previous next
[166] of redress, having been read, it was Voted, that the Selectmen be desired to answer said letter, and express the attachment of this town to the present constitution and administration of government, and also to express our aversion to use any irregular means for compassing an end which the constitution has already provided for, as we know of no grievances the present system of government is inadequate to redress. Voted, that the above mentioned letter, signed by John Nutting and directed to the Selectmen of this town, be printed, together with their answer, and that the Selectmen cause the same to be done.

The letter and reply were accordingly printed in the “Boston Independent Chronicle,” July 27, 1786, as follows:—

To the Selectmen of Cambridge. Gentlemen, We, the committees chose by the several towns hereafter mentioned, viz. Groton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend, and Ashby, met at Groton the 29th day of June, 1786, to consult upon matters of public grievances; and after appointing a chairman for that day, it was thought best to notify all the towns in this county to meet by their committees, at the house of Capt. Brown, innholder in Concord, on the 23d day of August next, to consult upon matters of public grievances and embarrassments that the people of this Commonwealth labor under, and to find out means of redress, &c. By order of the committee: John Nutting, Chairman. Groton, July 19. 1786. N. B. It is expected that a committee front the Convention that is to set in Worcester County, the 15th of August, will attend.

To Capt. John Nutting, Pepperell, &c., &c. Cambridge, 24th July, 1786. Sir, Your letter, dated June 29, 1786, desiring the concurrence of this town in a proposed Convention, for the redress of grievances, we have received and laid before the inhabitants at a meeting. Agreeably to their request, we shall give you their sentiments on the subject. The government under which we live, the government which we have expended much blood and treasure to establish, we conceive to be founded on the most free principles which are consistent with the being of any government at all. The constitution has provided for the annual choice of every branch of the Legislature, and that the people in the several towns may assemble to deliberate on public grievances, and to instruct their Representatives. By annual elections there are frequent opportunities to change the Representatives, if their conduct is disapproved. Of what use then a Convention can be, without authority to call for information, and without


Boston. Houghton and Mifflin. 1877.

Tufts University provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)
hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
John Nutting (3)
Mary Pepperell (2)
William Blair Townsend (1)
Shirley (1)
Chairman (1)
William Brown (1)
Ashby (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
June 29th, 1786 AD (2)
July 27th, 1786 AD (1)
July 24th, 1786 AD (1)
July 19th, 1786 AD (1)
August 23rd (1)
August 15th (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: