Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
I recd. yrs. of 22d. ultimo1 & have Sent it to your wife. We hear almost every week from Taunton, your family are all well, the agitations occasioned by the new counceller in Taunton rather diverts than Surprises our friends there.2
General Gage continues to fortifying the south ent’rence of the town. I fear if he doth not desist he will get himself into trouble.3 The spirits of the people want calming, tis difficult to keep the country back, they are making the greatest millitary preparations & we could soon muster a very formidable army; & was it not that the congress is setting we should soon have an example of American prowess. We expect great things from your councils, I hope we shall not be too impatient. The Town by their selectmen, & a committee from this county, have had several conferences with Gage as you will see by the papers4 & the intelligence by Mr. Revere,5 by whome I did intend to have wrote to you. I intend this by Dr. Loring6 who sets out tomorrow morning.
Any services that I am capable to do your family in your absence I shall chearfully do as I have informed sister. I wish you & all the members of the congress, wisdom as angels of God, your task is arduous, & requires more than human sagacity. May you be the means of restoring freedom to America & a happy lasting Union between her and Great Britton, that we may be happy in our future connections till the luminarys of heaven are all extinct.
We are in tolerable health, my wife & children Joyn in wishing you health & a happy return to yr. family & friends. I am Dr. Sr. yr. affectionate brother,
Not located.
Daniel Leonard (1740–1829), appointed a mandamus councilor by Governor Gage on Aug. 15, was one of the few to take the oath. Later that month, a mob threatened his home in Taunton to attempt to force him to resign, but Leonard moved into Boston and remained there until the evacuation (
Sibley’s Harvard Graduates
, 14:643–644).
The punitive closing of Boston Harbor by means of the Boston Port Bill, supported by the arrival of additional troops throughout June and July 1775, provided the primary basis of the growing tensions in town. General Gage added further fears by fortifying Boston Neck, the sole land access, although he assured the citizens that his moves were only “to protect his Majesty’s Subjects and his Majesty’s Troops in this Town; and that he had no Intention of any Thing hostile against the Inhabitants” (Massachusetts Gazette and the Boston Weekly News-Letter, Sept. 8, 1774). The best treatment of the occupation and resultant siege remains Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston (4th ed.; Boston, 1873).
Joseph Greenleaf had been appointed a part of Boston’s original committee of correspondence in 1772 and served that body throughout this period. On these activities, see Richard D. Brown, Revolutionary Politics in Massachusetts: The Boston Committee of Correspondence and the Towns, 1772–1774 (Cambridge, Mass., 1970). The Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter of Sept. 8, 1774, carries stories of Gage’s dismissal of John Hancock as captain of the Company of Cadets, the selectmen’s protest about the fortification of Boston Neck, and a further protest from the grand jurors of the county over abrogation of rights under the Charter.
Paul Revere (1735–1819), the Boston silversmith, often rode expresses to Philadelphia during the Continental Congress.
Probably Benjamin Loring (1754–1787) of Boston, a 1772 Harvard graduate. Loring is said to have studied medicine with Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia, but by 1775 he had joined the British army as a surgeon’s mate. He later purchased a surgeon’s commission and served until 1783. Loring died in London (
Sibley’s Harvard Graduates
18:129–131).
Yesterday I wrote a few lines to your Bror: J. Adams, almost without Pen or Ink; if he shou’d not be able to read it, the loss will not be great, for it may serve to light a Pipe, or—; & this may serve for like purpose.1 In this time of great & public distress, I shou’d not trifle in this manner, did I not depend upon your having all our public affairs transmitted you by much abler hands; however, this will shew that I have not forgot our old Friendship, & serve to assure you of its continuance. Since mine of yesterday, we of the County Comtee. for Suffolk, have endeavored to obtain of his Excellency, an answer, whether he wd. receive our 2d Address in form, a Copy of wh. had been delivered to him by the Secretary; but after several fruitless attempts, about an hour since, the Deputy Secretary came to me, not meeting with our Chairman, & verbally inform’d me, “that the Secretary had waited upon the Govr., who desired him to acquaint the Comtee. that, as he had several times been addressed upon the same subject, & had answer’d as fully as he was able, he beg’d the favor of being excused receiving any more addresses upon that business.” This 3is the substance, as near as I can recollect, of Mr. Cotton’s messge. Our 1st address, with the Govrs. answer, you will doubtless have among the Papers by this conveyance.2
Last Night, the Cannon at the North-Battery were spiked by persons who came in Boats from the Men of War; but this day they have been drill’d.
Our People in the Country are busy making Carriages for Cannon &c. &c., so that preparations for war are carrying on as if the last reason of States was soon to be tried. May God preserve Our rights without that severe trial; but if it must be, let us shew ourselves men. The Country people, as ’tis said, have turn’d Paddock’s Field p
ps. The Towns back of Casco-Bay, have all come into a non-consumption agreemt., but Falmouth refused to join; in consequence of wh., for 3 days preceeding the date of the Letter, no one article of any sort had been carried from the Country into the Town of Falmouth.
For this letter, see The Papers of John Adams, ed. Robert J. Taylor et al. (Cambridge, Mass., 1977), 2:166.
Palmer was moderator of the county meeting that passed the Suffolk Resolves. The meeting members, describing themselves as “being greatly, and in their Opinion justly alarmed, at the formidable Appearances of Hostility, now threatening his Majesty’s good Subjects of this Country,” on Sept. 10 demanded the removal of the British ordnance, the restoration of the entrance to the town, “an effectual stop to all Insults and Abuses in the future,” and the establishment of the inhabitants “in that State of Peace and Tranquility, in which every free Subject ought to live.” The officials mentioned were Gov. Thomas Gage (1721–1787), Provincial Secretary Thomas Flucker (1719–1783), and Deputy Secretary John Cotton (1728–1775).