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changing the form of government and violating the charter, ought to be held in detestation. They have written a letter to general Gage [Oct. 10.] in which they express the deepest con cern at his proceeding in a manner that bore so hostile an appearance, and which even the oppressive acts of parliament did not warrant. They represent the tendency this conduct must have to irritate and force the people, hitherto well disposed to peaceable measures, into hostilities, which may prevent the endeavors of congress to restore a good understanding with the parent state, and may involve us in the horrors of a civil war. They express their hope, that the general, to quiet the mindsof the people, will discontinue the fortifications in and about Boston, prevent any further invasions of private property, restrain the irregularities of the soldiers, and give orders that the communication between the town and country may be open, unmolested, and free.

The general in his answer, said "No troops have given less cause for complaint, and greater care was never taken to prevent it; and such care and attention was never more necessary from the insults and provocations daily given to both officers and soldiers. The communication between the town and country has been always free and unmolested, and is so still." This assertion may appear perfectly just to a military gentleman; but may be otherwise thought of by one in a civil department, who means that the entrance into a town should have neither guards nor sentinels, either to stop or challenge passengers, whether by night or by day. The general intimated, that the hostile preparations throughout the country, and the menaces of blood and slaughter, made it his duty to fortify the Neck. He concluded with “I ardently wish, that the common enemies to both countries may see, to their disappointment, that these disputes betwen the mother country and the colonies, have terminated like the quarrels of lovers, and increased the affection which they ought to bear to each other."

The congress have also made a declaration of rights (contained within a number of resolves) to which they say the English colonies of North-America are entitled by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and their several charters or compacts. In the first of these are life, liberty, and property, a right to the disposal of any of which, without their consent, they have never ceded to any sovereign power whatever. They mention, that their ancestors, at the time of their emigration, were entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural born subjects within the realm of England; and that by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surren

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dered or lost any of those rights; but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the enjoyment of all such of them as their local and other circumstances enabled them to exercise. They then state, that the foundation of English liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council; and proceed to show, that as the colonists are not, and from various causes, cannot be represented in the British parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal policy, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in such manner as had heretofore been used.

To qualify the extent of this paragraph, which may seem to leave no means of parliamentary interference, for holding the colonies to the mother country, they declare, that from the ne-, cessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interests of both countries, they cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British parliament as are, bona fide, restrained to the re. gulation of their external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, excluding every idea of taxation, either internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America, without their consent.

They resolved, "That the respective colonies are entitled to the common law of England, and more especially to the great and estimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage; to the benefit of such of the English statutes as existed in the time of their colonization, and which they have found to be applicable to their several and other local circumstances; and to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by royal charters, or secured by their several codes of provincial laws-that they have a right to assemble peaceably, consider of their grievances, and petition the king; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal-that the keeping a standing army in these colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the legi slature of that colony in which such army is kept, is against law that it is rendered essential to good government, by the English constitution, that the constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that therefore the exercise of legislative power, by a council appointed, during pleasure, by the crown, is unconstitutional, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation."

They proceeded to claim, in behalf of themselves and constituents, and to insist on the foregoing articles, as their indisputa

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ble rights and liberties, which cannot be legally taken from them, altered, or abridged, by any power whatever, without their own consent, by their representatives in their several provincial Tegislatures. They then resolved concerning eleven acts of parliament, or parts of acts, passed in the present reign, that "they are infringements and violations of the foregoing rights, and that the repeal of them is essentially necessary, in order to restore harmony between Great-Britain and the American coloAmong these is the Quebec bill, which is termed "an act for establishing the Roman Catholic religion in the province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable system of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the great danger (from so total a dissimilarity of religion, law and government) of the neighboring British colonies, by the assistance of whose blood and treasure, the said country was conquered from France."

After specifying their rights, and enumerating their griev ances, they mention, that in hopes of being restored to that state in which both countries formerly found happiness and prosperity, they have for the present only resolved to pursue the following peaceable measures, viz. to enter into a non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement; and to prepare an address to the people of Great-Britain, a memorial to the inhabitants of British America, and a loyal address to his majesty.

By the association they have bound themselves, and intentionally their constituents to a strict observance of fourteen articles. They have agreed by the second, that after the first day of December next, they will wholly discontinue the slave trade, and will neither hire their vessels nor sell their commodities to those who are concerned in it-by the third, that from that day, they will not purchase or use any tea imported on account of the EastIndia Company, or any on which a duty hath been or shall be paid; and from and after the first of March next, they will not purchase or use any East-India tea whatever, nor any of those goods they have agreed not to import, which they shall have cause to suspect were imported after the first of December, except such as come under the directions afterward mentioned-by the fourth, that the non-exportation agreement shall be suspended to the tenth of September, 1775, after which, if the acts objected to, are not repealed, they will not, directly nor indirectly, export any commodity whatsoever, to Great-Britain, Ireland, or the WestIndies, except rice to Europe-by the fifth, that they will.never more have any commercial intercourse with any British merchants, who may ship goods in violation of, and with a view of breaking the association-by the eighth, that they will encou

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rage frugality, economy, and industry, promote agriculture, arts, and manufactures, discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation, and will wear no other mourning than a piece of crape or ribbon-by the fourteenth and last, that they will have no trade, dealings, or intercourse whatsover, with any North-American colony or province, that shall not accede to, or that shall hereafter violate the association; but will hold them as inimical to their country. This association, which is to continue in force till the above acts, or parts of acts, wherein they relate to the colonies, are repealed, has been signed [Oct. 24.] by all the members of congress.

In their address to the people of Great-Britain, the congress pay the highest praise to the noble and generous virtues of their and our common ancestors, but in a way which rather reproaches you with a shameful degeneracy. They tell you not to be surprised that they, who are descended from the same common ancestors, should refuse to surrender their liberties and the constitution you so justly boast of, to men who found their clainis on no principles of reason, and who prosecute them with a design, that by having our lives and property in their power, they may with the greater facility enslave you. They complain of being oppressed, abused, and misrepresented, so that it is become a duty to themselves and their posterity, and to the general wcifare of the British empire, to address you on this very important subject. They call upon you yourselves, to witness to their loyalty and attachments to the common interest of the whole empire; to their efforts in the last war; and to your own acknowledgment of their zeal, and your even reimbursing them large sums of money, which you confessed they had advanced beyond their proportion, and far beyond their abilities. They proceed to state and examine the measures and the several acts of parliament, which they consider as hostile to America, and represent the probabie consequences to your country should ministry be able to carry the point of taxation, and reduce the colonies to a state of perfect slavery. They ingeniously endeavor to render theirs à cause common to both countries, by showing that such success might, in the end, be as fatal to the liberties of Britain as to those of America. "Take care (say they) that you do not fall into the pit preparing for us." After denying the several charges of be ing seditious, impatient of government, and desirous of independency, which they assert to be calumnies, they declare, that if neither the voice of justice, the dictates of the law, the principles of the constitution, nor the suggestions of humanity, can restrain your hands from shedding of human blood in such an impious cause, they must tell you, "That they never will submit

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to be hewers of wood, or drawers of water for any ministry or nation in the world." They afterward make a proposal, which if duly attended to, may afford a favorable basis for negociation "Place us in the same situation that we were in at the close of the last war, and our former harmony will be restored.” The same truth was transmitted to some of the ministry, by the late reverend Mr. Whitefield, before his death, in 1770, at Newburyport, in nearly the following words, "Would you have peace and harmony restored through the colonies, you must attend to the military phrase, right about, as you were." The like sentiment was confirmed by a subsequent letter from another quarter, after a designed conference upon the subject with Thomas Cushing and Samuel Adams, esqrs. of Boston, and Thomas Lynch, esq. of South-Carolina. The congress conclude their address by expressing the utmost regret at their being compelled by the over-ruling principles of self-preservation, to adopt measures detrimental to numbers of their fellow-subjects in Great-Britain and Ireland, in the suspension of their importations from both these kingdoms. They finally rest their hope of a restoration of that harmony, friendship, and fraternal affection between all the inhabitants of his majesty's kingdoms and territories, so ardently wished for by every true and honest American, upon the magnanimity and justice of the British nation, in furnishing a parliament of such wisdom, independence, and public spirit as may save the violated rights of the whole empire, from the devices of wicked ministers and evil counsellors, whether in or out of office.

Congress, in their memorial to the inhabitants of British America, inform the colonies, that they have diligently, deliberately, and calmly, enquired into all the measures which have excited the present disturbances; and that upon the whole they find themselves reduced to the disagreeable alternative of being silent, or betraying the innocent, or of speaking out, and censuring those they wish to revere. They prefer the course dictated by honesty, and a regard for the welfare of their country. After stating and examining the several laws which have been passed, and the measures which have been pursued with respect to America, since the conclusion of the late war to the present period, they enquire into the motives for the particular hostility against the town of Boston and province of Massachusetts Bay; though the behavior of the people in other colonies, has been in equal opposition to the power assumed by parliament; notwithstanding which no step had been taken against any of them by government. This they represent as an artful systematic line of conduct, concealing several designs, adding, "It is expected that the province of the

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