Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

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ing in God, will hope to work out their salvation without you. this early information
is given You to the end that the well affected to the Grand Cause among you, which
we doubt not are much the Greater part, may Seasonably and vigorously exert them-
selves to instruct their members, and induce a Reconsideration of the matter, and a
cordial, explicit and firm Accession to the Association which your members agreed to
in Congress—which your honour, interest and the Publick interest, we conceive,
indispensibly require ; which would be to the Great Joy of the Continent, of our
Friends in Great Britain—and particularly to an affectionate and hearty Friend in
your City."
"To The Gentlemen of Committee
of Inspection in New York."
Let us now turn back to see with what arguments our ancestor
asserted the birthrights of Englishmen for himself and his fellow-colonists ;
and sought to avoid the alternative, while not yet too late, of a separation
from their dearly loved mother-country, consistently with honor. For this
purpose we shall briefly sketch the course of thought in the series of six
papers printed in the " New London Gazette," making such quotations
from them as may serve to illustrate their substance and tone.
The first paper, of September 6, 1765, sets forth, in a general way,
the perils to English liberty of the Stamp Act then recently passed ; and,
while professing cordial loyalty to the British King, reminds the reader of
the special immunities secured to Americans by charter.
" The Colonies owe Allegiance to King George the Third, and are as loyal and
dutiful Subjects as any in his Dominions, and ought to submit to all such Orders and
Acts of Parliament as are agreable to the Constitution of the English Government,
and to the Grants and Priveleges made to and conferred on them by royal Patents
and Charters ;
which are real/y Compacts and Agreements with the colonists, in con-
sideration of Services done and perform'd, and to be perform'd, by them for the
Crown and Kingdom, in the Enlargement of the British Dominion, and Increase of
their Commerce. If these Grants and Compacts are broke on the one Side, can any
Obligation lie on the other ? The Colonists have no Doubt of their being under the
Government of the British Parliament ;
no
Man questions their Power of doing
any thing within the British Dominions; but their Right to do any thing is not so
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