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Norfolk, May 31, 1774.
GENTLEMEN: The occasion is too serious to admit of apologies for this unsolicited communication of our sentiments to you, at this alarming crisis to American freedom; for the time is come, the unhappy era has arrived, when the closest union among ourselves, and the firmest confidence in each other, are our only securities for those rights, which as men and freemen, we derive from nature and the Constitution. The late hostile Parliamentary invasion of the town of Boston we deem an attack upon the liberties of us all. Of the particulars of that unhappy transaction, we presume, you are already fully informed, and, we doubt not, shudder with us at this systematic mode of depriving the unrepresented American, of his rights and possessions, and vesting the Crown with such despotic power over the free-born inhabitants of the capital of the Massachusetts Bay. What measures are most proper to be adopted on tills sad occasion we are at a loss to point out; but we look to the wisdom of your city, in conjunction with the other large commercial towns on this Continent, to take more immediately the lead in these important matters, and to fix upon such expedients in the regulation of trade, as may be most productive of relief to our suffering brethren of Boston, and the general establishment of the rights of these Colonies. And you may rest assured that in every measure conducive to this grand Continental object, you will always meet with our most hearty concurrence. We are under great apprehensions for the people of Boston, least they may sink under the weight of their misfortunes. And at the same time that we highly approve of the expediency of a Congress, as proposed by several of the Colonies, we think the trading part of the community ought particularly to interfere; for nothing but the most speedy and efficacious measures can relieve them; and if after all, there should be found an unhappy necessity to reimburse the India Company for that just punishment they received for their ungenerous attempts on our liberties, we trust there is no inhabitant of these Colonies who feels and thinks himself a freeman, but will cheerfully put his hand to his purse, and join in the general expense.
Enclosed we transmit you the proceedings of the
With the warmest attachment to the interest of the Colonies, we are, gentlemen, most respectfully, your most obedient humble servants,
THOMAS NEWTON, Jun˙,Letter from the Norfolk, Virginia, Committee, to the Committee at Charlestown
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inhabitants of the borough of Norfolk and town of Portsmouth, together with the letters and other papers from Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, as also copies of the resolutions and other proceedings of the Members of our late House of Burgesses, both before and after their dissolution. We hope to be able to inform you more particularly of the collected sense of the trade of this Colony at the general meeting of the merchants next week at Williamsburg, when we expect further despatches from the Northward. We hope the favour of a free and full communication of your sentiments on this important occasion, and trust that your flourishing and respectable Province will still continue their generous endeavours for the establishment of the rights of the Colonies, that the opposition of all America may be as extensive, as the oppression.
JOSEPH HUTCHINGS,
PAUL LOYALL,
ALEXANDER LOVE,
SAMUEL INGLIS,
JOHN GREENWOOD,
ALEXANDER SKINNER,
WILLIAM HARVEY,
NIEL JAMIESON.