[Extract]
My dear Sir,
During the long Period that I have been absent from Virginia I have not had the pleasure [of] a Line from you, nor indeed from any one of my Friends in York, Wiliiamsburg or Gloster. I am willing to impute this to Accident and the Interruption to Communication between this place and the Continent. That Interruption is now likely to be greater than ever, as we have had an authentic Copy of the Act of parliament prohibiting all Trade and Intercourse whatsoever with any of the united Colonies, and subjecting all vessels to forfeiture for a Breach thereof. God knows what infatuated Blindness prevails among a set of Men who seem to have resigned the important Interest of the British Nation, to the Calls of Ambition and the Considerations of Conquest. By this act all American property is to be considered in the same Light as that of an open and declared Enemy. Is not this enough to drive them to adopt the Character they impose upon them? I must acknowledge myself as blind as they are, if by such Measures they do not endanger the very Existence of the British Empire, which if once dismembered of so valuable a Branch as the American Colonies must soon dwindle: loose it's Importance in the political Scale of Europe & perhaps finally become a Province of some of those Powers which she scarcely considered as formidable Rivals whilst her united and Collected Strength remained. Every Friend to his')Country and it's Constitution must survey with Horror the Approaching Scene of Bloodshed and Devastation ー The once happy people of Gr: Britain and America instead of cooperating with each other for the mutual Interest of both Countries, are now about to imbue their hands in the Blood of those whom they once regarded as parents. Brethern and Friends ー The Genius of Commerce is put to flight by ,the Din of Arms, and the rustic allarmed at the sound of the martial Trumpet quits his plough and brandishes the sword .... Are the people of this Island and the rest of the West Indies to be sacrificed to the Ambition of [illegible] Minister and a corrupt parliament? Or is this blood to be received as an expiatory offering for the Lives of a People over whom Councils or Conduct they have neither power nor Influence? ... Hitherto, the Hand of Providence has indulgently supplied us with a sufficiency for our subsistence ー But at present there is not a morsal of Provisions to be sold in the whole Island except a few thousand Bushells of Wheat which were sent here in Consequence of the Scheme I mentioned, and which were prevented from being exported by an Act of the Legislature ー The people, however, have no other Means of manufacturing it but by grinding in hand Mills, so that the expedient must be wretched on any other occasion ー When that is consumed, as we have no prospect of any further supplies we must resign ourselves to our cruel Fate and perish in the Arms of each other. The Tortures of the Rack must be more tollerable than a scene of such universal Distress. May propitious heaven avert it! but I fear the deadly blow is inevitable ....
St: George Tucker Bermuda March 31st. 1776 The Honourable John Page Esquire, One of the Members of the Council of safety for the Colony of Virginia. via South Carolina.
