termined upon securing the liberties of their country, or perishing in the attempt. The news of his majesty's granting salaries to the justices of the superior court, afforded them a fair opportunity for executing the plan of establishing committees of correspondence through the colony. The most spirited pieces were published, and an alarm spread, that the granting such salaries tended rapidly to complete the system of their slavery. [Nov. 2.] A town meeting was called, and a committee of correspondence appointed, to write circular letters to all the towns in the province, and to induce them to unite in measures. [Nov. 19.] The committee made a report, containing several resolutions contradictory to the supremacy of the British legislature. After setting forth, that all men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please, they proceed to a report upon the natural rights of the colonists as men, christians and subjects; and then form a list of infringements and violations of their rights. They enumerate and dwell upon the British parliament's having assumed the power of legislation for the colonies in all cases whatever the appointment of a number of new officers to superintend the revenues-the granting of salaries out of the American revenue, to the governor, the judges of the superior court, the king's attorney and solicitor general. The report was accepted; copies printed, and six hundred circulated through the towns and districts of the province, with a pathetic letter addressed to the inhabitants, who were called upon not to doze any longer, or sit supinely in indifference, while the iron hand of oppression was daily tearing the choicest fruits from the fair tree of liberty. The circular letter requested of each town a free communication of sentiments on the subjects of the report, and was directed to the select men, who were desired to lay the same before a town meeting, which has been generally practised, and the proceedings of the town upon the business have been transmitted to the committee at Boston. This committee have their particular correspondents in the several towns, who upon receiving any special information, are ready to spread it with dispatch among the inhabitants. It consists of twenty-one persons, of heterogeneous qualities and professions. The governor, in expectation of exciting prejudice, and fixing a stigma upon them, their connections and proceedings, has written to a gentleman in power, "Strange that a government, which within a century would suffer no person to be free of the commonwealth who was not one of their church members, should now take for their leaders, men who openly contemn all religion, and should join deacons and atheists in one trust; and that they should should be instigated to this by some of the clergy, who make the 61. [Jan. 4, 1773.] At a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Petersham in the county of Worcester, duly assembled according to law, held by adjournment on the 5. 4th of January, 1773, the committee chosen on the 30th ult. made the following report, viz. "The town having received a circular letter from the town of Boston, respecting the present grievances and abominable oppressions under which this country groans, have thereupon taken into their most serious consideration the present policy of the British government and administration, with regard to Great-Britain and these colonies; have carefully reviewed the mode of election, and the quality of the electors of the commons of that island; and have also attentively reflected upon the enormous and growing influence of the crown, and that bane of all free states, a standing army in the time of peace; and in consequence thereof are fully confirmed in opinion, that the ancient rights of the nation are capitally invaded, and the greatest part of the most precious and established liberties of Englishmen utterly destroyed: And whereas the parliament. of Great-Britain, by various statutes and acts, have unrighteously distressed our trade, denied and precluded us from setting up and carrying on manufactures highly beneficial to the inhabitants of these territories; restricted and prevented our lawful intercourse and commerce with other states and kingdoms; have also made laws and institutions touching life and limb, in disherison of VOL. I. Dd the bo 6 г. the ancient common law of the land; and moreover have in these latter t.mes, robbed and plundered the honest and laborious inhabitants of this extensive continent of their property, by mere force and power; and are now draining this people of the fruits of their toil, by thus raising a revenue from them, against the natural rights of man, and in open violation of the laws of God, This town, in union with the worthy inhabitants of Boston, now think it their indispensable duty to consider of the premises and the present aspect of the times, and to take such steps as upon mature deliberation are judged right and expedient; and hereupon this town Resolved, That with a governor appointed from Great-Bri tain (especially at this day) during pleasure, with a large stipend, dependant upon the will of the crown, and controuled by instructions from a British minister of state, with a council subject to the negative of such a governor, and with all officers, civil and military, subject to his appointment.or consent, with a castle in the hands of a standing army, stationed in the very bow els of the land; and that amazing number of placemen and dependants with which every maritime town already swarms, no people can ever be truly virtuous, free, or brave: Resolved, That the parliament of Great-Britain, usurping and exercising a legislative authority over, and extorting an unrighteous revenue from these colonies, is against all divine and human laws. The late appointment of salaries to be paid to our superior court judges, whose creation, pay, and commission depend on mere will and pleasure, completes a system of bondage equal to any ever fabricated by the combined efforts of the ingenuity, malice, fraud, and wickedness of man: *Resolved, That it is the opinion of this town, that a despotic, arbitrary government, is the kingdom of this world, as set. forth in the New-Testament, and is diametrically opposite to the establishment of christianity in a society, and has a direct tendency to sink a people into a profound state of ignorance and irreligion; and that, if we have an eye to our own and posterity's happiness (not only in this world, but the world to come) it is our duty to oppose such a government: *And further resolved, That the depriving the colonies of their constitutional rights, may be fitly compared to the dismembering the natural body, which will soon affect the heart; and it would be nothing unexpected for us to hear, that those very persons who have been so active in robbing the colonies of their constitutional rights, have also delivered up the constitu tion of our mother country into the hands of our king : Therefore : Therefore resolved, That it is the first and highest social duty of this people, to consider of, and seek ways and means, for a speedy redress of these mighty grievances and intolerable wrongs; and that for the obtaining of this end, this people are warranted, by the laws of God and nature, in the use of every rightful art and energy, of policy, stratagem and force. *And while we are thus under these awful frowns of divineProvidence and involved as this people are in heavy calamities, which daily increase in number and severity, it is highly becom ing towns and individuals to humble themselves before Almighty God, seriously to commune with their own hearts, and seek carefully with tears, for the causes of the prevailing distresses of the land; and while it is apparent, that pristine piety and purity of morals, have given place to infidelity, dissipation, luxury, and gross corruption of mind and morals, there is a loud call for humility, lamentings and reformation; and it is at this time eminently incumbent on one and all, to seek at the throne of the great God for those special and remarkable interpositions of divine Providence, grace and mercy, which have so ofter saved New-England from both public and private distress and misery: and as there is great reason to believe, that in past times we have too much depended upon the exertions of worldly wisdom and political devices, it becomes us in our present melancholy situa tion to rely no longer on an arm of flesh, but on the arms of that all-powerful God, who is able to unite the numerous inha bitants of this extensive territory, as a band of brothers in one common cause--who can easily give that true religion, which shall make us his people indeed; that spirit, which shall fit us to endure temporal hardships for the procurement of future happi ness; that spirit of valor and irresistable courage, which shall occasion our aged and our youth to jeopard their lives with joy, in the high places of the field, for his name and service sake, for the preservation also of this goodly heritage of our fathers, for the sake of the living children of our loins, and the unborn millions of posterity. * We believe that there are very many, who in these days have kept their integrity and garments unspotted, and hope that God will deliver them and our nation for their sake. God will not suffer this land where the gospel hath flourished, to become a slave of the world; he will stir up witnesses of the truth ; and in his own time, spirit his people to stand up for his cause, and deliver them. In a similar belief, that patriot of patriots, the great Algernon Sidney, lived and died, and dying breathed a like sentiment and prophecy, touching his own and the then ap-proaching proaching times, a prophecy, however, not accomplished until a glorious revolution. Approved of by vote of the town, without contradiction. SYLVANUS HOWw, per order. The govornor, instead of overlooking in his speech, the proceedings of the towns, has been induced by them to broach the dispute about the supremacy of the parliament; and has fallen into the snare which probably some of the politicians had laid for him, expecting to get the majority of the general court to declare against it. He designed to recommend himself to the ministry by obtaining a victory: but they will not thank him for increasing their embarrassments. [Jan. 25.] The council in their answer, said "The stamp act, with some preceding and succeeding acts of parliament, subjecting the colonies to taxes without their consent, was the original cause of all the uneasiness that has happened since, and has occasioned also an inquiry into the nature and extent of the authority by which they were made.” 1 This was the truth. When the stamp act took place, "some people, under the notion of zeal for liberty, ran into the most excessive licentiousness, and were guilty in one place and another of the most lawless, unjust, and tyrannical proceedings; such as pulling down and destroying houses, abusing persons, endangering men's lives, destroying their property, breaking windows, delivering prisoners out of the hands of justice, putting many into great fear, all contrary to the laws of the province: but there was nothing of this kind before."+ Let me add, that in all my researches not an instance has occurred to me of the mob's having been the death of a single individual, though they might have proceeded to the most criminal lengths also, had they not been gratified or diverted from their pursuits. But before that fatal act, there was nota more loyal, orderly, and peaceable people than the Americans in general through the whole British empire. All ranks and conditions gloried in their connection with Great-Britain; rejoiced in her friendship and protection; and triumphed in her prosperity. Toward the close of their answer, the house of assembly expressed a concern at their having been reduced by the speech to the unhappy alternative, either of appearing by their silence to acquiesce in the governor's sentiments as to the supremacy of parliament, or of freely discussing the point. The house might be concerned, but the leaders were pleased with the opportunity. The Rev. Mr. Whitney's difcourfe on the public faft. The |