[69] _Cf._ _Minutes of the Warren Association for 1769_, quoted by Burrage, _History of the Baptists in New England_, pp. 108 _et seq._ _Cf._ the following, taken from a statement and appeal to Baptists, in the _Boston Evening Post_, Aug. 20, 1770: “To the Baptists in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, who are, or have been, oppressed in any way on a religious account. It would be needless to tell you that you have long felt the effects of the laws by which the religion of the government in which you live is established. Your purses have felt the burden of ministerial rates; and when these would not satisfy your enemies, your property hath been taken from you and sold for less than half its value.... You will therefore readily hear and attend when you are desired to collect your cases of suffering, and have them well attested; such as, the taxes you have paid to build meeting-houses, to settle ministers and support them, with all the time, money and labor you have lost in waiting on courts, feeing lawyers, &c.; and bring or send such cases to the Baptist Association to be held at Bellingham; when measures will be resolutely adopted for obtaining redress from another quarter than that to which repeated application hath been made unsuccessfully. Nay, complaints, however just and grievous, hath been treated with indifference, and scarcely, if at all credited”. (Quoted by Backus, _History of New England_, vol. ii, p. 155.) [70] Backus, _History of New England_, vol. ii, pp. 156 _et seq._ [71] This standing committee of the Warren Association is itself a token of the strengthened purpose of the Baptists. [72] The address is given in full in Hovey, _A Memoir of the Life and Times of Isaac Backus_, pp. 218–221. It drew a kindly response from the Provincial Congress, signed by John Hancock as president, pleading the inability of the Congress to give redress and advising the aggrieved parties to submit their case to the General Court of Massachusetts at its next session. This step was taken in September, 1775; but beyond the fact that a bill, drawn to give redress, was once read in the sessions of the Assembly, nothing came at the matter. “Such”, remarks Backus, “is the disposition of mankind”. (_Cf._ Backus, _History of New England_, vol. ii, pp. 202 _et seq._ _Cf._ Burrage, _History of the Baptists in New England_, pp. 113 _et seq._) [73] _The Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Passed from the Year 1780, to the End of the Year 1800_, vol. i, pp. 19, 20. [74] _Ibid._ [75] Backus, _History of New England_, vol. ii, pp. 228 _et seq._, for cases of persecution under the operation of the bill of rights. [76] The contribution made by the newspapers must not be overlooked in this connection. From about 1770 on there may be traced a growing disposition on the part of dissenters to air their grievances in the public journals. Supporters of the Establishment were not slow to respond.