Context: War had started, at Lexington and Concord, on 19 April 1775. The Siege of Boston began too, with the Patriot colonists taking over the city, and seizing ships offshore...
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The father of Edward Rutledge (Wikipedia here) was from somewhere in Ulster, probably Co Tyrone. The family were likely to have been Border Reiver Routledges. He emigrated to South Carolina in 1735.
Edward was born there in 1749. He was elected to the South Carolina General Assembly, and was later sent as a South Carolina delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
While there, Edward wrote to fellow South Carolina Assembly member Thomas Bee (Wikipedia here), about the recent seizure of letters on a ship that arrived at Boston from Ireland. These letters revealed remarkable detail about British Army recruitment efforts there. Check this out (the bulleting format is mine, to hopefully help with accessibility) –
November 25th, 1775.
I should have done myself the pleasure of writing to you by the return of the express, but was so ill at that time, that I found it impossible. I am now much better, but still greatly distressed with a cough, which I see no prospect of getting rid of till I bend my course to a warmer and better climate. — So much for myself.Some time last summer, the officers at Boston fitted out a large schooner, and despatched her to Ireland for a supply of tongues, wines, &c.;On her return a few days ago, she was intercepted by one of our armed vessels in continental pay, and brought into harbour, with all her prog, and an abundance of letters from gentlemen in Ireland to their friends in Boston. These letters have been opened, and have afforded much amusement and some intelligence —We find by them,
• that the administration are determined, at all events, to attempt the reduction of America,
• that Boston will be made strong by twenty-two or twenty-five thousand men, in the course of next winter and spring;
• that Lord Kenmare has added to the king's bounty, that of ten and sixpence per man, for all who shall enlist under Major Roche; that the city of Cork has followed the example, but more extensively;
• that Lord Bellamont has the direction of the recruiting parties in that part of the kingdom; that the Roman Catholic priests have been applied to, to stimulate their flocks against us, which they have promised to do if the regiments to be raised be officered by gentlemen of their religious persuasion; in short,
• that all the powers of hell are to be let loose upon us.
On the other hand, intelligence, by the same conveyance, informs us:
• that all the whigs in the kingdom, (a very few excepted) are warmly interested in our cause,
• that the common people are not less well affected;
• that several towns have resolved not to permit any officers to recruit amongst them, and have destroyed the drums of those who have been hardy enough to attempt it; and
• that the dislike to the service is so great and so general, that those employed therein meet with little or no success...
The letter continues with Rutledge's thoughts on how events were shaping up in America:
"... we have lived in so unsettled a condition, for such a length of time, that I now wish to fight it fairly out, and either establish a connexion consistent with the principles of liberty, and placed upon a permanent basis, or have nothing more to do with them;— the latter I think most likely to be the case.
The destruction of our towns, and the wanton manner in which it has been effected, a mode of warfare totally exploded among civilized nations, give us little reason to think that they will attempt to make peace; indeed if it be not soon set about, it will be in vain to wish for it for a long while; the minds of the people will be so inflamed by the acts of cruelty hitherto exercised, and daily committing against them, that they will not endure a connexion with men of such savage dispositions."
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