expedition against the Arsenal at Cambridge; but, as you will have a particular detail of that campaign in the public papers, you will not wish me to take up your time. Friday morning, about six o'clock, I received a message from Charlestown, informing me that some boys and negroes had called at Mr. Sewall's house at Cambridge; and, by the imprudent discharge of a pistol by a person in the house, they were provoked to break the windows, but very soon left the house without doing further damage. The informant besides assured me, that the county of Middlesex were highly incensed against Mr. Brattle and some others, and advised that some person from Boston should go up to Cambridge. This message was scarcely finished when a billet was brought, requesting me to take some step in order to prevent the people from coming to immediate acts of violence, as incredible numbers were in arms, and lined the roads from Sudbury to Cambridge. I summoned the committee of correspondence; but, as care had been taken to caution every man who passed the ferry from alarming Boston, I judged it best not to inform the person who warned the committee of the business they were to meet upon. They, therefore, made no great haste to get together. After waiting some time, I took as many of the members as came in my way to Charlestown, fearing that something amiss might take place. I saw the gentlemen at Charlestown, who begged us to move forward to Cambridge. On our way, we met the Lieutenant-governor Oliver. He said he was going to the general, to desire him not to march his troops out of Boston. We thought his precaution good, and proceeded to Cambridge. We there saw a fine body of respectable freemen, with whom we spent the day, and were witnesses of their patience, temperance, and fortitude, a particular account of which you have per this conveyance. The accounts from the western counties are such as must give the most exalted idea of the resolution and intrepidity of the inhabitants. The people from Hampshire County crowded the county of Worcester with armed men; and both counties received the accounts of the quiet dispersion of the people of Middlesex with apparent regret, grudging them the glory of having done something important for their country without their assistance. Had the troops marched only five miles out of Boston, I doubt whether a man would have been saved of their whole number. But enough of this. We find it difficult here to regulate the little matters in which we are engaged. You move in a larger orbit. However, I hope your superior abilities will not fail of carrying you safely through.

You will, I am sure, consider the very great difference that there is between this and the other colonies. Their commerce glides in its usual channels. Their charters have not yet been torn to pieces by the harpies of power. They retain their usual forms of trials by juries, in courts duly constituted. What is left for us? If we acquiesce but for an hour, the shackles will be fixed for ever. If we should allow the county courts to sit one term upon the new establishment, what confusion, what dissensions, must take place! Our friends - I mean particularly you, Mr. Cushing, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Paine-are capable of representing to your brethren the impossibility of our continuing long in a state of inactivity. Our all is at stake. We must give up our rights, and boast no more of freedom, or we must oppose immediately. Our enemies press so close that we cannot rest upon our arms. If this province is saved, it must be by adopting measures immediately efficacious. I have mentioned, in my letters to you, the most mild plan that can be adopted; viz., non-importation and nonexportation to Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies. I mentioned some of my reasons for believing that our liberties might thereby be secured; but it may not be amiss to try how far some further steps for securing our rights might (if absolutely necessary) be approved by our brethren on the continent. I firmly believe, that the utmost caution and prudence is necessary to gain the consent of the province to wait a few months longer for their deliverance, as they think the cord by which they were bound to the King of Britain has been, by his act, cut in sunder. They say they have a right to determine for themselves under what government they will live hereafter. But I shall now only subscribe myself your friend and humble servant,

JOSEPH WARREN.

Dr. Adams informs me that your lady and family are in health, and present their love and duty to you.

Joseph Warren to Samuel Adams.

BOSTON, Sept. 4, 1774.

DEAR SIR, Since closing my letter of this day, which, I believe, was without date, I have received some little agreeable intelligences which I cannot fail to communicate. The Solemn League and Covenant was signed by the people of the towns in the neighborhood of Falmouth, Casco Bay. The traders and people of Falmouth ridiculed the scheme, and refused signing it. The 31st day of August, the ship

carpenters who were building vessels for the Falmouth merchants demanded their dues, and refused to work longer. The employers remonstrated, told them their vessels would rot on the stocks, and said they could not dismiss them. The tradesmen, of all kinds, were resolute. They who had contracted to furnish the merchants with lumber likewise declared they could have nothing to do with them. On Monday, the merchants of Falmouth had a meeting; and, by Wednesday night, the whole town signed the agreement. Last Thursday evening, three fire-clubs met in this town: one club voted out of their society Messrs. J. G, H. L— and C, and another voted out Mr. A- ; a third voted out Mr. S all addressers. Indeed, the contention is who shall most distinguish themselves at this grand crisis. I wish much to be in England at this time; but the sacrifice of my particular interest at this time, by such a step, would be greater than I can afford to make. I fear Messrs. Oliver, lieutenant-governor, and Colonel Leonard are both going there immediately; and I hope they will not be suffered to tell their tale uncontradicted. The resumption of the old charter of this colony is much talked of; but I think should be handled very gently and cautiously whenever brought upon the tapis, lest a jealousy should arise in the minds of any concerning it, and lest we should be thought of as aiming at more than the colonies are willing to contend for with Britain for the advantage of this colony only. But I know you can remind our friends of Mr. Pitt's remark, that three millions of slaves would be fit engines to enslave the British Empire; and you will not have occasion to tell a judicious American, that one colony of freemen will be a noble bulwark for the rights of all America. Connecticut and Rhode Island are instances that must immediately occur. May God bless you and my other friends with you! (mutatis mutandis.) What I write to you I write to all. Pray furnish me with the fullest intelligence as soon as possible.

I am, dear sir, your friend and humble servant, J. WARREN.1

The Regulating Act was now resisted with great energy. The temper of the people was manifested in various ways in the country and in the town. At Newbury Bridge, the citizens stationed an old man with a drum, who, when he saw a prominent Tory

1 These letters are from the originals in the possession of Mr. Bancroft.

about to enter, paraded with his drum, and went through the streets, crying as he beat the drum, "A Tory has come to town." In Bridgewater, as the mandamus counsellor stood up in meeting, and read as usual the psalm, the congregation refused to sing.2 In Boston, opposite Joy's Buildings, which are near the Town House, there were shops occupied by a chaisemaker, a tailor, a barber, a shoemaker, and two others, in each of which there was a bell; and, when a mandamus counsellor or a high Tory went by, one gave the signal by ringing his bell, and the ringing was kept up through all the shops until the obnoxious passer-by was out of sight. So great was the rage against all charged with introducing arbitrary power, that the fatal à la lanterne policy was suggested. "Some really think," Young wrote, "an example or two will be made in a very short time. I cannot say I would be uneasy to hear it was done."4

3

Gage, in the conviction that the time for conciliation, moderation, and reasoning was over," ordered cannon to be carried from the Common to the Neck, or main entrance to the town. This commencement of a fortification added fuel to the general flame, and created great alarm. "We are," Paul Revere says, "in spirits, though in a garrison; the spirit of liberty was never higher than at present; our new-fangled counsellors are resigning their places every day; our justices of the courts, who now hold their commission during the pleasure of His Majesty or the governor, cannot get a jury that will act with them. In short, the Tories are giving way everywhere in our

1 Letter of John Andrews. 4 Letter of Dr. Young.

2 Newspaper. 8 John Andrews's Letter. 5 Gage's Letter, Sept. 2, 1774.

province." On the same day, Dr. Young wrote to Samuel Adams, "The temper of your countrymen is in the condition your every wish, your every sigh, for years past, panted to find it. Thoroughly aroused and unanimously in earnest, something very important must inevitably come of it." He promised that the action of Suffolk should not come short of that of other counties.

On the next day (Sept. 5), when the general congress met, James Bowdoin wrote that six regiments were in town, and that it was said that two or three more were coming from Canada, and two from Ireland. The journals stated, that the force which was encamped on Fort Hill distinguished itself in the famous battle of Minden. There was war-preparaside of the patriots; and

tion also going on on the the newspapers describe the parades of the volunteer corps, as they practised the military art: so that a journal said, "The spirit of the people was never known to be so great since the settlement of the colonies as it is at this time. People in the country for hundreds of miles are prepared and determined to die or be free."

While the public mind was excited, the Suffolk convention, on the 6th of September, re-assembled at the house of Mr. Richard Woodward, in Dedham; every town being represented. The delegates chose Richard Palmer president, and William Thompson clerk. After choosing a large committee to mature the business, with Warren for their chairman, the

1 Letter, Sept. 4, 1774, to John Lamb, in the archives of the New-York Historical Society. I am indebted to the librarian, George H. Moore, Esq., for every facility in consulting the manuscripts in this prosperous institution.