BOSTON, APRIL 9, 1773.
SIR,
THE Committee of Correspondence of this Town have received the
following Intelligence, communicated to them by a Person of
Cha-
racter in this Place. We congratulate you upon the Acquisition of
such respectable Aid as the ancient and patriotic Province of
Virginia,
the earliest Resolvers against the detestable Stamp-Act, in Opposition to
the
unconstitutional Measures of the present Administration. The Authenticity
of
this Advice you may depend upon, as it was immediately received from one
of the Honorable Gentlemen appointed to communicate with the other
Colonies.
William Cooper Town-Clerk.
To the Town-Clerk of [blank], to be immediately
delivered to the Committee of Correspondence for your Town,
if such a Committee is chosen, otherwise to the Gentlemen the
Selectmen, to be communicated to the Town.
Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman of distincti-
on in
Virginia, to his Friend in this Town, da-
ted
March 14th,
1773.
" I RECEIVED the papers *
[Asterisk reference mark indicates there is a note below.] you sent
me,
and am much obliged to you for them, our assem-
bly sitting a few days after, they were of use to
us. You will see by the enclosed Resolutions the
true sentiments of this colony, and that we are en-
deavouring to bring our sister colonies into the
strictest union with us, that we may RESENT IN
ONE BODY any steps that may be taken by ad-
ministration to deprive ANY ONE OF US of the
least particle of our rights & liberties ; we should
have done more but we could procure nothing but
news-paper accounts of the proceedings in
Rhode-
Island. I hope we shall not be thus kept in the
dark for the future, and that we shall have from
the different Committees the earliest intelligence
of any motion that may be made by the TY-
RANTS in
England to carry their INFERNAL
purposes of enslaving us into execution ; I dare
venture to assure you the strictest attention will
be given on our parts to these grand points."
In the House of Burgesses, in
Virginia March, 1773.
"WHEREAS the minds of his
Majesty's faith-
ful subjects in this colony have been much distur-
bed by various rumours and reports of proceed-
ings tending to deprive them of their ancient, le-
gal and constitutional rights.
"And whereas the affairs of this colony are
frequently connected with those of
Great Britain,
as well as of the neighbouring colonies, which
renders a communication of sentiments necessary,
in order therefore to remove the uneasinesses and
to quiet the minds of the people, as well as for
the other good purposes above mentioned.
"Be it resolved, That a standing committee
of correspondence and inquiry be appointed, to
consist of eleven persons, viz. the honourable
Payton Randolph, Esq; Robert Carter Nicholas,
Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee,
Benjamin
Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Patrick
Henry,
Dudley Digges, Dabney Carr, Archibald
Cary,
and Thomas Jefferson, Esqrs; any
six of whom
to be a committee, whose business it shall be to
obtain the most early and authentic intelligence
of all such acts and resolutions of the British par-
liament or proceedings of administration, as may
relate to, or affect the British colonies in
Ameri-
ca, and to keep up and maintain a correspondence
and communication with our sister colonies, res-
pecting these important considerations, and the re-
sult of such their proceedings from time to time
to lay before this house.
"Resolved, That it be an instruction to the
said committee, that they do, without delay, in-
form themselves particularly of the principles and
authority, on which was constituted a court of
inquiry, said to have been lately held in
Rhode-
Island, with powers to transport persons accused
of offences committed in America, to places be-
yond the seas to be tried.
"Resolved, That the Speaker of this House do
transmit to the Speakers of the different assem-
blies of the British colonies, on this continent, co-
pies of the said resolutions, and desire the will
lay them before their respective assemblies, and
request them to appoint some person or persons of
their respective bodies, to communicate from time
to time with the said committee.
* [Asterisk reference mark (appearing at bottom of column 1):] The
Votes and Proceedings of the Town of Boston,
and News-Papers, containing the Governor's Speeches,
and the Answers of the two Houses.