| Citation |
NHG-P.768.003
8 Jan 1768:21,22,23 (588)
From the Pennsylvania Chronicle. Letters from a Farmer in
Pennsylvania, to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies.
Letter I.
Beloved countrymen,
I am a farmer, settled, after a variety of fortunes, near
the banks of the river Delaware, in the province of
Pennsylvania. . . [77 lines, 43 lines, about the importance
of liberty and the imposition of the Stamp Act]
It is a parliamentary assertion of the supreme authority of
the British legislature over these colonies in the point of
taxation; and is intended to compel New-York unto a
submission to that authority. It seems therefore to me as
much a violation of the liberty of the people of that
province, and consequently of all these colonies, as if the
parliament had sent a number of regiments to be quartered
upon them, till they should comply. For it is evident, that
the suspension is meant as a compulsion; and the method of
compelling is totally indifferent. It is indeed probable,
that the sight of red coats, and the beating of drums, would
have been most alarming, because people are generally more
influenced by their eyes and ears than by their reason: But
whoever seriously considers the matter, must perceive, that
a dreadful stroke is aimed at the liberty of these colonies.
. . . [33 more lines, 7 more lines, signed] Nov. 5. A
Farmer.
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