to the Massachusetts Army, and subscribe a declaration of their readiness to comply with, support, and abide by all the resolutions and determinations which are already made by this or any former Congress, or that shall hereafter be made by this or any future Congress or House of Representatives of this Colony, within thirty Jays from the date hereof. And it is earnestly enjoined upon the Selectmen, Committees of Correspodence, Committees of Safety, and all other Officers of every Town in this Colony, that they use their utmost diligence to discover and make known to this Congress any person or persons who shall in any respect attempt to do any thing tending to render ineffectual their designs and doings; and we trust that the God of Armies, on whom we rely for a blessing upon our arms, which we have taken up in support of the great and fundamental principles of natural justice and the common and indefeasible rights of mankind, will guide and direct us in our designs, and at last, in infinite goodness to this his injured people, restore peace and freedom to the American world.

To the Honourable Provincial Congress now sitting at WATERTOWN:

The Petition of EBENEZER SMITH and THOMAS COOK, Selectmen of EDGARTOWN, in behalf of said EDGARTOWN, humbly showeth:

That whereas the said Town of Edgartown is very small and poor, the soil sandy, and not capable of producing the article of bread-corn for the inhabitants yearly by far; whereby many of the inhabitants are obliged to employ themselves in the whaling employ for their support, which at this time is rendered useless, by reason that the oil obtained will not produce cash; and also the staple commodity of said Edgartown, which is the article of sheep’s wool, cannot be transported to the main land at this time, with any degree of safety, by reason of the armed vessels continually cruising betwixt said Edgartown and the main land; and your petitioners are well assured that there is but very little cash in said Town, and that many of the inhabitants are at this time in a considerable degree suffering for the article of bread-corn, and are by no means at this present time capable of paying their publick taxes: we therefore pray, in behalf of said Edgartown, that as your petitioners have contracted with the Committee of Supplies to supply them with a number of yarn stockings, that the same may answer in lieu of the money, as far as the amount of said stockings; as we conceive it will be of great utility to said Town, by reason that the little money there is will be stopped in said Town, and the poor kept at work in the manufacturing of the wool. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

THOMAS COOK, ESENEZER SMITH,

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Selectmen.

Edgartown, June 16, 1775.

COLONEL ISRAEL GILMAN TO THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

Charlestown, June 16, 1775.

GENTLEMEN:I take this opportunity to inform you of the state of Colonel Read’s Regiment now at Charlestown. The Regiment is full officered; the soldiery will appear by the return; there is good harmony in said Regiment. A chaplain, surgeon, and armourer very much wanting in said Regiment.

Gentlemen, I am, with respect, your most obedient, &c.,

ISRAEL GILMAN.

To the Honourable the Committee of Safety.

P. S. It is still times with the Regular Troops at present; we expect they will make a push for Bunker’s Hill or Dorchester Neck very soon.

TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

London, June 17, 1775.

Friends and Fellow-Countrymen:

Let me conjure you, by all you hold dear here and hereafter, by all the ties of nature and justice, to rouse in defence of your persecuted brethren and fellow-subjects in America, who daily fall innocent victims to lawless power. Let me entreat you to rouse in defence of your rights and liberties, those rights and liberties which Heaven gave, and for which your fathers bravely fought, and gloriously fell, to preserve themselves, and us their posterity free. Be assured if bleeding America can be reduced to slavery, all the boasted privileges of Englishmen must fall with her; let me therefore beseech you to oppose, with uplifted hands and stretched out arms, the cruel, bloody, and unnatural tyranny of George the Third, and his diabolical tory minions. Perdition, destruction, and all the miseries of a tortured death, attend the wretch who calls himself an Englishman, and yet can tamely see his brother, or fellow-subject, perish through wanton cruelty, oppression, or the sword.

No tyrant was ever more despotick and cruel than the present Sovereign, who disgraces the seat of royalty in the British Empire; no Court ever more corrupt than his; and yet, O my countrymen, to this merciless and despotick tyrant, and to his wicked and corrupt Ministry, you sacrifice your rights, and yield a peaceable submission.

Consider the gloomy, the dreadful prospect before you. The plains of America are running with the blood of her inhabitants; the essence of the English Constitution destroyed, and nothing but the form, the mere shadow of it remains; all the dear-bought liberties purchased and sealed with, the blood of your forefathers, wrested from you by the polluted hands of an abandoned set of miscreants; supported and defended by a royal tyrant; and a dark cloud of slavery, like a rising tempest, overspreads the land; it approaches swiftly, and at this moment threatens our destruction: it is therefore high time you should be roused and awakened to a sense of your danger; and by an appeal to Heaven, by a glorious resistance, provide for your common safety.

This is the only way; we have no other to prevent the ruin that threatens us. If we are inattentive or inactive at this time, our chains will be. fast riveted, and liberty must expire. Your petitions and remonstrances have been spurned by the King, and yon have now no remedy left but that of entering into an association in defence of your common rights, and the rights of America. They have set you a noble example, an example worthy of Britons, an example which you are bound by all the principles of justice and self-preservation to follow; he must be blind that is not convinced of this, and he is an abandoned wretch, an enemy to mankind, who will not pursue the road.

Upon your virtue and resolution at this juncture, depends the salvation of England and America; it is now in your power to prevent the further progress of despotism, the butchery of your fellow-countrymen, and yourselves from slavery and ruin.

When the humble supplications of an oppressed People are treated with contempt, and a deaf ear turned to their complaints; when their rights are daily invaded, their property unlawfully wrested from them, and their blood inhumanly shed; it is incumbent on them, it is a duty they owe to God and their Country, to take the field and resist their oppressors; to show themselves brave, when bravery is required, and dare to be resolute in the hour of danger. Remember, my fellow-countrymen, bur predecessors led the way; the Americans have followed their noble example, and we are bound to follow them. Where would have been liberty and property, if it had not been for the virtue, bravery, and resolution of our ancestors? They stood forth in the glorious cause, and many of them secured it to posterity by their blood. Shall we then tamely submit to have those privileges, for which they fought and fell, ravished from us by a lawless tribe of men, who call themselves Senators or Ministers, and who, taking advantage of their Prince, are laying waste their country, and speading desolation through the land? Shall it be said in after times, that the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five was less glorious than that of sixteen hundred and eighty-eight; and that as the age grew more and more enlight-ened it became more and more pusillanimous? Forbid it Heaven!

Let me entreat you, O Englishmen, to rouse from that state of supineness in which you have so long lain; open your eyes to the danger that surrounds you, and stand forth the defenders of American virtue and publick liberty. Havoc

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