[236] P. O. Hutchinson, ii. 79. Some interesting letters of Hutchinson (1771-1772) are in the English Public Record Office, and are printed in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xix. 129-140.
[237] One of an indicative English stamp is Allan Ramsay's Hist. Essay on the English Constitution, wherein the right of Parliament to tax our different provinces is explained and justified (Sabin, xvi. 67,675).
[238] Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xii. 9.
[239] A duplicate of the original document is in the Lee Papers in the University of Virginia library. Cf. Franklin's account of his conversation with Dartmouth, Works, viii. 25, 28; and of his presentation of the petition and one forwarded the next year (viii. 47). For duplicates of originals, see Calendar of Lee Papers, p. 5 (vol. ii. nos. 5-7).
[240] John Adams's Works, iv. 34; Frothingham's Warren, 200, Wells's Sam. Adams, i. 509, ii. 62; Grahame's United States, iv. 328; Barry's Mass., ii. 448; Goodell's Provincial Laws, v. index. Something of the sort seems to have been suggested in Rhode Island, Oct. 8, 1764, in a letter to Franklin (Works, vii. 264). Dawson (Sons of Liberty in N. Y., 61-64) finds the earliest movement in the New York Assembly, Oct. 18, 1764. Thornton (Pulpit of the Rev., 45, 191) notes the suggestion in a letter of Jonathan Mayhew, June 8, 1766, to James Otis, that there might be a communion of colonies, as there was a communion of churches.
[241] Prefiguring, as John Adams said, the Declaration of Rights in 1774, and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Wells's Adams, i. 501, where it is printed; John Adams's Works, ii. 514; Haven in Thomas, ii. p. 622. Franklin's preface to the English edition of the Rights is in his Works, iv. 381. Cf. Francis Maseres's Occasional Essays (London, 1809). The proceedings of Boston, Oct. 28th and Nov. 20th, were also printed. The letters of John Andrew from Boston begin at this time (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., viii. 316-412).
[242] Wirt's Patrick Henry, 3d ed., p. 87, Life of R. H. Lee, i. 89; No. Amer. Rev., March, 1818; Randall's Jefferson, i. 80; Tucker's Jefferson, i. 52; Franklin's Works, viii. 49. Frothingham (Rise of the Republic, 284, 312, 327) traces the growth of the committee, and determines the time of appointing such a committee by each colony. The correspondence of the Rhode Island Committee is in the R. I. Col. Rec., vii. On the committee in New York, see Dawson's Westchester County, 10. Philadelphia appointed one May 20, 1774 (4 Force, i. 340). Sparks points out the distinction between the Committees of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety (Gouverneur Morris, i. 31).
[243] Mr. Bartlett was born Oct. 23, 1805, and died in May, 1886. His life was so largely devoted to advancing the study of American history that this record needs to be made, and reference given to Professor William Gammell's Life and Services of the Hon. John Russell Bartlett, a paper read before the Rhode Island Historical Society (Providence, 1886), and the tribute by Charles Deane in the Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc., Oct., 1886.
[244] Mr. Wm. R. Staples had earlier published the Documentary Hist. of the destruction of the Gaspee (Providence, 1845). An account by Ephraim Bowen is given in S. G. Arnold's Rhode Island (vol. ii. ch. 19, 20). For local accounts, see Providence Plantations (Providence, 1886), pp. 58, 359; O. P. Fuller's Warwick, R. I. (p. 101); Foster's Stephen Hopkins (ii. 83, 245); E. M. Stone's John Howland (p. 35). For the political bearings to the country at large, see Frothingham's Rise of the Republic (p. 278); Parton's Jefferson (ch. 14, 15); Life of R. H. Lee (i. 85); Lossing's Field-Book (ii. 60). There are in the Sparks MSS. (xliii. vol. i. p. 140, etc.) the letters of the British Admiral Montague, and depositions copied from papers in the English Archives. G. C. Mason, in the R. I. Hist. Soc. Coll., vii. 301, etc., traces the presence of different English war vessels in the bay between 1765, and 1776. Cf. New Jersey Archives, x. 375, 395.
[245] Sam. Adams seems to have drafted this reply, with aid on law-points from John Adams, the latter being almost the exclusive author of the reply of the House to the second speech of the governor. Wells thinks Hawley may have had a hand in these papers. Cf. Quincy's Quincy, p. 113; Life, etc., of John Adams, i. 118-133, ii. 310; Wells's Sam. Adams, ii. 29, 31, 41; Tudor's Otis, p. 410; Bradford's Mass. State Papers, 336, 399; Bancroft, orig. ed., vi. 446-453; Niles's Principles (1876 ed., pp. 79, 87); Speeches of his Excellency, with the answers of his Majesty's Council and the House of Representatives (Boston, 1773). A meeting of the town of Boston was held in Faneuil Hall, March 8, 1773, "to vindicate the town from the gross misrepresentations of his Excellency's message to both Houses", and its proceedings were circulated in broadside.