IT is a fact not controverted by any, that the opposition, made by this town and province to a British act of parliament, laying a duty upon the importation of tea in any of the American colonies, hath involved us in great misery and distress; and that we are threatened with much greater calamities, the horrors of which are beyond description.

Whether the parliament have or have not a consti­tutional power to impose this duty, I shall not pretend to determine; but this I may venture to say, and I hope without giving offence; that the opposition that hath been generally made to it, is inconsistent with our profession of christianity, with the loyalty we owe to our SOVEREIGN, and the reverence and respect that is due to the British parliament; and consequently, instead of being a means to obtain a repeal of the ACTS, will in all probability being on us a heavier condemnation than that of the port-bill, or the ACT for the alteration of our constitution. All that is proposed by the following pages is to give an impartial representation of the destruction of the tea in Boston, and to make a few remarks upon the proceedings of the continental and provincial congresses.

In the month of December 1773, a number of persons in disguise collected from Boston and the neighbouring towns, not having the fear of GOD be­fore their eyes, or the good of their country at heart unlawfully assembled themselves together, and in a riotous, tumultuous manner destroyed a great quanti­ty of tea, belonging to the honorable East-India com­pany— An action of such a gross immoral nature [Page 4] as cannot be justified upon the principles of equity or policy: An action which laid the foundation for the miseries and calamities we are now groaning under: An action of such a malignant atrocious nature, as must expose the wicked perpetrators of it, without sincere repentance, to the vengeance of that BEING, who is a GOD of order and not of confusion, and who will punish all THIEVES as well as liars in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.

This diabolical action it is true, was disclaimed by the sober thinking part of the town, but no steps were taken either by the town or government, to show their dislike of it; on the contrary, many amongst us, who would be thought to be religious, in which class were some of the clergy, endeavoured to palliate the crime, as they said it prevented a worse evil, not duly considering that christianity forbids our doing moral evil though ever so much good should come from it.

The parliament of Great-Britain, highly incensed against the town, for such an outrageous action, thought proper to punish us by passing an act called the port bill. By which act it must be acknow­ledged that the innocent suffer as much, if not more than the guilty, which is often the case in national punishments and cannot well be avoided. However, as severe as this act may be accounted by some, the severity of it would have been in a great mea­sure lessened, if the town had done their duty up­on the news we had or the bill's having the royal sanction, by paying the money to the order of the East-India company; and had they complied with the other parts of the act, which justice and good policy required them to do, the port would not [Page 5] have been shut up above four months, the damages then would have been inconsiderable to what we now suffer by our refusing to comply with the requisitions of said act; the charitable donations from the other governments, being very short of a conpensation for what we suffer by the loss of our trade.—But to do justice to the sober thinking part of the town, upon the certain news of the port bill's being carried into an act, they thought it to be our interest and duty immediately to pay for the tea; accordingly a town meeting was called to consult what was proper to be done upon this alarming occasion: And it seemed to be the sense of most who were then present, that out of policy at least, we ought to comply with the requisitions of the act, but many difficulties were started as to the manner of doing it; some proposed the voting of the money directly; this was objected to, as being illegal, the town not having any authority by law to raise monies for that purpose without the special aid of the general court, but as they were to set in a few weeks, it was motioned that a petition should be preferred to them to enable the town to borrow the money upon the credit of a future tax; others thought that the province ought to pay the money, or at least to let them have the loan of it for a num­ber of years without interest, and that a committee should be raised to apply to them for that purpose: But others, whose importance and political salvation depend upon the province being kept in a continual flame, and observing that the general sense of the town was in favour of paying for the tea, though they did not chuse openly to oppose such a righteous measure, yet artfully threw difficulties in the way of the different methods that were proposed: They [Page 6] did not pretend to deny the justice and equity of paying for it, but observed that this act might affect all the colonies; and that as in all probability there would soon be a continental congress; it would be our wisdom to do nothing until we had the united sense of the colonies; and that they did not doubt they would recommend the payment for the tea, and each colony would willingly advance their proportion of it; whereas, if we should immediately order the payment they may possibly resent it, and construe it as our submitting to the act of parlia­ment imposing the duty upon that article, and so the union and harmony which at present subsists between the colonies would be in great danger of being destroyed.—In the mean time it was proposed that we should represent to the several colonies our distressed condition, praying them for relief for our suffering brethren, who were out of employ by reason of the port bill. These reasons though altogether destitute of sincerity, seemed to be very plausible, and they accordingly had their effect: And the town did nothing further concerning it.

The general court met upon the last wednesday in May, and were adjourned to Salem the tuesday following, but as no application was made to them, they took no order relative to it: And as nothing was done by the general court, nor likely to be done by the town, in order to open the port, the worthy tradesmen began to be very uneasy, and thought it proper, that they, who were like to be such great sufferers, should have a meeting by them­selves, and consult what was proper to be done to prevent their ruin; they accordingly assembled at Faneuil-hall to the number of two or three hundred, and many if not most of them went with a [Page 7] resolution to use their endeavors that the tea should be paid for; but so artful and industrious were the principal heads of the opposition to government, that they placed themselves at the doors of the hall and told the tradesmen as they entered, that now was the time to save our country.—That if they gave their voice in favor of paying for the tea, we should be undone, and the chains of slavery would be rivitted upon us! which so terrified many honest well meaning persons, that they thought it not prudent to act at all in the affair, and so nothing was concluded upon.

The next day the committee of correspondence dispersed among the people a most wicked, diabolical hand bill called a league and covenant, which was sent to every town and district in the PROVINCE, calling upon the inhabitants to sign it, which paper was introduced in many towns by the minister of the parish, who set them the example of signing first, and then called upon his parishioners to engage in the same covenant, and to sign it upon the com­munion table, and it is reported that a certain cler­gyman in the county of Plymouth, gravely told his people, that they who refused to sign it were not worthy to come to that table.—I do not pretend to say positively that this is a fact, though it is ge­nerally believed: But be that as it may, it is certain that many of the dissenting clergy have so far pros­tituted their sacred office, as to be leaders and en­couragers of the people to sign this wicked covenant, whereby they have led many of their people to commit the horrible crime of perjury; for not one of many hundred of those who have signed it, have paid any regard to it, and what makes it more surprising that they should have exerted them­selves [Page 8] upon that occasion is, that not one in Boston where this covenant was fabricated has signed it; and consequently every countryman who has, and has any dealings with the Bostonians must infallibly perjure himself.

We have now done with the solemn league and covenant, and shall proceed to the con­siderations of the proceedings of the continental Congress. In the month of September they assembled at Philadelphia with all the pomp and grandeur of Plenipotentiaries; when the expectations of the peo­ple in general were, that by their wise and prudent councils, respectful and dutiful petitions to his MAJESTY and to his parliament, a door would be open for the supreme legislature of Great-Britain, consistent with the honor and dignity of that august assembly, to have our grievances redressed, and that the first step that would have been taken for that purpose, would have been to have advised the town of Boston to pay for the tea. But alass how have we been disappointed! Those persons who have been the occasion of our political troubles in this province, were members of this continental body, and having already become desperate themselves had no other card to play, but to involve the whole continent in their rebellion.—No doubt vainly ima­gining, that although a single town or province may be reduced by the power of GREAT-BRITAIN; they would not venture an attack against the whole continent.—The Massachusetts delegates so far suc­ceeded in their plan, that the first thing the congress did that was made public, was the adopting of the resolutions of the county of Suffolk, which were not short of high treason and rebellion, nothing healing or salutary could then be expected from such a con­gress, [Page 9] the only apology that could be made for their conduct was, that they came into this vote imme­diately after drinking thirty two bumpers of the best madeira, and it seems the next morning when their heads were cool, they were ashamed of what they had done; but it was then too late for a reconsidera­tion of the vote, a copy of it attested by the presi­dent, having been forwarded to Boston by our wor­thy citizen Paul Revere, who was dispatched from Boston as a courier with the Suffolk resolves; how­ever, to avoid making any such mistakes for the fu­ture, they prudently determined to do no business after dinner.

Their whole proceedings as they are made pub­lic, no doubt are in the hands of every gentleman who hath any taste for political controversy; though by the way, they cautiously omitted inserting this extraordinary vote in the pamphlet they published, entitled, "Extracts from the votes and proceedings of the American continental congress."

As several gentlemen at New-York, have made very sensible remarks upon their proceedings, and have proved to demonstration if their association be strictly adhered to, we must be involved in one com­mon ruin: For trade and commerce is the support of the farmer as well as the merchant and shopkeep­er; and the foundation of learning; without which, in process of time, there will be no true rational religion amongst us; and as their writings are disper­sed through the province, it is needless for me fully and particularly to animadvert upon them: How­ever, it may not be amiss to make a few cursory remarks upon their conduct, which, whether perti­nent or not, is humbly submitted.

[Page 10]And here it is worthy of notice, they have redu­ced the number of those that were concerned in the destruction of the tea, to thirty or forty, when it is very evident that TWO THOUSAND at least, were employed either directly in destroying the tea, or in keeping a centry at the entrance of the wharf where the ships lay, and at those wharves contigu­ous thereto: They then exclaim against the severi­ty of the port bill, in punishing thirty thousand, as they say, for the offence of a few individuals. It is possible that most of the congress might not have been acquainted with the truth of the fact, and de­pending upon the veracity of the Massachusetts de­legates, put full faith and confidence in their repre­sentations; be that as it may, it is manifest that those members who went from Boston, knew bet­ter; they certainly gave their voice in favor of a no­torious falshood, knowing it to be such. What apology then can be made for gentlemen of their EXALTED CHARACTER, that for the sake of carry­ing a point, could be guilty of such a crime, that every one who is not entirely lost to all sense of ho­nor would be ashamed of? Possibly these casuistical and patriotic, not to say jesuitical gentlemen, to ease their consciences, may think it no harm to lie for the good of their country; and as it is said they have often enthusiastically declared, they would wil­lingly sacrifice their lives and fortunes in defence of their civil rights and liberties; and as they have lit­tle or no property to lose, in order to transmit their names with honor to posterity, they are willing to part with their souls in lieu of it; but to adopt the language of inspiration with a very little variance, "What will it profit a man tho' he recovers all his civil rights and privileges, if he loses his own soul?"

[Page 11]We shall now proceed to make a few strictures upon the tenth article of their association, which runs thus, ‘In case any merchant or trader, or other per­son, shall import any goods or merchandize after the first day of December, and before the first day of February next, the same ought forthwith at the election of the owner, to be either reship­ped or delivered up to the committee of the county or town wherein they shall be imported, to be stored at the risk of the importer, until the non­importation agreement shall cease; or be sold un­der the direction of the committe aforesaid; and in the last mentioned case, the owner, or owners of such goods, shall be reimbursed (out of the sales) the first cost and charges; the profit, if any, be to be applied towards relieving and employing such poor inhabitants of the town of Boston, as are immediate sufferers by the Boston port bill; and a particular account of all goods so returned, stored or sold, to be inserted in the public papers: And if any goods or merchandize, shall be import­ed after the said first day of February, the [...] ought forthwith to be sent back, without break­ing any of the packages thereof.’ This associa­tion was agreed upon the 20th of October, 1774.

Although there is nothing compulsive in this ar­ticle, yet being compared with some other of their articles and resolves, it is manifest they designed it should have the operation of law; and it hath ac­cordingly had that effect in regard to several vessels that have arrived at Salem and Plymouth, since the first day of December, the owners of which cargoes, have had their goods piratically taken from them and exposed to public sale, agreable to the foremen­tioned article.

[Page 12]Now admitting for argument sake, this congress were constitutionally the supreme legislature of the whole continent, could any thing be more unjust, tyrannical, arbitrary and oppressive? Can the edicts of the most despotic princes under heaven exceed it? Pray what offence against the laws of GOD or man, or even against the sense of the continent, have these merchants been guilty of, who have ordered goods to be shipped them from Great-Britain, Ireland or the West-Indies, and which could not possibly ar­rive here 'till after the first day of December, that they should be subjected to such severe penalties? Was it in their power from the twentieth of Octo­ber to give counter orders to their correspondents, if they were so disposed, that should reach them in time to prevent their shipping of the goods? By no means; they knew it to be impossible at least for the province of the Massachusetts, who were not ac­quainted with the determination of the congress 'till the beginning of November. It is therefore no breach of charity to suppose, that the motive that induced them to pass such a wicked edict, was, that the profits arising thereby should be applied for the relief and employ of the poor inhabitants of the town of Boston, who are immediate sufferers by the Boston port bill.

Charity to the proper objects of it, is no doubt a christian duty, and a sacrifice acceptable to the SU­PREME BEING; and GOD forbid that any thing should be said to discourage it; but it is an old say­ing, that we ought not to rob Peter to pay Paul; nay, charity to the poor, when what we bestow on them is the fruit of theft and robbery, is so far from being a sacrifice with which GOD will be well plea­sed; that it will be a stench in his nostrils. It is [Page 13] no better than if a number of VILLAINS should en­ter into an association, to go upon the highway, and rob every gentleman they should meet, with a pious design to relieve their poor brethren who were suffer­ing in Newgate for their crimes; or even for the relief of those, who by the providence of GOD were reduced to a state of poverty; in neither of which cases would they be entitled to the reward which is promised the charitable christian.

Besides, these poor inhabitants among whom this charity is distributed, are not all of them necessarily sufferers by the port-bill: Many of them might have been employed by the army in their respective occupations, whereby they would have accumulated more wealth than they could possibly have earned, if that act called the Boston port-bill had never been passed, but they were prevented by the troublers of our Israel, left a stop should be put to the charita­ble donations from the neighbouring colonies.— Now the real unavoidable sufferers by this act are the merchants and traders, and consequently they are the persons who have an equitable claim at least to a part of the donations; but instead of consider­ing them in that light, the wisdom of the congress hath laid a tax upon them, to support some of those who by their industry in their several callings may get as comfortable a support, as if this act had never passed. "Tell it not in Gath!"

The continental congress have recommended it to the respective provincial congresses, to make such further orders, as may by them be thought necessa­ry to carry their orders into execution, which na­turally leads me to take some notice of the proceed­ings of the provincial congress of the Massachusetts-Bay held at Cambridge in November, 1774.

[Page 14]But before we proceed to make any remarks up­on their conduct it will not be improper to ob­serve, that the continental congress as they had no business with any acts of parliament, but those that affected all the colonies, consequently the Boston port-bill, and the act for altering the charter and government of the Massachusetts Bay, and the Quebec bill, ought to have been out of the question any further than as the port-bill being manifestly for the punishment of a certain offence that was charg­ed upon the town of Boston, they ought to have advised them to pay the money for the tea, so that all the colonies might stand upon an equal footing in their humble application to his MAJESTY and to the parliament of Great-Britain, to repeal the act for laying a duty upon the importation of tea, in which all the colonies are equally concerned. But for them to pretend that the port-bill affected all the colonies and therefore it was their duty to interest themselves in it, is perfectly ridiculous.—The re­spective inhabitants of each colony may with as much propriety object to a law made by their own assem­blies for punishing theft with death, and even en­deavor to rescue a delinquent, because possibly it may hereafter be their own turn to suffer for the like offence.—But the folly and ingratitude of the congress, it is humbly apprehended will appear in a striking point of light by the following similitude.

Let us suppose a wealthy farmer had acquired a considerable real estate, and was the father of ten sons; and that these children were very serviceable to him in their minority, in clearing his lands and in improving his farms; at the same time he exer­cised a tender and paternal care and affection for them, and assisted them in setting out in life; and [Page 15] although they had got the means of a comfortable subsistence, they were still in a great measure depen­dent upon their aged father.—And that one of them who had in a peculiar manner, been nourished by his indulgent parent, impatient of those restraints that every parent hath a right to lay upon his children, should unnaturally rebel against him, throw of his dependence, and treat him in an insulting, injurious manner, so as to provoke the father to disinherit him, and turn him off from his farm, which he oc­cupied by sufferance, and by that means this rebel­lious son, was reduced to great want and indigence. And suppose that his indulgent father at the same time willing to receive him to his favor, and rein­state him in the possession of his farm, by the im­provement of which, he could get a comfortable support, upon the easy conditions of his humble submission, and recognizing his proper authority, and his promising to obey him in all things lawful for the future.—Suppose this undutiful son should reject these lenient proposals, with indignation, and continuing in his rebellious conduct, should apply to his brethren for support, and they, instead of ad­vising their unhappy brother to go to his offended father and say "Father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son, treat me as one of thy hired servants." Should for answer, say, our father is grown old and pevish, and become a tyrant, and designs to make us all slaves; when he has subdued you, he will attack us; wherefore we advise you by no means to submit to his arbitrary injunctions, and we will support you; and when he finds there is a UNION amongst us to oppose his tyrannical measures, he will restore you to his favor, for we know he has a [Page 16] peculiar affection for you. But admiting the old gentleman should think his honor was too much concerned to give up this unhappy controversy without a humble submission on your part, and should persist in oppressing you, we will enter into an association among ourselves, and endeavor to engage all our friends not to have any commercial dealings with him, or with those who shall counte­nance him; we will not purchase any of the produce of his farm, we will discourage his hired servants from working for him, or any ways assisting him, in ploughing, sowing and reaping; in which case, his farms, will be rendered in a manner useless to him; neither will we supply his friends and those who adhere to him, with the necessaries of life; we will convince the old tyrant that we can live with­out him, as well as he can without us; and altho' we acknowledge that he hath formerly been very kind to us, yet we have fully ballanced all his favors by the profits that he has accumulated by our labor; and further, dear brother, that you may not suffer in your GLORIOUS OPPOSITION to him, we will seize upon the produce of his farm, if he should send any to market after the first of December, and apply a certain proportion of it for your support. Now I ask you, if children could act such an unna­tural, unfilial part, what must the sober, judicious part of mankind think of them? What must the aged compassionate father think of them? And how must he treat them? Not surely as sons but as bastards. And what do you think, if these rebellious children should have such interest with some of the ministers of the gospel, that [...] their public ad­dresses to heaven, gave thanks that GOD had put it into the hearts of these children to contribute for [Page 17] the relief of their rebellious brother, when part of the support thus afforded him, was what they got by robbery. The application of this similitude is very obvious and needs no comment.

Having finished the remarks which I originally designed to make upon the proceedings of the grand continental congress; by some sycophants and flat­terers called the collected wisdom of the colonies.— I shall proceed very briefly to animadvert upon some of the votes or resolutions of the provincial congress held at Cambridge in November last; and here it is proper to observe that two gentlemen of the con­tinental were also members of the provincial congress, and by their influence no doubt obtained a vote to confirm and adopt the proceedings of the grand congress, and as though what they had done was not sufficient to ruin the trade of the town and country, in order to compleat our misery, this new fangled congress unconstitutionally assembled, have in addition thereto, recommended, that in the month of October, 1775, the committees of in­spection for the several towns in the province, should repair to the several stores and shops, and take an invoice of the goods they shall then have by them, and strictly forbid their exposing any of them for sale, and if the respective owners of such goods shall refuse to comply with their demands, they are directed to take them into their possession, and store them at the risque of the owners until the acts they complain of are repealed; and the inhabitants of the towns where such goods are found, are ad­vised to assist them in this high handed robbery.

Now, can it be supposed, that any set of men professing christianity, or even common honesty, can possibly be guilty of a greater offence?—Nay [Page 18] is the crime of a highwayman, who robs the rich traveller of a few guineas, to be compared with this for it's iniquity? By no means; the latter is not so great an offender as the former; for in one case the gentleman only loses a few guineas (as it may be) he can very well spare; but in the other, many a family may be deprived of the means of support, and in time be reduced to the most abject state of poverty. The congress not content with this wicked resolve have impiously recommended it to the ministers of the gospel, who, by their sacred office, are not only to preach the doctrine of grace but to inculcate the duties of morality, in which a due sub­mission to government is included; I say, have ad­vised them by their circular letters, to use their en­deavors, that their tyrannical and wicked directions be put in execution. But as the weapons of those reverend gentlemen are not, or ought not to be carnal, but spiritual, it is to be hoped they will not make use of the former, but confine themselves to the latter. And certainly it would be more for the reputation of the clergy, and the real in­terest of religion, if instead of preaching politicks, as two many of them do, they would cry aloud and not spare, but lift up their voice like a trumpet, and shew unto Boston their transgressions, and unto the whole province their sins, and plainly tell them, that it is "their iniquities, that have seperated be­tween them and their GOD," and have occasioned the loss of what they esteem their rights and pri­vileges; and that sincere repentance and reformation are the only means to have them restored to us. But while we continue in a state of rebellion, "de­spising government," "speaking evil of dignities," "and reviling the ruler of God's people"—encou­raging [Page 19] mobs, riots and tumults—destroying the substance of our fellow creatures; insulting and abus­ing their persons in such a manner as a BARBARIAN would be ashamed of; and robbing them of their private property, to enable us to do acts of charity to the poor; it will be of no avail to us to ob­serve days of prayer and humiliation.—With such sacrifices GOD will not be well pleased.—But will say to us as he did by his prophet Isaiah to his peo­ple of old, "When you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when you make many prayers I will not hear; your hands are full of blood; you have made lies your refuge, and under falshoods you have hid yourselves."

I have now finished what I first proposed, but cannot conclude without a word or two of advice to my deluded countrymen, who have been drawn into rebellion, by the lies and misrepresentations, of artful, wicked, and desperate men.—I would cha­ritably hope, that when you first enlisted under their banners, you designed no more than a rational peaceable defending your rights and privileges, and had you been early told, that you should ever have gone such lengths as you have, no doubt you would have adopted the language of Hazael and answered, "Is thy servant a dog, that he can do such things;" and as many of you have forfeited your lives by your treasonable practices, you may possibly think that there will be no mercy for you, and that there­fore you had as good persist in your rebellion as not, but let me tell you this is a suggestion of the devil. Our most GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN is far from being vindictive: Punishment is his strange work; and he never inflicts any, but when the honor and dignity of government, and the real good of his subjects re­quire [Page 20] it. And although the ringleaders of this hor­rible rebellion, may meet with the punishment that their crimes do justly deserve, yet those who have been deluded by them, if they give evident proof of their repentance and submission to government, and that speedily, may have some reason to hope, that from his MAJESTY's wonted clemency they shall obtain forgiveness.

Let me therefore entreat you if you have any love for your country, any affection for your wives and children, and regard for your own safety and happiness; to lay down the weapons of your rebel­lion; and submit yourselves to the wise, lenient and constitutional government we have the happiness to be under; for we have abundant evidence of his MAJESTY's tender and impartial regard for the rights of his subjects; and altho' he will not suffer those who deny his authority, and the authority of his parliament to escape with impunity, yet he will most graciously approve of every constitutional mea­sure, that may contribute to the peace, happiness and prosperity of his colony of the Massachusetts-Bay, and which may have the effect to shew to the world, that he has no wish beyond that of reigning in the hearts and affections of his people.