by your noble exertions in the cause of liberty, and deeply interested in the expiring commerce of the Empire, you necessarily command the most respectful attention. The General Committee of Association for the City and County of New-York beg leave, therefore, to address you, and the capital of the British Empire, through its Magistrates, on the subject of American wrongs. Born to the bright inheritance of English freedom, the inhabitants of this extensive Continent can never submit to the ignominious yoke, nor move in the galling fetters of slavery: the disposal of their own property with perfect spontaneity, and in a manner wholly divested of every appearance of constraint, is their indefeasible birthright. This exalted blessing they are resolutely determined to defend with their blood, and transfer it uncontaminated to their posterity.

You will not then wonder at their early jealousy of the design to erect in this land of liberty a despotism scarcely to be paralleled in the pages of antiquity, or the volumes of modern times; a despotism consisting in power assumed by the Representatives of a part of His Majesty’s subjects, at their sovereign will and pleasure to strip the rest of their property. And what are the engines of Administration to execute this destructive project? The duty on tea; oppressive restraints on the commerce of the Colonies; the blockade of the Port of Boston; the change of internal police in the Massachusetts and Quebeck, the establishment of Popery in the latter, the extension of its bounds; the ruin of our Indian commerce by regulations calculated to aggrandize that arbitrary Government; unconstitutional admiralty jurisdictions throughout the Colonies; the invasion of our right to a trial in the most capital cases by a jury of the vicinage; the horrid contrivance to screen from punishment the bloody executioners of ministerial vengeance; and, not to mention the rest of the black catalogue of our grievances, the hostile operations of an Army, who have already shed the blood of our countrymen. The struggles excited by the detestable Stamp Act have so lately demonstrated to the world that the Americans will not be slaves, that we stand astonished at the gross impolicy of the Minister. Recent experience has evinced that the possessors of this extensive Continent would never submit to a tax by pretext of legislative authority in Britain; disguise, therefore, became the expedient; in pursuit of the same end, Parliament declared their absolute supremacy over the Colonies, and have already endeavoured to exercise that supremacy in attempting to raise a revenue under the specious pretence of providing for their good Government and defence. Administration, to exhibit a degree of moderation, purely ostensible and delusory, while they withdrew their hands from our most necessary articles of importation, determined, with an eager grasp, to hold the duty on tea as a badge of their taxative power. Zealous on our part for an indissoluble union with the Parent State, studious to promote the glory and happiness of the Empire, and impressed with a just sense of the necessity of a controlling authority, to regulate and harmonize the discordant commercial interests of its various parts, we cheerfully submit to a regulation of commerce by the Legislature of the Parent State, excluding in its nature every idea of taxation.

Whither, therefore, the present machinations of arbitrary power infallibly tend, you may easily judge; if unremittedly pursued, as they were inhumanly devised, they will, by a fatal necessity, terminate in a total dissolution of the Empire. The subjects of this Country will not, we trust, be deceived by any measures conciliatory in appearance, while it is evident that the Minister aims at a solid revenue to be raised by grievous and oppressive Acts of Parliament, and by fleets and armies employed to enforce their execution. They never will, we believe, submit to an auction in the Colonies, for the more effectual augmentation of the revenue, by holding it up as a temptation to them, that the highest bidders shall enjoy the greatest share of governmental favour. This plan, as it would tend to sow the seeds of discord, would be far more dangerous than hostile force, in which we hope the King’s Troops will ever be, as they have already been, unsuccessful. Instead of those unusual, extraordinary, and unconstitutional modes of procuring levies from the subject, should His Majesty graciously be pleased upon suitable emergencies, to make requisitions in ancient form, the Colonies have expressed their willingness to contribute to the support of the Empire; but to contribute of their voluntary gift as Englishmen. And when our unexampled grievances are redressed, our Prince will find his American subjects testifying on all proper occasions, by as ample aids as their circumstances will permit, the most unshaken fidelity to their Sovereign, and inviolable attachment to the welfare of his realm and Dominions.

Permit us further to assure you, that America is grown so irritable by oppression, that the least shock in any part is, by the most powerful and sympathetick affection, instantaneously felt through the whole Continent; that Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New-York, have already stopped their exports to the Fishing Islands, and those Colonies which at this dangerous juncture have refused to unite with their brethren in the common cause, and all supplies to the Navy and Army at Boston; and that probably the day is at hand when our Continental Congress will totally shut up our Ports. The minions of power here may now inform Administration, if they can ever speak the language of truth, that this City is as one man in the cause of liberty; that to this end our inhabitants are almost unanimously bound by the enclosed Association; that it is continually advancing to perfection by additional subscriptions; that they are resolutely bent on supporting their Committee, and the intended Provincial and Continental Congresses; that there is not the least doubt of the efficacy of their example in the other Counties; in short, that while the whole Continent are ardently wishing for peace on such terms as can be acceded to by Englishmen, they are indefatigable in preparing for the last appeal. That such are the language and conduct of our fellow-citizens, will be further manifested by a representation of the Lieutenant-Governour and Council, of the first instant, to General Gage, at Boston, and to His Majesty’s Ministers, by the packet.

Assure yourselves, my lord and gentlemen, that we speak the real sentiments of the confederated Colonies on the Continent, from Nova-Scotia to Georgia, when we declare, that all the horrours of civil war will never compel America to submit to taxation by authority of Parliament.

A sincere regard to the publick weal and the cause of humanity, a hearty desire to spare the further effusion of human blood, our loyalty to our Prince, and the love we bear to all our fellow-subjects in His Majesty’s Realm and Dominions, and a full conviction of the warmest attachment in the capital of the Empire to the cause of justice and liberty, have induced us to address you on this momentous subject, confident that the same cogent motives will induce the most vigorous exertions of the City of London to restore union, mutual confidence, and peace to the whole Empire.

We have the honour to be, my lord and gentlemen, your most obedient, and affectionate fellow-subjects,

To the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London.