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shut up their ports, to ruin themselves, and to starve the West Indies, in order to enable the herd of faction at Boston to conquer ungrateful England. In this extraordinary scheme, the unsuccess of the Boston rebels has been adequate to the folly of the proposal.
Some of the other Colonies have publickly declared that they will not enter into any non-importation agreement with the people of Boston, because the faction of that town had most infamously deceived them in a former agreement of the same kind. What the Boston faction themselves have published concerning the Colonies of Rhode Island and New-Hampshire joining in their frantick scheme, is partly true. These Colonies have verbally joined the Bostonians; but, if we can credit private letters from Boston itself, it is not expected that those Colonies will observe in practice what they have promised in writing; and there; are also letters in town from merchants, who constitute part of the faction (that is to say, the honest and the misled part, whose eyes are now partly opened,) and they declare amidst their asseverations of defending what they call their rights and privileges, that they will take proper care not to be cheated by their brother confederates, as they were in the last non-importation agreement. From this intelligence we may readily conceive that no consistent, permanent, or vigorous measures, will be adopted by the Boston rebels; for where there exists a suspicion in the minds of men acting together, of a want of faith among themselves, or, to speak in plainer terms, where one party of them expects to be cheated by the other, in such an association, unanimity cannot long subsist, more especially as their confederacy is fundamentally wrong and unwarrantable;—a house built upon a sandy foundation, and divided against itself, cannot stand.
Such are the contents of many letters from Boston by the two last vessels; and such advices have had a proper effect, or at least, it is supposed, will have, on the merchants here, as several vessels that were expected to sail in a few weeks for the Massachusetts, will either be obliged to remain here, or to sail in ballast. Private letters also mention, that some owners of vessels have laid up their ships on the supposition that the English merchants will not ship any goods till the faction has submitted, and till the blockade is withdrawn. Other letters hint that some who are called merchants have in contemplation a removal to the banks of the Ohio and the Mississippi, as in such remote regions they will have little chance of hearing from their friends in England. In general, the private accounts bear the complexion of the writers; some who wish for the opening of the port, are nevertheless, well pleased that such an effectual measure has been taken as the most seditious, now begin to feel their own littleness; and have also drawn upon themselves the reproaches of the more moderate. And as some of the heads of the faction have no concerns in lawful trade, the majority of the merchants complain much against them for involving the town in such distress. It is likewise said, that if the Act had been conditional, and if, upon their voting the compensation for the tea, its operation would have been prevented, that the money would have been instantly granted; for the real cause of all the rebellious insolence committed at Boston was, the continued assurances sent to Boston by their agent, that Britain was too enfeebled, and Administration too timorous, for to take any spirited measures to repress them. The fatal effects of listening to such insidious advices are now clearly seen by every person possessed of common sense.
The publick accounts, which the faction have published from their friends, (as they mistakenly call them) in London, give us the strongest evidence of the base falsehoods employed to mislead the ignorant people of Boston. Among these many pages of falsehoods, we shall only select one article, which is, "that when the regiments were ordered to embark for Boston, many of the officers resigned their commissions, refusing to be the instruments of oppression." This may serve as a specimen of the encouragement which the factious miscreants here infuse into the Bostonians on purpose to seduce them. Another piece of admirable advice given them, by some knave here, is, "that as their port was to be blocked up, it would be wise in them not to pay any of their debts to this country." Thinking men now will not be surprised that there have been the most unjustifiable commotions and insurrections in Boston, as they find that the people whom the Bostonians confide in, and entrust with the management of their affairs here, have written their correspondents the well established truth of the officers resigning their commissions; and also sent them the honest advice not to pay their just debts!
TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE PROVINCE OF SOUTH-CAROLINA, ABOUT TOASSEMBLE ON THE 6TH OF JULY.
Charlestown, July 4, 1774.
GENTLEMEN: The hour is approaching, the determination of which will affect posterity to the remotest generation. An unparalleled stretch of arbitrary power has lately taken away the chartered privileges of a sister Colony, and granted to his Majesty the property of thousands against whom nothing had been proved. The same Ministerial tools who refused to admit the Letters of Hutchinson and Oliver to be evidence in support of the Assembly's Petition against them, have condemned a whole town unheard, on the sole evidence of their private Letters. The last evening of May, thousands of brave Americans lay down possessed of lands, wharfs, &c., confirmed by Royal Charters; the rising sun of the ensuing day beheld them stripped of all legal right to those possessions. The loyal sufferers supplicate our aid, to concert some general plan of conduct. An auspicious day will soon behold the numerous Sens of Liberty assemble at her call.
Give me leave to present to your view our happy situation before the year 1765. When money or troops were wanted, a requisition was made to our Assemblies, whose compliances in general did them great honour, particularly in the last war, when they were supposed to have contributed more than their quota.* A mutual confidence reigned between British subjects on both sides of the Atlantick. Taxation being mutually acknowledged to reside in the Deputies of each, and legislation in the Parliament of Great Britain. Within these few years, such is the encroaching nature of power, they began, for the first time, to lay taxes for the raising of a revenue. Hence the accursed Stamp Act, Declaratory Act, and the imposition of duties on paper, paints, glass, tea, &c. The Americans, determined to oppose the raising a revenue of them by Representatives they never chose, agreed to parry the Tea Act, by stopping the importation of it. The Ministry, unwilling thus to be baulked, request the aid of the East India Company. They, knowing the measure to be dangerous, because it was unjust, hesitate; but, after they were indemnified from all losses, they undertake to export large cargoes of tea, loaded with a duty for the raising a revenue, to be paid in our ports, with our money. In what light is the East India Company to be considered in this matter? As merchants trading here under the sanction of the law of nations, or as a banditti hired to attack our privileges? In what light could the Americans consider their commodity? As the sacred property of the honourable trader? No; but as an engine by which the enemies of America meant to subvert its privileges. Tea, so circumstanced, brought with such a design, so involved in the dispute, lost the sacred sanction of common property, and may figuratively be said to have changed its nature, and become an instrument of war. In this view of the matter, the Bostonians seem to have done no more than the spirited traveller who breaks the sword or pistol of a robber presented to the breast. Pardon the comparson, ye pensioned hirelings of power, though interest blinds your eyes, the free-born sons of America know, that, notwithstanding the vast Atlantick rolls between, a subject born in this Continent has a constitutional right to the same privileges as if he had received his first existence in the Island of Great Britain; and that, of consequence, no power on earth has any more right to demand his money,
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