EXTRACT OF Mr. FANEUIL'S LETTER TO BROOK WATSON, Esqr.
Mentioned in Mr. Clarke's Postscript.
Mr. Faneuil, after giving an account of the proceedings of the inhabitants of the 3rd instant, entirely agreeing in substance with Mr. Clarke's relation, goes on—
"By comparing this account with what Mr. Clarke writes his friend, Mr. Dupuis, of London, you will come at the exact state of the affair. The Governor has given my Lord Dartmouth an account of the conduct of his Council. I will only say that next day they voted that the Attorney-General be ordered to prosecute the persons concerned in this riot. The consequence, I suppose, will be, the grand jury will not find a bill against them, and there the affair will end."
On Thursday, a letter, of which the following is a copy, was found in my entry:
"Gentlemen: It is currently reported that you are in the extremest anxiety respecting your standing with the good people of this Town and Province, as commissioners of the sale of the monopolized and dutied tea. We do not wonder in the least that your apprehensions are terrible, when the most enlightened humane & conscientious community on the earth view you in the light of tigers or mad dogs, whom the public safety obliges them to destroy. Long have this people been irreconcilable to the idea of spilling human blood, on almost any occasion whatever; but they have lately seen a penitential thief suffer death for pilfering a few pounds from scattering individuals. You boldly avow a resolution to bear a principal part in the robbery of every inhabitant of this country, in the present and future ages, of every thing dear and interesting to them. Are there no laws in the Book of God and nature that enjoin such miscreants to be cut off from among the people, as troublers of the whole congregation. Yea, verily, there are laws and officers to put them into execution, which you can neither corrupt, intimidate, nor escape, and whose resolution to bring you to condign punishment you can only avoid by a speedy imitation of your brethren in Philadelphia. This people are still averse to precipitate your fate, but in case of much longer delay in complying with their indispensable demands, you will not fail to meet the just rewards of your avarice & insolence. Remember, gentn, this is the last warning you are ever to expect from the insulted, abused, and most indignant vindicators of violated liberty in the Town of Boston.
Thursday evening, 9 o'clock.
Nov. 4, 1773.
O.C., Secy, pr order.[45]
To Messrs. the Tea Commissioners.
Directed to B—— F—— Esqr."
On Friday we had a Town Meeting. What was done there, together with our answers and their resolves, you'll see in the enclosed news paper. Just before the meeting broke up, several gentn, on my telling the purport of our answer, advised me to leave the town for that night; but I have not yet slept out of my own house, nor do I propose to do it, till I find it absolutely necessary. I thought it best, however, to conceal myself for two or three hours. But nothing took place more that evening than is usual on the 5th Novr. On Friday, we received an information, which was repeated yesterday, that a number of picked men are determined to break into our house one night this week. I can hardly believe it, but these continued alarms are very disagreeable. I am, gentlemen,