Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

YOUR answers to my Queries convince me, that you have from misinformation, been induced to write in favor of a Candidate you know but little of; and respecting facts of which you are totally ignorant:--As you have thought proper to conceal your name, and to acknowledge the letters of Dr. Lee and Mr. Barrell, I shall at present avoid producing some evidence, which I otherwise should have done; and only point out to you the errors you have been led into, by your partiality for your favorite; or by your unacquaintedness with the proceedings in America, at the beginning of the contest with Great-Britain.

If you knew that your candidate's protest was entered in a Town-Meeting held at Portsmouth the 16th of December 1773; when the question was, whether parliament had a right to tax us by sending out their Tea loaded with a duty, to be vended in the colonies; and had considered that the resolves of parliament were similar to those of every other town upon the continent (a few tory towns only excepted) and that America aimed to support their sentiments, you would have been silent on the subject.

If you know that the other persons who joined with him in the protest, were all in high office, holding very lucrative posts under the British crown; and were only five in number, you would not have boasted of his being joined with a number of men noted for their patriotism.

If you had considered, that America now owes its freedom and independence, to the spirited exertions of the town of Boston, you surely would not have branded the inhabitants of that metropolis, with the charge of sedition and extravagance.

You surely would not have given your candidate credit for his patriotism in opposing Governor Wentworth, if you had known, that the dispute arose some years before the war; and that no national question was, or possibly could be involved in it.

If you had enquired whether your candidate acted as a committee-man in Portsmouth, you must have been silent respecting his appointment.

His going to England in the fall of 1775, long after hostilities had commenced, when the enemy were besieged in Boston, proves that he neither had acted, nor feared being accused of acting against British measures.

Had you known that the honorable Dr. Lee first sounded the alarm to America--held no office under the British crown, was only an agent for Massachusetts; and furnished Congress with the most important information; was afterward appointed Ambassador to the court of Berlin, was a commissioner for making a treaty of alliance with France, was never accused but by a gentleman who was suspected to be in the plot with Arnold; and has absconded to avoid being brought to account for his own conduct; that instead of criminating, Dr. Franklin, that worthy patriot, wrote warmly in favor of his conduct to Congress, that he appeared and rendered a full and satisfactory account to Congress of all his proceedings: that the King of France honored him with the highest marks of his esteem; that the assembly of Massachusetts, since his return, presented him with a valuable grant for his faithful services; that the state of Virginia have ever since chosen him as a delegate to serve them in Congress; and that the respectable family to which he belongs, led the revolution in that state, you surely would have spared that honorable gentleman's character, and attacked the illustrious American Chief, with an equal prospect of being believed.

No person will dispute Mr. Barrell's being zealously in favor of Great Britain; and had he not supposed your candidate on the same side, he would not readily have become bound for his keeping his parole: it was not Mr. Barrell's opinion of his amazing abilities, but a fear of suffering as a bonds-man, that influenced him to write Governor Trumble; and some other reasons, which I at present forbear to mention.

If he was such an able, active patriot, why did he not exert his talents at the commencement of the contest, when they were most wanting? If he had given any evidence of his attachment to the American cause, how did he dare to set his foot on British ground? Why did he even venture to send in a British garrison a year after independence was declared, with several large trunks of merchandize, besides a small one, supposed to contain some cash?

If you had considered, that Richard the third had no authority to deal out the law of arms, and that he never was simple enough to attempt it, you never would have applied a statute calculated to direct the service of law processes upon his own subjects, to the case in question. If your candidate was, in reality, made a prisoner, it