, to accept of due acknowledgments for your kind
wishes for our speedy relief, and be assured that I am, (in the
name of the Committee,)
Your very obliged friend and humble servant,
________________________________________________________________
1At St. Eustatia.
TO WILLIAM BLACK.1
[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th ser., vol.
iv., pp. 188, 189; the text, dated March 2, 1775, is in Force,
American Archives, 4th ser., vol. ii., p. 16.]
SIR,
Your letter of the 24th December last to Mr. Cushing and others,
by Capt. Tompkins, of the schooner Dunmore, in which was brought
several valuable donations from our friends in Virginia, to the
sufferers in this Town by the Port Bill, was communicated to the
Committee appointed to receive such donations, and by their
direction I am to acquaint you that they cheerfully consented, at
your request, that the schooner should be discharged at Salem,
thinking themselves under obligation to promote her dispatch,
more especially as there was unexpected delay in her loading, and
you have very generously declined receiving demurrage.
We have repeatedly had abundant evidence of the firmness of our
brethren of Virginia in the American cause, and have reason to
confide in them that they will struggle hard for the prize now
contending for.
I am desired by the Committee to acquaint you that a ship has
lately sailed from this place bound to James River, in Virginia;
the master's name is Crowel Hatch. When he was building his ship,
a proposal was made to him by some of the Committee, to employ
the tradesmen of this Town, for which he should receive a
recompense by a discount of five per cent on their several bills,
but he declined to accept of the proposal. This, you are
sensible, would have been the means of his employing our
sufferers at their usual rates, and at the same time as cheap to
him as if he had got his vessel built by more ordinary workmen
from the country. There is also another circumstance which I must
relate to you. Capt. Hatch proposed that the Committee should
employ our smith, in making anchors for his vessel, at a price by
which they could get nothing but their labor for their pains,
because he could purchase cast anchors imported here, for the
same price, which was refused. At this he was very angry, and
(perhaps in a gust of passion) declared in the hearing of several
persons of credit, that he was used ill, threatening repeatedly
that he would stop all the donations he could, and that no more
should come from the place where he was going to, meaning
Virginia. These facts the Committee thought it necessary to
communicate to you, and to beg the favor of you to use your
influence that Capt. Hatch may not have it in his power, (if he
should be disposed,) to traduce the Committee and injure the
sufferers in this Town, for whose relief our friends in Virginia
have so generously contributed.
I am, in the name of the Committee, Sir, your obliged friend and
humble servant,
________________________________________________________________
1James River, Virginia.
TO CHARLES DICK, CHARLES WASHINGTON, AND GEORGE THORNTON.1
[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th ser., vol.
iv., pp. 211.]
BOSTON, March--1775.
GFNTLEMEN, Your letter of the 23d of January last, directed to
the Overseers of the Poor of the Town of Boston, has been laid
before the Committee appointed to receive and distribute
Donations for the sufferers by that cruel and unrighteous Act
of the British Parliament, commonly called the Boston Port Bill.
I am now in behalf of this Committee to acknowledge the receipt
of seven hundred thirty-six and a quarter bushels wheat, twenty-
five bushels Indian corn, three barrels flour, and three barrels
bread, shipped on board the schooner Betsey, Capt. John Foster,
being a very generous contribution of Spotsylvania County, in
Virginia, to those sufferers.
You will be pleased, gentlemen, to return the sincere thanks of
the Committee to our friends of that County, for the warm
sympathy they have in this instance discovered with their
distressed brethren in this Capital. Encouraged by these liberal
donations, the inhabitants of this Town still endure their
complicated sufferings with patience. As men, they feel the
indignities which are offered to them. As citizens, they suppress
their just resentment. But I trust in God, that this much injured
Colony, when urged to it by extreme necessity, will exert itself
at the utmost hazard in the defence of our common rights. I
flatter myself that I am not mistaken, while they deprecate that
necessity, they are very active in preparing for it.
I am, Gentlemen, in behalf of the Committee, your obliged and
affectionate friend and countryman,
_________________________________________________________________
1Of Spottsylvania County, Virginia.
TO ARTHUR LEE.
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
BOSTON March 4 1775
MY DEAR SIR
Till now I did not hear of this opportunity of writing to you. I
have therefore only a few Moments before the Vessel sails to give
you a short Account of Affairs here. General Gage is still at the
head of his Troops with a professd Design to put the regulating &
the Murder Acts into Execution. I therefore consider this Man as
void of a Spark of Humanity, who can deliberately be the
Instrument of depriving our Country of its Liberty, or the people
of their Lives in its Defence. We are not however dismayed;
believe me this People are prepared to give him a warm Reception
if he shall venture to make the bold Attack. I know very well the
policy of great Men on your side the Water. They are backward to
exert themselves in the Cause of America, lest we should desert
our selves and leave them to the Contempt and Ridicule of a
Ministry whom they heartily despise. But assure them that though
from the Dictates of sound Policy we restrain our just Resentment
at the Indignities already offered to us, we shall not fail to
resist the Tyranny which threatens us at the utmost risque. The
publick Liberty must be preservd though at the Expense of many
Lives!
We had the last Lords Day a small Specimen of the military Spirit
of our Countrymen in the Town of Salem an Account of which is in
the inclosed paper. I am just now told by a Gentleman upon whose
Veracity I depend that he knew that Coll L-------- at the
Governors Table had declared this Account in every part of it to
be true, excepting his giving orders to fire.
Every Art has been practicd to intimidate our leading Men on the
popular side, at the same time the General is held up by the
Friends of Government as a most humane Man, in order to induce
the leading Men to behave in such a Manner as to be shelterd
under his Banner in Case of Extremity--this may have an Effect on
Some, but very few--We keep our Town Meeting alive1 and to-morrow
an oration is to be deliverd by Dr Warren. It was thought best to
have an experiencd officer in the political field on this
occasion, as we may possibly be attackd in our Trenches.
The Town of Marshfield, have lately applied to G. Gage for LEAVE
to have a Meeting, according to the Act of Parliament, & have
resolvd as you may observe by the inclosd. They will be dealt
with according to the Law of the Continental Congress. The Laws
of which are more observd throughout this Continent than any
human Laws whatever.