[dateline] [8 May 1769]
[salute] To the Honble. James Otis and Thomas Cushing Esqrs, Mr. Samuel Adams and John Hancock
Esqr.
[salute] Gentlemen.
You have, once more received, the highest Testimony of the Confidence and Affection
of your Constituents, which the Constitution has impowered them to exhibit; the Trust
of representing them in the great and general Court or Assembly of this Province.
This important Trust is committed to you, at a time when your Country demands the
Exertion of all your Wisdom Fortitude and Virtue; and therefore it is presumed, a
free Communication of our Sentiments, cannot but be agreable to you.
1 The first object of your Attention, is the Priviledges of that Assembly of which
you are now chosen to be Members. The Debates there must be free: You will therefore
exert yourselves to remove every Thing that may carry the least Appearance of an Attempt,
to awe or intimidate. As the Assembly is called to Sett in the usual Place, common
Decency, as well as the Honour, and Dignity of a free legislative will require a Removal
of those Cannon, and Guards, as well as that clamorous Parade which has been daily
around the Court House, Since the Arrival of his Majestys Troops, and even at Sometimes
while the highest Court of Judicature has been Sitting there on the Tryal of capital
Causes.
1
2 When this Grievance shall be removed, and the Debates of the Assembly shall be free,
it will be natural to enquire into all the Grievances we have Suffered from the military
Power: Why they have been quartered in the Body of this Town, in Contradiction to
the express Words, and as we conceive the manifest Intention of an Act of Parliament:
Why the officers who have thus violated our Rights, have not been called to account,
and dealt with as the Law required: Whether the Measure taken by the Governor, in
appointing an extraordinary officer to provide Quarters for the Troops, was not an
Evasion of the Act of Parliament made for the billetting and quartering his Majestys
Troops in America (the professed Rule of their Conduct) and designed to elude the
Clause of said Act purposely providing for, the
{ 225 } Convenience of American Subjects, And their Security against an Excess of military
Power:
2
3d. Why the repeated Offences and Violences committed by the Soldiery against the
Peace and in open Defiance and Contempt of the civil Magistrate And the Law, have
escaped Punishment in the Courts of Justice:
4th. And whether the Attorney General has not, in Some late Instances unduly
<assumed, and exerted> exercised a Power of entering
“Nolle prosequi,” upon Indictments, without the Concurrence of the Court, in Obstruction to the Course
of Justice and to the great Encouragement of Violence and Oppression.
3
5 And as the Quartering Troops <appears to be the grand Source of all these Evils,> here has provd occasion of many evils we do earnestly recommend to you, to use your
utmost Endeavours for a Speedy Removal of them <, to Places where they may be really usefull and necessary.>
6 Should
4 The Expence that has been incurred
<in the Transportation of these Troops hither,> in providing Barracks for the troops and supplying them with Necessaries,
<has in our opinion been purposely great. A Reimbursement may possibly> be required of the House of Representatives.
<Should this be the Case,> We do, in the most solemn and express manner, enjoin
<you, upon no Consideration whatever to pay the least Regard to so unreasonable> that you by no means comply with such
5 a Requisition. If the general Court is a free assembly, no Power upon Earth has authority
to compell it to pay this Money:
<if it is not free,> Should it ever be deprived of its Freedom
6 it shall never
<with our Consent> be made an Engine
<to raise this Money from us.> to drain us of
<our Treasure> the little Money we have left.
7
<7 Another Object of great <Consequence to this Province,> Importance8 and which requires the early Attention of the Assembly is a <daring> flagrant9 Attack upon our Constitution <of this Province> an Attempt to deprive it [us] of <the Blessings, derived from the Charter> not only of our Charter Liberties privileges and Immunities, but the rights of British
subjects derivd to us from the Constitution and the rights of Men derived to us from
the laws and Nature of God and Nature. Copys of10 A Number of Letters, have been lately published, here, authenticated by the Clerk
of the Papers, to the Honble House of Commons, which contain <such Representations of and Reasonings, as it would not perhaps be prudent for us
to characterise, in proper language.> Misrepresentations so gross as to render it needless on this occasion, to make any
particular Remarks.11<The Drift and Scope> { 226 } The dark Design12 of the Writer is sufficiently <clear and> apparent, and considering his station <and that of the noble Personage to whom they were addressed,> as Representative of the first personage in the Empire and the rank of the Minister
to whom he addressed himself13 and the Attention that has been given to them in Great Britain, we apprehend <them of very dangerous Tendency and Consequence> they have produced Effects dangerous and alarming to both Countrys, and have a direct
Tendency to produce yet greater.14 It is therefore expected, that you employ <all your Influence> your utmost Endeavors and all the Influence you may have15 that the injurious Impressions, which may unhappily have been made by them may be
removed, and that an effectual Antidote may be administered before the Poison, shall
have wrought the Ruin of our Constitution.>16
8 It is unnecessary for Us at this Time, to repeat our well known
17 Sentiments concerning the Revenue, which is continually,
<collecting from> levyd upon
18 Us, to our great Distress and for No other End than to support a great Number of
19 very unnecessary Placemen and Pensioners. We have now only to add, that our Sentiments
on this Subject are in no Respect changed, And that We expect you pursue with
<unabated Zeal, and unalterable Resolution> firm Resolution and unremitted ardor every Measure that may tend to procure us Relief
never yeilding
<the least> your
20 Consent to or Connivance, at
<any> the least
21 Encroachments on our Rights. Next to the Revenue itself, the late Extensions of the
Jurisdiction of the Admiralty, are our greatest Grievance. The American Courts of
Admiralty Seem to be forming by Degrees, into a System, that is to overturn our Constitution;
and to deprive us entirely of our best Inheritance, the Law of the Land. It would
be thought in England, a dangerous Innovation if the Tryal of any Matter
upon Land, was given to the Admiral. It would be thought more threatning still, if the Power
of Confiscation, over Ships and Cargoes for illicit Trade, was committed to that Court:
But if the Forfeitures of Ships and Cargoes, large Penalties upon Masters, and such
exorbitant Penalties as the Treble Value of Cargoes, upon every
[Person co]ncerned
22 in Landing uncustomed goods, were by Act of Parliament appointed to be tryed by the
Admiral, the Nation would think their Liberties irrecoverably lost.
23
This, however is the miserable Case of North America! In the 41.ss. of the Statute
of the 4th. of G
[eo]. 3. c. 15. We find that
“all the Forfeitures and Penalties, inflicted by this, or any other Act of Parliament,
relating to the Trade and Revenues of the British Colonies or Plantations in America,
which shall be incurred there, may be prosecuted, { 227 } sued for and recovered in any Court of Admiralty, in the said Colonies”. Thus, these extraordinary Penalties and Forfeitures, are to be heard and tryed not
by a Jury—not by the Law of the Land—but by the civil Law and a single Judge! Unlike
the ancient Barons, who answered with one Voice “We will not that the Laws of England
be changed, which of old have been used and approved,” the Barons of modern Times,
seem to have answered, that
they are willing, those Laws should be changed, with Regard to America, in the most tender
Point, and fundamental Principle!
9 And this hardship is the more severe as we see in the same Page of the statute,
and the section immediately preceding, “that all Penalties and Forfeitures, which
shall be incurred in Great Britain, shall be prosecuted, sued for, and recovered,
in any of his Majestys Courts of Record in Westminster, or in the Court of Exchequer
in Scotland respectively.” Here is a Contrast that stares Us, in the Face!
<an unjust> A partial Distinction that is made between the subject in Great Britain, and the
subject in America! The Parliament in one section, guarding the People of the Realm,
and securing to them, the Benefit of a Tryal by Jury and the Law of the Land, and
by the next section depriving Americans of those important Rights. Is not this Distinction
a Brand of Disgrace upon every American? a Degradation, below the Rank of an Englishman?
Is it not, with respect to Us, a Repeal of the 29. Chapter of Magna Charta? “
No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties,
or free Customs, or outlawed or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed, nor will we pass
upon him, nor condemn him, but lay lawful Judgment of his Peers, or the Law of the
Land.” Englishmen are inviolably attached to the important Right expressed in this Clause
24 which for many Centuries has been the noblest Monument, and firmest Bulwark of their
Liberties. One Proof of this Attachment, given Us, by a great Sage of the Law, we
think proper to mention, not for your Information, but as the best Expression of the
Sense of your Constituents. “
Against this ancient and fundamental Law, and in the Face thereof, says Lord Coke
I find an Act of Parliament made, that as well Justices of Assize, as Justices of
Peace, without any finding or Presentment of twelve Men, upon a bare Information for
the King before them made, should have full Power and Authority, by their Discretions, to hear and try Men,” for Penalties and Forfeitures.”
25 His Lordship, after mentioning the Repeal of this Statute, and the Fate of Empson
and Dudley, who received the full Weight of the national Vengeance for acting under
it, concludes with a Reflection which, if well considered, might
{ 228 } be sufficient to discourage such attacks upon fundamental Principles.
“The ill success of this statute and the fearfull End of these two oppressors, should
deter others from committing the like, and should admonish Parliaments, that instead
of this ordinary and precious Tryal by the Law of the Land, they bring not in absolute
and partial Tryals by Discretion.” Such are the Feelings and Reflections of an Englishman upon a statute,
<very like> not unlike the statute now under Consideration, and upon Courts and Judges,
<very like> not unlike
26 the Courts and Judges of Admiralty, in America.
27
The formidable Power of these Courts, and their distressing Course of Proceedings,
have been Severely felt within the past Year, many of your fellow Citizens having
been worn out with Attendance upon them, in Defence against Informations for extravagant
and enormous Penalties. And we have the highest Reason to fear from past Experience
that if no Relief is
<granted> obtained for
28 us, the Properties and Liberties, and the Morals too, of this unhappy Country, will
be ruined, by these Courts, and the Persons employed to support them.
We therefore earnestly recommend to you, by every legal Measure to endeavor that the
Power of these Courts may be confined to their proper Element, according to the ancient
English Statutes, and that you petition and remonstrate against the late Extensions
of their Jurisdiction: And we doubt not, the other Colonies and Provinces, who <begin to> Suffer, with us, under them, will chearfully harmonise with <you> this, in any justifiable Measures that may be taken for Redress.
10 We need not here take occasion to instruct you That while you in the most ample
manner testify your loyalty to our gracious Sovereign you
29 strenuously assert and maintain, the Right of the subject jointly or severally
30 to Petition the King; or to declare it as our clear opinion, that the House of Representatives
in any one Province, has an undeniable Right, whenever a just occasion shall offer,
to communicate their Sentiments upon a common Concern, to the Assemblys of any or
all the other Colonies and to unite with them in humble, dutifull and loyal Petitions
for Redress of a general Grievance.