Delegates to Congress: Letters of delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, Volume 1

Robert Treat Paine to Stephen Collins

Kind Sr.
(1)
Taunton Feby. 25th. 1775

Your freindly Epistle of the 14th ulto. I have lately recd. & it is now before me.(2) I am much obliged to you for the Care of my purse; I wish our endeavours to recover it had succeeded, for the scituation of our public affairs, makes Cash very scarce, as well as much wanted; respecting any suspicion that the Goldfinders have got it, perhaps an enquiry of their circumstances since the affair might be serviceable, at least so far as to know if it were worth while to try again.

I cannot concieve on what principle it is that the Torys should tryumph in the late Conduct of Portsmouth & other places securing their Guns & Ammunition; no freind of Government can rejoyce in anything that disturbs Government, much less in what they call Acts of Rebellion, and their tryumph must spring from a malicious, diabolical desire, that the Vengeance of G. Britain may be reaked on the American Colonys; we are very much obliged to you for every hint you give of any danger of dividing the Colonys; our Freinds from one End of the Continent, to the other may depend upon it, that in this Colony no step is taken of any Importance with [ou] t considering how it will be approved of by the other Colonys, & our earnest desire to do nothing that might give Uneasiness, has prevented some steps being taken which perhaps might have been Salutary.

With regard to the particular matter of moving the Guns &c, any person who attends to the Current of affairs must know the reason of it was the forbidding Arms & Ammunition being imported, & the Conduct of Administration wearing so hostile an Appearance as to loudly call upon the natural inherent principle of Self preservation. Those who hold the Doctrines of passive Obedience & non resistance will fault their Conduct, whilst others who view these transactions as Connected with the rights of mankind & Englishmen, will have more liberal apprehensions from them. But our Enemys omitt no opportunitys to asperse the Whiggs; & even the Whiggs who are at a distance from the scene of action, dont Sufficiently Consider the difficult Scituation of their Freinds, who in the Centre of action are Continually impressed, & in danger of being shackled & rendered unable to Struggle by patience & remissness, or of giving Offence & causing Divisions by any Enterprize which might save them. They who wish well to our Common Cause will Consider all Circumstances before they form a judgment, & they who are unfreindly will stick at nothing to reproach us.

The report you mention of Mr. Adams & Mr. Cushing,(3) is much Such a kind of story, as one industriously reported here vizt. that the (learned, the Sincere, the deliberate, the judicious) Farmer of Pensylvania, had tack'd about, & gone over to the Tory Cause.

My Freind, you must have observed that ever since the Congress rose, the great father of lies has been fully employ'd in misrepresenting every thing, & making some pompous lies clearly out of nothing. The Story you mention is one of this Sort, no such motion was made or thought of as I know of much less did Mr. Cushing ever in his life use such language, & as for the dissolution of the Congress, it was done upon the same principle the Grand Congress was dissolved Vizt. to give the Inhabitants Opportunity of Sending Other men if they pleased, after they had done every thing which they then thought proper to do & a new one has just sat. I hope the freinds of our Common Cause will not grow cool, much less forsake it, upon any Supposition that we are rash in our measures. If in our Extremitys we Should not conduct as cool Reason would dictate, we are to be pityed, but I dont know that the Cause is the worse, i.e. has G. Britain a right to make us Slaves, because when we endeavour to hinder it we do not do it with the most discretion. Pray remember me to yr. good Wife & to all my freinds at Philada. of whom I recollect too many to be enumerated; hoping yr. best Welfare & the redress of all Greivances I am yr. obliged & hble Servt R T Paine

Note:

RC (PHi).

1 Stephen Collins (1733-94), native of Lynn, Mass., was a prominent Quaker leader and merchant in Philadelphia. Katherine A. Kellock, "Stephen Collins, Philadelphia Merchant," Business Archives 36 (1972): 6-13.

2 This letter to Paine was one of several that Collins wrote to Massachusetts patriot leaders during the interval between the First and Second Continental Congresses, expressing fears of divisions in revolutionary ranks. In addition to his letter to Paine, Collins' letterbook contains letters to Samuel Adams of November 10, 1774, and to William Tudor of January 14 and February 17, 1775, DLC. On a similar theme see John Dickinson to Thomas Cushing, January 26, and Thomas Cushing to John Dickinson, February 13, 1775.

3 Collins had repeated the rumor of a move in the Massachusetts Provincial Congress "to Raise Twenty thousand men Immediately & Attack the Kings troops. The Report is that S. Adams made the motion & urged it very Strongly. That T. Cushing opposed it as Strongly alleging that the Southern Colonies would not approve of it nor Stand by You. That S. Adams reply'd he well knew You would have the suport & Assistan[ce] of all the Colonies, on which T. Cushing gave him the Lie, with Saying that is a Lie Mr. Adams & you know it, & you know that I know it is a Lie, which ocasioned much altercation & Debate and was the means of the Congress being Desolved." Collins to Paine, January 14, 1775, DLC.

Courtesy:

The Modern English Collection at the University of Virginia Electronic Text Center.