The Writings of Samuel Adams - Volume 3 by Samuel Adams
page 35 of 459 (07%)
page 35 of 459 (07%)
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Minister, we should not fail of ample redress.
His Excellencys Argument seems to us to be rather straind, when he is attempting to show, that we have "invited every other Town & District to adopt our Principles". It is this. The Town says If it should be the general Voice of the Province that the Rights as stated do not belong [to] them, trusting however that this cannot be the Case, they shall lament the Extinction of Ardor for civil & religious Liberty; THEREFORE says his Excellency The Town invited them to ADOPT their principles. Could it possibly be supposd that when his Excy had declared to the whole Province that we had invited every other Town and District in the province to adopt the same Principles he intended to avail himself of such an Explanation! Much the same Way of reasoning follows, (though it would not be to the Reputation of the other Towns if it should have any Weight). That because THEIR consequent Doings were similar to those of this Town THEREFORE they understood that they were invited to ADOPT the same Principles, & therefore they were thus invited to adopt them. Upon the whole, There can be no room to doubt but that every Town which has thought it expedient to correspond with this on the Occasion have acted their own Judgment & expressd their own principles: It is an unspeakeable Satisfaction to us that their Sentiments so nearly accord with ours, and it adds a Dignity to our Proceedings, that when the House of Representatives were called upon by the Governor to bear their Testimony against them, as "of a dangerous Nature & Tendency," they saw reason to declare that "they had not discoverd that the Principles advanced by the Town of Boston were unwarrantable by the constitution."6 |
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