"Resolved, That it be recommended to the different assemblies, conventions and committees or councils of safety in the united colonies, by the most speedy and effectual measures to frustrate the mischievous machinations, and restrain the wicked practices of these men: and it is the opinion of this congress, that they ought to be disarmed, and the more dangerous among them either kept in safe custody, or bound with sufficient sureties to their good behaviour.

"And in order that the said assemblies, conventions, committees or councils of safety may be enabled with greater ease and facility to carry this resolution into execution,

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Resolved, That they be authorized to call to their aid whatever continental troops, stationed in or near their respective colonies, may be conveniently spared from their more immediate duty; and the commanding officers of such troops are hereby directed to afford the said assemblies, conventions, committees or councils of safety all such assistance in executing this resolution, as they may require, and which, consistent with the good of the service, may be supplied.

"Resolved, That all detachments of continental troops, which may be ordered on the business in the foregoing resolution mentioned, be, while so employed, under the direction and control of the assemblies, conventions, committees or councils of safety afore

"Resolved, That it be recommended to all the united colonies, to aid each other (on request from their respective assemblies, conventions, committees, or councils of safety and county committees) on every emergency, and to cultivate, cherish and increase the present happy and necessary union, by a continual interchange of mutual good offices.

"And whereas the execrable barbarity, with which this unhappy war has been conducted on the part of our enemies, such as burning our defenceless towns and villages, exposing their inhabitants, without regard to sex or age, to all the misery which loss of property, the rigor of the season, and inhuman devastation can inflict, exciting domestic insurrections and murders, bribing savages to desolate our frontiers, and casting such of us as the fortune of war has put in their power, into goals, there to languish in irons and in want, compelling the inhabitants of Boston, in violation of the treaty, to remain confined within the town, exposed to the insolence of the soldiery, and other enormities, at the mention of which decency and humanity will ever blush, may justly provoke the inhabitants of these colonies to retaliate,

"Resolved, That it be recommended to them to continue mindful that humanity ought to distinguish the brave, that cruelty should find no admission among a free people, and to take care that no page in the annals of America be stained by a recital of any action which justice or christianity may condemn, and to rest assured that whenever retaliation may be neces

cused of any offence-these tyrannical and cruel impositions were felt by the whole as aggressions on each, and by general consent the memorable congress of 1774 was assembled.

The business of this meeting of delegates was not to prepare for war, but by pacific consultation and explanations, to produce a restoration of tranquillity and good understanding. The fervent loyalty which breathes in their eloquent addresses to the king, the British people, and their fellow subjects in the colonies, and the entire absence of all hints at any intention of resistance, shew the purposes for which they considered themselves brought together.

There could not have been a fairer experiment made of the efficacy of humble petitions to the royal government, and of affectionate appeals to the people of England. And no experiment, begun with such rational prospect of at least partial success, could have terminated in a more total failure.

Mr. Lewis Morris was not a member of this Congress. He was too decided and zealous an assertor of the rights of the colonies, and too bold a declaimer against the arbitrary acts of the ministry. The object at this time was peace, to be secured by compromise, and too rigid an adherence to the rights of the colonists, or too warm an expression of the sentiments which the conduct of the government could not fail to excite, might mar the scheme of pacification.

The entire indifference with which the representations of this Congress were received in England,

and the manifestations of a determined perseverance on the part of the ministry, convinced the greater part of the colonists that something more vigorous must be done than the issuing of humble memorials.

The choice of delegates to the Congress of the succeeding year, was governed in a considerable degree by different principles, and men of less timid disposition, and more enthusiastic spirit, were in many cases substituted for more cautious and more loyal predecessors.

The bloody skirmish, sometimes called the battle, at Lexington, had occurred just in time to infuse fresh ardour into the hearts of the New York convention of deputies, which on the twenty-second of April, 1775, assembled for the purpose of choosing delegates to the general Congress; and under the influence of this feeling they chose Mr. Morris as one of them; an appointment which he proceeded to fulfil, on the fifteenth of May, when he took his seat.

In the proceedings of the previous Congress, the olive branch alone was discernible-humility, loyalty, patient suffering was the only boast;-now the tone appears somewhat changed, the sword is shown, undrawn, in one hand: the olive branch still held in the other loyalty was still the profession and de;voted attachment to the king, but these sentiments are curiously blended with an acknowledgment that reconciliation may not be possible, and recommendations to prepare for war. This mixture of affectionate fidelity to the king, with bitter complaints against

his ministers, and a stern resolution to defend themselves, is strikingly exemplified in the following resolutions, which were adopted very early in the session.

"That his majesty's most faithful subjects in these colonies are reduced to a dangerous and critical situation, by the attempts of the British ministry to carry into execution, by force of arms, several unconstitutional and oppressive acts of the British parliament for laying taxes in America; to enforce the collection of those taxes, and for altering and changing the constitution and internal police of some of these colonies, in violation of the natural and civil rights of the colonists.

"Hostilities being actually commenced in the Massachusetts Bay, by the British troops under the command of general Gage, and the lives of a number of the inhabitants of that colony destroyed, the town of Boston having not only been long occupied as a garrisoned town in an enemy's country, but the inhabitants thereof treated with a severity and cruelty not to be justified even towards declared enemies; large reenforcements too being ordered and soon expected, for the declared purpose of compelling these colonies to submit to the operation of the said acts; that therefore, for the express purpose of securing and defending these colonies, and preserving them in safety against all attempts to carry the said acts into execution by force of arms, these colonies be immediately put into a state of defence.