This article is specifically directed to those unsuspecting persons who have sympathy for the perpetrators of property damage, bodily injury, and general mayhem against citizens of the Colonies. The perpetrators of criminal acts, in my opinion, are already so hardened to their cause that the following information will not end their criminal efforts but merely excite them by publicizing their alleged legitimate activities. I appeal to the people of common sense and decency that I feel comprise the majority of my fellow Colonists, citizens who have learned to circumscribe their desires and keep the passions within due bounds toward fellow Colonists, despite their political viewpoint. I have titled this article "ATROCITIES" to expose and document the mayhem that certain violent individuals have perpetrated upon our fellow Colonial Citizens. Heretofore our British Government has ruled justly and has allowed the Colonies a tradition of local autonomy. It appears that certain individuals have chosen to assume a type of vigilante authority with no control by local governing authorities to protect ALL citizens from criminal behavior. Selective enforcement of the law of the land will only produce anarchy. I suspect that a tradition of selective violence against a politically correct or incorrect populous is becoming the norm and is even being sanctioned by the general populous. Here are the facts;
August 1765 John Oliver and family are advised by Sheriff Greenleaf to leave their house fearing mob violence. Oliver's house was vandalized, stores of liquor were destroyed glass and furniture were broken, the house was totally dismantled. Governor Bernard demanded that the militia be summoned but was informed that the militia was the mob! So much for local autonomy controlling the peace and tranquility of the Colonies.
August 1765, mobs again destroy Thomas Hutchinson's PRIVATE HOME. News reports state his home was reduced to a "splintered shell", "out of the ruins came a trail of dinner plates and family portraits, books and children's clothes. A strongbox had been broken open and nine hundred pounds taken. The manuscript pages of Hutchinson's history of Massachusetts had been strewn in the mud, along with the rare documents he had spent a lifetime collecting". Thomas Hutchinson is quoted " I hope all will see how easily the people may be deluded, inflamed and carried away with madness against an innocent man. I pray God give us better hearts!"
As a result of this violence one man Ebenezer Macintosh was arrested, accused as the leader of the mob, and summarily released upon threats of more violence. A trial by jury never resulted from the accusation and arrest. A bounty of three hundred pounds was raised for identifying the mob's leader, the reward went unclaimed. One can easily speculate than had the homes of Oliver and Hutchinson not been vacated prior to the destruction of property there could also been bodily injury committed against the families.
Where will justice prevail? It is clear to me that the promoters of rebel rhetoric must curb their tongues lest they unleash anarchy upon the Colonies. Will we continue to allow mobs to set public policy or will we support the tenants of the British constitution? Remember the defendants of the Boston tragedy were given a fair trial and all but two were acquitted. The perpetrators of the Boston Tea property destruction have yet to be found and sent to trial. Once the majority of Colonial citizenry knows the truth I have faith that they will see the error of rebellion.
GOD SAVE THE KING! CANDIDUS