American Archives/Series 4/Volume 1/October 7, 1774

Friday, October 7, 1774.

The Congress resumed the consideration of the Letter from the Committee of Correspondence in Boston, and after some debate,

Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to prepare a Letter to his Excellency General Gage, representing "that the Town of Boston, and Province of Massachusetts Bay are considered by all America as suffering in the common cause for their noble and spirited opposition to oppressive Acts of Parliament calculated to deprive us of our most sacred rights and privileges." Expressing our concern, that while the Congress are deliberating on the most peaceable means for restoring American liberty, and that harmony and intercourse which subsisted between us and the Parent Kingdom, so necessary to both, his Excellency, as they are informed, is raising Fortifications round the Town of Boston, thereby exciting well-grounded jealousies in the minds of his Majesty's faithful subjects therein, that he means to cut off all communication between them and their brethren in the country, and reduce them to a state of submission to his will, and that the Soldiers under his Excellency's command are frequently violating private property, and offering various insults to the people, which must irritate their minds, and if not put a stop to, involve all America in the horrours of a civil war. To entreat his Excellency from the assurance we have of the peaceable disposition of the inhabitants of the Town of Boston and of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, to discontinue his Fortifications, and that a free and safe communication be restored and continued between the Town of Boston and the Country, and prevent all injuries on the part of his Troops, until his Majesty's pleasure shall be known after the measures now adopting shall have been laid before him.

Mr. Lynch, Mr. S. Adams, and Mr. Pendleton, are appointed a Committee to prepare a Letter agreeable to the foregoing Resolution.