nd occupying the highest posts of honor and influence.

The gentleman who obtained these letters and showed them to Franklin,
was very unwilling to have his agency in the affair made public. After
much solicitation, he consented to have Franklin send the letters to
America, though he would not give permission to have any copies taken.
It was his hope, that the letters would calm the rising animosity in
America, by showing that the British ministry was pursuing a course of
menace, which many of the most distinguished Americans declared to be
essential, to save the country from anarchy and ruin. Franklin's
object was to cause these traitorous office-holders to be ejected from
their positions of influence, that others, more patriotic, might
occupy the stations which they disgraced.

On the 2d of December, 1772, Franklin inclosed the letters in an
official package, directed to Thomas Cushing. He wrote,

"I am not at liberty to make the letters public. I can only
allow them to be seen by yourself, by the other gentlemen of
the Committee of Correspondence, by Messrs. Bowdoin and
Pitts of the Council, and Drs. Chauncy, Cooper, and
Winthrop, and a few such other gentlemen as you may think
fit to show them to. After being some months in your
possession, you are requested to return them to me."

The reading of the letters created intense anger and disgust. John
Adams, after perusing them, recorded in his diary, alluding to
Hutchinson, "Cool, thinking deliberate villain, malicious and
vindictive." He carried the documents around to read to all his male
and female friends, and was not sparing in his vehement comments.

Again he wrote, "Bone of our bone; born and educated among us! Mr.
Hancock is deeply affected; is determined, in conjunction with Major
Hawley, to watch the vile serpent, and his deputy, Brattle. The
subtlety of this serpent is equal to that of the old one."

For two months the letters were privately yet extensively circulated.
Hutchinson himself soon found out the storm which was gathering
against him. The hand-writing of all the writers was known. In June,
the Massachusetts Assembly met. In secret session the letters were
read. Soon some copies were printed. It was said that some one had
obtained, from England, copies of the letters from which the printed
impressions were taken. But the mystery of their publication was never
solved.

The Assembly sent a petition to the kin