TO CHARLES LUCAS.1
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library; the text is in W. V. Wells,
Life of Samuel Adams, vol. i., p. 383.]
BOSTON [March 12] 1771
SIR
Your Letter of the 1 Sept 1770 has been laid before the Town of Boston at their annual Meeting & attended to with great Satisfaction, and we are appointed a Committee to return a respectfull Answer. Accordingly we take this Opportunity in Behalf of the Town to acknowledge the kind Sentiments your Letter expresses towards us and to intreat you to employ your Abilities for our Advantage whenever a favorable Opportunity may present. We are very sensible that you have an arduous Task in resisting the Torrent of Oppression & arbitrary Power in Ireland: a kingdom where the brutal power of standing Armies, & the more fatal Influence of pensions & places has left, it is to be feard, hardly any thing more than the Name of a free Constitution. We wish you Strength & fortitude to persevere in patriotick Exertions. Your Labour will meet with its immediate & constant Reward, in the most peaceful & happy Reflections of your own mind amidst the greatest discouragements; and be assured that the Man who nobly vindicates the Rights of his Country & Mankind shall stand foremost in the List of fame.
1 Of Dublin. Cf. Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xxxiv., p. 231. The committee which reported this letter was appointed March 12, and consisted of James Bowdoin, Joseph Warren, Samuel Pemberton, Richard Dana and Adams. Boston Record Commissioners' Report, vol. xviii., p. 46. Franklin wrote to Bowdoin, January 13, 1772: "In Ireland, among the Patriots, I dined with Dr. Lucas." J. Bigelow, Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin, vol. iv., p. 439.