The malice of the Boston Port Bill has been defeated, in a very considerable degree, by giving you an opportunity of deserving, and our brethren in this and our sister Colonies an opportunity of bestowing, those benefactions which have delighted your friends, and astonished your enemies, not only in America, but in Europe also; and what is more valuable still, the sympathetick feelings for a brother in distress, and the grateful emotions excited in the breast of him who finds relief, must forever endear each to the other, and form those indissoluble bonds of friendship and affection, on which the preservation of our right so evidently depends.

The mutilation of our Charter has made ever Colony jealous for its own; for this, if once submitted to by us, would set on float the property and Government of every British settlement upon the Continent. If Charters are not deemed sacred, how miserably precarious is every thing founded upon them?

Even the sending Troops to put these Acts in execution, is not without advantages to us. The exactness and beauty of their discipline inspire our youth with ardour in the pursuit of military knowledge. Charles the Invincible taught Peter the Great the Art of War. The battle of Pultowa convinced Charles of the proficiency Peter had made.

Our Country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful, but we have many friends determined to be free, and Heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves—the faultering tongue of hoary age calls on you to support your Country. The lisping infant raises its suppliant hands, imploring defence against the monster slavery. Your fathers look from their celestial seats with smiling approbation on their sons, who boldly stand forth in the cause of virtue; but sternly frown upon the inhuman miscreant who, to secure the loaves and fishes to himself, would breed a serpent to destroy his children.

But pardon me, my fellow-citizens: I know you want not zeal or fortitude. You will maintain your rights, or perish in the generous struggle. However difficult the combat, you never will decline it when freedom is the prize. An independence on Great Britain is not our aim. No, our wish is that Britain and the Colonies may, like the oak and ivy, grow and increase in strength together. But whilst the infatuated plan of making one part of the Empire slaves to the other is persisted in, the interest and safety of Britain, as well as the Colonies, require that the wise measures recommended by the Honourable the Continental Congress be steadily pursued; whereby the unnatural contest, between a parent honoured, and a child beloved, may probably be brought to such an issue, as that the peace and happiness of both may be established upon a lasting basis. But if these pacifick measures are ineffectual; and it appears that the only way to safety is through fields of blood, I know you will not turn your faces from your foes, but will undauntedly press forward until tyranny is trodden under foot; and you have fixed your adored Goddess, Liberty, fast by a Brunswick’s side, on the American Throne.

You, then, who nobly have espoused your Country’s cause—who generously have sacrificed wealth and ease—who have despised the pomp and show of tinselled greatness—refused the summons to the festive board—been deaf to the alluring calls of luxury and mirth—who have forsaken the downy pillow to keep your vigils by the midnight lamp for the salvation of your invaded Country, that you might break the fowler’s snare and disappoint the vulture of his prey, you then will reap that harvest of renown which you so justly have deserved. Your Country shall pay her grateful tribute of applause. Even the children of your most inveterate enemies (ashamed to tell from whom they sprang, while they in secret curse their stupid, cruel parents) shall join the general voice of gratitude to those who broke the fetters which their fathers forged.

Having redeemed your Country, and secured the blessing to future generations, who, fired by your example, shall emulate your virtues, and learn from you the Heavenly art of making millions happy, with heart-felt joy—with transports all your own, you cry, the glorious work is done! then drop the mantle to some young Elisha, and take your seats with kindred spirits in your native skies.

TO THE INHABITANTS OF NEW-YORK.

New-York, Monday, March 6, 1775.

MY FELLOW-CITIZENS: As you are called on this day to give your voices on a measure of importance, permit one who has your welfare most anxiously at heart, to state the matter as it is. On the 2d instant, the Committee published an Advertisement to call you together, upon the business therein expressed. They do not pretend that this is in consequence of any powers you have vested with them; it is, therefore, a proposal coming from them as so many individuals. On Friday, the third instant, a number of Citizens, equally reputable in their characters with the members of the Committee, and far superiour in numbers, upon mature deliberation, conceived that this measure ought to be postponed. Every person who wants the sanction of your approbation should maintain his proposals with reasons, and the advocates for postponing the question have assigned a number in support of it. These you have seen in a handbill, and you are the judges of the weight they deserve. What arguments there are to hasten and precipitate this question, is not known, nor is it proper in the hurry and confusion of a crowd, to discuss questions which require time and attention for a sober, judicious determination. It seems proper, therefore, to postpone this question, from which no disadvantage can possibly arise.

A FREEMAN.

TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK.

New-York, Monday, March 6, 1775.

It has been the practice of some people in this City, upon all occasions, in order to defeat the well meant endeavours of its real friends, to misrepresent their intentions. With this view, it has been artfully propagated, that the Citizens who assembled at Montagnie’s on Friday, had resolved to oppose the appointment of Delegates. Disposed as I am, as an individual, for the measure of Delegates, I was alarmed at this insinuation; and having attentively considered the proceedings of the Meeting on Friday, find that the report is entirely false, and calculated to mislead you. The only measure proposed by the friends of Constitutional Liberty is, that the nomination of Delegates may be postponed; the time appointed by the Committee being so short as not to admit of deliberating on the most proper mode of electing them, and of framing proper instructions for their government. The method proposed by the Committee being extremely exceptionable, and such as will put this City, which pays one third of the taxes of the Colony, upon a footing with the smallest County in it.

A BURGHER.

TO THE RESPECTABLE INHABITANTS OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK.

New-York, Monday, March 6, 1775.

FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: By the general tenour of your conduct, since the commencement of our unhappy disputes with Great Britain, you have uniformly and fully evinced yourselves to be possessed of an inviolable attachment to the cause of Constitutional Liberty, as well as of unshaken Loyalty to our most Gracious Sovereign, and a just abhorrence of such irregular proceedings as indicated a spirit of disaffection, or independency in any of the Colonists. These virtues, always valuable in a high degree, are peculiarly so in times like the present, when a dangerous infatuation has seized so many; when discord and tyranny, in the guise of liberty, stalk forth among us; and, under specious pretences, would entail misery, ruin, and the most abject slavery upon us. These virtues, which you have nobly exerted on several occasions, will soon be called to another trial.

A summons has been issued last Thursday, by the Chairman, and by order of the Committee, commanding your attendance at the Exchange on Monday, the 6th instant, for the purpose of choosing Delegates to go to the next Continental Congress. Considering our late transactions