required, & the collected Wisdom of the whole people as far as
possible obtaind. At the same [time], NOT "calling upon" those
Towns & Districts "to adopt their Principles" as his Excellency
in one of his Speeches affirms, but only informing them that "a
free Communication of THEIR Sentiments to this Town of our common
Danger was earnestly sollicited & would be gratefully receivd. We
may justly affirm that the Town had a Right at that Meeting, to
communicate their Sentiments of Matters which so nearly concernd
the publick Liberty & consequently their own Preservation. They
were matters of "publick Concernment" to this & every other Town
& even Individual in the province. Any Attempt therefore to
obstruct the Channel of publick Intelligence in this way, argues
in our opinion, a Design to keep the people in Ignorance of their
Danger that they may be the more easily & speedily enslaved. It
is notorious to all the World, that the Liberties of this
Continent & especially of this province, have been systematically
& successfully invaded from Step to Step; Is it not then, to say
the least justifiable, in any Town as PART OF THE GREAT WHOLE,
when the last Effort of Tyranny is about to be made, to spread
the earliest Notice of it far & wide, & hold up the INIQUITOUS
SYSTEM in full View. It is a great Satisfaction to us, that so
many of the respectable Towns in the province, and we may add
Gentlemen of figure in other Colonies, have expressd, & continue
to express themselves much pleasd with the Measure; and we
encourage ourselves from the MANIFEST DISCOVERY of an Union of
Sentiments in this province, which has been one happy fruit of
the Measure, there will be the united Efforts of THE WHOLE in all
constitutional & proper Methods to prevent the entire ruin of our
Liberties.