You will be pleased, gentlemen, to return the sincere thanks of the Committee to our friends of that County, for the warm sympathy they have in this instance discovered with their distressed brethren in this Capital. Encouraged by these liberal donations, the inhabitants of this Town still endure their complicated sufferings with patience. As men, they feel the indignities which are offered to them. As citizens, they suppress their just resentment. But I trust in God, that this much injured Colony, when urged to it by extreme necessity, will exert itself at the utmost hazard in the defence of our common rights. I flatter myself that I am not mistaken, while they deprecate that necessity, they are very active in preparing for it. I am, Gentlemen, in behalf of the Committee, your obliged and affectionate friend and countryman, _________________________________________________________________ 1Of Spottsylvania County, Virginia. TO ARTHUR LEE. [MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.] BOSTON March 4 1775 MY DEAR SIR Till now I did not hear of this opportunity of writing to you. I have therefore only a few Moments before the Vessel sails to give you a short Account of Affairs here. General Gage is still at the head of his Troops with a professd Design to put the regulating & the Murder Acts into Execution. I therefore consider this Man as void of a Spark of Humanity, who can deliberately be the Instrument of depriving our Country of its Liberty, or the people of their Lives in its Defence. We are not however dismayed; believe me this People are prepared to give him a warm Reception if he shall venture to make the bold Attack. I know very well the policy of great Men on your side the Water. They are backward to exert themselves in the Cause of America, lest we should desert our selves and leave them to the Contempt and Ridicule of a Ministry whom they heartily despise. But assure them that though from the Dictates of sound Policy we restrain our just Resentment at the Indignities already offered to us, we shall not fail to resist the Tyranny which threatens us at the utmost risque. The publick Liberty must be preservd though at the Expense of many Lives! We had the last Lords Day a small Specimen of the military Spirit of our Countrymen in the Town of Salem an Account of which is in the inclosed paper. I am just now told by a Gentleman upon whose Veracity I depend that he knew that Coll L-------- at the Governors Table had declared this Account in every part of it to be true, excepting his giving orders to fire.