the Disposal of our Property. We are told that our Demand is unreasonable, that our Assemblies may indeed collect our Money, but that they must at the same Time offer, not what your Exigencies or ours may require, but so much as shall be deemed sufficient to satisfy the Desires of a Minister and enable him to provide for Favourites and Dependants. A Recurrence to your own Treasury will convince you how little of the Money already extorted from us has been applied to the Relief of your Burthens. To suppose that we would thus grasp the Shadow and give up the Substance, is adding Insult to Injuries. We have nevertheless again presented an humble and dutiful Petition to our Sovereign, and to remove every imputation of Obstinacy, have requested his Majesty to direct some Mode, by which the united Applications of his faithful Colonists may be improved into a happy and permanent Reconciliation. We are willing to treat on such Terms as can alone render an accommodation lasting, and we flatter ourselves that our pacific Endeavours will be attended with a removal of ministerial Troops, and a repeal of those Laws, of the Operation of which we complain, on the one part, and a disbanding of our Army, and a dissolution of our commercial Associations, on the other. Yet conclude not from this that we propose to surrender our Prop- · erty into the Hands of your Ministry, or vest your Parliament with a Power which may terminate in our Destruction. The great Bulwarks of our Constitution we have desired to maintain by every temperate, by every peaceable Means; but your Ministers (equal Foes to British and American freedom) have added to their former Oppressions an Attempt to reduce us by the Sword to a base and abject submission. On the Sword, therefore, we are compelled to rely for Protection. Should Victory declare in your Favour, yet Men trained to Arms from their Infancy, and animated by the Love of Liberty, will afford neither a cheap or easy Conquest. Of this at least we are assured, that our Struggle will be glorious, our Success certain; since even in Death we shall find that Freedom which in Life you forbid us to enjoy. Let us now ask what Advantages are to attend our Reduction? the Trade of a ruined and desolate Country is always inconsiderable, its Revenue trifling; the Expence of subjecting and retaining it in subjection certain and inevitable. What then remains but the gratification of an ill-judged Pride, or the hope of rendering us subservient to designs on your Liberty. Soldiers who have sheathed their Swords in the Bowels of their American Brethren, will not draw them with more reluctance against you. When too late you may lament the loss of that freedom, which we exhort you, while still in your Power, to preserve. On the other hand, should you prove unsuccessful; should that Connexion, which we most ardently wish to maintain, be dissolved; should your Ministers exhaust your Treasures and waste the Blood of your Countrymen in vain Attempts on our Liberty; do they not deliver you, weak and defenceless, to your natural Enemies? Since then your Liberty must be the price of your Victories; your Ruin, of your Defeat: What blind Fatality can urge you to a pursuit destructive of all that Britons hold dear? If you have no regard to the Connexion that has for Ages subsisted between us; if you have forgot the Wounds we have received fighting by your Side for the extention of the Empire; if our Commerce is not an object below your consideration; if Justice and Humanity have lost their influence on your Hearts; still Motives are not wanting to excite your Indignation at the Measures now pursued; Your Wealth, your Honour, your Liberty are at Stake. Notwithstanding the Distress to which we are reduced, we sometimes forget our own Afflictions, to anticipate and sympathize in yours. We grieve that rash and inconsiderate Councils should precipitate the destruction of an Empire, which has been the envy and admiration of Ages, and call God to witness! that we would part with our Property, endanger our Lives, and sacrifice every thing but Liberty, to redeem you from ruin. A Cloud hangs over your Heads and ours; 'ere this reaches you, it may probably burst upon us; let us then (before the remembrance of former Kindness is obliterated) once more repeat those Appellations which are ever grateful in our Ears; let us entreat Heaven to avert our Ruin, and the Destruction that threatens our Friends, Brethren and Countrymen, on the other side of the Atlantic. Ordered, That the Address be published and a number of them sent by M: Penn to England.1 The Letter to the Lord Mayor, &c., being read again and debated, was approved, and is as follows: MY LORD, Permitt the Delegates of the people of twelve antient colonies, to pay y' Lordship, and the very respectable body of which you are head, 1This address was printed as a Postscript to the Pennsylvania Packet, 17 July, 1775. the just tribute of gratitude and thanks, for the virtuous and unsolicited resentment you have shewn to the violated rights of a free people. The city of London, my Lord, having in all ages, approved itself the patron of liberty, and the support of just government, against lawless tyranny and oppression, cannot fail to make us deeply sensible of the powerful aid, our cause must receive from such advocates. A cause, my Lord, worthy the support of the first city in the world, as it involves the fate of a great continent, and threatens to shake the foundations of a flourishing, and, until lately, a happy empire. North America, my Lord, wishes most ardently for a lasting connection with Great Britain on terms of just and equal liberty; less than which generous minds will not offer, nor brave and free ones be willing to receive. A cruel war has at length been opened agst us, and whilst we prepare to defend ourselves like the descendants of Britons, we still hope that the mediation of wise and good citizens, will at length prevail over despotism, and restore harmony and peace, on permanent principles, to an oppressed and divided empire. We have the honor to be, my Lord, Signed by order of the Congress, JOHN HANCOCK Ordered, That the above Letter be fairly transcribed, and signed by the president, and sent by M: Penn. The Committee appointed to prepare a letter to M: Penn and the Colony Agents, bro! in the same, which being read was approved: GENTLEMEN, The perseverence of the British ministry in their unjust and cruel system of colony administration, has occasioned the meeting of another Congress. We have again appealed to the justice of our sovereign for protection agst the destruction which his Ministers meditate for his American subjects. This Petition to his Majesty you will please, Gentlemen, to present to the King with all convenient expedition, after which we 1This letter was printed in the Pennsylvania Packet, 11 December, 1775. desire it may be given to the public. We likewise send you our second application to the equity and interest of our fellow subjects in G B, and also a Declaration setting forth the causes of our taking up arms: Both which we wish may be immediately put to press, and communicated as universally as possible. The Congress entertain the highest sense of the wise and worthy interposition of the Lord Mayor and Livery of London, in favour of injured America. They have expressed this, their sense, in a letter to his Lordship and the livery, which we desire may be presented in the manner most agreeable to that respectable body. You will oblige us, Gentlemen, by giving the most early information to the Congress, and to the speakers of our respective assemblies, of your proceeding in this business, and such further intelligence as you may judge to be of importance to America in this great contest. We are, with great regard, gentlemen, y' most obedient and very humble servts By order of the Congress, [JOHN HANCOCK, Pres.] Ordered, That the above be fairly transcribed, and to be signed by the pres', and then by him sent under cover, with the petition to the King, and address to the Inhabitants of G B, and letter to the L Mayor of London to R[ichard] Penn, Esq and to request him, in behalf of the Congress, to join with the Colony Agents in presenting the petition to the King. Order of the day put off, and adjourned till Monday at 9 o'clock.1 MONDAY, JULY 10, 1775 The Congress met according to adjournment. It being suggested, that there was a gentleman in town well acquainted with the situation and disposition of the Indians, A letter from General Schuyler, dated June 30, was received by express and read this day. The letter is in Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 153, I, folio 10. On motion, that he be introduced; he was introduced accordingly. After he withdrew, The Committee appointed to prepare proper talks to the Indians reported the same, which was read. The Committee appointed to devise ways and means for putting the militia in a proper state of defence, brought in their report, which was read. M: [John] Alsop informed the Congress that he had an Invoice of Indian goods, which a gentleman in this town had delivered to him and which the s Gentleman was willing to dispose of to the Congress. Ordered that M P[hilip] Livingston, M [Patrick] Henry and M [John] Alsop be a Committee to examine s Invoice and report to the Congress. The Congress resumed the consideration of the Committee respecting the Militia, and after some debate the same was deferred till to Morrow. The order of the day put off, and the Congress adjourned till to Morrow. TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1775 The Congress met according to adjournment. The report of the Committee on Indian Affairs was resumed and, after some debate, the same was deferred till to Morrow. On Information that there were two companies of rifflemen raised in Lancaster instead of one, Resolved, That both the companies be taken into the continental service. On motion, Resolved, That the delegates from Pensylvania have liberty to treat with and employ 50 Hussars, who have been in actual service, and send them forward to join the troops before Boston under Gen! Washington. |