in need of such manure. Patriots, American Patriots, shall spring up spontaneously from it.

JOHN DICKINSON TO ARTHUR LEE.

Philadelphia, October 27, 1774.

DEAR SIR: Yesterday the Congress broke up. You will immediately know their Proceedings from publications.

The Colonists have now taken such grounds that Great Britain must relax, or inevitably involve herself in a civil war, likely in all human probability to overwhelm her with a weight of calamities, in comparison of which, the contentions between the Houses of York and Lancaster, or the distractions of the last century, were gentle misfortunes.

A determined and unanimous resolution animates this Continent, firmly and faithfully to support the common cause to the utmost extremity in this great struggle for the blessing of liberty—a blessing that can alone render life worth holding.

I grieve for the fate of a brave and generous Nation, plunged by a few profligate men into such scenes of unmerited and inglorious distress. Let her rouse her noble spirit, be true to herself, and she cannot fail of being true to us. Let her not so far adopt the schemes of base yet visionary men and knaves, that she may think her dignity concerned to maintain the projects of those whom her justice commands her to punish.

Give up the Butes, Mansfields, Norths, Bernards, and Hutchinsons, whose falsehoods and misrepresentations have inflamed the people; call not their cause the cause of Great Britain; throw all errours and occasions of dissatisfactions on their guilty heads. A new Ministry of such a character that England and America both can trust, may do great things; especially if a considerable change be made at the next general election. Why should Nations meet with hostile eyes, because villains and ideots have acted like villains and ideots?

I wish ardently; but must say, delightful as it is, it will come more grateful by being unexpected. The first act of violence on the part of Administration in America, or the attempt to reinforce General Gage this winter or next year, will put the whole Continent in arms, from Nova Scotia to Georgia.

May God of his infinite mercy grant a happy event to these afflicting agitations. Your friend,

JOHN DICKINSON.

P.S. It is suspected here that a design is regularly prosecuted by the Ministry, to make his Majesty dethrone himself, by the calamities and convulsions his reign is likely to bring on his whole people. Please to inform me what is thought on this point in England,

JOHN DICKINSON TO JOSIAH QUINCY, JUN.

Fairhill, October 28, 1774.

MY DEAR SIR: I should have answered your last letter before you left Boston, if I had not imagined from what you said in it, that you must have sailed before it could have reached that place.

I now congratulate you on the hearty union of all America, from Nova Scotia to Georgia, in the common cause. The particulars you are no doubt acquainted with.

The Congress broke up the day before yesterday; and if it be possible, the return of the Members into the several Colonies will make the people still more firm. The most peaceable Provinces are now animated; and a civil war is unavoidable, unless there be a quick change of British measures. The usual events, no question, will take place if that happens—victories and defeats. But what will be the final consequence? If she fails, immediate distress; if not, ruin; if she conquers, destruction at last. But from the best judgment I can form, she will not wait long for her fate. Several European Powers, it is probable, will fall on as soon as she is entangled with us. If they should not, what can she effect at three thousand miles distance, against at least four hundred thousand freemen fighting "pro aris et focis?"

I cannot but pity a brave and generous Nation thus plunged in misfortune by a few worthless persons. But it may be said, how can she retract with dignity in the present position of affairs? I answer, her dignity is not at all concerned, unless it be to punish those who have abused and betrayed her into measures inconsistent with her welfare. Is a Nation bound in honour to support every mad or villainous step of a Ministry? It is mean to persist in errours because we have committed them. But what is to be said of those who talk of asserting their own dignity, by vindicating the errours of others?

The present cause is that of Bute, Mansfield, North, Bernard, Hutchinson, &c., not of Great Britain. Let her renounce their detestable projects, which point at her as their ultimate object, and reconcile herself to her children, while their minds are capable of reconciliation.

"Oh! for a warning voice," to rouse them to conviction of this important truth, that the reconciliation depends upon the passing moment, and that the opportunity will, in a short time, be irrecoverably past, as the days beyond the flood.

Every thing may yet be attributed to the misrepresentations and mistakes of Ministers; and universal peace be established throughout the British world, only by a general acknowledgment of this truth, that half a dozen men are fools or knaves. If their character for ability and integrity is to be maintained by wrecking the whole Empire, Monsieur Voltaire may write an addition to the, chapter on the subject of "Little things producing great events."

As to your complaint against an expression of mine in a late letter, know, dear sir, I wrote in agonies of mind for my brethren in Boston. 1 trembled lest something might have happened which I could not only forgive, but applaud, but which might have been eagerly and basely seized by others, as a pretence for deserting them. This was the sense of men in Philadelphia, the most devoted to them; and under this apprehension, we agreed to make use of the strongest expressions.

May the Father of Mercies bestow every blessing upon you, is the fervent prayer of, my dear sir, your faithful and affectionate friend,

JOHN DICKINSON.

JAMES LOVELL TO JOSIAH QUINCY, JUN.

Boston, October 28, 1774.

MY DEAR SIR: You will see by the papers, that immediately after you sailed, a Proclamation was issued to discharge the Members from attendance upon that General Court, for which precepts, you know, had been given out. They judiciously slighted sticking to Charter-rule; and upon finding Mr. Gage did not attend to his proper duty, they resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress, to meet at Concord to-morrow. They will be strenuous, I expect, in pressing the General to desist from his fortifications. Yet, what can he do? He cannot declare in plain English, that he is only striving to make the minds of his officers and men easy, and yet I believe that to be the truth and the whole truth.

I told you at parting, that if I was deceived in my countrymen, and found they turned out poltrons, I would not inform you of it, though such was your request. Let not that speech detract from my credit, when I tell you they rise every day in character. It is become a downright task for the warmest patriots of our Town and County to confine the spirit of the other Counties to an attention to the causes, rather than to the executors of our wrongs. I am really pained at finding that the wickedness of Ministerial conduct has brought the Province so generally to make the idea of an engagement between fellow-subjects so familiar to their minds. How would such a thought have shocked us all a few years ago! But the insolent appearance of the works on the Neck has roused the inclinations of the vigorous country youth to play over again the Niagara game of filling trenches with round bundles of hay, under which they advanced securely. The folly and weakness of the works may easily be proved to be fully equal to the insolence. Our besiegers, sensible how much nature is against them, talk of employing constantly great numbers of their soldiery to break the ice of the two Bays; little knowing, however, what mighty reparation will be made in only one of our freezing nights; and little considering, also, the non-importance of its being broken in Bays which are a dead flat upon every ebb. I wish again and again that the