TO JONATHAN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON.
[Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th ser., vol. iv., pp. 239, 240.]
BOSTON 21 March, 1775.
SIR,
I have before me your letter of the 10th of February, directed to Mr. Hancock, Mr. Cushing and myself, inclosing a bill of lading for one thousand and ninety-two bushels of grain, being a generous donation sent by the inhabitants of Westmoreland County, in Virginia, to the sufferers in this Town by the Boston Port Bill. Soon after that barbarous edict arrived, our inhabitants had notice of the kind intentions of our brethren of the other Colonies, towards them, and they appointed a Committee to receive and distribute such donations as should be made. I have their direction to request that you would be pleased to return their grateful acknowledgments to our worthy friends in your County, for this very liberal contribution, and to assure them that it will be disposed of agreeable to their benevolent design.
Your candid opinion of the inhabitants of this Town as having some share in defending the common rights of British America, cannot but be very flattering to them, and it will excite in them a laudable ambition, by their future conduct, to merit the continuance of it. They are unjustly oppressed, but, by the smiles of Heaven and the united friendship and support of all North America, the designs of our enemies to oblige them make base compliances, to the injury of our common cause, have been hitherto frustrated. They bear repeated insults of the grossest kind, not from want of the feelings of just resentment, or spirit enough to make ample returns, but from principles of sound policy and reason. Put your enemy in the wrong, and keep him so, is a wise maxim in politics, as well as in war. They consider themselves as connected with a great continent, deeply interested in their patient sufferings. They had rather, therefore, forego the gratification of revenging affronts and indignities, than prejudice that all important cause which they have so much at heart, by precipitating a crisis. When they are pushed by clear necessity for the defence of their liberties to the trial of arms, I trust in God, they will convince their friends and their enemies, of their military skill and valor. Their constant prayer to God is, to prevent such necessity; but they are daily preparing for it. I rejoice with you, Sir, in most earnestly wishing for the speedy and full restoration of the rights of America, which are violated with so high and arbitrary a hand, and am, in behalf of the Committee, with great respect,
Your obliged and affectionate friend and countryman,
P. S.—Our last accounts from Great Britain, are of the 19th
December.