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Dr. Church's traitorous letter to the British... General Lee's letter to General Burgoyne...

Item # 703299

January 04, 1776

NEW ENGLAND CHRONICLE OR THE ESSEX GAZETTE, Cambridge, Jan. 4, 1776 See the nice engraving in the masthead.
Fully two-thirds of the front page is taken up with a lengthy & detailed: "Letter from General Lee to General Burgoyne" datelined: "camp on Prospect Hill, Dec. 1, 1775". The letter includes in part: "As I am just informed you are ready to embark for England...An opportunity is now presented of immortalizing yourself as the saviour of your country. the whole British empire stands tottering on the brink of ruin & you have it in your power to prevent the fatal catastrophe...You ask me in your letter if it is independence at which the Americans aim? I answer no, the idea never entered a single American's head until a most intolerable oppression forced it upon them. All they required was to remain masters of their own property...You ask whether it is the weight of taxes of which they complain? I answer no, it is the principle they combat..." with much more. It is signed at the conclusion: C. Lee.
This letter is of significance, having a web page of its own.
Page 2 has reports from Charleston relating to the war, followed by items from Williamsburg concerning war events, plus 2 letters from Great Bridge, near Norfolk, Virginia, just before the notable Battle of Great Bridge plus another letter from Great Bridge shortly after the battle.
Page 3 has a column of reports from London, mostly taken up with reports concerning the Revolutionary War. But of major significance is over a column taken up with: "...a copy of Dr. Church's much-talked-of traitorous letter to a ministerial officer in Boston, dated July 23, 1775". This was a notable event in the early days of the Revolutionary War. Dr. Benjamin Church was active in Boston's Sons of Liberty movement in the years before the war. However, early in the American Revolution, Church was also sending secret information to General Gage, the British commander, and when one of his letters to Boston was intercepted, he was tried and convicted of "communicating with the enemy".
In July, 1775, Church had sent a cipher letter addressed to a Major Cane, a British officer in Boston, through a former mistress. The letter was intercepted by another of the woman's ex-lovers, and was sent to Washington in September. When two teams of gentlemen decoded it, they found it contained an account of the American forces before Boston, though no disclosures of great importance. It did, however, declare Church's devotion to the Crown (credit Wikipedia). Note the closing sentence in his letter: "Make use of every precaution, or I perish."
Following this are additional items concerning the war.
Four pages, never-trimmed margins, good condition.