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ship will perceive some of the most obnoxious are in the number of those who move.
From the union of the Provinces, and the similarity of their measures, I have not been without apprehensions that our supplies of provisions might be stopped, and gave early notice to the Contractors here to lay in large quantities in time. They assure me, that from the quantity they have collected, and the measures they have taken to procure more, that there is no danger of being in want; but if any thing more extraordinary happens, we shall not be able to procure provisions from any of the Colonies.
Major General Haldimand has joined me with the Forty-seventh Regiment, and three Companies of the Eighteenth, from New-York, and has put a large quantity of the most useful stores at that place, and which it became proper to secure, on board the transports; a good deal, but what would be of least service, still remains under the care of five Companies of the Eighteenth Regiment.
November 2, 1774.
The King's schooner the St. Lawrence, which conveys this despatch, being detained, I transmit your Lordship the last Resolves which this Provincial Congress has published; after which they adjourned to the 23d instant; and I learn that their secret determination is to assemble the old Council at their next meeting, in order to form as complete a Government as they can, and to have, as they say, a vast army in the field in the spring, at the Continental expense. I also transmit your Lordship a copy of another Message to me, in answer to mine to their first Message, which has been sent your Lordship.
They have a particular manner in perverting and turning every thing to their purposes. A Regiment was encamped about a mile from Salem, two Companies of which marched put as far perhaps, as some straggling houses, but was ordered back, and never came within a quarter of a mile of the place where the people were assembled; nor was there any occasion for them. No private property has been touched, unless they mean an order to the Storekeeper not to deliver out any Powder from the Magazine, where the Merchants deposite it, which I judged a very necessary and prudent measure in the present circumstances, as well as removing the Ammunition from the Provincial Arsenal at Cambridge.
They make the greatest handle of the works at the entrance of the Town, which I have very great reason to believe have obstructed some designs they had in view, and which I cannot doubt they have had it in deliberation to attack, but carried against the movers of the project.
The Officers of the Militia have, in most places, been forced to resign their commissions, and the men choose their officers, who are frequently made and unmade; and I shall not be surprised, as the Provincial Congress seems to proceed higher and higher in their determinations, if persons should be authorized by them to grant commissions, and assume every power of a legal Government, for their edicts are implicitly obeyed throughout the country.
The Tenth and Fifty-second Regiments are arrived and arriving in the Harbour. On their landing, I shall be able, from the whole, to form a force of near three thousand men, exclusive of a Regiment for the defence of Castle William.
Your Lordship will doubtless receive many accounts of the, situation of this Continent. This Province is without Courts of Justice or Legislature—the whole country in a ferment; many parts of it, I may say, actually in arms and ready to unite. Letters from other Provinces tell us they are violent everywhere; and that no decency is observed in any place but New-York. Great Britain had never more occasion for wisdom, firmness, and unanimity.
JOSIAH QUINCY TO JOSIAH QUINCY, JUN.,
Braintree, October 31, 1774.
MY DEAR SON: It is now four weeks since you sailed, and if my prayers are heard and the petition of them granted, your health is restored, your voyage comfortable, and your arrival safe; news that would be almost as joyful and reviving to your aged father, as to hear that, through your mediation, peace and harmony were restored between the parent state and her injured and oppressed children upon this Continent. I have not, nor shall forget to inform you of facts as they have taken, or may take place, since you left us; but my retired situation will not permit my gratifying you so much as I should otherwise be glad to do.
All the Tories and some of the Whigs resent your clandestine departure. Many of the former say, that as soon as your arrival is known, you will be apprehended and secured. Some say you are gone to Holland, and from thence to the South of France. Others say the General Congress have appointed and commissioned you their agent at the Court of Great Britain, and that you had your credentials and instructions from them before you went away. Your friends say your principal motive is the recovery of your health, which if Providence should please to restore, they rest assured of your best endeavours to procure a redress of the grievances, and a speedy removal of the intolerable burdens, with which your native country is and has been long oppressed.
God Almighty grant, if your life and health are spared, that you may succeed in every respect.
When in Town I found two political productions, "An Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain over the Colonies in America;" and "A Letter from Lord Lyttleton to Lord Chatham, on the Quebec Bill." They are each of them esteemed masterly productions by their respective partisans. Before this reaches you, I doubt not you will have received the former from its author.* I regret his allowing Great Britain a revenue from the Colonies, while she persists in her claim of an exclusive trade with them, which appears to me to be an overbalance for all the protection she has or can afford them, especially when it is considered that all the profits resulting from the immense extent of territory ceded to her at the Treaty of Paris, remains solely to her. At the same time, we are restrained from the profitable Whale and Cod fisheries in the Bay of St. Lawrance, and the Straits of Belle Isle, which we formerly enjoyed without interruption. If I am not greatly mistaken, there is not a single argument in Lord Lyttleton's letter, whereby he endeavours to prove the justice, wisdom, benevolence, and policy of Parliament in indulging the Canadians with the French laws which will not much more forcibly conclude in behalf of the Colonies, that their respective Constitutions and Laws should remain inviolate, and the fights and privileges secured by them, upon no pretence whatever, to be abridged. Where then is the wisdom, benevolence, and justice of Parliament? What, besides low-cunning and left-handed policy, could induce them to their past and present violent measures, which must ultimately be as injurious to them as they are, or can be, to us. But his Lordship in the close of his letter tells us "it is necessary to conciliate the affections of the Canadians, and thereby induce them to assist Administration in coercing America." Read this passage, attend to the meaning of it, and then, if you can, suppress your indignation. What! have we Americans spent so much of our blood and treasure in aiding Britain to conquer Canada, that Britons and Canadians may now subjugate us? Forbid it Heaven!
Is this the "policy," which he recommends as "best calculated to unite natural-born, and adopted subjects, in one common bond of interest, affection and duty?" But I must quit the subject.
I have filled my paper, and have only room to add the affectionate regards of your family, joined to those of your unalterably fond parent,
JOSIAH QUINCY.
THE DEPUTY GOVERNOUR OF PENNSYLVANIA TO THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH.
Philadelphia, October 31, 1774.
MY LORD: I have the honour to acquaint your Lordship that the Congress of Delegates from the several Colonies dissolved themselves on the 26th instant, and have just published the principal part of their proceedings. I therefore take the earliest opportunity of transmitting you herewith two printed copies of them; and I am informed, that, besides what is contained in these extracts, they have framed a Petition to his Majesty, but not having had the
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