Connecticut, with a zeal, not according to knowledge, alarmed that and all the Southern Provinces, and the whole country was in motion. Under all these hostile appearances, what was it the duty of a good General to do? Was it not to secure his Troops in the best manner he could against the threatened? This his Excellency General Gage did by repairing the old Fortifications at the entrance into the Town, and by throwing up an entrenchment still further from the Town, on each side of the common road. These works were manifestly not offensive against either Town or Country, but merely defensive against invaders, as every man, upon sight of them, must at once perceive if he can distinguish the breech from the mouth of the Cannon. Besides these works there was at that time a train of Artillery in Boston; they were placed at the bottom of the Common, pointing as is usual towards the front of the encampment, which was on the side of the Common next to the Town. This circumstance the inhabitants, in a late Town Meeting, have alleged as an in stance of the General's want of attention, when in his condescending answer to your letter, he said "not a single Cannon is pointed against the Town;" this is supporting their complaint by a miserable quibble; I wish I could say it implies nothing worse. I have been told that one sagacious gentleman observed, with great warmth, that it was strictly true "that every Cannon on the Neck was pointed against the Town, because the bounds of the Town extended half a mile beyond the lines," though, let it be observed, there are but two houses in that space; this likewise is a circumstance to which I am persuaded the General did not advert. By this kind of logick, if his Excellency had been charged with pointing his Cannon against Heaven, and it had happened that one of them had at any time been elevated more than forty-five degrees, this would have supported the charge.

The invasion of private property, charged upon the General, was equally novel and strange here with the complaint respecting the Fortifications. The only colourable pretext for it, that 1 know or have ever heard of, if this can be termed colourable, is the seizing of several pieces of Cannon, not by the General, but by the Commander of one of his Majesty's ships, for being water borne. They were intended to be smuggled into the country; but whether they were private property or not is unknown, as they were condemned in the Court of Admiralty for want of a claimant. I have heard mention made of the orders respecting the Merchants Powder as another instance of this kind; it is very true before the defensive works at the Neck was finished, and while the threats of an invasion were warm, the General did, for a short time, very wisely and prudently prohibit the Keeper of the Magazine from delivering out any Powder—but this is, at most, only in the nature of an embargo, and is no more an invasion of private property than an embargo on ships is. These are all the pretended instances I have ever heard hinted at, in support of this part of the complaint. The suggestion of the irregularity of the Soldiers is truly astonishing; it is notorious, and is acknowledged by every one out of Town Meeting, that their regularity and decent inoffensive behaviour has been remarkably conspicuous. The Town has instanced only in the affair of one gentleman's horse; and this, I believe, happened since the date of your letter. But by what rule of justice does a single instance, in an individual, support a general charge against the whole body of the Soldiers? Would it be just to call the Town of Boston a den of thieves because one or two of the inhabitants have been guilty of theft? In short, Mr. President, it is a truth too glaring to be questioned, that his Excellency the General has constantly given the strictest orders, and attended with the most watchful eye, for the preservation of peace and good order, in consequence of which the good discipline and regular behaviour of the Soldiery has been without parallel.

Such is the sandy foundation upon which you have adopted and published to the people suspicions of a plan to overthrow the liberties of America; upon which you have admonished General Gage, in the style of a Roman Emperor, to the Governour of a Province, hoping that he would discontinue the Fortifications, which he must have done at the price of his character and commissions, if not

not assume in my said letter, it being inserted in the New-York Paper by the Printer's own capricious whim, or to gratify some of his votaries.

The above letter is as nearly conformable to the original as I can recollect, not haying a copy of it; by comparing which with that inserted in said Gaine's Paper, the reader will perceive they somewhat differ. Whether the difference arises from a wrong copy sent forward by Captain Cleveland, or from some other cause, I am not able to determine. I hope the reader will make a proper allowance for incorrectness, when he considers it was wrote in great haste, and the author aimed at nothing but plain matters of fact, as they were delivered to him, not expecting said letter would have been transported through the Continent, subject to the critical inspection of the learned in every Town.

The writer in Mr. Gaine's Paper of September 10, who styles him self a New-York Freeholder, introduces his piece with a rhetorical picture of the horrours of a civil war; which, though I agree with him that it brings a train of evils along with it, yet when drove to a state of desperation by the oppressive hand of tyranny and the lawless violence of arbitrary power, what people on earth would not be justified, in the eye of right reason and common sense, for the resistance even to the shedding of blood, if the preservation of their liberties demanded it. After having said sufficient to alarm the fears of all those who have a pusillanimity of soul, or rather an infamous desire of screening their Jacobitish principles under the mask of dread of consequences, he ushers in this paragraph, with a sneer: "Colonel Putnam's famous letter, forwarded by special messengers to New-York and Philadelphia, and the consequences it produced, are very recent and fresh in our memories." Then, after reciting some part of my letter, he proceeds," The evident confusion of ideas in this letter betrays the state of the poor Colonel's mind, whilst writing it, and shews he did not possess that calm fortitude which is necessary to insure success in military enterprises." Paying all due deference to this author's learning, and his undoubted acquaintance with the rules of grammar and criticism, I would beg leave to ask him whether he docs not betray a total want of the feelings of humanity, if he supposes, in the midst of confusion, when the passions are agitated with a real belief of thousands of their fellow-countrymen being slain, and the inhabitants of a whole City just upon the eve of being made a sacrifice by the rapine and fury of a merciless Soldiery, and their pity laid in ashes by the fire of the Ships of War, he or any one else could set down under the possession of a calmness of soul becoming a Roman Senator, and attend to all the rules of composition in writing a letter to make a representation of plain matters of fact, under the hieroglyphical similitude of tropes and figures?

He goes on to cast a censure upon the New England Colonies, saying the above mentioned report "has eventually made evident, past all doubt, that many in the New England Colonies are disposed and ripe for the most violent measures." This is as gross a falsehood as the Boston alarm, and discovers the evident disposition of the author to cast an odium upon the patriotick sons of New England, whose arms are emblazoned with humanity; who wish to gain a redress of their grievances by the most pacifick and gentle means; but rather than submit to slavery, are determined to drench their swords in blood, and die gloriously, or live free!—Under whose banners, possibly, this jesuitical pretender to friendship for the liberties of America and the British Constitution, may be glad to take sanctuary, when the virtuous inhabitants of the Colony into which he fled from the Scotch rebellion, may find him out, and pass that act of outlawry against him, which every Jacobitish hypocrite deserves.

Now, I submit it to the determination of every candid unprejudiced reader, whether my conduct in writing the above mentioned letter, merits the imputation of imprudence, asserted by said writer; or whether they would have had me tamely sit down and been a spectator of the inhuman sacrifice of my friends and fellow-countrymen; or, in other words, Nero like, have sat down and fiddled, while I really supposed Boston was in flames; or exerted myself for their relief? And pray, in what easier way could I have proceeded, than in writing to one of the Militia Captains, (who I desired to forward the intelligence to the adjacent Towns,) when I really believed the story to be true? Which having done, I immediately mounted my horse and made the best of my way towards Boston, having only four gentlemen to ac company me. Having proceeded as far as Douglass, which is about thirty miles from my own house, 1 met Captain Hill, of that Town, with his Company, who had been down within about thirty miles of Boston, end had just returned. He informed ma that the alarm was false, and that the forces of Worcester and Sutton were upon their re turn. I then turned my course homewards, without loss of time, and reached my house on Sunday morning about sun-rising, taking care to acquaint the people on the road that they need not proceed any further. Immediately on my return I sent an express to Captain Cleveland, let ting him know what intelligence I had heard, and desiring him to give the like information to the adjoining Towns to the Southward.

I believe the alarm was first occasioned by Mr. Benjamin Hallowell, who, going into Boston in a great fright, informed the Army that he had killed one man and wounded another, while they were pursuing him from Cambridge, and that the country were all in arms marching into Boston; which threw the military into great consternation; and they were quickly paraded and put into the most convenient posture of defence, in which situation they remained till next day. In the midst of this hurry and confusion, I believe a post was despatched into the country, but by whom, or to answer what purpose, I cannot tell; but what took place in consequence of it is evident. General Gage's apprehension of danger was so great, that he speedily began to fortify the entrance to the Town, to prevent a surprise from the enemy with out.

From what has been said, I believe it will sufficiently appear that I was not the inventor of this alarm; and I am told from good authority that the people were in motion in the Northward part of the Massachusetts Government, even to the distance of one hundred miles from Boston, who were alarmed by an Express sent thither by the same Wilcot, above mentioned, before the news reached me, which I think is enough to silence the ill-natured aspersions of every caviling Tory against my conduct, and make them, dog-like, draw in their tails and lop their ears, and skulk into some obscure hole or kennel and hide themselves from the contempt of the world. Having evidently discovered their attempt to stir up a spirit of animosity and disunion among the good people of the Colonies, I pray God it may prove abortive.

ISRAEL PUTNAM.