Date: September 24, 1774
“Messieurs Printers, -As I have been informed that the conduct of some few persons of the Episcopal denomination, in maintaining principles inconsistent with the rights and liberties of mankind, has given offence to some of the jealous friends of this country, I think myself obliged to publish the following extract of a letter, dated Sept. 9, 1774, which I received from my worthy and patriotic friend, Mr. Samuel Adams, a member of the congress. now sitting in Philadelphia, by which it appears, that, however injudicious some individuals may have been, the gentlemen of the Established Church of England are men of the most just and liberal sentiments, and are high in the esteem of the most sensible and resolute defenders of the rights of the people of this continent.
And I earnestly request my countrymen to avoid every thing which our enemies may make use of to prejudice our Episcopal brethren against us, by representing us as disposed to disturb them in the free exercise of their religious privileges, to which we know they have the most undoubted claim, and which, from a real regard to the honor and interest of my country and the rights of mankind, I hope they will enjoy unmolested as long as the name of America is known in the world.
J. Warren”
Source: Boston Gazette, September 24, 1774. Full text published in Richard Frothingham, Life and Times of Joseph Warren. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1865, p. 380.
Commentary: Joseph Warren, designated to act as president pro tem of the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress, broke an understanding with the Continental Congress delegates to keep detailed proceedings of the latter body a secret. He judged actions at the Congress in Philadelphia, those supporting tolerance and inclusion of sympathetic Church of England adherents to the Patriot cause, of sufficient importance to publicize to the Boston and Massachusetts public.
The specific action in Congress, prompted by the invitation of Samuel Adams, was the dramatic convocation of that body on September 7, 1774, by Rev. Jacob Duché (1737-1798), rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia. Ironically Duché abandoned the Patriot cause during the ensuing Revolutionary War.
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