The Virginia Gazette

To the Earl of DARTMOUTH.

MY LORD

'Tis my Wish to kindle every Spark of Virtue, wherever it may be found. Though your Conduct has given me Reason to doubt, I do not yet despair. I address you now, not as a Flatterer at your Levee, but as a publick Monitor. The indecisive Hand with which you have held the Reins of the American Department as little becomes your Character as the Terms on which you received them. It is not now a Time for Hesitation. The Man who sees the Storm gathering to a fatal Head, without providing against it, is either unmoved by Fear, or destitute of Wisdom.

A little more Delay, My Lord, and you will compel the Americans to that State, in which to act on your Part with Lenity will be Disgrace; with Spirit, Destruction. The Bonds of Amity, which are now loosened, will be cut asunder for ever.

We have seen your Predecessor unwisely listening to and criminally conducting his Measures upon the private Information of anonymous Spies, or of Men whose Characters were impeached, and whose Interest and Enmities made them decided Partizans against the People. It is not wonderful that the Intelligence derived from such a Source was false, fraudulent, and fatal. Beware, My Lord, how you drink of the same poisoned Cup. It will, no Doubt, be offered you. The private Letters of Governor Bernard, and the Commissioners, to the Earl of Hillsborough, which were published some Time since, and the Intelligence they conveyed, which Time has proved to have been artfully forged for the wicked Purpose of exciting this Country to unwarrantable Violence, should be a Warning to your Lordship, as well against trusting such Men as against admitting such a Mode of Information. The Unfairness and Folly of it are equally evident. To condemn a whole People not only unheard, but unapprized of the Accusation, upon the private Representations of a few interested Individuals, notoriously their Enemies, is a Degree of Injustice which nothing can exceed. But to form the Measures of a great Government upon the little Interests, Piques, and Prejudices, of such secret Informants, is Folly and Wickedness in the extreme. Yet such, I may venture to affirm, has been the Source of the Opinions, and the Guide of the Conduct, of his Majesty's Ministers (some few only excepted) ever since the Commencement of the late foolish Contention with our Colonies.

The Actions of the People, and the Motives of them, have been constantly misrepresented, under the Cover of secret and confidential Correspondence. A Spirit of Proscription has been raised against all those whom these interested Individuals are pleased to denominate Leaders of Faction, and Enemies to Government. Thus, the free and manly Government of England is reduced to the dark assassinating System of Eastern Despotism.

The elegant Correspondence between Lord Hillsborough, Governor Bernard, and the Commissioners of Customs in America, are in Proof of what I have advanced, and the last Accounts from Boston have given it additional Authority.

The sudden Death of a late active Enemy to America left some Letters from Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Oliver, and others, in the Hands of a Member of Parliament, where they had been placed to seduce him from the Interests of the Colonies. By this Accident they reached Boston, and Copies of them have been sent to this Country. Your Lordship, I presume, has seen them. It is unnecessary to say more of them than that they abound with a malignant Censure against the Proceedings of the People, and Invectives against Individuals; calling for a military Force, and exemplary Punishment. Mr. Hutchinson, knowing there was an Injunction against making these Letters publick, ventured, in a Message to the House, to affirm that they contained nothing that was intended to respect the Constitution of the Province. To show you how strictly he attends to Truth, your Lordship will read, in one of his own Letters, that there must be an Abridgment of what are called English Liberties.

It remains with Mr. Hutchinson to show how their Liberties can be abridged, and the Constitution untouched. Nor will it escape your Lordship how happily these good Men harmonize in sounding their own Merit, and begging for Reward: They all expect Favour and Encouragement, Pay, and Promotion. I hope, My Lord, you will not forget the moral Rectitude of their Services, and the very great Advantages which have flowed from them to both Countries.

The Seal of Secrecy and Confidence, which these Men fixed upon their Letters, was adopted by that wise and worthy Minister the Earl of Hillsborough. He assumed it, because he knew the Orders contained in his Letters were illegal; they used it, because they were equally conscious that the Intelligence conveyed in theirs was wickedly false. The Principle of their Letters is, that whoever they thus secretly accuse shall be doomed to Punishment without knowing his Accusers or his Crime. What an excellent Dispensation of Justice is here laid down! Governor Hutchinson was then Chief Justice of the Province. It is only to be lamented that his great Talents were confined to so narrow a Circle. In Principle, he is fit to have been a Mufti to Mahomet, or a Jeffreys to James.

Could your Lordship have been surprised, if, upon the Detection of these Letters, which are sufficient to confirm the most wavering, and inflame the most Lukewarm, the just Indignation of the People had put the Authors of them to instant DEATH? The Stations they fill, and a sacred Sense of Justice, have repressed their Rage. But, My Lord, should these Men be suffered to continue in those Stations, what must the People think of the Justice of his Majesty's Ministers, or the Wisdom of his Councils? Will they retain any Confidence in the one or Reverence for the other? Can it appear less than a personal Indignity to the King, and a Disgrace to all Government, that he should be represented by Men who stand convicted of Intentions the most atrocious for Treachery and Falsehood.

You owe it, My Lord, to your own Honour, to the Honour of the national Councils, to the Honour of his Majesty, to make Examples of those who have thus offended. Deprive them of the Confidence they have abused; dismiss them, for ever, from the Places of which they are manifestly unworthy; insist upon a parliamentary Revision of all the American Acts; urge an Abolition of those late Institutions which are incompatible with the fundamental Principles of English Liberty, and parental only of Oppression; be severe in the Plan of Reconciliation, which you are convinced is right, whatever Opposition you may experience from the Prejudices of the Royal Breast, or the Practices of the worst of his Majesty's Ministers. If you cannot succeed, the Path is plain: Atone for an incautious Assumption of Power, by an honourable Resignation.

JUNIUS AMERICANUS.