to be, friends of the English constitution, equally tenacious of
the privileges of the people, and of the prerogative of the crown,
zealous advocates for the colonies continuing their constitutional
dependance upon Great Britain, as they think it no less the interest
than the duty of the colonists; averse to tyranny and oppression
in all their forms, and always ready to exert themselves for the
relief of the oppressed, though they differ materially from the
whigs in the mode of obtaining it; they discharged the duties of
the several important departments they were called to fill, with
equal faithfulness and ability; their public services gained them
the confidence of the people, real merit drew after it popularity;
their principles, firmness and popularity rendered them obnoxious to
certain persons amongst us, who have long been indulging themselves,
in hopes of rearing up an American commonwealth, upon the ruin of
the British constitution. This republican party is of long standing;
they lay however, in a great measure, dormant for several years. The
distrust, jealousy and ferment raised by the stamp act, afforded
scope for action. At first they wore the garb of hypocrisy, they
professed to be friends to the British constitution in general, but
claimed some exemptions from their local circumstances; at length
threw off their disguise, and now stand confessed to the world in
their true characters, American republicans. These republicans knew,
that it would be impossible for them to succeed in their darling
projects, without first destroying the influence of these adherents
to the constitution. Their only method to accomplish it, was by
publications charged with falshood and scurrility. Notwithstanding
the favorable opportunity the stamp act gave of imposing upon the
ignorant and credulous, I have sometimes been amazed, to see with
how little hesitation, some slovenly baits were swallowed. Sometimes
the adherents to the constitution were called ministerial tools, at
others, kings, lords and commons, were the tools of them; for almost
every act of parliament that has been made respecting America, in the
present reign, we were told was drafted in Boston, or its environs,
and only sent to England to run through the forms of parliament. Such
stories, however improbable, gained credit; even the fictitious bill
for restraining marriages and murdering bastard children, met with
some simple enough to think it real. He that readily imbibes such
absurdities, may claim affinity with the person mentioned by Mr.
Addison, that made it his practice to swallow a chimera every morning
for breakfast. To be more serious, I pity the weakness of those that
are capable of being thus duped, almost as much as I despise the
wretch that would avail himself of it, to destroy private characters
and the public tranquility. By such infamous methods, many of the
ancient, trusty and skilful pilots, who had steered the community
safely in the most perilous times, were driven from the helm, and
their places occupied by different persons, some of whom, bankrupts
in fortune, business and fame, are now striving to run the ship on
the rocks, that they may have an opportunity of plundering the wreck.
The gentlemen named by Novanglus, have nevertheless persevered with
unshaken constancy and firmness, in their patriotic principles and
conduct, through a variety of fortune; and have at present, the
mournful consolation of reflecting, that had their admonitions and
councils been timely attended to, their country would never have been
involved in its present calamity.
MASSACHUSETTENSIS.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay_,
March 13, 1775.
MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN,
Our patriotic writers, as they call each other, estimate the services
rendered by, and the advantages resulting from the colonies to
Britain, at a high rate, but allow but little, if any, merit in her
towards the colonies. Novanglus would persuade us that exclusive
of her assistance in the last war, we have had but little of her
protection, unless it was such as her name alone afforded. Dr.
Franklin when before the house of commons, in 1765, denied that the
late war was entered into for the defence of the people in America.
The Pennsylvania Farmer tells us in his letters, that the war was
undertaken solely for the benefit of Great Britain, and that however
advantageous the subduing or keeping any of these countries, viz.
Canada, Nova-Scotia and the Floridas may be to Great Britain, the
acquisition is greatly injurious to these colonies. And that the
colonies, as constantly as streams tend to the ocean, have been
pouring the fruits of all their labours into their mother's lap.
Thus, they would induce us to believe, that we derive little or no
advantage from Great Britain, and thence they infer the injustice,
rapacity and cruelty of her conduct towards us. I fully agree
with them, that the services rendered by the colonies are great
and meritorious. The plantations are additions to the empire of
inestimable value. The American market for British manufactures, the
great nursery for seamen formed by our shipping, the cultivation of
deserts, and our rapid population, are increasing and inexhaustible
sources of national wealth and strength. I commend these patriots
for their estimations of the national advantages accruing from
the colonies, as much as I think them deserving of censure for
depreciating the advantages and benefits that we derive from Britain.
A particular inquiry into the protection afforded us, and the
commercial advantages resulting to us from the parent state, will
go a great way towards conciliating the affections of those whose
minds are at present unduly impressed with different sentiments
towards Great Britain. The intestine commotions with which England
was convulsed and torn soon after the emigration of our ancestors,
probably prevented that attention being given to them in the earliest
stages of this colony, that otherwise would have been given. The
principal difficulties that the adventurers met with after the
struggle of a few of the first years were over, were the incursions
of the French and savages conjointly, or of the latter instigated and
supported by the former. Upon a representation of this to England,
in the time of the interregnum, Acadia, which was then the principal
source of our disquietude, was reduced by an English armament. At the
request of this colony, in queen Ann's reign, a fleet of fifteen men
of war, besides transports, troops, &c. were sent to assist us in an
expedition against Canada; the fleet suffered ship-wreck, and the
attempt proved abortive. It ought not to be forgot, that the siege
of Louisbourg, in 1745, by our own forces, was covered by a British
fleet of ten ships, four of 60 guns, one of 50, and five of 40 guns,
besides the Vigilant of 64, which was taken during the siege, as
she was attempting to throw supplies into the garrison. It is not
probable that the expedition would have been undertaken without an
expectation of some naval assistance, or that the reduction could
have been effected without it. In January, 1754, our assembly, in a
message to governor Shirley, prayed him to represent to the king,
"that the French had made such extraordinary encroachments, and
taken such measures, since the conclusion of the preceding war,
as threatened great danger, and perhaps, in time, even the entire
destruction of this province, without the interposition of his
majesty, notwithstanding any provision we could make to prevent it."
"That the French had erected a fort on the isthmus of the peninsula
near Bay Vert in Nova Scotia, by means of which they maintained a
communication by sea with Canada, St. John's Island and Louisbourg."
"That near the mouth of St. John's river, the French had possessed
themselves of two forts formerly built by them, one of which was
garrisoned by regular troops, and had erected another strong fort at
twenty leagues up the river, and that these encroachments might prove
fatal not only to the eastern parts of his majesty's territories
within this province, but also in time to the whole of this province,
and the rest of his majesty's territories on this continent." "That
whilst the French held Acadia under the treaty of St. Germain, they
so cut off the trade of this province, and galled the inhabitants
with incursions into their territories, that OLIVER CROMWELL found
it necessary for the safety of New England to make a descent by
sea into the river of St. John, and dispossess them of that and
all the forts in Acadia. That Acadia was restored to the French by
the treaty of Breda in 1667." That this colony felt again the same
mischievous effects from their possessing it, insomuch, that after
forming several expeditions against it, the inhabitants were obliged
in the latter end of the war in queen Ann's reign, to represent to
her majesty how destructive the possession of the bay of Fundy and
Nova Scotia, by the French, was to this province and the British
trade; whereupon the British ministry thought it necessary to fit
out a _formal expedition against that province with English troops_,
and a considerable armament of our own, under general Nicholson, by
which it was again reduced to the subjection of the crown of Great
Britain. "That we were then, viz. in 1754, liable to feel more
mischievous effects than we had ever yet done, unless his majesty
should be graciously pleased to cause them to be removed." They
also demonstrated our danger from the encroachments of the French
at Crown Point. In April, 1754, the council and house represented,
"That it evidently appeared, that the French were so far advanced in
the execution of a plan projected more than fifty years since, for
the extending their possessions from the mouth of the Mississippi
on the south, to Hudson's Bay on the north, for securing the vast
body of Indians in that inland country, and for subjecting the whole
continent to the crown of France." "That many circumstances gave
them great advantages over us, which if not attended to, would soon
overbalance our superiority of numbers; and that these advantages
could not be removed without his majesty's gracious interposition."
The assembly of Virginia, in an address to the king, represented,
"that the endeavours of the French to establish a settlement upon
the frontiers, was a high insult offered to his majesty, and if not
timely opposed, with vigor and resolution, must be attended with the
most fatal consequences," and prayed his majesty to extend his royal
beneficence towards them.
The commissioners who met at Albany the same year, represented, "that
it was the evident design of the French to surround the British
colonies; to fortify themselves on the back thereof; to take and keep
possession of the heads of all the important rivers; to draw over the
Indians to their interest, and with the help of such Indians, added
to such forces as were then arrived, and might afterwards arrive, or
be sent from Europe, to be in a capacity of making a general attack
on the several governments; and if at the same time a strong naval
force should be sent from France, there was the utmost danger that
the whole continent would be subjected to the crown." "That it seemed
absolutely necessary that speedy and effectual measures should be
taken to secure the colonies from the _slavery_ they were threatened
with."
We did not pray in vain. Great Britain, ever attentive to the _real
grievances_ of her colonies, hastened to our relief with maternal
speed. She covered our seas with her ships, and sent forth the
bravest of her sons to fight our battles. They fought, they bled and
conquered with us. Canada, Nova Scotia, the Floridas, and all our
American foes were laid at our feet. It was a dear bought victory;
the wilds of America were enriched with the blood of the noble and
the brave.
The war, which at our request, was thus kindled in America, spread
through the four quarters of the globe, and obliged Great Britain to
exert her whole force and energy to stop the rapid progress of its
devouring flames.
To these instances of actual exertions for our immediate protection
and defence, ought to be added, the fleets stationed on our coast and
the convoys and security afforded to our trade and fishery, in times
of war; and her maintaining in times of peace such a navy and army,
as to be always in readiness to give protection as exigencies may
require; and her ambassadors residing at foreign courts to watch and
give the earliest intelligence of their motions. By such precautions
every part of her wide extended empire enjoys as ample security as
human power and policy can afford. Those necessary precautions are
supported at an immense expense, and the colonies reap the benefit
of them equally with the rest of the empire. To these considerations
it should likewise be added, that whenever the colonies have exerted
themselves in war, though in their own defence, to a greater degree
than their proportion with the rest of the empire, they have been
reimbursed by parliamentary grants. This was the case, in the last
war, with this province.
From this view, which I think is an impartial one, it is evident that
Great Britain is not less attentive to our interest than her own; and
that her sons that have settled on new and distant plantations are
equally dear to her with those that cultivate the ancient domain, and
inhabit the mansion house.
MASSACHUSETTENSIS.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay_,
March 20, 1775.
MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN,
The outlines of British commerce have been heretofore sketched; and
the interest of each part, in particular, and of the whole empire
conjointly, have been shewn to be the principles by which the grand
system is poized and balanced. Whoever will take upon himself the
trouble of reading and comparing the several acts of trade, which
respect the colonies, will be convinced, that the cherishing their
trade, and promoting their interest, have been the objects of
parliamentary attention, equally with those of Britain. He will see,
that the great council of the empire has ever esteemed our prosperity
as inseperable from the British, and if in some instances the
colonies have been restricted to the emolument of other parts of the
empire, they, in their turn, not excepting England itself, have been
also restricted sufficiently to restore the balance, if not to cause
a preponderation in our favour.
Permit me to transcribe a page or two from a pamphlet written in
England, and lately republished here, wherein this matter is stated
with great justice and accuracy.
"The people of England and the American adventurers, being so
differently circumstanced, it required no great sagacity to discover,
that as there were many commodities which America could supply on
better terms than they could be raised in England, so must it be
much more for the colonies, advantage to take others from England,
than attempt to make them themselves. The American lands were cheap,
covered with woods, and abounded with native commodities. The first
attention of the settlers was necessarily engaged in cutting down
the timber, and clearing the ground for culture; for before they had
supplied themselves with provisions, and had hands to spare from
agriculture, it was impossible they could set about manufacturing.
England, therefore, undertook to supply them with manufactures,
and either purchased herself or found markets for the timber the
colonists cut down upon their lands, or the fish they caught upon
their coasts. It was soon discovered that the tobacco plant was a
native of and flourished in Virginia. It had been also planted in
England, and was found to delight in the soil. The legislature,
however, wisely and equitably considering that England had variety
of products, and Virginia had no other to buy her necessaries with,
passed an act prohibiting the people of England from planting
tobacco, and thereby giving the monopoly of that plant to the
colonies. As the inhabitants increased, and the lands became more
cultivated, further and new advantages were thrown in the way of the
American colonies. All foreign markets, as well as Great-Britain,
were open for their timber and provisions, and the British West-India
islands were prohibited from purchasing those commodities from any
other than them. And since England has found itself in danger of
wanting a supply of timber, and it has been judged necessary to
confine the export from America to Great-Britain and Ireland, full
and ample indemnity has been given to the colonies for the loss of a
choice of markets in Europe, by very large bounties paid out of the
revenue of Great Britain, upon the importation of American timber.
And as a further encouragement and reward to them for clearing their
lands, bounties are given upon tar and pitch, which are made from
their decayed and useless trees; and the very ashes of their lops and
branches are made of value by the late bounty on American pot-ashes.
The soil and climate of the northern colonies having been found well
adapted to the culture of flax and hemp, bounties, equal to half the
first cost of those commodities, have been granted by parliament,
payable out of the British revenue, upon their importation into Great
Britain. The growth of rice in the southern colonies has been greatly
encouraged, by prohibiting the importation of that grain into the
British dominions from other parts, and allowing it to be transported
from the colonies to the foreign territories in America, and even
to the southern parts of Europe. Indigo has been nurtured in those
colonies by great parliamentary bounties, which have been long paid
upon the importation into Great Britain; and of late are allowed to
remain, even when it is carried out again to foreign markets. Silk
and wine have also been objects of parliamentary munificence; and
will one day probably become considerable American products under
that encouragement. In which of these instances, it may be demanded,
has the legislature shown itself partial to the people of England and
unjust to the colonies? Or wherein have the colonies been injured?
We hear much of the restraints under which the trade of the colonies
is laid by acts of parliament for the advantage of Great Britain,
but the restraints under which the people of Great Britain are
laid by acts of parliament for the advantage of the colonies, are
carefully kept out of sight; and yet, upon a comparison the one will
be found full as grievous as the other. For is it a greater hardship
on the colonies, to be confined in some instances to the markets of
Great Britain for the sale of their commodities, than it is on the
people of Great Britain to be obliged to buy the commodities from
them only? If the island colonies are obliged to give the people of
Great Britain the pre-emption of their sugar and coffee, is it not
a greater hardship on the people of Great Britain to be restrained
from purchasing sugar and coffee from other countries, where they
could get those commodities much cheaper than the colonies make them
pay for them? Could not our manufactures have indigo much better
and cheaper from France and Spain than from Carolina? And yet is
there not a duty imposed by acts of parliament on French and Spanish
indigo, that it may come to our manufacturers at a dearer rate than
Carolina indigo, though a bounty is also given out of _the money_ of
the people of England to the Carolina planter, to enable him to sell
his indigo upon a _par_ with the French and Spanish? But the instance
which has already been taken notice of, the act which prohibits
the culture of the tobacco plant in Great Britain or Ireland, is
still more in point, and a more striking proof of the justice and
impartiality of the supreme legislature; for what restraints, let
me ask, are the colonies laid under, which bear so strong marks
of hardship, as the prohibiting the farmers in Great Britain and
Ireland from raising upon their own lands, a product which is become
almost a necessary of life to them and their families? And this most
extraordinary restraint is laid upon them, for the avowed and sole
purpose of giving Virginia and Maryland a monopoly of that commodity,
and obliging the people of Great Britain and Ireland to buy all the
tobacco they consume, from them, at the prices they think fit to
sell it for. The annals of no country, that ever planted colonies,
can produce such an instance as this of regard and kindness to
their colonies, and of restraint upon the inhabitants of the mother
country for their advantage. Nor is there any restraint laid upon
the inhabitants of the colonies in return, which carries with it so
great appearance of hardships, although the people of Great Britain
and Ireland have, from their regard and affection to the colonies,
submitted to it without a murmur for near a century." For a more
particular inquiry, let me recommend the perusal of the pamphlet
itself, also another pamphlet lately published, entitled, "the
advantages which America derives from her commerce, connection and
dependance on Great Britain."
A calculation has lately been made both of the amount of the revenue
arising from the duties with which our trade is at present charged,
and of the bounties and encouragement paid out of the British revenue
upon articles of American produce imported into England, and the
latter is found to exceed the former more than four fold. This does
not look like a partiality to our disadvantage. However, there is no
surer method of determining whether the colonies have been oppressed
by the laws of trade and revenue, than by observing their effects.
From what source has the wealth of the colonies flowed? Whence is
it derived? Not from agriculture only: exclusive of commerce the
colonists would this day have been a poor people, possessed of little
more than the necessaries for supporting life; of course their
numbers would be few; for population always keeps pace with the
ability of maintaining a family; there would have been but little or
no resort of strangers here; the arts and sciences would have made
but small progress; the inhabitants would rather have degenerated
into a state of ignorance and barbarity. Or had Great Britain laid
such restrictions upon our trade, as our patriots would induce us to
believe, that is, had we been pouring the fruits of all our labour
into the lap of our parent and been enriching her by the sweat of our
brow, without receiving an equivalent, the patrimony derived from
our ancestors must have dwindled from little to less, until their
posterity should have suffered a general bankruptcy.
But how different are the effects of our connection with, and
subordination to Britain? They are too strongly marked to escape
the most careless observer. Our merchants are opulent, and our
yeomanry in easier circumstances than the noblesse of some states.
Population is so rapid as to double the number of inhabitants in the
short period of twenty-five years. Cities are springing up in the
depths of the wilderness. Schools, colleges, and even universities
are interspersed through the continent; our country abounds with
foreign refinements, and flows with exotic luxuries. These are
infallible marks not only of opulence but of freedom. The recluse
may speculate--the envious repine--the disaffected calumniate--all
these may combine to excite fears and jealousies in the minds of the
multitude, and keep them in alarm from the beginning to the end of
the year; but such evidence as this must for ever carry conviction
with it to the minds of the dispassionate and judicious.
Where are the traces of the slavery that our patriots would terrify
us with? The effects of slavery are as glaring and obvious in those
countries that are cursed with its abode, as the effects of war,
pestilence or famine. Our land is not disgraced by the wooden shoes
of France, or the uncombed hair of Poland: we have neither racks
nor inquisitions, tortures or assassinations: the mildness of our
criminal jurisprudence is proverbial, "_a man must have many friends
to get hanged in New England_." Who has been arbitrarily imprisoned,
disseized of his freehold, or despoiled of his goods? Each peasant,
that is industrious, may acquire an estate, enjoy it in his life
time, and at his death, transmit a fair inheritance to his posterity.
The protestant religion is established, as far as human laws can
establish it. My dear friends, let me ask each one whether he has
not enjoyed every blessing, that is in the power of civil government
to bestow? And yet the parliament has, from the earliest days of the
colonies, claimed the lately controverted right, both of legislation
and taxation; and for more than a century has been in the actual
exercise of it. There is no grievious exercise of that right at
this day, unless the measures taken to prevent our revolting, may
be called grievances. Are we, then, to rebel, lest there should be
grievances? Are we to take up arms and make war against our parent,
lest that parent, contrary to the experience of a century and a half,
contrary to her own genius, inclination, affection and interest,
should treat us or our posterity as bastards and not as sons, and
instead of protecting should _enslave_ us? The annals of the world
have not yet been deformed with a single instance of so unnatural, so
causless, so wanton, so wicked a rebellion.
There is but a step between you and ruin: and should our patriots
succeed in their endeavours to urge you on to take that step, and
hostilities actually commence, New England will stand recorded a
singular monument of human folly and wickedness. I beg leave to
transcribe a little from the Farmer's letters.--"Good Heaven! Shall
a total oblivion of former tendernesses and blessings be spread over
the minds of a good and wise people by the sordid arts of intriguing
men, who covering their selfish projects under pretences of public
good, first enrage their countrymen into a frenzy of passion, and
then advance their own influence and interest by gratifying the
passion, which they themselves have excited?" When cool dispassionate
posterity shall consider the affectionate intercourse, the reciprocal
benefits, and the unsuspecting confidence, that have subsisted
between these colonies and their parent state, for such a length of
time, they will execrate, with the bitterest curses, the infamous
memory of those men whose ambition unnecessarily, wantonly, cruelly,
first opened the sources of civil discord.
MASSACHUSETTENSIS.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay_,
March 27, 1775.
MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN,