The Selectmen of this Town have handed to us an attested Copy of a letter directed to them by order of the ancient Town of Weymouth. As it is the particular Department of the Committee of Correspondence appointed by the Town, to return an Answer to this Letter we chearfully embrace the Opportunity; and acknowledge the Candor of our Brethren of Weymouth in giving any Attention to the proceedings of this Town. The Town of Boston are deeply sensible that our publick Affairs as you justly observe are in a critical Scituation: yet our Intention was, not to obtrude THEIR Opinions upon their Fellow-Countrymen, as has been injuriously said, but to be informd, if possible of their real Sentiments, at a time when it was publickly & repeatedly given out that this Country in general was perfectly reconciled to the measures of the British Administration. It affords us pleasure to find it to be the Sense of the Town of Weymouth that "Encroachments are made upon our Rights & Liberties," & that they are "disposed at all times to unite in every lawful & proper measure for obtaining a redress of our Grievances." Many of the Towns in this province have expressd a just Abhorrence of the Attempts that have been & still are made to deprive us of our inestimable rights. Their good Sense & generous Zeal for the common Liberty is highly animating & we would wish to emulate it. We are sensible that "much Wisdom is necessary to conduct us right," and we joyn in earnestly supplicating "that Wisdom which is from above." The Friendship to this Town expressd in your Letter lays us under great Obligations. No greater Blessing can be desired by this Community than "Peace Prosperity & Happiness," and the Enjoyment of this Blessing depends upon CIVIL & RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. ________________________________________________________________ 1Town Clerk of Weymouth. THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF BOSTON TO JOSEPH NORTH.1 [MS., Committee of Correspondence Papers, Lenox Library.] BOSTON, April 13 1773 SIR The Votes of the plantation of Gardnerstown have been laid before the Committee of Correspondence of the Town of Boston by Mr Samuel Adams to whom you were so kind as to transmit them. The notice which your plantation have taken of the State of the Rights & Grievances of this people publishd by this metropolis gives us great pleasure. So thorough a Sense of Liberty civil & religious so early discoverd in an Infant Body, affords an agreable prospect that the good Cause will be nobly defended & maintaind by it, when it shall arrive to a State of Maturity. We wish you the Blessings of Heaven in your Settlement; and we will exert our small Share of Influence in getting you protected from the savage hand of Tyranny, with which the whole British America has so long been contending. The resolves of the patriotick Assembly of Virginia accompany this Letter, & we doubt not you will partake of the general Joy they have given to all the friends of American Independence & freedom.