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1Town Clerk of Framingham.



TO ARTHUR LEE.

[R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp. 203, 204.]

BOSTON, April 22nd. 1773.


MY ESTEEMED FRIEND,---I have written you a long epistle by this
conveyance, and yet as the vessel is detained by a contrary wind,
I cannot help indulging the mood I am in to chat a little more
with you. When I mentioned Mr. Hancock in my last, I forgot to
tell you that he is colonel of a company, called the governor's
company of cadets. Perhaps in this view only he was held up to
Mr. Wilkes, when he was informed that he had deserted the cause.
But it should be known it is not in the power of the governor to
give a commission for that company to whom he pleases as their
officers are chosen by themselves. Mr. Hancock was elected by an
unanimous vote; and a reluctance at the idea of giving offence to
an hundred gentlemen, might very well account for the governor
giving the commission to Mr. H., without taking into
consideration that most powerful of all other motives, AN
INSTRUCTION, especially at a time when he vainly hoped he should
gain him over. I have been the more particular, because I know
our adversaries avail themselves much by propagating reports that
persons who have signalized themselves as patriots have at length