THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF BOSTON TO ELIJAH MORTON.1 [MS., Committee of Correspondence Papers, Lenox Library.] BOSTON June 19 1773 SIR The judicious and manly Resolves of the Town of Hatfield, passd at the Adjournment of a legal meeting on the 31 of May last, have been laid before the Come of Correspondence for the Town of Boston. It affords us very great Satisfaction to find that the Attempts of this Town to state the common Rights of this Colony & the many grievances we labor under have been judgd by our Brethren of Hatfield to be an acceptable Service; and the Thanks of that Town does great Honor to the metropolis. It has been the unremitted Endeavor of the Invaders of our Rights & the Tools they have employed, to prevail on the people to believe that there have been no Infringements made upon them; and the artful Publications which have frequently issued from one of the presses in this Town in particular, had perhaps in some degree answerd their purpose. But we have the pleasure to assure you, that the Letters we have lately receivd from every part of the province, breath the true Sentiments & Spirit of Liberty. There seems to be in every town, an apprehension of fatal Consequences from "the illegal & unconstitutional measures which have been ADOPTED, (as you justly express it) by the British ministry." Your Expression is indeed pertinent; for it has as we think abundantly appeard since you wrote, by some extraordinary Letters which have been publishd, that the plan of our Slavery was concerted here, & properly speaking "adopted by the British ministry." The plan indeed is concise; first to take the people's money from them without their Consent & then to appropriate that money for the purpose of supporting an Executive independent of them and under the absolute Controul of the Crown or rather the ministry. It was formerly the saying of an English Tyrant "Let me have Judges at my Command & make what Laws you please." And herein he judgd wisely for his purpose, for what Security can the people expect from the most salutary Laws if they are to be executed by the absolute Dependents of a monarch. The nation cannot then wonder that not only the several Towns of this province in their more private Departments, but the Representative body of the people in General Court assembled, are so greatly alarmd at this finishing Stroke of the System of Tyranny. That Union of Sentiments among the freemen of this Colony, that firmness, and Resolution to make every constitutional Stand against the Efforts of a corrupt administration which appears in the proceedings of so many Towns already publishd to the World, must afford full conviction to the Earl of Dartmouth that the opposition is not, as was represented to his predecessor in office, an expiring Faction. That the People of this province thus animated with a laudable Zeal, may be directed to the wisest measures for the Defence & Support of