and treasure we have expended in it; notwithstanding the zeal we had manifested for the service of our Sovereign, and the warmest attachment to the Constitution of Britain and the people of England, a black and horrid design was formed to convert us from freemen into slaves, from subjects into vassals, and from friends into enemies.

Taxes, for the first time since we landed on the American shores, were, without our consent, imposed upon us; an unconstitutional edict, to compel us to furnish necessaries for a standing army, that we wished to see disbanded, was issued, and the Legislature of New-York suspended for refusing to comply with it. Our ancient and inestimable right of Trial by Jury, was, in many instances, abolished, and the common law of the land made to give place to admiralty jurisdictions. Judges were rendered, by the tenure of their commissions, entirely dependant on the will of a Minister. New crimes were arbitrarily created, and new Courts, unknown to the Constitution, instituted. Wicked and insidious Governours have been set over us; and dutiful petitions, for the removal of even the notoriously infamous Governour Hutchinson, were branded with the opprobrious appellation of scandalous and defamatory. Hardy attempts have been made, under colour of Parliamentary authority, to seize Americans, and carry them to Great Britain, to be tried for offences committed in the Colonies. Ancient Charters have no longer remained sacred; that of the Massachusetts-Bay was violated, and their form of Government essentially mutilated and transformed. On pretence of punishing a violation of some private property, committed by a few disguised individuals, the populous and flourishing Town of Boston was surrounded by fleets and armies; its trade destroyed; its port blocked up, and thirty thousand citizens subjected to all the miseries attending so sudden a convulsion in their commercial metropolis; and, to remove every obstacle to the rigorous execution of this system of oppression, an act of Parliament was passed, evidently calculated to indemnify those who might, in the prosecution of it, even imbrue their hands in the blood of the inhabitants.

Though pressed by such an accumulation of undeserved injuries, America still remembered her duty to her Sovereign. A Congress, consisting of Deputies from twelve United Colonies, assembled. They, in the most respectful terms, laid their grievances at the foot of the Throne, and implored His Majesty’s interposition in their behalf. They also agreed to suspend all trade with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West-Indies, hoping, by this peaceable mode of opposition, to obtain that justice from the British Ministry which had been so long solicited in vain. And here permit us to assure you, that it was with the utmost reluctance we could prevail upon ourselves to cease our commercial connexion with your island. Your Parliament had done us no wrong. You had ever been friendly to the rights of mankind; and we acknowledge, with pleasure and gratitude, that your nation has produced patriots who have nobly distinguished themselves in the cause of humanity and America. On the other hand, we were not ignorant that labour and manufactures of Ireland, like those of the silk-worm, were of little moment to herself, but served only to give luxury to those who neither toll nor spin. We perceived that if we continued our commerce with you, our agreement not to import from Britain would be fruitless, and were, therefore, compelled to adopt a measure to which nothing but absolute necessity would have reconciled us. It gave us, however, some consolation to reflect, that should it occasion much distress, the fertile regions of America would afford you a safe asylum from poverty, and, in time, from oppression also; an asylum in which many thousands of your countrymen have found hospitality, peace, and affluence, and become united to us by all the ties of consanguinity, mutual interest, and affection. Nor did Congress stop here. Flattered by a pleasing expectation that the justice and humanity which had so long characterized the English Nation would, on proper application, afford us relief, they represented their grievances in an affectionate address to their brethren in Britain, and entreated their aid and interposition in behalf of these Colonies.

The more fully to evince their respect for their Sovereign, the unhappy people of Boston were requested by the Congress to submit with patience to their fate; and all America united in a resolution to abstain from every species of violence. During this period, that devoted Town suffered unspeakably. Its inhabitants were insulted, and their property violated. Still relying on the clemency and justice of His Majesty and the Nation, they permitted a few Regiments to take possession of their Town, to surround it with fortifications, and to cut off all intercourse between them and their friends in the country.

With anxious expectation did all America wait the event of their Petition. All America laments its fate. Their Prince was deaf to their complaints; and vain were all attempts to impress him with a sense of the sufferings of his American subjects, of the cruelty of their task-masters, and of the many plagues which impended over his Dominions. Instead of directions for a candid inquiry into our grievances, insult was added to oppression, and our long forbearance rewarded with the imputation of cowardice. Our trade with foreign states was prohibited; and an act of Parliament passed to prevent our even fishing on our own coasts. Our peaceable assemblies, for the purpose of consulting the common safety, were declared seditious; and our asserting the very rights which placed the crown of Great Britain on the heads of the three successive Princes of the House, of Hanover, styled rebellion. Orders were given to re-enforce the Troops in America. The wild and barbarous savages of the wilderness have been solicited, by gifts, to take up the hatchet against us, and instigated to deluge our settlements with the blood of innocent and defenceless women and children. The whole country was, moreover, alarmed with the horrours of domestick insurrections. Refinements in parental cruelty, at which the genius of Britain must blush! Refinements which admit not of being even recited without horrour, or practised without infamy! We should be happy were these dark machinations the mere suggestions of suspicion. We are sorry to declare, that we are possessed of the most authentick and indubitable evidence of their reality.

The Ministry, bent on pulling down the pillars of the Constitution, endeavoured to erect the standard of despotism in America; and, if successful, Britain and Ireland may shudder at the consequences!

Three of their most experienced Generals are sent to wage war with their fellow-subjects; and America is amazed to find the name of Howe in the catalogue of her enemies. She loved his brother.

Despairing of driving the Colonists to resistance, by any other means than actual hostility, detachment of the Army at Boston marched into the country in all the array of war, and, unprovoked, fired upon and killed several of the inhabitants. The neighbouring farmers suddenly assembled, and repelled the attack. From this, all communication between the Town and country was intercepted. The citizens petitioned the General for permission to leave the Town, and he promised, on surrendering their arms, to permit them to depart, with their other effects. They accordingly surrendered their arms, and the General violated his faith. Under various pretences, passports were delayed and denied; and many thousands of the inhabitants are, at this day, confined in the Town, in the utmost wretchedness and want. The lame, the blind, and the sick, have, indeed, been turned out into the neighbouring fields; and some, eluding the vigilance of the sentries, have escaped from the Town, by swimming to the adjacent shores.

The war having thus begun on the part of General Gage’s Troops, the country armed and embodied. The re-enforcements from Ireland soon after arrived; a vigorous attack was then made upon the Provincials. In their march, the Troops surrounded the Town of Charlestown, consisting of about four hundred houses, then recently abandoned to escape the fury of a relentless soldiery. Having plundered the houses, they set fire to the Town, and reduced it to ashes. To this wanton waste of property, unknown to civilized nations, they were prompted, the better to conceal their approach under cover of the smoke—a shocking mixture of cowardice and cruelty, which then first tarnished the lustre of the British arms, when aimed at a brother’s breast! But, blessed be God, they were restrained from committing further revages, by the loss of a very considerable part of their Army, including many of their most experienced