have thought proper to publish themselves; and to that end the post has been stopped, the mails broke open, and letters taken out; and by these means, the most injurious and inflammatory accounts have been spread throughout the Continent, which has served to deceive and inflame the minds of the people.

When the Resolves of the Provincial Congress breathed nothing but war; when those two great and essential prerogatives of the King, the levying of Troops and disposing of the Publick Moneys, were wrested from him; and when magazines were forming, by an assembly of men unknown to the Constitution, for the declared purpose of levying war against the King, you must acknowledge it was my duty, as it was the dictate of humanity, to prevent, if possible, the calamities of a civil war, by destroying, such magazines. This, and this alone, I attempted.

You ask, why is the Town of Boston now shut up? I can only refer you for an answer to those bodies of armed men who now surround the Town, and prevent all access to it. The hostile preparations you mention, are such as the conduct of the people of this Province has rendered it prudent to make, for the defence of those under my command. You assure me the people of your Colony abhor the idea of taking arms against the Troops of their Sovereign; I wish the people of this Province (for their own sakes) could make the same declaration.

You inquire, is there no way to prevent this unhappy dispute from coming to extremities? Is there no alternative but absolute submission, or the desolations of war? I answer, I hope there is. The King and Parliament seem to hold out terms of reconciliation, consistent with the honour and interest of Great Britain, and the rights and privileges of the Colonies. They have mutually declared their readiness to attend to any real grievances of the Colonies, and to afford them every just and reasonable indulgence which shall, in a dutiful and constitutional manner, be laid before them; and His Majesty adds, it is his ardent wish that this disposition may have a happy effect on the temper and conduct of his subjects in America. I must add, likewise, the Resolution of the 27th February, on the grand dispute of taxation and revenue, leaving it to the Colonies to tax themselves, under certain conditions. Here is surely a foundation for an accommodation, to people who wish a reconciliation rather than a destructive war between Countries so nearly connected by the ties of blood and interest; but I fear the leaders of this Province have been, and still are, intent only on shedding blood.

I am much obliged by your favourable sentiments of my personal character, and assure you, as it has been my constant wish and endeavour hitherto, so I shall continue to exert my utmost efforts to protect all His Majesty’s liege subjects under my care in their persons and property. You ask, whether it will not be consistent with my duty to suspend the operations of war on my part? I have commenced no operations of war, but defensive; such you cannot wish me to suspend, while I am surrounded by an armed Country, who have already begun, and threaten further to prosecute an offensive war, and are now violently depriving me, the King’s Troops, and many others of the King’s subjects under my immediate protection, of all the conveniences and necessaries of life, with which the Country abounds. But it must quiet the minds of all reasonable people, when I assure you that I have no disposition to injure or molest quiet and peaceable subjects; but on the contrary, shall esteem it my greatest happiness to defend and protect them against every species of violence and oppression.

I am, with great regard and esteem, Sir, your obedient and humble servant,

THOS. GAGE.

The Hon. Governour Trumbull.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY.

MR. THOMAS: The piece in your last, signed Thomas Gage, is replete with such notorious falsehoods, calumny, and evasion, that I scarce know whether it admits of any animadversion, to make it appear most false, abusive, and irritating to every honest mind; neither would it come into my heart to say any thing upon it, were it not that there are, even to this day, those that will speak so far favourably of him as to suggest that they do not think it is his doings so much as some others, that things are carried on as they are; and he is under a necessity of doing as he does, or he would endanger his own life to his master, &c.

Let us, then, take a short view of what he has done, and see whether we have any reason to conceive a favourable opinion of him, any thing better than that he is a most inimical, malicious, and blood-thirsty man. It is well known what a calumniating, malicious letter he sent to England about this Province, when Bernard was Governour here; that was certainly a most officious piece of malice; he was under no necessity of doing that. It is as manifest that he knew what he was undertaking when he came over last year, that it was to carry most arbitrary, unrighteous schemes into execution. Let it be that he was persuaded to believe that he should meet with no very powerful opposition, and that he would not have undertook, if he had known what opposition would have been; this will argue his baseness, and not any goodness; a disposition to trample upon the weak, and to set up power instead of righteousness, and to cast truth to the ground. As soon as he arrived, the first specimen of his goodness was to strike out thirteen Counsellors, very worthy men. Soon after this he dissolved the General Assembly, without even suffering them to have any pay for their service.

The next thing he did remarkable, was his sending in the night and plundering the magazine at Charlestown. Soon after this he went to intrenching and fortifying upon the Neck, and it would be tedious to enumerate all the falsehoods he publickly told about this to President Randolph, to the Town of Boston, and to sundry Committees; telling them that he was not about to hurt the Town by it, to stop the avenues; that he could not fortify it stronger than nature had formed, &c., &c. It would be endless to enumerate all the robberies, abuses, and insults, which his Troops have committed against the inhabitants of Boston, and passengers; the tarring and feathering, quarrelling with the watch, shooting at children passing quietly in the street, violently taking away men’s substance from them and detaining it, knocking them down and leaving them half dead; all this before the Concord expedition, and all justified by the humane Thomas Gage. As to the Concord expedition and Lexington battle, they are too well known by the publick to be the most barbarous, savage conduct of the Troops, to admit of any illustration. The most barbarous Indians, I presume, would be ashamed of such conduct. It is not to be wondered that his Troops deny what they have done; for it is no new proverb that they who steal will lie, and much more; they that rob will murder, in a most savage manner; and Thomas Gage owns, in his letter, that he sent out his men to destroy, and yet says he has “commenced no war but defensive !”

Upon the whole, it is the well known character of the Devil to deceive by fair pretences, lie, and destroy; which character is most amply exemplified in what is above related. But the Devil did speak the truth twice—I do not know that this man has once; so I will leave him for the present.

CERTIFICATE TO EBENEZER BRADISH, JUNIOR, ESQUIRE, OF CAMBRIDGE.

Cambridge, May 3, 1775.

Whereas Ebenezer Bradish, Jun., Esq., of Cambridge, has been represented as a person unfriendly to the just rights and liberties of his Country, and by withdrawing himself from Cambridge and retiring to Boston, on the day of the late unhappy commencement of hostilities between the Troops under the command of General Gage and the inhabitants of this Province, he has increased the publick suspicions against him, whereby he is rendered more odious and disagreeable to his countrymen:

Therefore, to remove from the minds of our beloved friends and countrymen all groundless apprehensions, and to do justice to Mr. Bradish, we, the subscribers, having made due inquiry into the cause of his going to Boston at the time aforesaid, and of his conduct since, do say that we are satisfied that Mr. Bradish had no desire by that means to do any injury to his Country, but on the contrary his design was friendly, and his conduct justifiable; and we recommend it to all persons to conduct towards Mr. Bradish as a gentleman who is not unfriendly to the rights and