The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1775-07-24 00:00:00, page 1

BY these, and by every other appellation,that may
designate the ties, which bind US to each o
ther, we entreat your serious attention to this our
second attempt, to prevent their dissolution.----Re
membrance of former friendfhips, pride in the
glorious atchievements of our common ancestors, and
affection for the heirs of their virtues, have hitherto
preserved our mutual connexion.--- But when that
friendship is violated by the groffell injuries ;---when
the prideof anceffry becomes our reproach, and we
are no otherwise allied than as tyrants and Slaves,
when reduced to the melancholy alternative of re
nouncing your favor, or our Freedom,- can we
hesitate about the choice ? Let the spirit of Britons
determine.
In a forraer Address, we asserted onr Rights, and
Mated the injuries wehad then received. We hoped,
that the mention of our wrongs, would have routed
that honest indignation, which has slept too long
for your honor, or the welfare of the empire.---But
we have not been permitted to entertain this pleat
ing expectation ; every day brought an accumulati
on of injuries, and the invention of the minillry has
beea constantly exercised, in adding to the calamities
of your American Brethren.
After the most valuable rightof legislation was
infringed,---when the powers, assumed by your par
liament,in which we are not represented, and from
our local & other circumstances, cannot properly be
• represented, rendered our property precariou's.
After being denied the mode of tryal to which we
have long been indebted for the Safety of cur Per
sons, and the preservation of our Liberties ;--• after
being in many instances divested of those laws, which
were transmitted to US, by our common Ancestors,
and fubje&ed to an arbitrary code, compiled under
the auspices of Roman tyrants ; after anulling those
charters, which encouraged our predecessors to brave
death and danger in every Shape, on unknown seas,
in defarts unexplored, amidst barbarous and inhol
pitable nations ! when,without the form of tryal,
without a public accusation, whole colonies were
condemned !---their trade destroyed; their inhabi
tants impoverished.—When soldiers were encourag
ed to embrue their hands in the blood of Ameri
cans, by offers of impunity ;---when new modes of
tryal were instituted for the ruin of the accufed,where
the charge carried with it the horrors of convifton ;
---when a despotic government was established in a
neighbouring province, and its limits extended to e
very of our frontiers ; we little imagined that any
thing could be added to this black catalogue of un
provoked injuries ;---but we have unhappily been
deceived ; and the late measures of the British mi
nistry fully convince us, that their object is the re
duction of these colonies to Slavery and ruin.
To confirm this assertion, let us recal your atten
tion to the affairs of America, Since our lall address ;
—let us combat the calumnies of our enemies—and
let us warn you of the dangers that threaten you, in
our destruction. Many ofyour fellow iubjeas, whose
filiation deprived them of other Support, drew their
maintainance from the sea; butthe deprivation of
our Liberty being infufficient to Satisfy the resent
ment of our enemies, the horrors of famine were
fuperadded, and a British parliament, who, in bet
ter times were the protestors of inherence & the pa
trons of humanity, have, without distinction of age
Or sex, robbed thousands of the food, which they
were acCnltomed to draw from that imexhauftable
Source, placed in their neighbourhood by the be
nevolent Creator.
Another act of your legislature Shuts our.ports
and prohibits ^ur trade with any but those States,
from whom the gr~at law of Self- preservation renders
it absolutely necessary we Should at prefect withhold
our commerce.---But this aft (whatever may have
been its present design) we consider rather as injuri-
Containing the Freshest ADVICES,
CONNECTICUT
Friends, Countrymen, aa/Brethren !
The TWELVE UNITED COLONIES,
By their DELEGATES in
c o n g res s,
To the INHABITANTS oP
GREAT- BRITAIN.
MON D A T, July '24, 1775;
WEEKLY
AND
ous to your opulence, than our interest.---All out
commerce terminates with you ; and the wealth we
procure from other nations, is soon exchanged for
your Superfluities.---Our remittances must then cease
with our trade ; and our refinements with our afflu
ence.---We trult however, tact laws which deprive
us of every blessing, but a foil that teems with the ne
cessaries of life, and that liberty which renders 'he
enjoyment of them secure, will not relax our vigour
in their defence.
That once populous, flourishing and commer
cial town is now garrisoned by an army sent, not to
protest,but to enslave its inhabitants; The civil
government is overturned, and a military defyotifm
ereCted upon its ruins.--.--Without law, without
right, powers are assumed unknown to tlie constitu
tion.-- Private 'property is . unjustly invaded.---The
inhabitants daisy fubjeded to the licentioufneA of
the soldiery, are forbid to remove in defiance offtCr
natural rights, in violation of the most Solemn corn
pads Or if after long and wearisome Solicitati
on, a pass is procured, their effects are detained, and
even those who are most favoured, have no alterna
tive but poverty or Slavery. The distress of many
thousand people, wantonly deprived of the necessa
ries of life, is a fubjed on which we would not wish
to enlarge.
Yet we cannot but observe, that a British fleet
(unjustified even by ads ofyour legiflature)are daily
employed in ruining our commerce, Seizing our
Ships, and depriving whole communities of their
daily bread. Nor will a regard for your honour,
permit us to be silent, while British troops fully
your glory, by adions which the most enveterate en
mity will not paliate among civilized nations ; the
wanton and unnecessary deftrudion of Charleftown,
a large ancient, and once populous town, just before
deserted by its inhabitants, who had fled to avoid
the fury of the soldiery.
If you still retain those sentiments of compaffiori
by which Briton^have ever been diStinguifhed.---If
the humanity which tempered the valour of our
common ancestors, has not degenerated into cruelty,
you will lament the miseries of their defendants.
Towhatare we to attribute this treatment? If to
any secret principle of the constitution let it be men
tioned—let us learn that the government we have
long revered is not without its defeds, and that
whileit gives freedom toa part, it necessarily enclaves
the remainderof the empire.lt such aprinciple exifls
why for ages has it ceased to operate ? Why at this
time is it called into adion ? Can horeafon be align
ed for this condud ? Or must it be resolved into the
wanton exercise of arbitrary power? And Shall the
defendants of Britons tamely submit to this---No,
Sirs ! We never will, while we revere the memory
of our gallant and vintnous ancestors, we never can
surrender those glorious .privileges, for which they
fought, bled, and conquered. Admit that your
fleets could destroy our towns, and ravage our sea
coasts ;---thefe are incomfid^rable objeds, things of
no moment, to men whose bofomsglow with the ardour
of Liberty.----We can retire beyond the reach of
your navy, and without any fcnfible diminution of
the necessaries of life, enjoy a luxury which from
that period you will want; THE LUXURY OF
BEING FREE.
We might here observe on the cruelty and incon
sistency of those, who, while they publickly brand
us with reproachful and unworthy epithets, endea
vour to deprive us of the means of defence, by their
interposition with foreign powers, and to deliver us
to the lawless ravages of a merciless soldiery. But
happily we are not without resources; and tho' the
timid and humiliating applications of a British mi
nistry Should prevail with foreign nations, yet indus
try, prompted b, necessity, will not leave us with
out the necessary supplies.
We could wish to go no further^--and,not to wound
the ear of humanity, leave untold thole rigorous
a&s of oppression which are daily exercised in the
town of Bolton, did we not hope, that by disclaim
ing their deeds, and puniihing the perpetrators, you
would Shortly vindicate the honor of the Britilh
name, and re-establish the violated laws of Judice.
THE
^^^t^^^
both FOREIGN and DOMESTIC.
[NUMBER 55%]
COURAN T,
HARTFORD
INTELLIGENCER.
We know the force of your arms, and was it CaL
led forth in the cause of justice and your country,
we might dread the exertion.—But willßritons fight
under the banners of tyranny ? Will they counter
ad the labours, and disgrace the vidories of their
ancestors ? Will they fbige chains for their posterity?
If they defend to this unworthy trft, will their
swords retain their edge, their arms their accustom
ed vigor ? Britons can never become the instruments
of oppression, till they lose the spirit of freedom, by
which alone they are invincible.
Our enemies charge us with feditibn ; In what
does it consist? In our refufal to submit to unwarran
table ads of injuitice and cruelty ? If so Ihew as ri
period in your history, in which you have not been
equally seditious ?
We are accused of aiming at Independence ; but
how is this accusation Supported ? By the allegati
ons of your nrinitters, not by our adions.-.-Abufed,
insulted, arid contemned, what steps have we purfu
^d to obtain redreis ? We have carried our dutiful
petitions to the throne ;—-we have applied th your
j ullice for relief,we have retrenched our luxury and
withheld our trade./
The advantages of our commerce were designed
as a compensation for your protection : When you
ceased to proted, for What were we to coinpenfate ?
- What has been the success of our endeavours ?
The clemency of bur lovereign is unhappily diverted ;
cur petitions are treated with indignity ; our prayers
answered by insults. Our application to you remains
Unnoticed, & leaves us the melancholy apprehension,
ofyour wanting either the will, or the powers, to
aliiif us.
- Even under these circumstances, what measures
have we taken that betray a defireoflndependence ?
Have we called in the aid of those fercign powers,
who are the rivals cf your grandeur ? When your
troops were few and defcrtfelefs, did we take ad
vantage of their distress and expel them cur towns ?
Or have we permitted them to fortify, to receive
new aid and to acquire additional strength?
Let not your enemies and ours persuade you,
that in this we were influenced by fear or any other
unworthy motive. The lives of Britons are still
dear to us.---They are the Children ofour Parents,*
an uninterrupted intercourse of mutual bene fits had
knit the bonds of friendfhip.---When heftilitiej
were commenced, when on a late occasion we rivers
wantonly attacked by your troops, though we repel
led their assaults, andreturned their blows, ' yet W@
lamented the wounds they obliged ns to give ; nor
have we yet learned to rejoice at a victory bvef
Englishmen, J
As we wish not to colour cur actions, or di<gui@
our tho'ts ; we Quill in the Simple hrguage of troths
avow the measures we have purfuca, the frotita
•Upon which wehave a&ed, and bur future deSib^L .
'When our lets petition te the throng ; reduced
no other c£ca than freffi injeriespand votteof your
legislature, -calculated: to juftify cvety fevttry;
when your fleets; and your armies, were prepared to
wrefl from us ear property, to rcb u:cfou # liberties
or ourlives; when the hostile attempts of General
Gage evinced his designs, we levied armies for our
Security and defence ; when the powers vested in
the governor of Canada, gave us rcafoh to appre
hend danger from thatquarter ; and we had frequent
intimations, that a cruel,-and savage enemy, was to
be let lose upon the defncekfs inhabitants of our
frontiers ; we took such measures as prudence dila
ted, as neceffty will juflify. We possessed ourselves
cf Crown-Point and. Ticonderoga. Yet give us
leave, most solemnly to assure you, that we have
not yet loft fight of the objc& we have ever had in
view ; a reconciliation with you on constitutional
principles ; and a restoration of that friendly in
tercourse, which, to the advantage of both, we till
lately maintained.::+
The inhabitants cf this country apply themfelvee
chiefly to agriculture s commerce.---As their fafhi
ons and manners are Similar to yours ; your markets
must afford them the conveniencies and luxuries fcr
which they exchange the produce of their labours
[Ser the lafl PW.]