in the numerous duties which devolved on those, who aspired at that portentous period to give a just direction to the public mind.

The claims of patriotism were not then confined to the mere performance of official duty. The committees of correspondence carefully communicated whatever events were interesting to the country, and organized a government among the people independent of and often at variance with the royal authority in the province.

The first alarm about the tea is thus unfolded.

DR. CHURCH TO MR. GERRY.

BOSTON, DEC. 31, 1773.

SIR,

The committee of correspondence being convened by desire of the committee of Charlestown, to determine (if feasible) upon the total disuse of teas, both English and Holland; and being now engaged upon this important debate, have directed me to acquaint you that the information you this morning received respecting the conduct of the southern colonies in regard to the teas is strictly true, having authentic information as far as South Carolina of their firm resolution not to admit that baleful commodity among them, of which you may rest assured; the particulars you will find in

the Spy, and further confirmed by the Court Gazette of this day. We congratulate you on this firm union of the colonies, a sure presage that a corrupt and arbitrary administration with a venal parliament at their beck will never enslave AmeriWe shall seasonably communicate to you such intelligence as we shall receive, and in the mean time would encourage you from the present happy prospects not to be depressed or discouraged by the arts of our enemies.

cans.

I remain, Sir,

Your most obedient humble servant,

BENJA. CHURCH, JUN.*

By order of the committee of correspondence for the town of Boston.

Elbridge Gerry, Esq.

If there is any exception to the invariable integrity of the American civil officers, it is in the case of the writer of this letter. Dr. Church was an eminent physician of Boston, a member of the general court from the capital, and one of the committee of safety. He enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the patriots with whom he was associated until October 1775, when he was charged and convicted before a military tribunal of holding illicit intercourse with the enemy; and in consequence of such conviction was expelled from the provincial congress. It does not appear that he was bribed into this treasonable conduct, and the motive which induced him to so extraordinary an act, and one so inconsistent with his former character, remains in obscurity. Mr. Bradford in his useful history of Massachusetts, remarks, "after some time the letter which had been intercepted, but which no one could interpret to whom it was first shown, was decyphered by the learned and reverend Dr. West, of Dartmouth." This is a mistake. Before the letter was submitted to Dr. West, it was decy

In May 1774, Mr. Gerry declined a re-election to the general court, and resigned the situation which he held as a member of the committee of correspondence in Marblehead. An unfortunate and disgraceful occurrence in that town induced him and other leading characters of the place to retire from public concerns.

In the preceding year the inhabitants were alarmed by the breaking out of the small pox, a disease dreaded like the plague by most of the villages in New-England, and justly considered among the most awful visitations of providence.

To prevent the prevalence of infection Mr. Gerry and several other gentlemen of property, having first obtained permission from the municipalities of Marblehead and Salem, erected an hospital on an island in the harbour, where all persons liable to the disease were to be received and inoculated. As the building was not large enough to accommodate all the subjects at one time, it was intended to receive them in classes.

phered by Mr. Gerry, and a copy transmitted to Mr. R. T. Paine, one of the delegation from Massachusetts, at Philadelphia. The circumstance gave great offence to the military gentlemen in whose custody Dr. Church was confined, and some notes passed on the occasion, which were not of the most pacific kind. This anecdote might well enough have escaped the learned historian's research, but there is an omission through the volume of a proper notice of the subject of this memoir, which, if not studiously intended, seems at least as if it was occasioned by a recollection of the events of a later time, in which the parties were brought into unhappy collision.

To arrange the right to priority, jealousy and dissatisfaction were unfortunately excited. The poorer people thought themselves neglected. It became difficult to preserve patients from connexion with persons abroad. Some persons caught the infection at the hospital and carried it to town. The establishment was thereupon decried. Instead of being as it in fact was, a safeguard from general contagion, it was represented as a nursery of disease and pestilence; and in a moment of excitement and passion the building was set on fire by a mob, and with all its furniture totally consumed.

This act of violence following soon after the destruction of the tea in the harbour of Boston, was urged by the advocates of the ministry as the natural effect of a bad example, and was held up as the evidence of the feeble security which property would possess under the direction of a popular government.

To the friends of the people this lawless act was peculiarly mortifying. Every where and on all occasions they had inculcated a strict observance of order, regularity and peace. It was their policy to show that the community needed not the restraints of law to prove themselves good citizens, and it was with extreme regret that in a place considered as patriotic as Marblehead a disgraceful scene of riot and ruin should have been exhibited, which could not fail to be turned to

their disadvantage in the great contest, in which they were beginning to engage.

The perpetrators and abettors of the act waited only the return of their usual judgment to be heartily ashamed of the outrage, and deeply to lament the unfair advantage which it gave to the friends of the ministry.

To justify themselves, or at least to diminish the odium of the act, faults were alleged in the management of the hospital. The establishment was a novel one. It was too limited for general accommodation. Distinctions were to be made in the selection of patients, while those who were delayed fancied themselves abandoned to danger and death. When a whole family could not be received the anxiety of parents led them to remove their children to this place of refuge; and the same anxiety induced them to visit the island, although at the hazard of taking or of communicating to others the infection, which should have been confined to the hospital.

While those who were excluded complained of the principle of selection, those who were admitted found the crowded rooms of a hospital not a very desirable exchange for their residence at home. The physicians were worn out with duty, nurses were not sufficiently numerous, deaths occurred among those who were inoculated as well as among those who received the disease by contagion; and an experiment which was made with