BOSTON April 2d 1774

GENTLEMEN

Yesterday we receivd your Letter dated the 22d of March, wherein we have the disagreeable Intelligence of your "having resignd the several offices in which you have acted for the Town" of Marblehead, and that you shall "accept them no more—without material Alteration in the Conduct of the Inhabitants."

When we heard of the unhappy Circumstances of that Town—The Contest that had arisen to so great a Degree of Violence on Account of the Hospital lately erected there, it gave us great Concern and Anxiety, lest it might issue to the Prejudice of the Common Cause of American Freedom. We were apprehensive that the Minds of the Zealous Friends of that good Cause, being warmly agitated in such a Controversy, would become thereby disaffected to each other, and that the Advantage which we have hitherto experienced from their united Efforts would cease. We are confirmd that our Fears were not ill grounded, by your relinquishing a Post, which, in our Opinion, and we dare say in the Opinion of your Fellow Townsmen you sustaind with Honor to your selves and Advantage to your Country. But Gentlemen, Suffer us to ask, Whether you well considerd, that although you derivd your Being as a Committee of Correspondence from that particular Town which appointed you, yet in the Nature of your office, while they continued you in it you stood connected in a peculiar Relation with your Country. If this be a just View of it, Should the ill Conduct of the Inhabitants of Marblehead towards you, influence you to decline serving the publick in this office, any more than that of the Inhabitants of this or any other Town? And would you not therefore have continued in that office, though you had been obligd to resign every other office you held under the Town, without Injury to your own Reputation? Besides will the Misfortune end in this Resignation? Does not the Step naturally lead you to withdraw your selves totally from the publick Meetings of the Town, however important to the Common Cause, by which the other firm Friends to that honorable Cause may feel the Want of your Influence and Aid, at a time when, as you well express it "a FATAL Thrust may be aimed at our Rights and Liberties," and it may be necessary that all should appear, & "as one Body" oppose the Design & defeat the Rebel Intent? Should not the Disorders that have prevaild and still prevail in the Town of Marblehead, have been a weighty Motive rather for your taking Measures to strengthen your Connections with the People than otherwise; that you might in Conjunction with other prudent Men, have employed your Influence & Abilities in reducing to the Exercise of Reason those who had been governd by Prejudice and Passion, & they have brought the Contest to an equitable & amicable Issue, which would certainly have been to your own Satisfaction. If Difficulties stared you in the Face, it is a good Maxim NIL DESPERANDUM; and are you sure that it was impracticable for you, by Patience and Assiduity, to have restored "Order & Distinction" and renderd the publick offices of the Town again respectable?

It is difficult to enumerate all the Instances in which our Enemies, as watchful as they are inveterate, will make an ill Improvement of your Letter of resignation. And therefore we earnestly wish that a Method may yet be contrived for the Recalling of it consistent with your own Sentiments. We assure our Selves that personal Considerations will not be sufferd to have an undue Weight in your Minds, when the publick Liberty in which is involvd the Happiness of your own as well as the Children of those who have ill treated you, & whom to rescue from Bondage will afford you the most exalted Pleasure, is in Danger of suffering Injury.

We wish most ardently that by the Exercise of Moderation & Prudence the Differences subsisting among the good People of Marblehead may be settled upon righteous Terms. And as we are informd that the Town at their late Meeting did not see Cause to make Choice of other Gentlemen in your Room in Consequence of your declining to serve any longer as a Committee of Correspondence, we beg Leave still to consider & address you in that Character.

We are with unfeigned Respect,

________________________________________________________________ 1Addressed to "Azor Orne Esqr & other Gentlemen of the Committee of Correspondence for Marblehead."

TO ARTHUR LEE.

[R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 215-220.]