Handbill Distributed Through Boston on Monday, February 6, 1775

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Friends, Countrymen, and Citizens:

Have you read and weighed his Majesty' s Speech? the Address of the Lords and Commons of Great Britain? I fear we have got into the wrong box! therefore let us not any longer be led by phrenzy, but seize upon and deliver up to justice (at once) those who have seduced us from our duty and happiness! or, depend upon it, they will leave us in the lurch! nay, I am assured, some of them (who had property) have already mortgaged all their substance for fear of confiscation, but that shall not save their necks, for I am one (of forty misled people) who will watch their motion, and not suffer them to escape the punishment due to the disturbers of our repose. Remember the fate of Wat Tyler; and think how vain it is for Jack, Sam, or Will, to war against Great Britain, now she is in earnest! It is greatly inferiour to the Giants waging war against Olympus? These had strength, but what have we? Our leaders are desperate bankrupts! Our country is without money, stores or necessaries of war! without one place of refuge or defence! If we were called together, we should be a confused herd, without any disposition to obedience; without a General of ability to direct and guide us, and our numbers would be our destruction! Never did a people rebel with so little reason, therefore our conduct cannot be justified before God! Never did so weak a people dare to contend with so powerful a state; therefore it cannot be justified by prudence. It is all the consequence of the arts of crafty knaves, over weak minds and wild enthusiasts, who, if we continue to follow, will lead us to inevitable ruin.

Rouse, rouse, ye Massachusetians, while it be yet time! ask pardon of God, submit to our King and Parliament, whom we have wickedly and grievously offended. Eyes had we but saw not; neither have we heard with our ears. Let not our posterity curse us for having wantonly lost the estates that should have been theirs; or for entailing misery upon them, by implicitly adhering to the promises of a few desperadoes. Let us seize our seducers, make peace with our mother country, and save ourselves and children. Amen! A YEOMAN OF SUFFOLK COUNTY.

Boston, Sabbath Eve, February 5, 1775.