Boston Sept: 15:th 1774 Dr:Bror:,

When I consider the surprizing Importance of that most high & honorable Body, of which you have the honour of being a member; I feel 4that profound reverence which a good Catholick has, when he Enjoys the Communion of the Saints above. And having this Season of Grace let me freely say that when I think of the great as well as most evident End of all Civil Government, I look back with Detestation on the State of the Governmt: of Massachusetts Province, ever since Our last Charters. It is impossible that the Interests or Advantages of Great Britain should not freequently interfere with the Interests & Advantages of the Colonies; while she sets Governours &c. over us. If the King of France had such Power over the Kings of England, as to Oblige them at their Coronation, to Govern the English Nation at all times according to his the King of France’s directions or Instructions, I am sure Great Britain would cease to be a free People.

Every One is well Acquainted with the present Aims of Great Britain upon the Colonies, & I am pleas’d that those demands are so unsufferable as they are. I don’t believe she will Attempt, with force & Arms to Conquer all the Colonies which Oppose her Measures, but this is now the unshaken Faith of Our Tories, if we can believe them. If the Colonies have it now in their power (wch. I suppose to be the Case) to make reasonable Terms of Accommodation with Great Britain I assure my self & friends it will be done by the August Provincial Congress.

Tom. Boylston,1 told me very seriously the other day that he was sure, The Colonies might sell Great Britain if they pleas’d to do it. In hope of the Glory of the Colonies, I am glad King William’s Charter is Annihilated by G. Britain: & it will now be our own Fault, yes & an unpardonable Fault in us, if we take up with any thing short of Our Old charter, but for my own part though a good Churchman, I believe in the Congress as much as I do in the Holy Catholick Church. Good Mr: Cary’s2 being well Acquaintd. with all our present Circumstances, prevents saying any thing on that head.

Thanks be to GOD, who has Joyn’d the Colonies together and Cursed be all those who would seperate ’em.

That is the prayer of Faith that is in me yr. Bror:

Benja. Kent

RC ; addressed: “To Robert Treat Paine Esqr. Philadelphia favr. Mr. Cary”; endorsed.

1.

Thomas Boylston (1721–1798), a cousin of John Adams, was according to Abigail Adams an “eminent, wealthy, stingy Merchant.” The British blacklisted Boylston in 1775, but two years later Boston women stormed him protesting the inflated price of his coffee. He then left the country and settled in England ( Adams Family Correspondence , 1:213, 231–232, 2:295).

5 2.

Richard Cary (1746/7–1806) of Charlestown, Mass., held a commission in the British army before the Revolution but apparently sold it about 1772. He was a merchant and spent time in New York, Philadelphia, and the South between 1773 and 1775, when he joined the American forces. Although he was an aide-de-camp to General Washington with the rank of lieutenant colonel, Cary left the service at the end of 1775 and spent the rest of the war in St. Croix running the British blockade of the colonies ( Sibley’s Harvard Graduates , 15:371–373).