Besides all these, he was the Chairman and the master sjiirit of that Committee, in Boston, which, as lately as the eighth of June, sent Circular Letters from that Town to every Town in the Commonwealth, in which it was stated that " there is " but one way that we can conceive of, to. prevent " what is to be deprecated by all good men, and ought, " by all possible means, to be prevented, viz : The " horrours that must follow an open rupture between " Great Britain and her Colonies, or, on our part, a " subjugation to absolute Slavery ; and that is by af- " fecting the Trade and Interest of Great Britain so " deeply as shall induce her to withdraw her oppres-

" sive hand " ' -- which the Committee proposed to do by means of an Association providing "that, hence- " forth, we will suspend all commercial intercourse " with the said Island of Great Britain, until the said " Act for blocking up the said Harbour" [0/ Boston} " be repealed, and a full restoration of our Charter " Rights be obtained."^ But we are told by that generally trustworthy historian,'* that that same Samuel Adams, who was thus inspiring and leading and controlling the men of Boston, in their earnest opposition to a general Congress lor a general consideration of the grievances of all who were aggrieved, and who.se convictions were supposed to have been in harmony with his pretensions before the world, was really in favor of such a Congress and, consequently, really opposed to the principles which were presented and urged by the Committees, by the Caucus, and by the Town-Meeting, all of whom he had controlled, in the Resolutions, the Letters, and the Address and Assori''- Hon of which mention has been made, all of which he is known to have inspired and some of which lie wrote; that, as early as the twenty-sixth of May, he " was about to introduce Resolves for such a Congress," into the House of Representatives, of which he was the Clerk ; and that he was prevented from doing so, only by the prorogation of the House, by the Governor.