Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/137

 THE BOSTON PORT BILL.

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��The Provincial Congress of Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire, represent- ing the people of each State, among their spirited resolves, requested their fellow citizens to contribute liberally to alle- viate the burdens of those persons who are the more immediate objects of minis- terial resentment, and who are suffering in the common cause of their country. Donations soon began to now into the town of Boston from all quarters. On the 20th day of June, 1774, Newbury- port contributed two hundred pounds. June 30th, Charleston, South Carolina, sent two hundred and five casks of rice. The editor of the South Carolina Ga- zette severely critisized the character of the Port Bill, stigmatizing it as being not a production of Lord North, but of h — I. Ou the 15th jof July, Wethersfield, Conn., and vicinity, sent one thousand bushels of grain for the Boston poor. On the same day the editor of the Boston Chron- icle remarked " that this town was vis- ited by Col. Putnam, of Pomfret, Conn., a hero renowned, and well known 'throughout North America. His gen- erosity led him to Boston to succor his oppressed brethren. A fine drove of sheep was one article of comfort he was commissioned to present to us." Put- nam saw enough at this' visit to induce him, when first hearing of the battle of Lexington, some months after, to leave his plow in the furrow, and fly to the res- cue of his friends.

Soon a quantity of provisions was re- ceived from the friends of liberty in Que- bec, and one hundred pounds sterling from Montreal, and one thousand pounds worth of West India rum from the Island of Barbadoes. A constituent of Edmund Burke, resident in Bristol, England, wrote to his friend and correspondent here to pay on his account fifty pounds, and five hundred pounds, if, in his judg- ment, the good cause demanded it. We cannot stop to recount the liberal dona- tions from the State of Massachusetts and other States. Some of the donations from our State are not defined. The ac- count is quite general in this language : — This day was received from Londonder- ry, Amherst, Hampton, New Ipswich,

��etc., provisions, money, etc., for the re- lief of Boston. In other cases we have the following items : Portsmouth contributed three hundred pounds, Exeter two hund- red pounds, Rye twenty pounds, South Hampton fifteen pounds, Temple ten pounds, Poplin (Fremont) her pair of oxen, delivered to Mr. Foster by Zach- eus Clough, Esq. Mr. Foster was chair- man of the donation committee for the town of [Charlestown, which was em- braced in the common calamity with Boston. John Sullivan, Esq., afterwards Gen. Sullivan, of Durham, and the min- ister of the parish, Rev. John Adams, constituted a committee who collected some funds in Durham, and the vicinity, and forwarded the same by a messenger no less distinguished than Alexander Scammell, who was then a student at law in Sullivan's office, accompanied by the following letter, which we give for purpose of showing the spirit of the hour. The letter was addressed to the donation committee of Boston, of which Samuel Adams was chairman : —

''Durham, Nov. 21, 1774.

Gentlemen — We take pleasure in trans- mitting to you by Mr. Scammell, a few cattle, with a small sum of money, which a number of persons in this place, ten- derly sympathising with our suffering brethren in Boston, have contributed toward their support. With this, or soon after, you will receive the donation of a number in Lee, a parish lately set off from this town, and in a few days the contribution of Dover, Newmarket, and other adjacent towns. What you here- with receive comes mostly from the in- dustrious yeomanry of this parish. We have but few persons of affluent means, but these have most cheerfully contrib- uted to the relief of the distressed in your metropolis. This is considered by us not as a gift, or an act of charity, but a debt of justice. It is a small part of what we are in duty bound to communicate to those truly noble and patriotic advocates of American free- dom who are bravely standing in the gap between us and slavery, defending the common interest of a whole continent, now gloriously struggling in the cause of common liberty. Upon you the eyes of all America are now fixed. Upon your invincible patience, fortitude and resolution, depends all that is dear to us and our posterity.

May that superintending Gracious Be- ing, whose ears are ever open to the

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