THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF BOSTON TO THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF COLRAIN.
[MS., Committee of Correspondence Papers, Lenox Library.]
BOSTON July 18 1774
GENTLEMEN/
We receivd your favor by the hand of Mr Wood, and observe the Art of the Tories in your part of the Province to make the People believe the Non Consumption Agreement is a Trick of the Merchants of this Town, that they may have the Advantage of selling off the Goods they have on hand at an exorbitant Rate. So far is this from the Truth, that the Merchants importing Goods from England, a few excepted, were totally against the Covenant. They complaind of it in our Town Meeting as a Measure destructive to their Interest. Some of them have protested against it as such; and they are now using their utmost Endeavors to prevent it. Can it then be rationally said by the Advocates for Tyranny that it is a Plan laid by the Merchants? The Enemies of our Constitution know full well that if there are no Purchasers of British Goodsc there will be no Importers. On the Contrary if the People in the Country will purchase there are People in the City avaricious enough to import. Hence it is that they are so agitated with the Non Consumption Agreement that they will not hesitate at any rate to discredit it.
We highly applaud your Zeal for the Liberties of your Country and are with great Regard
Your friends & fellow Countrymen,