The number of those who were thus proscribed and w hose properties were so eagerly hankered for, was said to have been " large;" the proposed victims were " inhabitants " of Salem, and neighbors of Hawley and bis confederates ; they were (juietly pursuing their usual ruial occu|)ations, doing no harm to any one, and violating no law, although their opinions, on
> Mr. Button said tliia Hawley was a grandson of Rev. Thomas llawl«y, I'listor of tli» Congregationul-clnirrli at Kiil{;t'l1i'IO, Cnnneoticnt ; tlial tic was Olio of tlio propi iclorF of tin' Oliliiiij; ; tliat lii' liolil a ('oiiiiiiiaisioii ill tlio Coiitiiiviital Army ; and that lie was latieii ulT liy duutli, Biiddunly, ill I7^^,S. (//iW-. /■;/•>/ ll'i«/<7ic»<ci'-<-i>nM/y, origiiiiil cdiliun, i., 174 ; xdik, Stccoiiil udiliiiii, i., 7:S8.)
Tlio " roiitiiieiilal " ('i^iiiiiiissioii referred to, by Mr. Bolton, was iiotliiiig oIbo than tliat of First lyioutcnant in Paplniii Triio«dalu°B Com. |iany of Colonial .Militia, "for the North End of Salem" -- a local Company of notoriously \pry little nccoiint, (/Wnni.« of EIn-liou nf OJficert, DeceiiitK-r 18, 177.'>, in the UUturicul iWnniwryrf*, etc. : MilUitri/ lietunit, xxvii., 245.)
- Joio iinl of the Prorinciul Cotigrcst, " Die Sabbati, 6 ho. , P.M , June 8, "1776."
partisan political questions, were not in accord with those which the latter professed to hold ; both, at the same time, concurring, however, in the recognition of the King ol' Great Britain as their legitimate Sovereign; both professing to be equally and eiitiiely good and loyal subjects of that reigning Monarch ; both owing obedience to tlic Laws of the Lami ; and both, alike, recognizing the duty of that obedience,'' although only one of the two discharged that duty, in its every day practice. Against those unoffending farmers -- as their accusers have shown, they were nothing else -- with a malignant zeal which betrayed its selfish, puritanic origin, the writer of that letter prayed that they should be arrested; that their properties, real and personal, should be seized, and cscheiited, and conliscateil ; that" costs" should be paid, therefrom, into the willing hands of those who shoulil have thus invaded their individual Rights -- Rights which had been guaranteed to each of them, by the Constitution and the Laws of the land -- that their homes should be violated and destroyed ; that their families should be made beggars, and be cast penniless on the world; and that, excc[)t among those who thus sought warrants to become local ilcspots, nothing else than individual and domestic misery and general devastation and ruin should be aimed at and obtained.