"AN AMERICAN" TO THE EARL OF CARLISLE AND OTHERS.

[W. V. Wells,1 Life of Samuel Adams, vol. iii., pp. 18-26; printed in
the Massachusetts Spy, July 16, 1778.]

To the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Viscount Howe, Sir William Howe (or, in
his absence, Sir Henry Clinton), William Eden, and George Johnstone.

Trusty and well-beloved servants of your sacred master, in whom he is
well pleased.

As you are sent to America for the express purpose of treating with
anybody and anything, you will pardon an address from one who disdains
to flatter those whom he loves. Should you therefore deign to read this
address, your chaste ears will not be offended with the language of
adulation,--a language you despise.

I have seen your most elegant and most excellent letter "to his
Excellency, Henry Laurens, the President, and other members of the
Congress." As that body have thought your propositions unworthy their
particular regard, it may be some satisfaction to your curiosity, and
tend to appease the offended spirit of negotiation, if one out of the
many individuals on this great continent should speak to you the
sentiments of America,--sentiments which your own good sense hath
doubtless suggested, and which are repeated only to convince you that,
notwithstanding the narrow ground of private information on which we
stand in this distant region, still a knowledge of our own rights, and