A Letter to the Boston Massacre Committee 1770homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/epubs/lucasboston.pdfA Letter to the Boston Massacre Committee Lucas ˇs interestingbut little-known

A Letter to the BostonMassacre Committee

1770By Charles Lucas

Sean J Murphy, Editor

Centre for Irish Genealogicaland Historical Studies

A Letter to the BostonMassacre Committee

1770

By Charles Lucas

Sean J Murphy, Editor

Centre for Irish Genealogical and HistoricalStudies, Windgates, County Wicklow, 2013

One of a series of online publications marking thetercentenary of the birth of Charles Lucas (1713-1771)

Originally published 1771, this edition copyright © 2013 Sean JMurphy, published online athttp://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/epubs/bostonletter.pdfCentre for Irish Genealogical and Historical StudiesCarraig, Cliff Road, Windgates, Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland

This work may be freely stored on library systems for reader use andreproduced offline for fair personal and educational use, with properacknowledgement.

Charles Lucas MD, detail of statue byEdward Smyth in City Hall, Dublin

(editor’s image)

Contents

Introduction 5

Letter 12

Illustrations

Print from Kidder, History of theBoston Massacre, 1870 Cover

Charles Lucas MD, detail ofstatue by Edward Smyth 3

Introduction

The writer has termed Charles Lucas (1713-1771) a ‘forgotten patriot’, as he is little knownoutside the ranks of eighteenth-century Irishhistory specialists. Lucas lived a very full publicand professional life, as apothecary, author,municipal reformer, radical patriot, medical doctorand parliamentarian. A ‘colonial nationalist’ in thetradition of Molyneux and Swift, Lucas opposedwhat he saw as English misrule in Ireland.However, his Protestant prejudices meant thatwhile not a complete bigot as some have claimed,he never accepted that the Catholic majorityshould enjoy an equality of rights, on account oftheir perceived obedience to the political dictates ofthe papacy. As a result of daring electionpamphlets criticising English misgovernment,Lucas was obliged to flee abroad in 1749, but hewas able to return to Ireland in 1761 and securedelection as an MP for Dublin City.1

As discontent with British rule in the Americancolonies grew in the 1760s, Irish radicals likeLucas naturally felt sympathy for the Americansand considered that they shared a common cause.2

Indeed, Benjamin Franklin would recall in 1772that on a recent visit to Ireland he had dined with

1 Sean J Murphy, A Forgotten Patriot Doctor: Charles Lucas1713-1771, 2nd Edition, Windgates, County Wicklow 2013,http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/epubs/lucaspatriot.pdf.2 Vincent Morley, Irish Opinion and the American Revolution,1760-1783, Cambridge University Press 2002, pages 71-74.

5

A Letter to the Boston Massacre Committee

Lucas and found the patriots there to be ‘all friendsof America’.3 On the night of 5 March 1770 aconfrontation between an angry crowd and Britishsoldiers in King Street in Boston resulted in theshooting dead of five civilians, the infamous‘Boston Massacre’.4

Meeting at Faneuil Hall, Boston’s historicmarketplace and meeting hall, aggrieved townsmenappointed a committee composed of JamesBowdoin, Dr Joseph Warren and SamuelPemberton,5 whose task was to promulgate thetown’s view of the killings and to counter pro-military accounts being sent back to Britain. Thecommittee published A Short Narrative of the horridMassacre in Boston and, following a decision of atown meeting on 22 March 1770, copies prefacedby an introduction were sent by the committee to arange of notables including the Duke of Richmond,Marquis of Rockingham, Earl of Halifax, Earl ofHillsborough and other peers, the radical MPsWilliam Beckford and John Wilkes, the Irish-bornstatesman Edmund Burke, one lady, the historianand feminist pioneer Mrs Catharine Macaulay, and

3 Benjamin Franklin to James Bowdoin, London, 13 January1772, Jared Sparks, Editor, The Works of Benjamin Franklin,7, Boston 1844, page 552, http://books.google.ie/books?id=R8QOlH_ixuMC, accessed 9 August 2013.4 Robert J Chaffin, ‘The Townshend Acts crisis, 1767-1770’, JP Greene and J R Pole, Editors, A Companion to the AmericanRevolution, Blackwell Publishing 2000, pages 146-48.5 James Bowdoin (1726-1790), Dr Joseph Warren (1741-1775)and Samuel Pemberton (1723-1779), were three prominentBoston radicals; Warren was to die during the Battle ofBunker Hill.

6


finally, indicating that he was known to andrespected by the Bostonians, Lucas in Ireland.6

Bowdoin, Warren and Pemberton’s form letterto Lucas was dated 23 March 1770 and waspublished in Dublin after its receipt with the ShortNarrative appended, obviously on Lucas’sinstructions.7 The committee’s letter to Lucasexplained that after the ‘execrable deed’ in Bostonon 5 March the town thought it expedient that ‘afull and just Representation of it should be made toPersons of Character’, in order ‘to frustrate theDesigns of certain Men’ who sought ‘to bring anOdium upon the Town as the Aggressors in thatAffair’. The committee stated that it was the‘humble and fervent prayer’ of the ‘loyal anddutiful Subjects of this Town and Province’ thatKing George III ‘in his great Wisdom and Goodness’should order the removal of troops, concluding byrequesting from Lucas ‘the Favour of yourInterposition and Influence’.8

Six months later, on 1 September 1770,reflecting the time it took for communications toarrive from America, Lucas composed a reply to theBostonians, which would be published in two partsin the Freeman’s Journal in Dublin the following

6 Frederic Kidder, History of the Boston Massacre, March 51770, Albany, New York, 1870, pages 110-11,http://books.google.ie/books?id=r3MBAAAAMAAJ, accessed26, July 2013.7 A Letter from the Town of Boston to C Lucas Esq, Dublin[1770], printed by Thomas Ewing; accessible via Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (commercial service available tousers in major libraries).8 Same, pages 3-5.

7


year.9 Lucas commenced by observing that ‘havingfirst been suffered to be exercised with Impunityand Success, in the more remote Parts of theTerritories’, tyranny ‘soon after easily over-ran andsubdued the whole State’. He extolled Hampden,Pym, Eliot and other ‘Heroes’ of the age of Charles Iwhose ideals had been transplanted to America.10

Regretting that he lacked influence with thecurrent ‘detestable Administration’, whoseministers he characterised as ‘base, perfidious,vindictive, rapacious’, Lucas indicated to theBostonians that all he could do was to loudlyexclaim against ‘your Oppressors’ and to republishthe narrative of the massacre they had sent him.He noted that Dublin as well had witnessed killingsby the military and he recalled a particularlyserious disorder in 1765 when Newgate Prison hadbeen broken open by soldiers.11

Observing that Americans were well versed inthe ‘constitutional Rights of Englishmen’, Lucasdeclared that if the Government of Britain shouldoppress and plunder its dependencies, ‘the Bond offilial Affection and Duty, as well as of Allegiancemust be cancelled’. While it might be justified as amere warning against the consequences ofcontinued misgovernment, this statement couldalso be interpreted as a prescription for revolution.Having recalled his own political sufferings in1749, Lucas concluded on a more optimistic note

9 Lucas, ‘To the Honourable James Bowdoin, Esq; Dr. JosephWarren, and Samuel Pemberton, Esq; the Committeeappointed to make Representation of the Military Massacre atBoston’, Freeman’s Journal, 19 and 21 September 1771;henceforth Letter to the Boston Massacre Committee.10 Same, see pages 12-13 below.11 Same, see pages 14, 16-17 below.

8


by expressing a hope ‘to see wicked Ministersremoved from the King’s Councils and Presence,and his Throne established in Righteousness’.12

While the edition of Lucas’s letter published inthe Freeman’s Journal is headed ‘From the BostonGazette’, a full copy has not yet been located in thelatter publication and it is possible that it waspublished in a supplement which has not survived.However, the newspaper did notice that Lucas’sletter had been read at a Boston town meeting on18 March 1771, providing a summary of itscontents with favourable comments.13

Among the papers of Samuel Adams, perhapsthe most prominent of the Boston patriots, there isalso an apparent draft letter of a committeeappointed to reply to Lucas’s letter of 1 September1770, acknowledging the ‘kind Sentiments’ thereinand entreating him to employ his ‘Abilities for ourAdvantage whenever a favorable Opportunity maypresent’. The reply also recognised the ‘arduousTask’ faced by Lucas ‘in resisting the Torrent ofOppression & arbitrary Power in Ireland: akingdom where the brutal power of standingArmies, & the more fatal Influence of pensions &places has left, it is to be feard, hardly any thingmore than the Name of a free Constitution’.14

12 Lucas, Letter to the Boston Massacre Committee, see pages18-22 below.13 Boston Gazette, 25 March 1771, The AnnotatedNewspapers of Harbottle Dorr Jr,http://www.masshist.org/dorr, accessed 26 July 2013.14 To Charles Lucas, [Mar 12] 1771, H A Cushing, Editor, TheWritings of Samuel Adams, 2, New York & London 1906, page163, http://www.archive.org/details/writingsadam02adam,accessed 25 July 2013; the editor interpolated the date March12 although as noted above the meeting was on the 18th.

9


Lucas’s interesting but little-known letter tothe Boston Massacre Committee in 1770 is one ofhis last compositions, as he would die the followingyear. A few historians have noted Lucas’s reply aswell as the much better-known letter to him fromthe Bostonians,15 but Bric’s reference includes theopinion that the Irish patriot did not come up tothe mark by failing to ‘address the great ideologicalconcerns of the day’ and largely confining himselfto ‘excoriating’ British government ministers.16 Thishardly does justice to the range of themes inLucas’s letter. It is true that Lucas employed thecommon device of distinguishing between asupposedly ‘virtuous’ king and ‘corrupt’ ministers.In this he was no different from the Americancolonists, who as Conroy has pointed out, ‘initiallyorganised in 1765 to protect what they conceivedto be the traditional liberties of Englishmen in theBritish Empire, not to repudiate their connectionwith it’.17 Thus it can be seen that the loyal butanti-ministerial language used by Lucas in hisreply is exactly in accord with that used by theBostonians in their letter to him. In America theultimate ‘republican moment’ of actively seeking toestablish independent government without amonarchy took some time to arrive, and wouldfollow even later in Ireland.

The Boston Massacre was one of a series of keyevents, including the Stamp Act of 1765 and the

15 Morley, Irish Opinion and the American Revolution, page 72.16 Maurice J Bric, ‘Ireland, America and the Reassessment ofa Special Relationship, 1760-1783’, Eighteenth-CenturyIreland, 11, 1996, page 106.17 David W Conroy, ‘Development of a revolutionaryorganisation, 1765-1775’, Greene and Pole, Editors, ACompanion to the American Revolution, page 216.

10


Boston Tea Party of 1773, which accelerated theprocess of republicanisation in the Americancolonies. Unlike the Americans, neither Lucas norhis fellow radicals in Ireland would embark on thecourse of violent rebellion and attempted completeseparation from Britain, more extreme steps onlyundertaken, unsuccessfully, by the UnitedIrishmen in the 1790s. As the writer has arguedelsewhere, despite frequent declarations of devotionto the British monarchy, republican themes areobvious in Lucas’s writings and they prefigure theideology of the United Irishmen.18 Certainly, it isthe writer’s contention that Lucas’s Boston letter,replete with terms such as ‘liberty’, ‘rights’,‘tyranny’, ‘corruption’, ‘military execution’, ‘virtue’,‘public spirit’, is a work heavily influenced by thesame ‘Commonwealthman’ ideals which guided hisradical contemporaries in the American colonies.19

Sean J Murphy MA Centre for Irish Genealogical and Historical Studies Windgates, County Wicklow September 2013

18 Murphy, A Forgotten Patriot Doctor: Charles Lucas, page 30.19 Caroline Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Common-wealthman, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1959, pages 134-76;Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the AmericanRevolution, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1967, pages 34-54.

11

From the Boston Gazette20

To the Honourable James Bowdoin, Esq; Dr.Joseph Warren, and Samuel Pemberton, Esq;the Committee appointed to makeRepresentation of the Military Massacre atBoston, on the 5th of March, 1770.

Gentlemen,A Person less anxious for the Liberty of

Mankind in general, of his fellow Subjects inparticular, than I have always been, must acutelyfeel every unjust Exertion of Power, ever soremotely tending to incroach upon the sacredRights of the People.

I have early observed, that Tyranny got Footingin the inslaved States that once were free, byhaving first been suffered to be exercised withImpunity and Success, in the more remote Parts ofthe Territories; where, having once been permittedto make a Lodgement, it soon after easily over-ranand subdued the whole State.

Though my Lot is cast in a Country, forCenturies past, subject to the worst Exertions ofthe most lawless and impolitic Power, againstwhich I have, from my Youth up, maintained aconstant, though unequal, Conflict; I have not beenInattentive to the State of those virtuous Sons ofLiberty, who, unable to support British Freedom inEurope, amidst unspeakable Hazards and Perils,20 Copy of Boston Gazette version not located, text reproduced fromFreeman’s Journal, Dublin, 19 and 21 September 1771. In general theoriginal spelling, capitalisation and punctuation of Lucas’s letter havebeen retained, and while the latter may look overdone to moderneyes, it marks the rhetorical phrasing style of the period.

12


transplanted, propagated, and establishes itbeyond the Atlantic.

Every sensible Lover of Liberty, withExultation, beheld in America, the glorious Spirit ofHampden, Pym, Eliot,21 and other Heroes, of thecontentious Age of the unfortunate Charles theFirst, survive the Wreck of the BritannicConstitution. We viewed you at once, as the Schoolof Liberty and good Policy, and the Asylum of thepersecuted Sons of Freedom in Europe; insomuch,that had not the Enthusiasm of the Amor Patriaestrongly possessed my Heart, I had long sinceadded one inconsiderable Person to your Number.

Hence, you will more easily conceive, that I canexpress, the just Indignation with which I musthave seen the late wicked Stretches of invidiousPower, to overturn those Liberties, so dearlypurchased by your virtuous Ancestors; I sincerelysympathised with you, alas! I could do no more.

My virtuous fellow Subjects of America seem toknow my Heart, but not my Abilities. My muchhonoured and beloved Friends of Boston, seem toknow how I sympathized with them in particular,and have done me the Honour of imparting theirSufferings, particularly in a late Military Massacreto me, through your most worthy and muchesteemed Hands; for which, they and you, willplease to accept the most grateful and respectfulAcknowledgments of a most faithful fellow-feelingHeart, which is all that is in my poor Power to offer.

21 John Hampden (c1593-1643), John Pym (1584-1643) andJohn Eliot (1592-1632) were advocates of the rights ofparliament against perceived royal encroachment. Hampdendied in battle during the English Civil War and was regardedas an inspirational figure by the Boston patriots.

13


Had I any Influence in obviating the generalOppressions in America, the consequent cruelmilitary Execution at Boston in particular, Ishould, long since, unmoved, unsolicited by theCries of my bleeding fellow Subjects, haveinterposed and exerted my utmost Power andMeans, even at the Hazard of Life and Fortune, topreserve their Freedom and Rights, or to avengetheir Wrongs.

But, honored Gentlemen, if you were all wellacquainted with the present State andCircumstances of these Kingdoms, you could not,imagine, that a Man of my Character, though in ahigher Station, could have any sort of Weight orInfluence, in your Affairs, or even in the immediatedomestic Concerns of these Kingdoms, with thepresent Administration.

Your fatal Experience must, by this, haveconvinced you, that England never suffered undersuch a wretched, unconstitutional Administration,as the late and the present.

It is true, indeed, you have a virtuous Kingupon the Throne; but unfortunately, for us allthere is not the Appearance of one wise, one honestMan, or one true Friend of him or his Family,about him. You have the best System of Laws, thatever Mortals framed; Laws, which, if duly executed,must prove the Bond and Measure of Allegiance,the People’s sure Safeguard, and the Crown’s bestSupport. But, we see those strained, stretched anddistorted, to the manifest Prejudice, Distress andDishonour of both. And this, to serve the wickedPurposes of base, perfidious, vindictive, rapaciousMinisters. You have Rapine and Murder, not onelypardoned, but rewarded, instead of punished, and

14


Criminals and Prostitutes of the most atrociousComplexion, distinguished with Titules, andprofusely payed the Wages of Iniquity, out of theSpoils of a betrayed and plundered People. Youhave, it is true, a Parlement; but, at present, itexists in Name and Form onely, not in Essence:The vital Spring of the Constitution is poisoned inits Parlement. Open Debauchery and Corruptionare become the avowed Measures ofAdministration. The Servants and Guardians of thePeople are seduced from their Duty to their Wardand Constitutents, and set at Variance with them,by a shameful and iniquitous Profusion, or ratherProstitution of the public Treasure. Formerly, in allContests with incroaching Power, the People foundtheir onely, their never-failing Resource in a dutifuland faithful Parlement. Now, the Conflict isbetween the headless Multitude of the People andthe Ministers of the Crown, supported by aParlement, perverted from the Principles of theInstitution!

These prevailing, anti-constitutional Measures,founded in Treachery and Fraud, cannot long besupported without illicit Force. Therefore, suchForce is universally employed, or preparing for thePurpose.

One of the most determined Maxims of ourRulers seem to have always been, that Irelandshould not be permitted to enjoy any of thecommon Benefits, to which, she is equally intituledwith her Sister Kingdom. So that, when ever anygood Disposition has happened to be shewn, by theAdministration in England; we have generally beensure of the sad Reverse, in Ireland. And whatever isfound but bad, in the Administration of the one

15


Kingdom, must be found bad, in all the Extremes,in the other.

This Kingdom has long been forcibly deprivedof its legal, as well as natural Rights, and that,though to the apparent confessed Prejudice ofEngland, as well as of Ireland.

It is true, the People are still amused here, withthe Name and Appearance of a Parlement; providedit does what is directed, not else. And even the last,immediately after granting all that was asked byGovernment, including a shameful, unnecessary,disproportionate and destructive Augmentation ofthe military Establishment, and that partly to beemployed in Stations, with which, we are notpermitted to have any Intercourse; wasprorogued,22 and no Complaints or Intreaties of thePeople could since prevail, to get it re-assembled,to revive expiring Laws, to provide for the decayingTrade, Manufactures, Agriculture, Defence andSupport of the Nation. And so, the Subjects of thisKingdom cannot get their faithful and loyalParlement called, to transact the nationalBusiness; while the People of England are unableto procure the Dissolution of their Parlement, afterhaving confessedly run counter to the Laws andPrinciples of their Institution!

As for military Execution, your more immediateGrievance, it has long been carried to the greatestExcess, here. Numbers of the Subjects have,almost every where, been murdered by theSoldiery, and that with Impunity. And we hardlyever see a military Man punished, for any Offenceagainst the Civil Power. A Sheriff of the City has

22 Lord Townshend, the Lord Lieutenant, suspended the IrishParliament in 1769 because of its refusal to pass a money bill.

16


been known to be dragged through the publicStreets of this Capital, at Noon Day, during theSitting of Parlement too, by a Mob of armedSoldiers, and by them imprisoned for several Hoursin the Barrack, without any Punishment inflicted,or any Reparation for the Insult given to the CivilMagistrate. And in the Year 1765, the chief Gaol inthis City23 has been two Days, successively, brokeopen by the Soldiers, each Day openlyrendezvouzing in the Barracks, and openlymarching, armed, through the Streets; ’till on oneDay, they discharged a Criminal of their ownCorps, and on the other, upwards of seventy otherCriminals. I had the Rise and Progress of thesemilitary Riots enquired into in a Committtee of theHouse of Commons; but could never get the Reportreceived, or the Grievances laid before the Throne;nor will you wonder at it, when, by the expressOrder of Government, the Magistrates wereprohibited meddling with the military Miscreants;so that not one individual Offender suffered thesmallest Punishment, by the Civil Power.

You must now be sensible, that the ministerialPlan of Government is the despotic, which mustever rely for Support on the Military. In England,indeed, there still remains some just Aversion to anunnecessary standing Army; but the Want of Unionin religious and political Sentiments, among thePeople of this Country, has reconciled them, in agreat Measure, to military Rule, and even to themaking this Kingdom a Place of Arms: For, we nowpay Forces, little short of those of the two unitedKingdoms.24

23 Newgate Prison in Dublin.24 England and Scotland, united in 1707.

17


What Redress then, Sirs, are you to expect forGrievances in America, which are grown familiar inEngland, and almost the established, the soleMode of Government in Ireland?

Though it is the best Policy, never to despair ofthe Commonwealth; I hardly hope there is commonVirtue enough to restore the Rights, or avenge theWrongs of America, or of Ireland; in the presentAdministration, this is evident, there is neitherSense or Virtue to correct one wrong Step, theyhave taken. And therefore, I am persuaded, theywill go stumbling on, ’till they fall. But whetherthis, or the overturning the national Constitutionwill first happen, is not easily determined, atpresent.

One Thing, however, is certain, which is, that,during this detestable Administration, no Man ofCharacter can have any Influence. And thereforemy Interposition, which you are pleased to desire,can be of no further Use to your Cause, than inloudly exclaiming against your Oppressors, and inrepublishing the Narrative, you sent me, which Ihave had constantly and carefully done.25

While I thus lament the Narrowness of theProspect of your obtaining the just Redress of yourWrongs, I console myself with the Consideration,that it will never be in the Power of the mostabandoned and profligate Administration, inEurope, to inslave the loyal and brave Americans:No People ever lossed their Liberty, while they weresensible and worthy of the Blessing. You are well

25 This ends the first part of Lucas’s letter as published in theFreeman’s Journal, 19 September 1771, and the second partwhich follows was published in the next edition of the paperon 21 September 1771.

18


versed in the constitutional Rights of Englishmen,which is your sacred, unalienable Inheritance. Youjustly prize, and are therefore duly tenacious ofthis invaluable Inheritance. While England iswisely and constitutionally governed; she mustprove a tender, fond Parent and Guardian to herColonies, and she will find in them, loving anddutiful Children. But, if the Government of Britainbe once forced to run counter to the Principles ofthe Institution, and withdrawing the due parentalTenderness and Regard, and the necessaryProtection, oppresses and plunders itsDependancies; the Bond of filial Affection andDuty, as well as of Allegiance must be cancelled;the mutual Obligation being broken, on the oneSide, becomes necessarily dissolved on the other,and a virtuous Exertion of the same Spirit, whichfounded the Colonies, and a just Union ofSentiments must preserve their Freedom, againstthe most artful Machinations of wicked Ministersin Europe.

You have this further Assurance of Success, inevery loyal Effort to preserve your Freedom, thatevery Man of a free, virtuous Spirit, and of trueconstitutional Principles, is of your Side. Would Icould say, that these made the Majority, in eitherKingdom! But, alas! I cannot.

For my own Part, I look upon every Attempt toinjure the Health or invade the Liberty or Rights ofany set of Men, or even of any Individual, of whatNation or Complexion soever, in any, even theremotest Part of the Dominions of the Crown, as anAssault upon the whole Constitution, as a Woundgiven the Body Politic, dangerous, not onely to theMembers, but to the Head itself.

19


These have always been my invariablePrinciples. And this Doctrine, I have everinculcated, though to my own unspeakableDetriment.

One of the many violent Shocks given to theConstitution of this Kingdom, was levelled at me.And that, onely for asserting the Rights andLiberties of the Subject, upon these Principles.

A corrupt, unconstitutional, perpetualParlement, without being able to prove, or evenattempting to prove, any other Crime; for these,voted me an Enemy to my Country, and orderedme to Prison, and to further Prosecution, in theYear 1749; purely to prevent my Election intoParlement for the Metropolis, then agreed upon bythe Electors.26 And though a righteous Attorney-general refused to support the illicit Prosecution,asserting, that he found nothing, in the Papers,written, published, and conscious of Innocence andLoyalty, delivered to Government by me, whichwere the Charges against me, contrary to Law;Recourse was had to the Star-chamber Practice,since revived in England, of filing an Informationagainst me, in the King’s bench, and blackeningthe most lawful Sentences and Expressions, withthe most false, strained Constructions, andcriminating Innuendos.

When the Cruelty of my Persecutors was such,that I could not obtain an Apartment, which I hadpreviously engaged for me, in the common Gaol,and that the just Resentment of my Fellow citizenswas likely to cause much civil Bloodshed, byprepared, irresistible military Force; I had Recourse

26 See Murphy, A Forgotten Patriot Doctor: Charles Lucas, page42.

20


to England, to make the melancholy Case knownthere, in Hopes of Redress; but there alas! I foundall Access to the Throne totally obstructed, ’till hispresent Majesty’s Regne; nor could I obtain thesmallest Countenance, from the Councils of thegreat City, though I layed a full State of theseGrievances before them, in a dedicatory Address tothe Corporation, delivered first in my own Hand-writing, and afterwards in Print, to the Lord Mayor,first, and afterwards to the Recorder and Sheriffs,in the Year 1751.27

But, my Persecutors, not contented withhaving thus banished me, to prevent my Electioninto Parlement, resolved totally to extinguish theconstitutional Spirit of Liberty, I had raised;therefore, the whole Weight of Government wasopposed to the Election of the two Candidates, setup, upon my Principles. One of them, however,carried his Election, by a very great Majority; yet,was he rejected, in the House of Commons, and hisAntagonist established in one of the Seats of theMetropolis in Parlement, regardless of the generalSense, and Voice of the Majority of the Electors.28

Had the noble Spirit, which now seems toactuate the best Part of the People of England, thenprevaled; this Violation of the Rights of Election inIreland, had not stood a Precedent for the lateViolations in England.

It is, however, some Satisfaction to find thePeople improve in a Sense of Virtue and publicSpirit; and it must certainly be our own Fault, if wesuffer this Spirit to be extinguished, or even to

27 See Murphy, A Forgotten Patriot Doctor: Charles Lucas, page50.28 See same, page 44.

21


subside, until ample Justice is done to all thesuffering Subjects, until the Britannic Constitutionis revived and re-established, throughout theremotest Dominions of the Crown.

Those, who contend for this, can alone bejustly called, the true Friends of their Country ortheir King. His Interest can be but one and thesame with that of his Subjects. Those, who attemptto set up a separate Interest, between the King andhis People, or between any one Part of hisDominions and another, are the worst and mostdangerous Enemies of all. And those, who mostzelously contend for the Rights and Privileges of theSubject, upon the Principles and Spirit of the Lawsand the Constitution, must prove in the End, thebest Support of the Crown. And I pray, that Heavenmay preserve the Life of our present Soveregne, ’tillhe becomes convinced of these important Truths,and able to distinguish his real and true from thepretended and false Friends, that surround him.Then, may we hope to see wicked Ministersremoved from the King’s Councils and Presence,and his Throne established in Righteousness, uponthe onely permanent Foundation, the Hearts of abrave, loyal and free People.

This, I must be persuaded, is all that America,all that Ireland or Great Britain can wish; and inthese happy Purposes, none can more heartilyconcur, than,

Honored Gentlemen,Your most affectionate Fellow-Subject, and most faithful andmost obliged, Humble Servant,

Dublin, Sept. 1, 1770. C. Lucas

22

A Letter to the BostonMassacre Committee 1770

As discontent with British rule in the Americancolonies grew in the 1760s, Irish radicals likeCharles Lucas (1713-1771) naturally felt sympathyfor the Americans and considered that they shared acommon cause. In the wake of the infamous ‘BostonMassacre’, when British soldiers shot dead fivecivilians on the night of 5 March 1770, the citizensappointed a committee composed of James Bowdoin,Dr Joseph Warren and Samuel Pemberton, whosetask was to promulgate the town’s view of thekillings and to counter pro-military accounts beingsent back to Britain. Lucas was among those to whom the committeesent their account of the Massacre, which the Irishpatriot arranged to have reprinted in Dublin in 1770.In the same year Lucas sent a sympathetic letter inreply to the Bostonians in which he stated that‘having first been suffered to be exercised withImpunity and Success, in the more remote Parts ofthe Territories’, tyranny ‘soon after easily over-ranand subdued the whole State’. Lucas declared furtherthat if the Government of Britain should oppress andplunder its dependencies, ‘the Bond of filialAffection and Duty, as well as of Allegiance must becancelled’. Lucas’s interesting but little-known 1770letter to the Boston Massacre Committee, one of hislast compositions, is now reprinted in full here fromthe pages of the Freeman’s Journal as acontribution to the commemoration of thetercentenary of his birth.

Centre for Irish Genealogical and Historical StudiesCarraig, Cliff Road, Windgates, Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland

A Letter to the Boston Massacre Committee 1770homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/epubs/lucasboston.pdfA Letter to the Boston Massacre Committee Lucas ˇs interestingbut little-known

Documents