TO CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN AND L. CLARKSON.
[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]
BOSTON July 18 1774
GENTLEMEN
We have received your polite and obliging Letter of the 28 June inclosing bill of lading for 194 whole & 21 half barrills Rice on board the sloop of Mary John Dove Master which is safely arrived at Salem. So very generous a Donation of twenty Gentlemen only of the Town of Charlestown, towards the Reliefe of the Sufferers by the cruel & oppressive Port bill, demands our most grateful Acknowledgments; and the Assurances you give us of the kind Disposition of our worthy Friends in South Carolina towards the Inhabitants of this Town will, we are perswaded, greatly encourage them to bear up under that oppressive Ministerial Vengeance which they are now called to endure for the common Cause of America. Supported as we are by our Brethren in all the Colonies, we must be ungrateful to them as well as lost to the feelings of publick Virtue should we comply with the Demands to surrender the Liberty of America. We think you may rely upon it that the People of [this] Province in general will joyn in any proper M[easures] that may be proposed for the restoration & Establishment of the Rights of America, and of that Harmony with the Mother Country upon the principles of equal Liberty so much desired by all wise & good Men. A Non Importation of British Goods is (with a few Exceptions) universally thought a salutary and an efficatious Measure; and in order to effectuate such a Measure the yeomanry in the Country (upon whom under God we are to depend) are signing agreements to restrict themselves from purchasing & consuming them. We applaud and at the same time [are] animated by the patriotick Spirit of our Sister Colonies. Such an union we believe was little expected by Lord North and we have Reason to hope therefore that he has not thought of making any Preparation against the Effects of it. The Resolution & Magnanimity of the Colonists and the Firmness Perseverance & Prudence of the People of this insulted Town astonishes our Adversaries, & we trust will put them to a Loss how to proceed further.
We shall dispose of the valueable Donation as you direct, in such Manner as we shall judge most conducible to the Intention of the generous Donors, to whom be pleasd to present our kind Regards and be assured we are Gentlemen their and your sincere & obliged Friends and
Fellow Countrymen,