and skill. The castings are executed in the most improved style of the art. This appropriate memorial will last for ages, and the names and story of the great founders of our nation will be made familiar to the latest generation.

THE MONUMEnt around forEFATHER'S ROCK.-This monument cost four hundred dollars. The fund was obtained by subscription; Lieut. Gov. Armstrong heading the paper, and Samuel T. Tisdale, Esq. of New York, contributing one hundred dollars. The author of this work had the honor and satisfaction of being the active agent in its execution.

At a town meeting, March 24th. As the committee of correspondence had not been altogether successful in preventing the sale of tea, it was resolved that whoever continues to sell, or shall for the future expose to sale, in this town, any India tea, is, and ought to be considered as an enemy to the rights of America and the constitution of the country. And we will have no intercourse or dealings with such persons, till there be a change in the circumstances of the country, which will justify such conduct, and that we will consider as inimical to this country, all those who shall have any dealings with them.

August 15th, voted to return our sincere and hearty thanks to the town of Boston, for their patience and virtue under their present sufferings in the common cause of America, and also voted to choose a committee to collect all such sums of money, or articles that any persons will give in the town, for the support of the suffering poor of said town of Boston, to enable them still to persevere with firmness and fortitude under their sufferings. Goods and provisions to a considerable amount were contributed in this town for the poor in Boston on this serious

occasion.

Then voted, that whereas a certain publication in the Massachusetts Gazette, of July 14th last, purporting to be the cordial congratulations of the Justices of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace and Inferior Court of Common Pleas for the county of Plymouth, to his excellency Thomas Gage, Esq. on his appointment to the high office of first magistrate of this Province, &c. contains injurious reflections on, and illiberal insinuations concerning the body of the clergy, and the committees of correspondence in the several towns in this Province, as if the said commissioners had assumed a title and business without the appointment of their several towns, and had been encouraged and supported by the clergy in an unjustifiable influence on the people,-We, the inhabitants of the town of Plymouth, the shire town of said county, conceive it our duty to bear our testimony against such publication, its aiders and abettors, and therefore vote and resolve:

1. That we ourselves, and we conceive by far the greater part of the country, have a great respect for the clergy in this province, and the conduct of a majority of them relative to the political circumstances of the country. 2. That the committee of correspondence of this town, and we conceive those of the other towns where they subsist, were regularly appointed by their several towns for very valuable purposes, and have answered the expectations of their constituents, and are therefore entitled to countenance and respect from all men and bodies of men. 3. That the solemn league and covenants entering into, appear to us calculated to increase the honor and dignity of the sovereign, to promote the true interest of our parent country, and to restore the harmony of society.

Sept. 19th.-Chose a committee of nine to watch and make discovery of any one importing or selling tea, and report to the committee of correspondence. Afterwards added ten more to the committee, and enjoined the strictest vigilance. Chose James Warren, Esq. and Isaac Lothrop, Esq. representatives, and the following instructions were given: Being apprehensive that the chief design of convening the general assembly at this unusual season of the year, is to make trial whether we will, in whole or in part, submit to the late acts of parliament respecting this Province, and it being our fixed sentiment that said acts are cruel, unjust and oppressive, subversive of our most sacred rights, we cannot in conscience advise to the least submission, but on the contrary, expect and desire our said representatives to oppose them to the utmost, in all proper ways and methods strictly adhering to our charter rights and privileges: more particularly we enjoin them by no means to co-operate or act in concert with the new set of mandamus counsellors, whose appointment is founded on the destruction of our charter which we hold sacred and inviolable in all its parts; and no power on earth has a right to disannul it, and God forbid that we should give up the inheritance of our fathers, or tamely submit to the efforts of despotism and the loss of freedom.— And gentlemen, if in consequence of such opposition from you and others, the general assembly should be dissolved, or otherwise hindered from acting, we expect a Provincial Congress will be immediately formed, and that you will act as members of it; concerting such measnres with our brethren of other towns, as will have the most effectual tendency to shake off the yoke of oppression, and prevent the operation of those acts of which we so justly complain.' A company of minutemen was raised and provided for by the town, about this time.

1775.-January. The awful crisis was evidently approach

ing, which should decide the momentous question whether the colonies were to be subjected to abject slavery, or their unalienable rights and liberties secured upon a substantial foundation.

The magnanimity with which the inhabitants of this town encountered the hazardous contest, was not surpassed by any in the province, and few towns in New England 'were subjected to greater sacrifices. The cod fishery was almost the sole support of the town; seventy-five schooners were employed in that service in 1774, and it was well known that not a sail could pass from the harbor after the commencement of hostilities. The wealthiest merchants could anticipate nothing but the most mortifying embarrassments, and the poor could have no better prospect than starvation. July 20th, was appointed by the continental Congress, to be observed by the inhabitants of all the colonies as a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer.

James Warren, Esq. and Isaac Lothrop, Esq. were chosen to represent the town in provincial congress, and the following were their instructions:

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Gentlemen: You are chosen to represent us in provincial congress, at a time when we not only suffer in common with our sister colonies, the evil effects of the tyranny of the British government, but when we have to strugle with additional difficulties and embarrassments peculiar to our situation here. pression has taken her principal residence, and is exerting her most strenuous efforts, aided and supported by mandamus counsellors, commissioners of the customs with all their tools and dependents, as perhaps are not to be paralelled in any other country under heaven, and these backed by a large naval and land force from Great Britain, for the purpose of effectually subduing this province, and reducing us to a state of vassalage and abject slavery,-while we, embarrassed with difficulties arising from a want of the exercise of the power of government, and by a suspension of executive justice, are unable to make any vigorous opposition. We are sensible of the many difficulties the congress have to encounter, and the important business they have to transact, and, among the rest, that very important one of assuming the exercise and administration of civil government; this we presume to be a part of their business, because important, and, as we think, absolutely necessary to be done, and therefore, instruct you to use your endeavors to effect it. We admire the prudence, the patience, and, in short, the remarkable virtue of the people of this province, which alone for many months has supported that justice, peace, and good order, which has so generally prevailed; but we dare not haz

ard the remaining any longer in such a situation: feeble must be our efforts and precarious our happiness, while the first rests only on recommendations, without the sanction and penalties of laws to enforce them, and the last is exposed to the interested malice and collective strength of our enemies, encouraged by the weakness and temerity of some of our friends: we therefore, have thought it our duty, under these many and peculiar difficult circumstances, to aid and assist you by our advice and instructions, and we do repeatedly enjoin it upon you, that, (unless you meet certain and undoubted intelligence that our grievances are or will immediately be redressed) you without delay unite your votes and influence for establishing a form of government as free, as stable, and vigorous, and in all respects as advantageous to the good people of this province as possible. That we may be able to defeat the designs of our enemies, and again sit down in peace and safety under our own vine and fig tree: leaving it nevertheless, to your prudence and discretion, if any unforeseen circumstance should take place, to act in such a way and manner as you shall think most beneficial to the interest of this province.'

Then voted, to choose a committee of vigilance to watch the conduct of tories, &c. It was voted to erect a fort on Cole's Hill, and great exertions were made to procure powder for the use of the town. Voted, that any person who shall fire at birds, contrary to the vote of the town, shall have their guns taken from them, and their names entered on the list of offenders. The whole community was divided into two opposing political parties, designated by the epithets of whig and tory.The whigs forming an immense majority, were the ruling party. The operation of the laws was suspended; there was no efficient legal government, no legal tribunals in existence; the selectmen of towns and committees of safety were voluntarily acknowledged as the paramount authority. Although every individual claimed unrestrained liberty, few enormities were committed. But the poor tories, however honest in their views, were subjected to peculiar hardships; free liberty was not allowed to them. The modes of disciplining the tories were various and singular. The public authorities required a full recantation, and a declaration to that effect was published with their signatures in the newspapers. Some of the papers were crowded with these tory acknowledgments. When the populace assumed mob authority, the offenders were subjected to the greatest indignity. In some places they adopted a novel mode, which they called smoking the tories, which was done by confining them in a room with a fire and the top of the chimney

covered. Sometimes a coat of tar and feathers was applied. It was not uncommon to transfer the punishment to the man's horse, by cropping his ears and shaving his tail. This town was not encumbered with an over proportion of disaffected people. Some, indeed, there were, who for years had enjoyed the emoluments and benefits of the royal government, and were not yet convinced that the fountain had become corrupt, and that meandering streams, impregnated with the foulest ingredients, were undermining the blessed heritage of their fathers.— They were not prepared to absolve their consciences from the duties enjoined by the holy axiom, Fear God, and honor the king.' Another portion of this class of people, stood aloof from the duties and proceedings which the great crisis required, not so much from unworthy or sinister motives, as from a timid and pusillanimous spirit, viewing the project of a warfare with so potent an antagonist as an herculean labor, far exceeding the abilities of those champions who had undertaken the tremendous experiment. They conceived that a single campaign would annihilate our army and resources, and all who appeared under the colonial standard would fall a sacrifice, as traitors and rebels. About ten or twelve inhabitants of this town were accused of being enemies to their country, and were taken by warrants and arraigned before the town for examination, but, on rendering satisfactory assurance of peaceable behavior, were liberated.

A few of the obnoxious royalists abandoned their native town, but those who remained became peaceable citizens, and submitted to the general laws and proceedings. There were, however, a few instances of the turbulent and incorrigible being brought to the the liberty pole, and compelled to subscribe to a recantation of sentiment. The town authority was not known to stain its reputation by any unjustifiable severities, or riotous proceedings. In one instance, however, an individual received some severe discipline from indiscreet persons. A man by the name of Dunbar, brought to the market a beef ox, which it was discovered had been slaughtered by a tory in town, who being a notorious offender against the ruling party, a number of persons assembled, enclosed Dunbar in the carcass, and tied the tripe round his neck, and he was, in that condition carted out of town. Subsequently to this catastrophe, Dunbar had the imprudence to appear again, on horseback. He was ordered to quit the town without delay, but with a turbulent and obstinate air, he refused to obey. He was then tied on his horse, and escorted to some distance, during which he was so extremely outrageous as to suffer considerable injury, and at