Instead of the Braunian Experiment or any other philosophical Disquisitions which used to be the subject of the Correspondence with which you have honored me, this Letter must contain an Address to you humbly to request your kind Assistance in the Exculpation of my Reputation from an Aspersion unjustly cast upon it. I am now on a Journey and visit to my friends in Connecticut. In Narrag[ansett] I was informed by a Friend and a Gentleman of Verity that Mr. Johnston, the Stamp Distributor for Rh[ode] Is[land] in the Letter he had written to the Lords of the Treasury, had mentioned my Name and represented me as one concerned in the Mob and Violences which deforced his Resignation. Upon which I thot necessary [to] exhibit the following Detail, and to request your kind Improvement of it in my favour if you should judge it necessary.
I have from first to last been steadily against all Violences, in opposing the Stamp Act, and had often so fully expressed myself to this Effect that I little thot to have been accused in this Manner. For several years there has been Talk of the Revocation of the Charters—and tho’ I have often expressed a high sense of the Value of Charter Liberty &c yet I often said years ago if the King and parl[iament] should dissolve them I would be still a loyal subject and submit to a Change of Gov[ernmen]t. Before the Stamp Act past, and when we first received the Resolves of the parl[iamen]t tho’ it appeared to me a heavy Grievance as it did to all America and to the London Merchants, yet in Conversation I always declared freely that if it past I would submit. After it was past, I frequently talkt against the Folly of Resistance by force and said that however others conducted, I would continue loyal and submit. These were my sentiments and purposes from the beginning. The Week before the Mob at Newport, being invited to dine with a Number of Gent[lemen] the Stamp Act being the univ[ersal] subject of Conversation, I declared my Sentiments as above, alledging these three Reasons amongst others. 1. The Impossib[ilit]y of american Resistance. 2. That however severe the present Measures, yet in Time the Parliament might become more friendly disposed. And. 3. We could not expect a more deplorable situation than Judea which in the Time of Christ was a Province under a heavy Tribute to the Roman Senate; and that as a Christian I thot it our duty to observe the Spirit of the precept of our Savior Render unto Caesar &c. All this preceded the violences and Mob in Newport of the 29th of August last, of which I had not the least Apprehension or Expectation, It is to be considered that for several years the Episcopalians in Rh[ode] Is[land] have conceived a Disgust against me on account of Ecclesiastical Matters, and have often vilified my Character. Before the Effigies were burnt at Newport, the last Effort to prevent it was [to] render it popularly obnoxious by casting it On the Presbyterians, and on that Occasion my Name was brot in. I immediately disclaimed having any Concern in that Affair. However the Episco[palians] and none else continued and propagated the popular Aspersion, especially after the Violences of the Mob, which they, but no one else in Town affected to charge to my Account. For some Days I regarded it as a Malicious Rumor that would pass off. At length however I determined to exculpate myself by waiting on the heads of the Ch[urc]h expostulating with them and declaring that their suspicions were groundless, and also to publ[ish] a Vind[icatio]n in the pub[lic] prints. I accord[ingl]y among others waited on Mr. Johnston and Mr. Honyman—after conversing with Mr. Johnston and declaring on my honour that I had no hand in either the Mob or Effigies he frankly told me that he never thot I had, nay that he knew I had not, and that he well knew who had. I then told him explicitly that I detested all Mobs, and judged all Violences in resisting the Stamp Act unlawful. The Same Declara[tion] I made to Mr. Honyman, who said he did not doubt the Report would subside and die away, and advised me not to write or publish any Thing about it in the prints. I had however drawn up a Declaration to the Follow[in]g Purport.