Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2
By Major Fuller1 I send this token of my remembrance, & if it can find a place among the many perplexing affairs which involve the province you will be glad I dont doubt to hear that I am as comfortable as the times will admit, here at this hospitable Mansion. I regretted my absence from town as I lost my chance for seeing you but as matters have been rearraye'd you have had no time but for the Publick. I durst not indulge myself as my spirit dictateth, but I mourn over Boston & feel anxiously concernd for my friends that are inhabitants2 "how doth that fair City sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! She that sat as Princess among the Provinces, how is she become tributary! her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her Enemies."3
I hope to see you on your way home, I dont Expect your tarry will be long at Salem and depend on meeting you at Boston, I hear you left your family well at Election I rejoyce in all our personal favrs. I wish you that wisdom which is profitable for all things and may the house at their present Sessions however irratate'd, approve themselves to their Country the Expectations of all are upon You & many hands are lifted for your Sup-538port.4 May health and Strength be added to your other Blessings Prays Your Affectionate Sister,
Abraham Fuller (1720–1794) served as Newton's representative to the General Court from 1764 to 1776 (Priscilla R. Ritter and Thelma Fleishman, Newton, Massachusetts, 1679–1779: A Biographical Directory [Boston, 1982], 30).
The Boston Port Bill closing the port of Boston was passed by Parliament on Mar. 3, 1774, in retaliation for Boston's part in the destruction of the tea at the Boston Tea Party of Dec. 16, 1773. It was to take effect on June, 1774 (DAH).
Lamentations of Jeremiah, 1:1.
RTP first heard of the news of the Boston Port Bill while attending the superior court at Barnstable on May 11, and when back in Taunton heard of the appointment of Gen. Gage as governor on the 14th. He was re-elected to the House of Representatives on the 16th and on the 23d rode to Boston, where the House continued sitting until the 28th when it was adjourned to Salem (RTP Diary).
May it please your Excellency,1
Your Speech to both Houses of the General Assembly at the Opening of this Session has been read and considered with all due Attention in the House of Representatives.2
Your Excellency has therein signified to us that his Majesty has been pleased "to appoint you Governor and Captain-General of his Province of Massachusetts-Bay, and that your Commission has been read and published;" We congratulate your Excellency on your safe Arrival, and honour you in the most exalted Station in this Province; and confiding in your Excellency, that you will make the known Constitution and Charter of the Province the Rule of your Administration. We beg Leave to assure you that nothing on our Part shall be wanting that may contribute to render the same easy and happy to yourself, and to aid your Excellency in promoting the Prosperity of his Majesty's Government and the Welfare of our Constituents; and we thank your Excellency for the Assurances you are pleased to give of your Concurrence with us therein.
It gives us Pain to be informed by your Excellency, that "you have the King's particular Commands for holding the General Court at Salem, from the first Day of this Instant June, until his Majesty shall have signified his539royal Will and Pleasure for holding it again at Boston." We are intirely at a Loss for the Cause of this Command, as we cannot conceive any public Utility arising from it, and both we and our Constituents are now suffering the great Inconveniencies of it.
The Removal of the Assembly from the Court-House in Boston, its ancient and only convenient Seat, has very lately given great Discontent to the good People of this Province; and we cannot but think that Misrepresentations from Persons residing in this .Province have induced his Majesty's Ministers to advise his Majesty to lay your Excellency under an Injunction whereby the People are in this Instance deprived of the Benefit of that discretionary Power, which is vested in the Governor by the Charter, and has been exercised by former Governors, of determining in such Case for the Good of the Province: We confide however in your Excellency's Impartiality and Justice, that the true State of this Province, and the Character of his Majesty's Subjects in it, their Loyalty to their Sovereign, their Affection for the parent Country, as well as their invincible Attachment to their just Rights and Liberties, will be laid before his Majesty, and we hope that by this Means your Excellency will be the happy Instrument of removing the Displeasure of his Majesty, and restoring Harmony, which has too long bee interrupted by the Artifices of interested and designing Men.
Your Excellency has laid no particular Business before us, excepting the Supply of the Treasury for the Support of Government, for the ensuing Year; to which we shall give our immediate Attention, as also to any other Matters your Excellency may please to lay before us; and give that Dispatch to the public Business which the manifold and great Inconveniences of our present Situation will admit.
Journals of the House of Representatives, 50:264–265. There is a draft of this reply to Gov. Gage's speech of May 26, 1774 in the RTP Papers. It is chiefly in Samuel Adams's handwriting with some changes in RTP's hand which were incorporated into the published text.
Gen. Thomas Gage (1721–1787) after much army service in America was appointed in 1774 the governor-in-chief and captain general of Massachusetts-Bay in succession to Thomas Hutchinson. Although appointed commander-in-chief in America in Aug. 1775, Gage was thought by Lord George Germain, the secretary of state for the colonies, "to be in a position of too great importance for his talents." He resigned his position and returned to England in Oct. 1775 leaving General William Howe (1720–1814) in command (DNB).
The House Journals record on May 26: "His Excellency's Speech was read again. Ordered, That Mr. Speaker Hancock, Mr. Pickering, Mr. Adams, Mr. Tyng, Mr. Paine, Mr.540
Phillips, Mr. Gorham, Col. Bowers, and Col. Warren, be a Committee to take the same into Consideration and report" (Journals of the House of Representatives, 50:253).