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THE ORIGIN 
 
 OF 
 
 M'FI N G A L. 
 
 By Hon. J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL. 
 President of the Connecticut Historical Society. 
 
 MORRISANIA, N. Y 
 i 8 68. 
 
] s 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 The following paper, originally published in The 
 Historical Magazine, for January, 1868, has been 
 reproduced in this form for the use of the Author and 
 his friends. H. B. D. 
 
 MORRISANIA, N. Y. 
 
John Trumbull, the author of M' , Fingal y 
 after his admission to the bar in Connecticut, 1 
 prosecuted the study of law at Boston, in the 
 office of John Adams, from November, 1773, 
 till September, 1774, During this period, as the 
 
 1. For the Life of Trumbull, see the Memoir prefixed to 
 the Hartford Edition of his Poetical Works (1820, two vol- 
 umes, octavo), Everest's Poets of Connecticut, and Duyok- 
 inok's Cyclopaedia of American Literature, i. 308-312. 
 
 The following Notes, preserved by President Stiles in his 
 Itinerary [MS.], make a considerable addition to what the 
 poet has elsewhere told us of himself and to the gleanings of 
 his biographers : 
 
 " Memoirs Jno. Trumbull Esq., Poet. (Ex ore John Trum- 
 "bull, MayU, 1788.) 
 
 " 1750, Apr. 24 N. S. born at Westbury " [now Watertown\. 
 
 " iEt 2. Began Primer and learned to read in half-year, 
 
 " without school. Mother taught him all the primer 
 
 "verses, and Watts' Children's Hymns, before [he could] 
 
 "read." 
 
 "^Et. 4. Read the Bible thro'— before 4. About this time 
 
 " began to make Verses. First poetry [he read was] 
 
 " Watts' Lyrics, and could repeat the whole,— and the 
 
 " only poetical book he read till set. 6. 
 
 " Mt. 5. Attempted to write and print his own verses. 
 
 "Sample, — large hugeous letters. This first attempt 
 
 " at writing, by himself, and before writing after copy. 
 
 " Scrawls. 
 
 " Mt. 6. In Spring began to learn Latin and learned half 
 
 "Lilly's Grammar before his father knew it: catched it, 
 
 "as his father was instructing Southmayd" [William; 
 
 grad. Yale, 1761; son of Capt. Daniel, of Waterbury.] 
 
 " Same Spring, was 6 yrs. old. Learned Quce genus by 
 
 " heart in a day. Tenacious memory : quick, too. 
 
 " Mt. 9. On a wager laid— to commit to memory one of 
 
 " Salmon's Pater Nosters in a quarter of an hour — he ef- 
 
 " fected it, reciting by memory the P. N. in Hungarian 
 
Memoir prefixed to the revised edition of his 
 Works informs us, ' ' he frequently employed his 
 ' ' leisure hours in writing essays on political sub- 
 jects in the public gazettes; which had, per- 
 4 ' haps, a greater effect from the novelty of the 
 ' ' manner and the caution he used to prevent any 
 "discovery of the real author." Shortly after 
 his return to Connecticut, lie became a contributor 
 to the Hartford Courant, -then published by 
 Ebenezer Watson, and afterwards by Hudson & 
 
 " and Malabar, in Salmon ; and retains it to this day. I 
 " heard him repeat the Hungarian. 
 
 "MX.. 7)4. In Sept. 1757, entered Yale College— having fitted 
 " for College in one year and half; having learned Cor- 
 "dery, Tally's XII Select Orations, Virgil's Eclogues, and 
 " all the jEneid (not Georgics,) and 4 Gospels in Greek."* 
 
 " Mt. 8. Read Milton, and Thompson's Seasons— Telemachus 
 " —the Spectators. These, all the poetical and belles 
 [Uttres-] " books till set. 13. 
 
 " Mt. \.%y z . Sept. 1763. Entered College again and resided 
 " there. Before this, read Homer, and Horace, and Tully 
 " Be Oratore Versified half the Psalms before set. 9, when 
 " he first saw Watts' Psalms, and laid aside (and burnt) his 
 "own. Before 4 set., upon first reading Watts' Lyrics, he 
 " cried because he despaired of ever being able to write 
 " Poems Ike Watts. 
 
 "^Et. 17. Grad. at Y. C. and resided as Dean's Scholar till 
 [he] "took [his] 2d degree. Then lived one year at 
 " Wethersfield. 
 
 " Mt. 21. Elected Tutor Y. C. and in office 2 years. 
 
 " 1773. Resigned Tutorship, having studied law one year. 
 
 " 1774. One year studied law under Dr. John Adams in Bos- 
 ton ; and left, Sept. 1774. 
 
 "1775. Fall, wrote two first Cantos of M'Fingal ; printed, 
 "Jan. 1776. 
 
 "1782. Jan. to April, wrote the rest of M'Fingal ; printed, 
 " September." 
 
 " At the Commencement in this Town the 14th Instant, 
 " . . among those that appear'd to be examined for Ad- 
 " mission was the Son of the Rev'd Mr. Trumble, of 
 " Waterbury, who passed a good Examination, altho' 
 "but little more than seven Years of Age; but on Account 
 " of his Youth his Father does not intend he shall at 
 "present continue at College." — Connecticut Gazette, No. 
 129, September 24, 1757. 
 
Goodwin. 2 Gage, — whose early confidence in 
 his ability " to play the lion" had much abated 
 since his arrival at Boston, in May, 1774, — was 
 now apparently relying more upon the pen than 
 the sword, to awe America to submission. In 
 M'Fingal (Canto ii., p. 31) Trumbull retraces 
 
 " The annals of the first great year: 
 " While, wearying out the Tories' patience, 
 " He spent his breath in proclamations ; 
 " While all his mighty noise and vapour 
 " Was used in wrangling upon paper ; 
 
 " While strokes alternate stunn'd the nation, 
 " Protest, address, and proclamation; 
 "And speech met speech, rib clash'd with fib, 
 " And Gage still answer'd, squib for squib." 
 
 Into this wordy warfare, Trumbull entered with 
 spirit and success. Imitations in burlesque of 
 Gage's magnificent and turgid Proclamations, 
 
 " In true sublime of scarecrow style," 
 
 had occasionally appeared in the newspapers of 
 Boston and in Connecticut. At so fair a mark, 
 ridicule could hardly miss its aim ; and these 
 squibs were perhaps quite as popular and effective 
 as if their versification had been smoother or their 
 wit more refined. 
 
 The Proclamation of the twenty-fifth of July, 
 1774, "for the Encouragement of Piety and 
 " Virtue," &c, and that of the twenty-eighth of 
 
 2. In 1772, while a Tutor of Yale, he published the first Part 
 of The Progress of Dullness, — a poem " designed to expose 
 "the absurd methods of education which then prevailed;" a 
 second Part, with another Edition of the first," was printed 
 in January, 1773 ; and the third Part appeared in July. In 
 May, 1772, he had published in the Courant, An Elegy on the 
 Death of Mr. Buckingham St. John, one of his earliest and 
 most intimate friends. Shortly before leaving Boston, 
 (August, 1774,) he wrote An Elegy on the Times, which was 
 printed in one of the Boston papers. All these publications 
 were anonymous. 
 
8 
 
 September, proroguing the General Courtof Mas- 
 sachusetts, were thus re-produced, in doggerel, and 
 printed (one, or both, perhaps, being copied from 
 a Boston paper, ) in the Courant, of the third of 
 October. In the Boston Gazette of the fourteenth 
 of November, a Proclamation prohibiting com- 
 pliance with the requisition of the Massachusetts 
 Provincial Congress, for the payment of taxes to a 
 Receiver of their own appointment, &c, ap- 
 peared in Hudibrastic verse : 
 
 " Since an Assembly most unlawful, 
 
 " At Cambridge met, in Congress awful, 
 
 " October last, did then presume 
 
 " The powers of government to assume; 
 
 " And slighting British administration, 
 
 " Dar'd rashly seek their own salvation," &c. 
 
 This was re-printed the following week in the 
 Courant, and in several other newspapers. 
 
 Whether this and other similar compositions, 
 published in the Courant, in 1774, were from 
 Trumbull's pen, is not certain. His characteristic 
 i" caution to prevent discovery" has rendered it 
 cmpossible to convict him of the authorship, ex- 
 c ept upon the internal evidence. In some publi- 
 ations of the following year, such evidence is 
 more direct ; and in one instance, at least, it is 
 positive and conclusive. 
 
 On the nineteenth of June, 1775, the Courant 
 published Gage's Proclamation of the twelfth, 
 extending free pardon to "the infatuated rnulti- 
 " tude," on their return to allegiance, but pro- 
 scribing Samuel Adams and John Hancock, with 
 "all their adherents, associates, and abettors," 
 and establishing Martial Law throughout Massa- 
 chusetts. The Proclamation re-appeared in the 
 same paper, on the seventeenth of July, in bur- 
 lesque verse, as 
 
"Tom Gage's Proclamation, 
 
 " Or blustering Denunciation, 
 
 " (Replete with Defamation,) 
 
 " Threat'ning Devastation, 
 
 " And speedy Jugulation, 
 
 " Of the New English Nation . . 
 
 " Who shall his pious ways shun ?" 
 
 ending in due form, with 
 
 " Thus graciously, the war I wage, " 
 
 " As witnesseth my hand . . . Tom Gage." 
 
 "By command of Mother Cary, 
 
 " Thomas Fluoker, Secretary." 
 
 This burlesque may have been previously pub- 
 lished elsewhere. Its merit is too slight to im- 
 part any interest to the question of its origin. It 
 appears, however, to have attained a transient 
 popularity and was widely copied by the patri- 
 otic press. It may be found (reprinted from the 
 Pennsylvania Journal, of the twenty-eighth of 
 June,) in Moore's Diary of the Revolution, vol. 
 i., pp. 93-94. In the G our ant of the seventh and \ 
 the fourteenth of August, another version of the 
 Proclamation made its appearance ; and this last 
 was unquestionably written by Trumbull. It is 
 somewhat remarkable that not only the evi- 
 dence of authorship, but the composition itself, 
 should have escaped the observation of so many 
 diligent gleaners of the newspaper literature of 
 the Revolution. It is more surprising that no~\ 
 Editor of M'-F'ingal has detected in the burlesque 
 Proclamation the origin of the "modem epic," 
 to which more than fifty of the two hundred and 
 sixteen lines of this earlier composition were 
 transferred by its author. 
 
 In a letter to the Marquis de Chastellux, Trum- » 
 bull states that "the poem of M'Fingal was 
 "written merely with a political view, at the; 
 ' ' instigation of some leading members of the 
 "first Congress, who urged [him] to compose a 
 
10 
 
 "satirical poem on the events of the Campaign 
 1 ' in the year 1775." The Memoir prefixed to the 
 Edition of 1820, adds, that the friends at whose 
 solicitations the first Canto was written, " imme- 
 ' ' diately procured it to be published at Philadel- 
 " phia, where Congress was then assembled." It 
 made its appearance in an octavo pamphlet of 
 forty pages, — printed by William and Thomas 
 Bradford, -f-in January, 1776, but with the date 
 of 1775. '"At this time, the author "had also 
 1 • formed the plan of the [whole] work, sketched 
 " some of the scenes of the third Canto, and 
 "written the beginning of the fourth" — the 
 first Canto, as originally published, was subse- 
 quently divided into two. VThe composition was 
 suspended until after the surrender of Comwallis 
 had established the success of the Revolution, 
 when the poem was completed and published, in 
 Hartford, by Hudson & Goodwin, on the tenth of 
 September, 1782. Before the close of the year, 
 (December 28, ) a second edition was issued by a 
 rival Hartford Publisher, Nathaniel Patten, 3 with- 
 out the author's consent. 
 
 3. Nathaniel Pattkh — for many years an enterprising, 
 not over-scrupulous, publisher at Hartford, was originally a 
 book-binder.' He had removed from Boston to Norwich, in 
 the Spring of 1774, and after carrying on business at the 
 latter place for two years, came to Hartford in the summer 
 of 1776,— opening a shop as binder, stationer, and book- 
 seller. After a few years he began to publish on his own 
 account. 
 
 It is worth noting, that Patten's piracy of M'Finpal led to 
 the enactment by the General Assembly of Connecticut, in 
 January, 1783, of a law of Copyright, securing to authors 
 the exclusive right of publishing and vending tlieir works 
 for fourteen years. Patten's edition ot M'FtngcU was ad- 
 vertised in the Courant, on the seventh of January, 1783, 
 with the statement that " this ingenious work has lately 
 11 been sold for the extravagant price of Half a Dollar, but 
 " will now be offered at one third less." In the same num- 
 ber of the Courant appeared an article of two columns, 
 probably from Trumbull's pen, on the importance of en- 
 
11 
 
 The Proclamation Versified was published, as 
 has been mentioned, in August, 1775. So large 
 a portion of it is re-produced in the first three 
 Cantos of M'Fingal, that the latter poem may be 
 said to have grown directly out of the former. 
 That it was the appearance of this burlesque 
 which induced the Author's friends to urge him 
 to the composition of a longer and regularly con- 
 structed poem, in the same measure and a similar 
 vein, is hardly doubtful. 
 
 Among the prominent members of the Congress 
 of 1 775 , to whom Trumbull was personally known, 
 and whose solicitation was likely to have weight 
 with him, — besides the Delegation from his own 
 State, including Oliver Wolcott, Roger Sherman, 
 and Silas Deane, — were John Adams, his in- 
 structor in law, and Thomas Cushing, in whose 
 family he had lived while in Boston. They were 
 not mistaken in their estimate of his genius and 
 of the service which, in that "period of terror 
 " and dismay," his wit, humor, and satiric power 
 might render to the friends of American liberty, 
 " to inspire confidence in our cause, to crush the 
 ' ' efforts of the Tory party, and to prepare the 
 "public mind for the Declaration of Indepen- 
 "dence." With these objects in view, as his 
 Memoir informs us, he wrote the first part of 
 M'-Fingal. Its success abundantly justified the 
 judgment of his friends. Its popularity was un- 
 
 couraging productions of genius by ensuring to Authors the 
 profits arising from the sale of their writings. The writer 
 alludes to the " great discouragement to a writer, on the 
 " first publication of his work, to see some mean and un- 
 
 " generous Printer seizing [if] out of his hands, re- 
 
 11 printing it in so mangled and inelegant a manner that the 
 " author must be ashamed of the Edition, and defrauding 
 "him of the profits of his labors." On the meeting of the 
 General Assembly, a few days afterwards, a petition was 
 preferred, and the enactment of " An Act for the Encourage- 
 " ment of Literature and Genius" was procured. 
 
12 
 
 exampled ; and that the favor with which it was 
 received, at- home and abroad, was not attribu- 
 table merely to the interest of its subject or the 
 seasonableness of the publication is sufficiently 
 proved by the fact, that ' ' more than thirty im- 
 " pressions" had been called for before 1820, and 
 that then, as now, it had not only its established 
 place in every good library, but had become the 
 prey of "newsmongers, hawkers, peddlers, and 
 " petty chapmen," who, as the Author complains, 
 republished it at pleasure, without his permission 
 or knowledge. 
 
 In the Notes appended to this re-print, those 
 portions of the burlesqued Proclamation which 
 were afterwards incoqDorated in M'Fingal are 
 indicated by references to the Author's Edition 
 of the complete poem, {Hartford, 1782), except 
 when another Edition is particularly mentioned. 
 The suppression, after the publication of the first 
 Canto, of the name of Daniel Leonard, as the 
 author of the letters of Massacliusettensis, and 
 the substitution of William Smith for Isaac Low, 
 in the humorous description of proceedings in 
 New York, are perhaps worthy of special notice. 
 {See Notes 4 and 9.) 
 
 A copy of the genuine Proclamation, from a 
 broadside in the library of George Brinley, Esq. , 
 is prefixed to the imitation, that it may be seen 
 how closely and skilfully Trumbull followed his 
 copy. 
 
GENERAL GAGE'S 
 
 PROCLAMATION, 
 
 FROM A BROADSIDE IN THE COLLECTION 
 
 OF GEORGE BRINLEY, ESQ., OF 
 
 HARTFORD, CONN. 
 
By His Excellency the Honourable Thomas 
 Gage, Esquire, Governour and Com- 
 mander-in-Chief in and over His Maj- 
 esttfs Province of Massachusetts Bay, 
 and Vice- Admiral of the fame : 
 
 A PROCLAMATION. 
 
 WHEREAS, the infatuated multi- 
 tude who have long suffered them- 
 felves to be conducted by certain well 
 known incendiaries and traitors, in a fatal 
 progrefsion of crimes againft the conftitu- 
 tional authority of the State, have at length 
 proceeded to avowed Rebellion ; and the 
 good effects which were expected to arife 
 from the patience and lenity of the King's 
 Government have been often fruftrated, 
 and are now rendered hopelefs, by the in- 
 fluence of the fame evil counfels ; it only 
 remains for thofe who are inverted with 
 fupreme rule, as well for the punifhment 
 of the guilty as for the protection of the 
 
16 
 
 well-affected, to prove they do not bear 
 the fword in vain. 
 
 The infringements which have been 
 committed upon the moft facred rights of 
 the Crown and People of Great Britain, 
 are too many to enumerate on the one 
 fide, and are too atrocious to be palliated on 
 the other. All unprejudiced people, who 
 have been witneffes of the late tranfactions 
 in this and the neighbouring Provinces, 
 will find, upon a tranfient review, marks 
 of premeditation and confpiracy that would 
 justify the fulnefs of chaftifement ; and 
 even thofe who are leaft acquainted with 
 facts, cannot fail to receive a juft impref- 
 sion of their enormity, in proportion as they 
 difcover the arts and afsiduity by which 
 they have been falfified or concealed. 
 
 The authors of the prefent unnatural re- 
 volt, never daring to truft their caufe or 
 their actions to the judgment of an im- 
 partial publick, or even to the difpaflionate 
 reflection of their followers, have uniform- 
 ly placed their chief confidence in the fup- 
 prefsion of truth ; and while indefatigable 
 and fhamelefs pains have been taken to ob- 
 ftruct every appeal to the real intereft of the 
 people of America, the grofsest forgeries, cal- 
 umnies and abfurdities that ever infulted hu- 
 man underftanding have been impofed upon 
 
17 
 
 their credulity. The Prefs, that diftinguished 
 appendage of publick liberty, and, when 
 fairly and impartially employed, its beft fup- 
 port, has been invariably proftituted to the 
 most contrary purpofes ; the animated lan- 
 guage of ancient and virtuous times, calcu- 
 lated to vindicate and promote the juft 
 rights and interefts of mankind, have been 
 applied to countenance the moft abandoned 
 violation of those facred blefsings ; and not 
 only from the flagitious prints, but from 
 the popular harangues of the times, men 
 have been taught to depend upon activity 
 in treafon, for the fecurity of their persons 
 and properties ; till, to complete the hor- 
 rid profanation of terms and of ideas, the 
 name of God has been introduced in the 
 pulpits, to excite and juftify devaftation 
 and mafsacre. 
 
 The minds of men have been thus grad- 
 ually prepared for the worft extremities. 
 A number of armed persons, to the amount 
 of many thoufands, afTembled on the 19th 
 of April laft, and from behind walls and 
 lurking holes, attacked a detachment of 
 the King's Troops, who not fufpecting fo 
 confummate an act of phrenzy, unprepared 
 for vengeance, and willing to decline it, 
 made ufe of their arms only in their own 
 defence. Since that period, the rebels, 
 
18 
 
 deriving confidence from impunity, have 
 added infult to outrage ; have repeatedly 
 fired upon the King's mips and fubjects, 
 with cannon and fmall-arms ; have pof- 
 sefsed the roads, and other communications 
 by which the Town of Boflon was fupplied 
 with provifions; and with a prepofterous 
 parade of military arrangement, they af- 
 fect to hold the Army befieged ; while 
 part of their body make daily and indif- 
 criminate invafions upon private property, 
 and, with a wantonnefs of cruelty ever in- 
 cident to lawlefs tumult, carry depredation 
 and diftrefs wherever they turn their fteps. 
 The actions of the 19th of April are of 
 fuch notoriety as muft baffle all attempts 
 to contradict them, and the flames of build- 
 ings and other property from the Iflands 
 and adjacent country, for fome weeks paft, 
 fpread a melancholy confirmation of the 
 fubfequent afsertions. 
 
 In this exigency of complicated calami- 
 ties, I avail myfelf of the laft effort with- 
 in the bounds of my duty, to fpare the 
 efFufion of blood, to offer, and I do hereby 
 in His Majesty's name offer and prom- 
 ife, his moft gracious pardon to all perfons 
 who fhall forthwith lay down their arms 
 and return to their duties of peaceable 
 fubjects, excepting only from the benefits 
 
19 
 
 of fuch pardon, Samuel Adams and John 
 Hancock, whofe offences are of too flagi- 
 tious a nature to admit of any other con- 
 fideration than that of condign punifh- 
 ment. 
 
 And to the end that no perfon within 
 the limits of this offered mercy may plead 
 ignorance of the confequences of refufing 
 it ; I, by thefe prefents, proclaim not only 
 the perfons above-named and excepted, 
 but alfo all their adherents, afsociates, and 
 abettors, meaning to comprehend in thofe 
 terms, all and every perfon and perfons, of 
 what clafs, denomination or defcription 
 foever, who have appeared in arms againft 
 the King's Government, and fhall not lay 
 down the fame as afore- mentioned ; and 
 likewife all fuch as fhall fo take arms af- 
 ter the date hereof, or who fhall in any 
 wife protect or conceal fuch offenders, or 
 aflist them with money, provifion, cattle, 
 arms, ammunition, carriages, or any other 
 necefsary for fubsistence or offence ; or 
 fhall hold fecret correfpondence with them 
 by letter, mefsage, fignal, or otherwife, to 
 be Rebels and Traitors, and as fuch to be 
 treated. 
 
 And whereas, during the continuance 
 of the prefent unnatural rebellion, justice 
 cannot be adminiftered by the common law 
 
20 
 
 of the land, the courfe whereof has for a 
 long time paft been violently impeded, and 
 wholly interrupted ; from whence refults a 
 necefsity of ufing and exercifing the Law- 
 Martial ; I have therefore thought fit, by 
 the authority vested in me by the Royal 
 Charter to this Province, to publifh, and I 
 do hereby publish, proclaim and order the 
 ufe and exercife of the Law-Martial, within 
 and throughout this Province for fo long 
 time as the prefent unhappy occafion mail 
 necefsarily require ; whereof all perfons 
 are hereby required to take notice, and 
 govern themfelves, as well to maintain 
 order and regularity among the peaceable 
 inhabitants of the Province, as to refift, 
 encounter and fubdue the Rebels and 
 Traitors above-defcribed, by fuch as mall 
 be called upon for thofe purpofes. 
 
 To thefe inevitable, but, I trust, falutary 
 meafures, it is a far more pleafing part of 
 my duty to add the afsurance of my pro- 
 tection and fupport to all who, in fo trying 
 a crifis, mall manifeft their allegiance to 
 the King, and affection to the Parent State ; 
 fo that fuch perfons as may have been in- 
 timidated to quit their habitations in the 
 courfe of this alarm, may return to their re- 
 fpective callings and profefsions; and ftand 
 diftinct and feparate from the parricides of 
 
21 
 
 the Conftitution, till God in his mercy fhall 
 restore to his creatures in this distracted 
 land that fyftem of happinefs from which 
 they have been feduced, the religion of 
 peace, and liberty founded upon law. 
 
 Given at Bojion, this 12th day of 'June, 
 in the fifteenth year of the reign of His 
 Majefty GEORGE the Third, by the 
 Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and 
 Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, 
 &c. Annoque Domini, 1775. 
 
 THOMAS GAGE. 
 
 By His Excellency's command : 
 
 Thomas Flucker, Secretary. 
 
 GOD fave the KING. 
 

 GAGE'S PROCLAMATION 
 
 Of June 12, 1775, 
 
 IN BURLESQJJE VERSE. 
 
 / 
 
 BY JOHN TRUMBULL. 
 
 Reprinted from THE CONNECTICUT COURANT 
 of August 7th and 14th, 1775. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES, 
 
 By J. Hammond Trumbull, Esq_., President of the 
 
 Connecticut Historical Society. 
 
By THOMAS GAGE, whom British 
 
 frenzy 
 Stiled Honourable and Excellency, 
 O'er Mafsach'itfetts fent to Jland here 
 Vice- Admiral and Chief Commander, 
 TVhofe Power Gubernatorial fill 
 Extends as far as Bunker-Hill, 
 Whose Admiralty reaches clever 
 Full half a mile up Myftic River 1 , — 
 Let ev'ry Clime and ev'ry Nation 
 Attend, once more, 
 
 A PROCLAMATION. 
 
 W 
 
 HEREAS th' infatuated creatures, 
 Still led by folks whom we call 
 Traitors, — 
 
 1. " Tho' Gage, whom proclamations call 
 
 " Your Gov'rnor and Vice-Admiral, 
 
 " Whose pow'r gubernatorial still 
 
 " Extends as far as Bunker's hill ; 
 
 " Whose admiralty reaches clevei*, 
 
 " Near half a mile up Mystic river," etc. 
 
 APFingal (1782), Canto 2: p. 37. 
 " Can any one" — asked a writer in the Constitutional Gazette, 
 Nov. 25th, 1775, — " read with a grave face the high sounding 
 11 additions newly granted to General Gage (vide the public 
 " prints) ? To appoint a man Governor over a country as 
 
26 
 
 Whom, had we dar'd, we'd have you know 
 We (hould have hang'd a year ago, — 
 Advancing in progrefsion fatal 2 
 Have now proceeded to give battle, 
 And with deep wounds, that fate portend, 
 Gaul'd many a foldier's latter end ; 
 And all the good effects we hop'd 
 From fear and patience, now are dropped, — 
 The good effects, we mean, of gaining 
 Whate'er you had was worth obtaining, — 
 The good effects we saw in vifions 
 Of Lordfhips, Penfions, Pofts, Commis- 
 sions, — 
 All which, by following those fame elves, 
 You've kept moft vilely for yourfelves, — 
 It but remains for us who ftand 
 Inverted with fupreme command, 
 To prove we do not bear or {how you 
 The fword in vain....So woe be to you ! 
 
 " large as China, while he remains iu ' durance vile,' in a 
 " little nook, scarce a mile and a half in diamet- r, and cannot 
 "obtain a pig from Hog Island, nor a truss of straw from 
 "Noddle Island,* though both within three miles of him,— 
 " puts him much in the condition of a Moorfields' monarch, 
 "who, with a crown and sceptre, pretends to give laws to 
 " mighty nations." 
 
 2. " Now rising in progression fatal, 
 " Have you not ventur'd to give battle ? 
 
 " And with deep wounds that fate portend, 
 " Gaul'd many a reg'lar's latter end ?" 
 
 M'Fingal, Canto 3 : p. 57. 
 
 * Probably referring 10 the expedition to Hog and Nod- 
 dle Islands, on the twenty-seventh of Mav," preceding, 
 which had not only proved unsuccessful but led to the loss 
 of several marines and one of the King's armed schooners. 
 —Ed. Hist. Mag. 
 
27 
 
 But first 'tis fit it fhould be feen 
 What arrant knaves ye all have been; 
 What horrid crimes ye've been committing 
 'Gainft Parliament and Crown of Britain ; 
 Denied the facred right to thefe 
 Of calmly robbing whom they pleafe ; 
 That any man with half an eye 
 Your plots and mifchiefs may efpy ; 
 And thofe who nothing know befide 'em 
 May fee the pains ye took to hide 'em. 
 
 Did ye not fcare each printing prefs, 
 And make e'en Rivington* confefs ? 
 Stop ev'ry printer bold and wife 
 Who dared to publifh Tory lies ? 
 
 3. In a letter addressed to the Congress at Philadelphia, in 
 May, 1775, Rivington admitted that " by the freedom of his 
 "publications during the present unhappy disputes, he had 
 " brought upon himself much public displeasure and resent- 
 " meut. . . .A few weeks ago he lhad'] published in his paper 
 " a short apology, in which he assured the public that he 
 "would be cautious for the future of giving any further 
 "offence," &c. His confession and apology were so far ac- 
 cepted that on the seventh of June folloAving, the Provincial 
 Congress of New York recommended that he be permitted 
 to return to his house and family, and that he should not be 
 molested in person or property. His reformation was not 
 permanent. His repeated offences so exasperated the Whigs 
 that, about three months after this ' Proclamation' was pub- 
 lished, a party from Connecticut, led by Captain Isaac 
 Sears, marched to New York, and entering Rivington's 
 office, destroyed such copies of his obnoxious publications 
 as they could rind there, and carried off his types and print- 
 ing materials to New Haven. Trumbull alludes to this 
 expedition, in the Third Canto of 31'Fingal. 
 
 " All punishments the world can render 
 "Serve only to provoke th' offender," — 
 
 argues the Tory ; Squire, and he tauntingly asks his perse- 
 cutors, 
 
 " Has Rivington, in dread of stripes, 
 
 " Ceas'd lying, since you stole his types ?" 
 
28 
 
 Nay, when myfelf in proclamation, 
 Spread wholefome falfhood thro' the na- 
 tion, 
 Altho' the lies I ufed to fcatter 
 Were of the nobleft fize and water, 
 Did ye not all refufe to credit, 
 As tho' fome common liar had faid it ? v - 
 Did not my fcribbler-gen'ral ftrain hard, 
 xMy Majsachufettenfis, L d, 4 
 
 4. In transferring this line to the first Canto of M'Fingal 
 (Phil. 1775), Trumbull wrote the name of Leonard, in full,— 
 with this Note: " One of the Mandamus Council in Massa- 
 " chusetts Bay, author of a course of Essays, under the signa- 
 " tare of M.\8s\ciiusiiTTF.Nsi3; for which, and his other good 
 " services he has had a place given him, with a salary of £200 
 " sterling." But in the first Edition of the completed poem 
 [1782], the name and the Note are omitted: — 
 
 "Did not our Massaoiu-gettexsts 
 " For "nr conviction strain his senses ? 
 " Q - „ ev'ry moment he could spare 
 1 lOra cards, and barbers, and the fair; 
 
 " Aud while he muddled all his head, 
 " You did not heed a word he said." 
 
 [p. 18.] 
 
 The revised edition of 1S20 has only this Note for Massaohu- 
 bKTTENsis: "A course of Essays under that signature was 
 '■ published in Bostou, in the latter part of 1774 and begin- 
 *' nine of 1775. It was the last combined effort of Tory wit 
 " and argument to write down the Revolution." 
 
 These Essays, which are said to have ''excited great exul- 
 " tation among the Tories and many gloomy apprehensions 
 "among the Whigs, - ' are now chiefly interesting as having 
 called forth the fi amir able History of the Dispute with Amer- 
 ica, published by John Adams, under the signature of 
 Novangmjs, in the Boston Gazette, between December, 1774, 
 and April, 1775. Mr. Adams, as is well known, believed 
 that he recognized in the letters of Massaohusettf.nsis, the 
 style of his old friend and correspondent, Jonathan Sewall: 
 aud it was not until after his publication of the revised edi- 
 tion of Novanot.us, in 1819, that he discovered his error. 
 Works of J. Adams, iv. 9, 10; x. 178. It appears that Trum- 
 bull— who was a student of law, in Mr. Adams's office in 
 
29 
 
 Write, ev'ry moment he could fpare 
 From cards and gallanting the fair, 
 To reafon, wheedle, coax or frighten 
 Your rebel folks from fchemes of fighting, — 
 Scrawl, till he muddled quite his head ? 
 And did you mind a word he faid ? 
 Did not my grave Judge S ... 11 hit 5 
 The fummit of newfpaper wit, 
 Fill ev'ry leaf of ev'ry paper 
 Of Mills and Hicks and Mother Draper ; 6 
 
 Boston, when the first Essay of MASSAciitrsETTExsrs was given 
 to the press, — made a better guess at the authorship, — 
 rightly ascribing it to Daniel Leonard, of Taunton. Leo- 
 nard, on the testimony of Mr. Adams, " was a scholar, a 
 " lawyer, and an orator, according to the standard of those 
 
 " days He wore a broad gold lace round the rim of his 
 
 "ha', he made his cloak glitter with laces still broader, he 
 " had set xxp his chariot and pair, and constantly travelled in 
 
 " it, from Taunton to Boston The discerning ones soon 
 
 " perceived that wealth and power ram ?ye charms to a 
 "heart that delighted in so much finer,, " ndulged in 
 "such unusual expense." Works, x. 194, 195. 
 
 5. "Did not my grave Judg-e-Sauaill hit," &c. 
 Transferred, with the seven lines following, to M'Fingal, 
 Canto 1 [p. 19],— where Sewall is described, in a foot-note, as 
 " Attorney-general of Massac husetts Bay, a Judg e of Ad- 
 
 "minrrr, ringr'--, Hiipf ftrlvisftr^nrl MrfV-mlh'iliiVii-mnVpr ; 
 " niit hor of a, farce caller! th e ^Americans Routed, and of a ~ ( 
 " gfeat variety of essays on the Ministerial side, in the Bos- 
 " ton newspapers." Until seduced by the arts of Hutchinson, 
 he had been the " cordial, confidential and bosom friend " of 
 Adams, — " as ardent an American, and as explicitly for re- 
 sistance to Great Britain." Preface to Novanglxts, Edit. 
 1819. Though his perversion to Toryism made him justly 
 odious to his early friends, acknowledged excellence in his 
 profession and his reputation as a writer and public speak- 
 er should have spared him the contemptuous epithet with 
 which Trumbull— possibly for the rhyme's sake, — dismisses 
 
 " that xoitof water-gruel 
 " A Judge of Admiralty, SewalL" 
 
 6. Nathaniel Mills aud John Hicks were the proprietors 
 of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post Boy (formerly 
 
30 
 
 Draw proclamations, works of toil, 
 In true fublime and fcarecrow ftyle ; 
 Write farces too, 'gainft right and freedom, 
 All for your good, — and none would read 
 
 'em ? 
 My friends at York, did ye not hamper, 
 And make each tory fcribbler fcamper, 7 
 From C . . . . r, 8 to that fenfeless prater, 
 From folly's rear-guard, fly led Mercator ? 
 
 The Boston Weekly Advertiser), from 1773 to the commence- 
 ment of hostilities, in 1775. Margaret, widow of Richard 
 Draper, (who died in 1774), continued the publication of the 
 Boston Weekly News Letter, until the evacuation of the town 
 by the British, in 1776, when she accompanied the army to 
 Halifax. She subsequently received a pension from the 
 British government. 
 
 7. " There never was a more total revolution at any place 
 " than at New York. The Tories h;ive been obliged to fly. 
 "The Province is arming ; and the Governor dares not call 
 "his prostituted Assembly to receive Lord North's foolish 
 " plan. Two of the Delanceys, Watts, Cooper, Rivington, 
 " Colonel Philip*, and the rest of the Tory le .d'ers are fled ; 
 "some to England, and some to private place? in the 
 " country, where they are not known." Letter from a Gentle- 
 man in Philadelphia, May 22, 1175— American Archive*, 
 IV. ii. 669. 
 
 " The character of the New Yorkers is no longer suspicious. 
 
 " The few Tories among them are silent; the cry of 
 
 "liberty is irresistible Rivington follows their fortunes — 
 
 [that of the Tory refugees'] and his printing shop, which 
 " forged calumny and sedition for the whole continent, is 
 "shut up." Wm. Hooper to Samuel J. Johnston, May 23, 
 1775— Ibid, 679. 
 
 "No people can be more despised, nor more frightened, 
 " than those here who have been inimical to their Country, 
 " particularly the eleven Members of the House. Mr. Riving- 
 " ton has made a recantation; President Cooper has de- 
 " camped," etc. Letter from New York, April 30— Ibid, 449. 
 
 8. " Have not our Cooper and our Seabury 
 
 " Sung hymns, like Barak and old Deborah ?" 
 M'Fingal, Canto 1, p.. 16. 
 
 " I could not half the Scriblers muster 
 
 " That swarm'd round Rivington in cluster ; 
 
31 
 
 Raife fuch a tumult, blufter, jarring, 
 That, midft the clafh of tempefts warring, 
 L.w's weathercock, with veers forlorn, 
 Could fcarcely tell which way to turn ? 9 
 What difappointments fad and bilkings, 
 Awaited poor departing W s ; 10 
 
 "Assemblies, Councilnien, forsooth; 
 "Brush, Cooper, Wilkius, Chandler, Booth," etc. 
 
 Ibid, p. 18. 
 
 In a note, Cooper is characterized as " a writer, poet, and 
 " satyrist of the same stamp as Parson Peters,— and 
 " President of the College of New York." Not even by the 
 mob which compelled Dr. Cooper to resign his Presidency 
 and to seek his safety in flight, was he subjected to so griev- 
 ous and undeserved indignity as by this coupling of his 
 name with that of " the fag-end man, poor Parson Peters ! " 
 
 9. Isaac Low, a prominent merchant of New York, had 
 been a Delegate to the first Continental Congress, one of the 
 earliest subscribers of the Association, and the Chairman of 
 the general Committee for the City and County, in 1774. But 
 his timidity and lukewarmness gave offence to more zealous 
 patriots ; and he, with his conservative colleagues, gradually 
 lost influence and position in the Committee, until, after 
 wavering for a time between the two great parties, he rested 
 in confirmed Toryism. The allusion to his " weathercock" 
 policy in the summer of 1775, was omitted from the first 
 Canto of M'Fingal, published in the autumn of that year : 
 and was subsequently transferred by the Author, in the third 
 -canto of the completed poem [1782,] to William Smith, the 
 Chief-justice, who, like Mr. Low, had first espoused, then 
 abandoned the popular cause :— 
 
 " Such a tumult, bluster, jarring, 
 
 " That mid the clash of tempests warring, 
 " Smith'.* weathercock, with veers forlorn, 
 " Could hardly tell which way to turn." 
 
 10. No one of the " Tory scribblers" of New York was 
 more obnoxious to the patriots, than Isaac Wilkins. He had 
 been one of the leaders of the Tory majority in the Pro- 
 vincial Assembly of 1774-5, and in a s;.eech in that body had 
 denounced "the ill-judged, tyraunical and destructive mea- 
 sures of the Congress," and declared the Boston Port Bill 
 "the mildest chastisement that could possibly have been 
 "inflicted, considering the nature of the offence" of the Mas- 
 sachusetts patriots. He was suspected of a share in the 
 authorship of A Friendly Address to all Reasonable Ameri- 
 
32 
 
 What wild confufion, rout and hobble, you 
 Made with his farmer, Don A. W. n 
 How did you 'fore committees drag it, 
 And anfwer it with fire and faggot ? 
 Still bent your own fide to advance, 
 You never gave us equal chance, 
 That all the world might fee and tell 
 Which party beat at lying well ; 
 
 cans, The American Querist, and the essays of A. W. 
 tier, mentioned in the following note. Shortly 
 after the battle of Lexington, Mr. Wilkin:-, with other prom- 
 inent Tories, escaped the fury of the Whigs of New York, by 
 taking refuse on hoard a British vessel of war, in which he 
 sailed for England. On the eve of his departure, May 3, 
 1775. lie published a farewell address to his countrymen, 
 declaring that he was about to" leave America and every 
 " endearing connection, because he would not raise his hand 
 "against his Sovereign, nor would he draw his sward 
 11 against his Country." Fobob's American Archives, IV. ii. 
 479. 
 
 // 11. The anti-revolutionary pamphlets of i: A. W. Fabmeb," 
 printed by Rivington, had been extensively circulated in 
 New York and Connecticut, in the winter' of 1774-5. In 
 February, 177;'). the Committee of Suffolk County, N. Y., re- 
 solved. " that all those publications which have a tendency 
 "to divide as, raid thereby weaken our opposition to 
 "measure-; taken to enslave us, ought to be treated with the 
 "utmost contempt by every friend to his country; in pu- 
 " ticular the Pamphlet entitled A Friendly Address, dbc, and 
 "those under the signature of A. W. Farmer, and many- 
 "others to the same purpose, which are replete with the 
 " most, impudent falsehoods, and the grossest misrepre- 
 sentations; and that the authors, printers, and abettors of 
 "the above and such like publications, ought to be es- 
 teemed and treatei as traitors to their country, and 
 " enemies to the liberties of America." Foeob'b American 
 Archives IV. i. 1258. 
 
 When c:>;>ie<of these pamphlets fell into the hands of the 
 Whigs, they were disposed of in such a manner as most em- 
 phatic illy to express rletestatiou of the anonymous authors 
 and - aetlmes they were publicly burned, 
 
 with imposing formality; sometim e 1 with tar and 
 
 feathers from the turkey-buzzard, as " the Attest emblem of 
 " the author's odiousness," and nailed to the whippingpost. 
 See, also, an account of the burning of A. W. Fabmee's 
 
33 
 
 From whence the point is very clear, 
 You did not dare the truth to hear, 
 But fearful left the world mould guefs it, 
 Took all this trouble to fupprefs it. 
 Did you not prate of laiv and right, 
 And fpirit up your friends to fight ? 
 Apply the animating lays 
 Of freedom's fons in ancient days, — 
 Altho' you could not fail to know 
 Thofe days were thoufand years ago ? 
 
 Did not your clergy, 1 " all as one, 
 Vile proteftants each mother's fon, 
 
 View of Ihe Controversy, &c, by the Sous of Liberty in 
 New York, in Bivington's Gazette, Jan. 12, 1775, re- printed 
 in Moore's Diary of the Revolution, i. 12. 
 
 The odium of authorship rested, in popular apprehension, 
 on Dr. Myles Cooper, Isaac Wilkius, and Samuel Seabury, 
 afterwards Bishop of Connecticut. Mr. Seabury was, at 
 this period, a resident of Westchester, and an uncompro- 
 mising loyalist. He was one of the signers of the "White 
 " Plains Protest," by which the Westcheser Tories, in April. 
 1775, expressed their "honest abhorrence of all unlawful 
 "Congresses and Committees." The writings of A. W. 
 Farmer were very generally attributed to his pen; and this 
 impression, with other less questionable evidence of his 
 zealous Toryism, led to his arrest and imprisonment at New 
 Haven, in November, 1775. Mr. Dawson, whose judgment 
 in a question of authorship is nearly infallible, ascribes the 
 A. W. Farmer pamphlets to Isaac Wilkins ; and in this, I 
 follow him, as my sufficient authority, though my earlier im- 
 pression was that Seabury had a principal part in their com- 
 position. 
 
 12. A Boston correspondent of Rivington's Gazette, March 
 9, 1775, classes with " the high sons of liberty," " ihe ininis- 
 " ters of the gospel, who, instead of preaching to their 
 "flocks meekness, sobriety, attention to their different em- 
 " ployments, and a steady obedience to the laws of Britain, 
 " belch from the pulpit liberty, independence, and a r steady 
 " perseverance in endeavoring to shake off their allegiance to 
 " the mother country. The independent ministers have ever 
 " been, since the first settling of this Colony, the instigators 
 " and abettors of every persecution and conspiracy." 
 
34 
 
 Tho' miracles have left in lurch 
 All men but our true Cath'lic church, 18 
 Perfuade you Heav'n would help you out, 
 Till you defpifed our threats fo ftout, — 
 While ev'ry fermon fpread alarms, 
 And ev'ry pulpit beat to arms ? 
 
 When General Gage declared, in his Proclamation of Jnne 
 12, that " to complete the horrid profanation of terms and 
 " of ideas, the name of God has heen introduced in the pul- 
 pits, to excite and justify devastation and massacre," it is 
 probable that he especially alluded to a sermon delivered 
 some two weeks previously, before the Provincial Congress 
 of Massachusetts, by the Rev. Dr. Langdon, President of 
 Harvard College. "May we not be confident," asked the 
 preacher, " that the Most High, who regards these things, will 
 " vindicate his own honour, and plead our righteous cause 
 " against such enemies to his government as well as our 
 
 " liberties ? In a variety 01 methods he can work sal- 
 
 " vation for us, as he did for his people in ancient days 
 
 " May the Lord hear us in this day of trouble, and the name 
 " of the God of Jacob defend us, send us help from his sauc- 
 " tnary, and strengthen us out of Zion ! We will rejoice in 
 " his salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our 
 "banners." This sermon, with others illustrating "the 
 11 politico-theological phase of the conflict for American In- 
 " dependence," was re-printed in 1S60, with pertinent rotes, 
 by J. Wingatc Thornton, Esq., of Boston, in an excellent 
 volume entitled The Pulpit ofihe American Revolution. 
 
 13. This appeal to the odium thcologicum is dexterously 
 introduced. If any sentiment could unite the people of New 
 England more closely than did the love of liberty, it must be 
 hatred of Popery. The suspicion that Gage and his em- 
 ployers favored the establishment of the Roman Catholic 
 religion,— however unfounded,-r-was very generally enter- 
 tained in Massachusetts and (Connecticut. Dr. Langdon 
 gave it expression in the Election Sermon before quoted : 
 " When we consider the late Canada Bill, which implies not 
 " merely a toleration of the Roman Catholic religion (which 
 "would be just and liberal), but a firm establishment of it 
 " through that extensive province. . . .have we not great rea- 
 " son to suspect that all the late measures respecting the col- 
 " onus have originated from Popish schemes of meu who 
 " would gladly restore the race of Stuart, and who look on 
 "Popery as a religion most favorable to arbitrary power f 
 
 In A Dialogue between the Friends, viz. : An unlimited 
 Commander, now in America, and the D . . . I, printed in 
 
35 
 
 And now to tell the things that paft 
 The nineteenth day of April laft. 
 Of your armed rebels, twenty dozens, 
 Whom our fear multiplied to thousands, 
 (For fear fupplies, in ways moft able, 
 The whole multiplication table,) 
 Attack'd our peaceful troops, I fent, 
 For plunder, not for {laughter meant, — 14 
 Who little mifchief then had done 
 But kill'd eight men at Lexington ; 
 Who fhow'd their love to peace and virtue, 
 And prov'd they'd no intent to hurt you: 
 For did not every Reg'lar run, 15 
 As foon as e'er you fired a gun ? 
 And fearful if they ftay'd for fport, 
 You might by accident be hurt, 
 Convey'd themfelves with fpeed away, 
 Full twenty miles in half-a-day ; 
 
 the Connecticut Courant, October 17, 1774, the Commander 
 [Gage] is made to say — 
 
 " The Pope I've worshipp'd long, 'tis true, 
 " But this must be 'twixt me and you ; 
 " With all our zeal we must not dare 
 
 " One syllable of this declare ; 
 
 " For in this Place, you know, are those, 
 " Who fear a God, nor let his Foes 
 " Transgress all Laws divinely made, 
 "As if true sinning was a Trade." 
 
 14. " You must acknowledge it was duty, as it was the 
 "dictate of humanity, to prevent, if possible, the calamities of 
 " a civil war, by destroying such magazines." Gage's Letter 
 to Governor Trumbull, May 3, 1775. 
 
 15. " For did not ev'ry Keg'lar run," etc. 
 
 This, with the seven lines following, was transferred to. 
 M'Fingal, Canto 2, p. 37. 
 
36 
 
 Raced till their legs were grown fo weary 
 They'd fcarce fuffice their weight to carry ? 
 When you, unmov'd by all this kindnefs, 11 ' 
 Purfu'd like tvgers, ftill behind us ; 
 And fince, afluming airs fo tall, 
 Becaufe we did not kill you all, 
 Have dar'd, with jibes and jeers confounded, 
 Insult the brave whofe backs ye wounded, 
 (Tho' valour would with fhame have burn'd, 
 To fhoot folks when their backs are turn'd) 
 And bragging high, as tho' ye beat us, 
 No more mind reg'lars than musquitoes, 
 Fire on us at your will, and shut 
 The town as tho' ye'd ftarve us out, 
 And with parade prepofterous hedg'd, 
 Affect to hold us here befeig'd, 
 (Tho' we, who ftill command the feas, 17 
 Can run away whene'er we pleafe ;) 
 Have fcar'd the Tories into town, 
 And burnt their hay and houfes down, 
 And boaft, unlefs we quickly flee, 
 To drive us headlong to the fea, 
 
 16. " Yet you as vile as they were kind, 
 "Pursued, like tygere, still behind, 
 
 " Fir'd on them at your will, and shut 
 " The town, as tho' you'd starve them out; 
 " And with parade prepost'rous hedg'd, 
 "Affect to hold them there besieg'd;" etc. 
 
 — Ibid. 
 
 17. " Tho' we, who still command the seas," etc. 
 
 Transferred, with the seven lines following, slightly altered, 
 to M'Fingal, Canto 2, p. 38. 
 
37 
 
 As once, to faithlefs Jews, a fign, 
 
 The De'el, turn'd hog-reeve, did the fwine. 
 
 At any rate, (t'm now content to * 
 Avoid the fcrape I have got into, 
 And publish here my resolution 
 Of blood to fpare the leaft effufion ; 
 For faft proceeding in this pickle, 
 Who knows whose blood the next may 
 
 trickle ? 
 'Tis time, in faith, to cry enough ; 
 Heav'n prosper thofe that now leave off! 
 No more the Yankees I contemn ; 
 Let me alone, and I will them : 
 Thofe who in peace will henceforth live, 
 I and His Majesty forgive ; 
 All but* that arch-rogue, and firft grand 
 
 cock, 
 Your Samuel Adams and John Hancock, 
 Whofe crimes are grown to that degree,v 
 I muft hang them, — or they'll hang me. \ 
 
 But fuitherto explain, to th' end 
 That none may ignorance pretend, — 
 I, ex cathedra^ each malfeazance 
 That follows, rank with blacken: treafons. 
 Whoe'er in future, without more faid, 
 Aflbciate with thofe knaves aforefaid, 
 Take arms to fight, or to conceal 
 Such traitors 'gainft the common weal, 
 Aid them with money, arms, provision, 
 Guns, carriages, or ammunition, 
 
 5 
 
38 
 
 Afsist their onset or retreat, 
 And help them, or to fight or eat, 
 Hold correfpondence, us to weaken, 
 By letter, mefsage, fign or beacon, — 
 (fCnow they, as traitors we fhall watch 'em, 
 And hang they fhall, if I \_can~\ catch 'em.) 
 
 And now, (for bravely we come on,) 
 One more Whereas, and then we've done: 
 Whereas, as long as we {hall dwell on 
 This ftrange " unnatural rebellion" 
 (For all rebellion, to a notch 
 Is natural only to the Scotch ; 18 
 Tho' parliament have done their fhare 
 To naturalize it ev'ry where,) 
 Since juftice cannot take its courfe, 
 And common law's kick'd out of doors 19 
 I, by the pow'r your charters grant, 
 tfFind ye out how, for, faith ! I can't) 
 Proclaim, to keep all rogues in awe, 
 The exercife of martial law, 
 So long, and in fuch quantities, 
 As my great wifdom fhall devife ; 
 
 18. " His fathers flourish'*}, in the Highlands 
 "Of Scotia's fog-benighted islands; 
 " Whence gain'd our 'Squire two gifts by right, 
 "Rebellion, and the Second-sight" 
 
 M'Fingal, Canto 1, p. 4. 
 
 19. " While reason fails to check your course, 
 "And loyalty's kick'd out of doors." 
 
 —Ibid, Canto 3, p. 65. 
 
2u 
 
 39 
 
 So, without qualms or grumbling take it, 
 Or ropes fjaall trice the knaves who break 
 it. 
 But, putting off this rage and fury, 
 I'm twice as glad again t' afsure ye 
 That all who in this trying crifis 
 Shall heed my peaceable advices, 
 Submit to me in ev'ry thing, 
 And lofe their rights, to pleafe the King > 
 Shall from my arm, which is not fhort, 
 Obtain protection and fupport, 
 Such as I give the Bofton tories 
 Who ftarve for heeding thus my ftories, 
 
 20. " There is no market in Boston; the inhabitants are 
 " all starving," wrote anl English soldier, April 30th, 1775: 
 " the soldiers live on salt provisions, and the officers are 
 " supplied by the men-of-war cutters, who go up the creeks 
 
 " and take live cattle and sheep wherever they find them 
 
 " Duty is so hard that we come off guard in the morning, and 
 " mount picket at night." Fokok's American Archives, IV, 
 ii. 441. 
 
 " We heard yesterday, by one Mr. Rolston, a goldsmith, 
 " who got out from Boston in a fishing schooner, that the 
 " distress of the troops increases fast, their beef is spent, 
 " their malt and cider all gone ; all the f;esh provisions they 
 "can procure they are obliged to give to the sick and 
 "wounded," etc. Pennsylvania Journal, Aug. 2,— in 
 Moork's Diary of the Revolution, i, 113. 
 
 Gage was doing his best to procure supplies. Captain 
 Wallace, in the Rose, sloop-of-war, with two tenders, was 
 plundering the sea-coast towns; and early in August, he 
 was dispatched with a more considerable fleet, to the 
 neighborhood of Stonington and New London, Connecticut. 
 The day before the first portion of the burlesque Proclama- 
 tion appeared in the Courant, August 6th, this fleet carried 
 off from Fisher's, Gardiner's and Plum Islands, about eight- 
 een hundred sheep and one hundred head of cattle. On 
 their return to Boston, " with these trophies of victory, the 
 " bells, we hear," [says the Essex Gazette, August 17], " were 
 " set to music, to the no small joy and comfort of the poor, 
 " half-starved Tories."— Caulkin's Hist, of New London 275 :, 
 Fbothingham's Siege of Boston, 236. 
 
40 
 
 Or venture each his worthlefs head, 
 Condemn'd to 'lift and fight for bread. 
 
 J 
 
 And all the tory-refugees 
 
 May now go home whene'er they pleafe ; 
 We've no occafion for fuch fluff; 
 We've Britifh fools and knaves enough : 
 Whene'er they dare, without remiffnefs, 
 Let them go off about their bus'nefs ; 
 Yet not with whigs and rebels link'd, 
 But ftill ftand feparate and diftinct, 
 Till Mercy aid your people undone, — 
 And Heav'n difpatch me back to London ! 
 
 
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