much as a reason for their so doing, or to refund any part of the money by them extorted. 14. That some method may be pointed out that every improvement on lands in any of the proprietor's part1 be proved when begun, by whom, and every sale made, that the eldest may have the preference of at least 300 Acres. 15. That all taxes in the following counties be paid as in other counties in the Province, i. e. in the produce of the country and that warehouses be erected as follows, viz. in Anson County, at Isom Haley's ferry landing on Pe Dee river; in Rowan and Orange, Cumberland . . . Meck lenburg... and in Tryon County. 16. That every denomination of people may marry according to their respective mode, ceremony, and custom, after due publication or licence. 17. That Doctr Benjamin Franklin or some other known, patriot be appointed agent, to represent the unhappy state of this Province to His Majesty, and to solicit the several Boards in England: [260 signatures.] Dated October the 9th 1769. PROCEEDINGS OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON Ar a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the Town of Boston, duly qualified and legally warned, in public town meeting assembled at Faneuil Hall, on Wednesday the 28th day of October 1772. The Hon. John Hancock, Esq., was chosen Moderator. . . It was moved and seconded-That a decent and respectful application from this meeting be made to his Excellency the Governor, acquainting him that the Town has been alarm'd 1 This clause is a demand that the earliest squatter' on a given section of the Granville Propriety be given a pre-emption right over other possible purchasers. 2 Boston Town Records, 1770-7 (18th Report of Boston Record Commissioners, 1887), pp. 88-108. These proceedings, which show the methods of Samuel Adams and the Boston Sons of Liberty', were also published at Boston in a contemporary pamphlet, Votes and Proceedings of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, which was reprinted in Dublin and in London, 1773. with the reports that stipends are affixed to the office of the Judges of the Superior Court of Judicature of this Province, whereby they are rendered intirely independent of the grants and acts of the General Assembly for their support, which the Town is apprehensive will be attended with the most fatal consequences, and therefore humbly and earnestly to pray his Excellency, that he would be pleased to inform them, whether his Excellency has received any advice relative to this matter in any way from whence he has reason to apprehend that such an establishment has or will be made. And the question being put, it passed in the affermative by a vast majority. Also voted that Mr. Samuel Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren, Dr. Benjamin Church, be a committee to draw up an address to the Governor on the aforegoing subject and to report at the adjournment. [That afternoon the address was adopted. On October 30 the committee reported to the Town Meeting the Governor's written reply:] GENTLEMEN,—It is by no means proper for me to lay before the inhabitants of any town whatsoever, in consequence of their votes and proceedings in a town meeting, any part of my correspondence as Governor of this Province, or to acquaint them whether I have received any advice relating to the public affairs of government. This reason alone, if your address to me had been in other respects unexceptionable, would have been sufficient to restrain me from complying with your desire. I shall always be ready to gratify the inhabitants of the Town of Boston upon every regular application to me on business of public concernment to the Town, as far as I shall have it in my power, consistent with fidelity to the trust which His Majesty has reposed in me. T. HUTCHINSON. The aforegoing answer having been considered, it was moved and the question put-Whether application shall be now made to his Excellency by the Town that he would be pleased to permit the General Assembly to meet at the time to which they stand prorogued, which passed in the affirmative, nem. con.. It was then voted that the Hon. James Otis, Esq., Mr. Samuel Adams, the Hon. Thomas Cushing, Esq., be a committee to prepare a petition to his Excellency for the purpose aforesaid. [That afternoon the petition was reported and accepted. It complains of the reported fixed stipends for the judges, and their holding their commissions bene placitu, and concludes as follows:] It is therefore their earnest and humble request that your Excellency would be pleased to allow the General Assembly to meet at the time to which they now stand prorogued; in order that in that constitutional body, with whom it is to enquire into grievances and redress them, the joint wisdom of the Province may be employed in deliberating, and determine on a matter so important and alarming. [On November 2 the committee laid before the Town Meeting the Governor's reply :] GENTLEMEN,-The Royal Charter reserves to the Governor full power and authority from time to time, as he shall judge necessary, to adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve the General Assembly. In the exercise of this power, both as to time and place, I have always been governed by a regard to His Majesty's service and to the interest of the Province. It.did not appear to me necessary for these purposes that the Assembly should meet at the time to which it now stands prorogued, and before I was informed of your Address, I had determined to prorogue it to a further time. The reasons which you have advanced have not altered my opinion. If, notwithstanding, I should alter my determination and meet the Assembly, contrary to my own judgment, at such a time as you judge necessary, I should in effect yield to you the exercise of that part of the prerogative, and should be unable to justify my conduct to the King. There would, moreover, be danger of encouraging the inhabitants of the other towns in the Province to assemble from time to time in order to consider of the necessity and expediency of a session of the General Assembly, or to debate and transact other matters which the law that authorizes towns to assemble, does not make the business of a Town Meeting. T. HUTCHINSON, The foregoing reply having been read several times and duly considered, it was moved and the question accordingly put-Whether the same be satisfactory to the Town; which passed in the negative, nem. con. And thereupon, Resolved as the opinion of the inhabitants of this Town that they have ever had, and ought to have, a right to petition. the King or his representatives for the redress of such grievances as they feel, or for preventing of such as they have reason to apprehend, and to communicate their sentiment to other towns. It was then moved by Mr. Samuel Adams that a Committee of Correspondence be appointed, to consist of twentyone persons, to state the Rights of the Colonists and of this Province in particular, as men, as Christians,1 and as subjects; to communicate the same to the several towns in this Province, and to the World, as the sense of this Town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have been, or from time to time may be made also requesting of each Town a free communication of their sentiments on this subject. And the question being accordingly put, passed in the affirmative, nem. con. Also voted, that the Hon. James Otis, Esq., Mr. Samuel Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren [and eighteen others] be, and hereby are appointed a Committee for the purpose aforesaid. [On November 20 the Committee of Correspondence reports. The first part of their report, The State of the Rights of the Colonists', is accepted nem. con.; the second part, a List of Infringements and Violations of Rights', is recommitted for additions, and accepted in the afternoon session, as is a Letter to other towns. It is voted that the aforegoing proceedings be printed, and copies sent to the selectmen of every town in the Province. The concluding 1 Adams wrote Elbridge Gerry, 14 November 1772, The word you object to in our resolves was designed to introduce into our State of Grievances the Church innovations, and the establishment of those tyrants in religion, bishops ", which as you observe will probably take place. I cannot but hope, when you consider how indifferent too many of the clergy are to our just and righteous cause, that some of them are the adulators of our oppressors, and even some of the best of them are extremely cautious of recommending (at least in their publick performances) the rights of their country to the protection of Heaven, lest they should give offence to the little gods on earth, you will judge it quite necessary that we should assert and vindicate our rights as Christians as well as men and subjects.' Writings, ii. 349. paragraph of the Rights of the Colonists', and an abridgement of the Infringements', follow: 1] The inhabitants of this country in all probability in a few years will be more numerous than those of Great Britain and Ireland together; yet it is absurdly expected by the promoters of the present measures, that these, with their posterity to all generations, should be easy while their property shall be disposed of by a House of Commons at three thousand miles distant from them; and who cannot be supposed to have the least care or concern for their real interest: who have not only no natural care for their interest, but must be in effect bribed against it; as every burden they lay on the colonists is so much saved or gained to themselves. Hitherto many of the colonists have been free from quit rents; but if the breath of a British House of Commons can originate an Act for taking away all our money, our lands will go next, or be subject to rack rents from haughty and relentless landlords who will ride at ease, while we are trodden in the dirt. The colonists have been branded with the odious names of traitors and rebels, only for complaining of their grievances; how long such treatment will, or ought to be born, is submitted. A List of Infringements and Violations of Rights We cannot help thinking, that an enumeration of some of the most open infringments of our rights, will by every candid person be judged sufficient to justify whatever measures have been already taken, or may be thought proper to be taken, in order to obtain a redress of the grievances under which we labour. 1. The British Parliament have assumed the power of legislation for the colonists in all cases whatsoever, without obtaining the consent of the inhabitants, which is ever essentially necessary to the right establishment of such a legislative. 2. They have exerted that assumed power, in raising a revenue in the colonies without their consent; thereby depriving them of that right which every man has to keep The whole may be found in the Writings of Samuel Adams (H. A. Cushing, ed.), ii. 350-74; and the Rights' in Old South Leaflets, No. 173. |