PROCLAMATION BY THE MASSACHUSETTS CONGRESS.

In Provincial Congress, Watertown, June 16, 1775.

Resolved, That the following Proclamation be signed by the President, printed, and published throughout this Colony.

BY THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS.

The confidence which our countrymen have reposed in us, lays us under the strongest obligation to watch and guard against all the malignant designs of their inveterate enemies.

That the British Administration have formed, and have been for several years executing a plan to enslave this and the other American Colonies, is a proposition so evident, that it would be an affront to the understanding of mankind to adduce proofs in support of it. We shall therefore only advert to those unhappy circumstances which have been the immediate causes of plunging this People into the horrours of war and desolation. When a Fleet and Army were sent forth to deprive us of every thing that man holds dear; when the Capitol of this Colony became a garrison, and fortifications were erected upon the only land-entrance into the Metropolis: when the Commander of the Army so far manifested his designs against us, as to send out his Soldiers in the night, to remove the publick magazines of the Colony from their safe lodgment in the country, and place them under the command of a Foreign Army; when he evidenced his enmity to the liberties of this Country, by sending a detachment from that Army against the peaceable inhabitants of one of our principal Towns, only because they were assembled quietly to concert measures to save themselves from ruin; when we were lately deprived of the benefit of a legislative body; when the whole system of distributive justice was so mutilated that there could be no reason to hope for any advantages from it; when an Act of Parliament was passed, which the General of the Army resolves to execute, by which our countrymen were given up as a prey to a lawless soldiery, who were screened from punishment here for the murders they might commit; in fine, when the Army and Navy breathed nothing but blood and slaughter, and all our accounts from England but too strongly proved the inhuman intentions of those in power: it became us as men, as freemen, and Christians, to take some steps to preserve our own lives and properties, as well as to secure the inheritance, purchased at no less a price than the blood of many thousands of our brave ancestors, entire and undiminished for succeeding generations. The Congress whom this people then chose recommended it to them to provide themselves with such articles for their defence as the law of the land required, and further recommended it to them to appropriate some part of their own property for the purchasing such stores to be laid up in publick magazines as might be useful for the general defence, in case an attack should be made upon us by the Army. The recommendation was cheerfully complied with, and stores were procured in the most peaceable and quiet manner, and deposited in magazines, where they were to have continued without the least injury or disturbance to any one, unless drawn put by necessity to save the Country from destruction. But the possibility of our making resistance to the bloody schemes of our adversaries was the source of continual terrour to the traitors, whose aim was to enslave this Country; and General Gage, after many little pilferings, and several humiliating disappointments in his attempt to rob the people, at length determined to destroy the magazines at Concord; he sent the Grenadiers and companies of Light-Infantry of every regiment (about one thousand in number) secretly by night over Charles River. On their way some of the Officers captivated and otherwise infamously abused several of the inhabitants; and when the body arrived at Lexington meeting-house, which was very early in the morning of the ever memorable nineteenth of April, they in a most barbarous and infamous manner fired upon a small number of the inhabitants, and cruelly murdered eight men. The fire was returned by some of the survivors, but their number was too inconsiderable to annoy the Regular Troops, who proceeded on their errand; and upon coming up to Concord, began to destroy by fire and water the stores and magazines, until a party of them again fired upon and killed two more of the inhabitants. The native bravery of our countrymen could now no longer be restrained; a small party, consisting of about two or three hundred men, attacked them with such spirit and resolution, as compelled them soon to retreat. At Lexington they met a re-enforcement of Regular Troops, consisting of about eight hundred, with two field-pieces, commanded by Lord Percy. This, however, did not encourage them to keep their ground, but they continued their route towards Charlestown, marking their way with every species of desolation and cruelty which their haste would permit.

The burning and robbing of houses, the abuses and barbarities offered to defenceless women and children, the wanton slaughter of the aged and helpless, will be a perpetual memorial of the base spirit which actuated the perpetrators.

Upon their arrival at Charlestown our countrymen quitted the pursuit, and the next day suffered them, without annoyance, to pass the river and return to Boston.

This action of the Troops destroyed every hope of coming to any accommodation with them; we therefore were compelled to raise an Army to prevent such bloody excursions in future. An Army is therefore raised and appointed for this purpose, and we are, with the greatest reluctance, obliged to declare, that we have now nothing to depend upon under God to preserve America from slavery and destruction but our arms; to these we have been forced to make our appeal, and by these we are determined to maintain our rights. And we are obliged to declare, and do now publickly declare, all persons who shall, afford any aid, assistance, or relief, or hold any manner of communication of any kind whatsoever with General Gage, Admiral Graves, or the Army or Navy, or any one of those now under their command, who are stationed in our Metropolis and the Harbour of Boston or elsewhere, or any persons who are known or shall hereafter be known to have afforded such aid, or to have had such communication with them or either of them, to be enemies and traitors to their Country, and they shall be proceeded against and treated as such, excepting only such of the unhappy inhabitants of Boston as have, by a treacherous and most infamous breach of faith in General Gage, been prevented from removing out of the Town of Boston, whose peculiar circumstances this Congress will at all times make due allowance for, so long as they shall avoid doing any thing to obstruct or counteract such steps as this Congress shall think fit to take; but the said inhabitants are strictly forbidden, whatever may be the consequence of their refusal, to be in any the least degree instrumental in assisting the enemy, or opposing the Country, as they would avoid the penalties due to the enemies thereof. From a real tenderness to our fellow-men, we most sincerely regret the unhappy situation of the Soldiers and Sailors in the Army and Navy now stationed in the Town and Harbour of Boston, and assure them, upon that faith which never has been, and we trust never will be violated, that upon their quitting the infamous service in which they are, (as we must in charity suppose,) contrary to their own inclinations and principles, engaged, we will receive them as brethren and fellow-subjects, and protect them against every attempt that may be made by our enemies to force them again into the disgraceful and inhuman service in which they now are employed.

And that our earnest desire to discover our tender regard to our few misguided fellow-countrymen, and our readiness to forgive even those who have knowingly offended, we do promise and engage a full, free pardon to all persons who have fled to the Town of Boston for refuge, and to the other publick offenders against the rights and liberties of this Country, of what kind or denomination soever, excepting only from the benefit of such pardon Thomas Gage, Samuel Graves, and those Counsellors who were appointed by mandamus, and have not signified their resignation, viz; Jonathan Sewell, Charles Paxton, Benjamin Hallowell, and all the natives of America not belonging to the Navy or Army who went out with the Troops on the, 19th of April last, and were countenancing, aiding, and assisting them in the robberies and murders then committed, whose offences are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment: Provided they take the benefit hereof by making a surrender of themselves to any General Officer belonging