"By order of the Committee,

"Ezekiel Hawley, 1 Chairman. " June 5th, 1776."

That letter was laid before the Provincial Congress, on Saturday evening, the eighth of June ; and the Journal of that body states that it was " read and "filed," 2 the Congress itself, as will be seen in its subsequent proceedings in the matter, hesitating, in view of its atrocious propositions, to give the authority which its writer had so unblushingly solicited.

With the fact before him, that the " large number "of the inhabitants" of the Town of Salem which was referred to, in that letter, was composed of farmers, neighbors of the writer of it, and peacefully and industriously pursuing their usual vocations ; and, with the additional fact before him, that none of these were even pretended to have committed any other offense, against either the King or the Congress, than the entertainment of political opinions which were different from those entertained by Ezekiel Hawley and his handful of "patriotic" confederates, tbereader will be enabled to judge, with some degree of accuracy, concerning the really diabolical character of the letter and that of him who had written it.

The number of those who were thus proscribed and whose properties were so eagerly hankered for, was said to have been " large ;" the proposed victims were "inhabitants" of Salem, and neighbors of Hawley and his confederates ; they were quietly pursuing their usual rural occupations, doing no harm to any one, and violating no law, although their opinions, on