MERCY WARREN (1728-1814). Autograph letter signed, dated Plimouth, NE [New England], 29 December 1774, to Catharine Macaulay.

In this letter to Macaulay, Warren described the impact that the closing of the port of Boston and the passing of the Coercive Acts had on the Massachusetts Bay Colony, her home. These actions by the British Parliament, she wrote, "reduced the province to a State of Nature."

Warren also noted that the Continental Congress had held its first session and the colonists were adhering to its resolutions. But despite "the peculiar circumstances of the times," many colonists remained loyal to their mother country.

[T]ho America stands armed with resolution & virtue, she still recoils at the thought of drawing the sword against the state from whence she derived her origen [sic].