| Title: | Extract of a Letter from Philadelphia, Dated May 28. |
|---|---|
| ID | 3877 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | 1771-80/32 |
| Year | 1776 |
| Sender | unknown |
| Sender Gender | unknown |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Philadelphia, Penn., USA |
| Destination | UK |
| Recipient | unknown |
| Recipient Gender | unknown |
| Relationship | re American War of Independence |
| Source | The Londonderry Journal & General Advertiser, Vol.V. No.43, Tuesday July 23rd,1776 |
| Archive | The Ulster American Folk Park |
| Doc. No. | 9909031 |
| Date | 23/07/1776 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 27:08:99. |
| Word Count | 374 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Part of a letter from Philadelphia, dated May 28. "We know the language of ministerial sycophants is, that Independency has been always our aim. We deny it. Our independency will continue no longer than your obstinancy and cruelty. Can you blame us for this? We ask, we wish for no more than the privileges of British subjects, and we will have that, or bid you an everlasting adieu. You rob us of our birthrights, you destroy our charters, you burn our towns and villages, you murder our wives and children, you block up our trade, and you plunder us of our property, and for remonstrating against such cruelty, we are deemed rebels. "Believe me, my good Sir, if we are rebels (we value not the appellation your parliament gives us) we are such rebels, as England never before had to cope with. Though a Charles Stuart and a Simon Frazier, with a few undisciplined highlanders, shook your credit, beat your troops in two pitched battles, and penetrated so far as to alarm your capital with a direct intention to dethrone the grandfather of your now reigning monarch, and subjugate Englishmen once more to hereditary tyranny; yet, Sir, such men, with all the dregs and refuse of your country that accompanies them, cannot even dismay us. Is it to be supposed that 50,000 men, composed of German mercenaries, Scotch jacobites, Irish papists, and the produce of your gaols, are to conquer America? are to subjugate three millions of free people, whose motto is "Death or Liberty," many of whom are such enthusiasts, as to have those words painted on their hats, caps, and jackets with their own blood, who are fighting in the cause of justice, with heaven on their side, and who have above 100,000 men always ready to take the field, and was there necessity, could arm a million? But we wish not to either bully or puff, and this I'm afraid, to men who know not America, may bear the face of fiction. Such men I could wish to refer to you, as you must be sensible from your knowledge of this country, that I don't exaggerate. "The drum beats to arm, I must therefore conclude with wishing you better health, your King better ministers, and your country a better [Parent?]" |
