The Virginia Gazette

BOSTON, September 19.

THE Committee of the Delegates from the several Towns in the County of Suffolk, who presented the Address to the Governour, on receiving his Answer, met together, and, having carefully perused the same, were unanimously of Opinion that his Excellency's Answer could not be deemed satisfactory to the County; and farther, that his Excellency, in his Reply, had been pleased to propose several Questions, which, if unanswered by the Committee, would leave on the Minds of Persons not fully acquainted with the State of Facts some very disagreeable Impressions concerning the Conduct and Behaviour of the People in this County and Province. And the following Address was unanimously voted to his Excellency.

May it please your Excellency,

THE Answer you have been pleased to favour us with, to the Address this Day presented to you, gives us Satisfaction, so far as it relates to your own Intentions; and we thank your Excellency for the Declaration which you have made, that it is your Duty and Interest to encourage an Intercourse between Town and Country, and we entreat your Indulgence while we modestly reply to the Questions proposed in your Answer.

Your Excellency is too well acquainted with the human Heart not to be sensible that it is natural for the People to be soured by Oppression, and jealous for their personal Security when their Exertions for the Preservation of their Rights are construed into Treason and Rebellion. Our Liberties are invaded, by Acts of the British Parliament. Troops are sent to enforce those Acts. They are now erecting Fortifications at the Entrance of the Town of Boston. Upon the completing those, the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston will be in the Power of a Soldiery who must implicitly obey the Orders of an Administration who have hitherto evidenced no singular Regard to the Liberties of America. The Town is already greatly impoverished, and distressed, by the Operation of the barbarous Port Bill. Your Excellency, we are persuaded, from Principles of Humanity, would refuse to be an Actor in the tragical Scene that must ensue upon shutting up the Avenues to the Town, and reducing the Inhabitants, by Distress and Famine, to a disgraceful and slavish Submission; but that cruel Work may possibly be reserved for a Successor, disposed and instructed thereto. Daily Supplies of Provisions are necessary for the Subsistence of the Inhabitants of the Town. The Country, disgusted and jealous at the formidable Operations now carrying on, survey, with Horror, a Plan concerted whereby the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston may be imprisoned and starved at the Will of a military Commander.

They kindly invite them to abandon the Town, and earnestly solicit them to share the homely Banquet of Peace in the Country. Should their Refusal involve them in Miseries hitherto unheard of, and hardly conceived of, the Country must stand acquitted, and will not hold their Liberties so loosely as to sacrifice them to the Obstinacy of their Brethren in Boston.

Your Excellency has been pleased to order the Powder from the Magazine in Charlestown, to forbid the Delivery of the Powder in the Magazine of Boston to the legal Proprietors, to Seize the Cannon at Cambridge, and bring a formidable Number from Castle William, which are now placed at the Entrance of the Town of Boston; and have likewise, in Addition to the Troops now here, been pleased to send for Reinforcements to Quebec and other Parts of the Continent. These Things, Sir, together with the Disposition of the Ships of War, we humbly think sufficiently justify the Proceedings for which your Excellency seems to be at a Loss to account.

Your Excellency has suggested that Nature has made it easy to cut off the Communication between Town and Country. Our only Request is, that the Entrance into the Town may remain as Nature has formed it.

If Security to his Majesty's Troops is the only Design in the late Manoeuvre, we beg Leave to assure your Excellency, that the most certain, and by far the most honourable Method of making them secure and safe, will be to give the People of the Province the strongest Proof that no Design is forming against their Liberties. And we again solicit your Excellency, with that Earnestness which becomes us on this important Occasion, to desist from every Thing which has a Tendency to alarm them, and particularly from fortifying the Entrance into the Town of Boston.

We rely on your Excellency's Wisdom and Candour, that, in your proposed Representation to our common Sovereign, you will endeavour to redeem us from the Distresses which we apprehend were occasioned by the grossest Misinformation; and that you will assure his Majesty, that no Wish of Independency, no adverse Sentiments or Designs towards his Majesty or his Troops now here, actuate his good Subjects in this Colony, but that their sole Intention is to preserve, pure and inviolate, those Rights to which, as Men, and English Americans, they are justly entitled, and which have been guaranteed to them by his Majesty's Royal Predecessors.

A Copy of the foregoing was delivered to Mr. Secretary Flucker by the Chairman, with a Desire that he would, as soon as was convenient, present it to the Governour, and request his Excellency to appoint a Time for receiving it in Form. The Secretary informed the Chairman, the ensuing Day, that he had seen the Governour, and had given him the Copy of the Address, but that he declined receiving it in Form. The Chairman mentioned to him the Importance of the Business, declaring his Belief that the Troops were not in any Danger; and that no Person has, so far as he had been informed, taken any Steps which indicated any hostile Intention, until the seizing and carrying off the Powder from the Magazine in the County of Middlesex; and that, if any ill Consequences should arise that should affect the Interest of Great Britain, the most Candid and Judicious, both in Europe and America, would consider the Author of the Ferment now raised in the Minds of the People as accountable for whatever Consequences might follow from it. He therefore desired the Secretary, once more, to make Application to his Excellency, and to state the Affair to him in that serious Manner which the Case seemed to require. The Secretary accordingly made a second Application to the Governour, but received for Answer, that he had given all the Satisfaction in his Power, and he could not see that any farther Argumentation upon the Subject would be to any Purpose. Upon this the Committee were again convened, and it was unanimously resolved that they had executed the Commission intrusted to them by the County to the utmost of their Ability; and, after voting the Reply to his Excellency's Answer should be inserted in the public Papers as soon as possible, they adjourned without Day. It is observable, that every Vote passed by the Delegates of the County, and by the Committee appointed to wait on the Governour, was unanimous.