| | 1 | Author: | Moore
Frank
1828-1904 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | Diary of the American Revolution  | | | | Published: | 2005 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | January 1.—The chief troubles of our Israel1
1
The town of Boston.
are the Philantrops, the Hazlerods, the Sir
Froths, the Tims, the Bens, and the Bobs. These are men, who, for large
Causes of trouble in Boston.
shares in the American plunder, have sold themselves
to do wickedly. The barbarians who have been aiding and assisting bad governors and
abandoned ministers, in all their attempts to subjugate and enslave these once happy colonies: the hireling prostitutes who have been constantly
representing to ministry that the friends of liberty were a small, insignificant,
divided faction; that the people had not virtue to sacrifice any parts of the profits of
their trade, or the luxury of their living for the sake of their country; or spirit
to withstand the least exertion of power. These are traitors who were for none but
licensed town-meetings,2
2
See the Governor's proclamation.
and gave administration
the outlines of the execrable Boston Port Bill and the other detestable bills for
destroying the charter,3
3
Of Massachusetts Bay.
and those sacred compacts which Americans once thought were of some value,
the faith of kings being the security. These are the unblushing advocates for pensioned
governors, dependent judges, hired attorneys, and sheriff created jurors, that the
people might, under color of law, be stript of their property, without their consent, and
suitably punished if they should dare to complain: the odious rebels, who, for the
support of these hateful measures, have invited the troops and ships, that are now
distressing the inhabitants of Boston, and alarming
8
not only a single province, but a whole continent. And when almost every event has
turned out contrary to their predictions, and when it
might be reasonably expected that the union of the colonies, the resolutions of the
Continental Congress, and the late associations and
preparations to withstand all hostile attempts upon our persons or properties, might lead
administration to suspect at least the policy or safety of pushing
this people to extremities; we find this infamous cabal playing over the old game
of ministerial deception, and Timothy
Ruggles1
1
The Chief Justice of the province of Massachusetts Bay. See statement and plan of
association, published by Judge Ruggles in most of the Boston papers, Dec. 23-27, 1774,
and reprinted in Gaines' New York Gazette, Jan. 9, 1775.
with a gravity peculiar to himself and an owl,
Timothy Ruggles' assertion.
asserting in the public prints—"that though many of the people had for
some time past been arming, their numbers would not appear in the field so large as
imagined, before it was known that independeney was the object in contemplation;"2
2
An assertion as false as it is impudent and injurious, first uttered by a hireling
priest,*
*
Dr. Myles Cooper, the President of King's, now Columbia, College, a vigorous writer in
favor of the crown.
in the New York Freeholder, who at the same time declared that
he had rather be under the government of Roman Catholics than Dissenters—a
declaration
truly characteristic of the doctor, and his little club of malignants.—The
people of Massachusetts have hitherto acted purely on the defensive; they have
only opposed those new regulations which were instantly to have been executed, and
would have annihilated all our rights. For this absolutely necessary and manly step
they have received the approbation of the Continental Congress, one of the most
respectable assemblies in the world. They aim at no independency, nor any thing new,
but barely the preservation of their old rights. They have referred their cause to the
whole continent, and are determined to act only in free consultation, and close union
with their brethren. This is indeed the safety of all.—Editor of the Journal.
and further, that since that time, many associated in divers parts of the
province, to support what he calls "Government."—But the views and designs of
these pensioned prostitutes of Massachusetts,—in all that they say or
write, are perfectly kenned by the most short-sighted amongst us. In vain are their
scare-crows, raw-head and bloody bones, held up to deter us from taking the most effectual
means for our security. The little scribbling, illiberal
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pieces, which have disgraced the Massachusetts Gazettes, will not lessen the
Continental Congress in our
The Gazettes.
esteem; or retard the measures they have recommended,
notwithstanding the sums paid to effect it. These writers, and their attempts to
encourage or mislead, are treated with ineffable contempt by their countrymen. It has,
however, been unhappy for both countries that the representations
and projects of such men as these have been heeded and adopted on the other side of
the Atlantic; men whose very livings have depended upon the continuation of those
measures which Americans have so long complained of, and sought to have redressed. If
these unnaturals should succeed in their present misleading
attempts, to the preventing a speedy close to our differences, we shall then have good
reason to conclude that blindness has happened to Britons, that
the
fulness of American Liberty might come in.1
1
Pennsylvania Journal, Jan. 25. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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