our brethren in the country, some one of the Committee of Correspondence, or a Selectman of each town, or the town adjoining where such hostilities shall commence, or shall be expected to commence, shall despatch couriers with written messages to the Selectmen or Committees of Correspondence of the several towns in the vicinity, with a written account of such matter, who shall despatch others to Committees more remote, until proper and sufficient assistance be obtained; and that the expense of said couriers be defrayed by the county, until it shall be otherwise ordered by the Provincial Congress.

At a Meeting of Delegates from several Towns and Districts in the County of Suffolk, held at Milton, on Friday the 9th of September, 1774,

Voted, That Doctor Joseph Warren and Doctor Benjamin Church, of Boston; Deacon Joseph Palmer, Germantown; Captain Lemuel Robinson, Dorchester; Captain William Heath, Roxbury; Colonel Ebenezer Thayer, Braintree; William Holden, Esq., Dorchester; Colonel William Taylor, Milton; Captain John Homans, Dorchester; Isaac Gardiner, Esq., Brookline; Mr. Richard Woodward, Dedham; Captain Benjamin White, Brookline; Doctor Samuel Gardiner, Milton; Nathaniel Summer, Esq., Dedham, and Captain Thomas Aspinwall, Brookline, he a Committee to wait upon his Excellency the Governour, to inform him that the people of this county are alarmed at the fortifications making on Boston Neck, and to remonstrate against the same; and the repeated insults offered by the soldiery to persons passing and repassing into that town, and to confer with him upon these subjects.

Attest,

WILLIAM THOMSON, Clerk.

To his Excellency the Honourable THOMAS GAGE, Captain- General and Commander-in-chief of his Majesty's Province of MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

May it please your Excellency:

The County of Suffolk being greatly, and in their opinion justly alarmed at the formidable appearance of hostility now threatening his Majesty's good subjects of this county, and more particularly of the town of Boston, the loyal and faithful capital of this Province; beg leave to address your Excellency, and represent that the apprehensions of the people are more especially increased by the dangerous design now carrying into execution, of repairing and manning the fortifications at the south entrance of the town of Boston, which when completed, may at any time be improved to aggravate the miseries of that already impoverished and distressed city, by intercepting the wonted and necessary intercourse between the town and country, and compel the wretched inhabitants to the most ignominious state of humiliation and vassalage, by depriving them of the necessary supplies of provisions for which they are chiefly dependent on that communication: we have been informed that your Excellency, in consequence of the application of the Selectmen of Boston, has indeed disavowed any intention to injure the town, in your present manœuvres, and expressed your purpose to be for the security of the troops and his Majesty's subjects in the town; we are at a loss to guess, may it please your Excellency, from whence your want of confidence in the loyal and orderly people of this county could originate; a measure so formidable, carried into execution from a pre-conceived, though causeless jealousy of the insincerity of his Majesty's troops and subjects in the town, deeply wounds the loyalty, and is an additional injury to the faithful subjects of this county, and affords them a strong motive for this application.

We therefore entreat your Excellency to desist from your design, assuring your Excellency that the people of this county are by no means disposed to injure his Majesty's troops; they think themselves aggrieved and oppressed by the late Acts of Parliament, and are resolved, by divine assistance, never to submit to them, but have no inclination to commence a war with his Majesty's troops, and beg leave to observe to your Excellency, that the ferment now excited in the minds of the people is occasioned by some late transactions, by seizing the powder in the Arsenal at Charlestown, by withholding the powder lodged in the Magazine of the town of Boston from the legal proprietors, insulting, beating, and abusing passengers to and from the town by the soldiery, in which they have been encouraged by some of their officers, putting the people in fear, and menacing them in their nightly patrole into the neighbouring town, and more particularly by the fortifying the sole avenue by land into the town of Boston.

In duty therefore to his Majesty, and to your Excellency, and for the restoration of order and security to this county, we, the Delegates from the several towns in this county, being commissioned for this purpose, beg your Excellency's attention to this our humble and faithful address, assuring you that nothing less than an immediate removal of the ordnance and restoring the entrance into that town to its former state, and an effectual stop of all insults and abuses in future, can place the inhabitants of this county in that peace and tranquillity in which every free subject ought to live.

His Excellency was waited on to know if he would receive the Committee with the above written Address, but desiring he might have a copy of it in a private way, that so when he received it from the Committee he might have an answer prepared for them, he was accordingly furnished with a copy. His Excellency then declared that he would receive the Committee on Monday at twelve o'clock.

Saturday, September 10, 1774.

GOVERNOUR GAGE'S ANSWER.

GENTLEMEN: I hoped the assurances I gave the Selectmen of Boston on the subject you now address me, had been satisfactory to every body. I cannot possibly intercept the intercourse between the town and the country; it is my duty and intent to encourage it; and it is as much inconsistent with my duty and intent to form the strange scheme you are pleased to suggest of reducing the inhabitants to a state of humiliation and vassalage, by stopping their supplies; nor have I made it easier to effect this than what nature has made it. You mention the soldiers insulting, beating, and abusing passengers as a common thing; an instance, perhaps, may be given of the bad behaviour of some disorderly soldiers; but I must appeal to the inhabitants of both town and country for their general good behaviour, from their first arrival to this town.

I would ask what occasion there is for such numbers going armed in and out of the town, and through the country, in an hostile manner? Or why were the guns removed privately in the night from the battery at Charlestown?

The refusing submission to the late Acts of Parliament I find general throughout the Province, and I shall lay the same before his Majesty.

THOMAS GAGE.

Boston, September 12, 1774.

The Committee of the Delegates from the several town in the County of Suffolk, who presented the Address to the Governour, on receiving his Answer met together, and having carefully perused the same, were unanimously of opinion that his Excellency's answer could not be deemed satisfactory to the county. And further, that his Excellency in his reply had been pleased to propose several questions, which, if unanswered by the Committee, would leave on the minds of persons, not fully acquainted with the state of facts, some very disagreeable impressions concerning the conduct and behaviour of the people in this county and Province. And the following Address was unanimously voted to his Excellency:

May it please your Excellency:

The answer you have been pleased to favour us with to the address of this day presented to you, gives us satisfaction, so far as it relates to your intentions; and we thank your Excellency for the declaration which you have made, that it is your duty and interest to encourage an intercourse between town and country; and we entreat your indulgence while we modestly reply to the questions proposed in your answer. Your Excellency is too well acquainted with the human heart, not to be sensible that it is natural for the people to be soured by oppression, and jealous for their personal security, when their exertions for the preservation of their rights are construed into treason and rebellion. Our liberties are invaded by Acts of the British