'Dear General,

'We have been so baffled by the weather, that we only arrived here last night. I believe we shall find no difficulties in procuring a sufficient body of volunteers for the New York expedition. The unhappy accounts from Canada seem to animate these people, rather than depress them. We have now occasion for exertion and decision. I am apprehensive that the Congress must be inspired by you. They have just given a strong, and, I think, unfortunate instance of indecision. Colonel Waterberry had raised a regiment. The regiment was equipped and ready for embarcation. They were to have landed in Oyster Bay, and to have attacked the tories on Long Island. Lord Stirling was to have attacked them on the other side, all this by order of Congress; when suddenly Colonel Waterberry received an order to disband his regiment, and the tories are to remain unmolested, till they are joined by the King's assassins. Governor Trumbull, like a man of sense and spirit, has ordered this regiment to be reassembled. I believe it will be ready on Sunday, the day on which I shall march from this town.

'I shall send immediately an express to the Congress, informing them of my situation, and at the same time conjuring them, not to suffer the accursed provincial Congress of New York to defeat measures, so absolutely necessary to our salvation. The affairs of Canada I suppose will very soon, if not instantly, require a very considerable force from this province. Neither will the circumstances of New York admit of its being too much stripped of men, for which reason I should think it advisable, immediately, to raise some additional regiments in Massachusetts Bay. Adieu, dear General; God prosper you, and the arms of virtue. Yours most affectionately,

CHARLES LEE.'

The intelligence of General Lee's destination reached New York, about the time of his arrival in New Haven, and it created a panic scarcely less agitating, than would have been produced by a discharge of fire rockets and hot shot from the

Asia itself. Several families instantly began to remove their effects from the city. As soon as the Committee of Safety came together, they resolved, that, in consequence of the alarm. into which the inhabitants were thrown by the confident reports of the approach of General Lee, with a considerable body of troops, they were of opinion that it might occasion great difficulties and inconveniences to the residents of the city, should any body of forces arrive for active service, and it would tend to the peace and happiness of the inhabitants, for the Committee to obtain some information on the subject.' A letter was in consequence immediately written to General Lee, dated in Committee of Safety, January 21st, 1776, from which the following are extracts.

'The inhabitants of this city are much alarmed at various confident advices of your destination, with a considerable body of forces for active service here. Confident, however, as those advices may appear to people without doors, we cannot readily credit them, as we conceive it most probable, that were you preparing to execute any plan of that kind, it would be preceded by some intimations to us on the subject of Continental Congress, General Washington, or yourself. We therefore should not have troubled you with this application, had it not been to procure such information from you, as may enable us in a prudent use of it to allay the fears of our inhabitants, who, at this inclement season of the year, will continue, as they have already begun, to remove their women and children, and which, if continued, may occasion hundreds to perish for want of shelter.'

The Committee then proceed to state, that a want of powder is an inseparable bar to their making any active defence, that they have sent to foreign ports several adventures for purchasing powder, but without success, and that they are daily pushing similar adventures to the West Indies.

'The ships of war give no interruption to our vessels, despatched on these adventures, a favor we cannot expect,should hostilities begin, and even should we be fortunate enough to

oblige the ships of war to quit this port, by expending the little powder we have, an event which our most sanguine hopes cannot promise us, the attention of our enemies will effectually prevent our expected importation. For these reasons we conceive, that a just regard to the public cause and our duty require us to take a prudent care of this city, and dictate the impropriety of provoking hostilities at present, and the necessity of saving appearances with the ships of war, till at least the month of March.

'We, therefore, ardently wish to remain in peace for a little time, and doubt not we have assigned sufficient reasons for avoiding at present a dilemma, in which the present entrance of a large body of troops into this city will almost certainly involve us. Should you have such an entrance in design, we beg at least that the troops may halt on the western confines of Connecticut, till we shall have been honored by you, with such an explanation on this important subject, as you conceive your duty may permit you to enter into with us, the grounds of which you will easily see ought to be kept an entire secret.'

To this epistle, signed by Peter V. B. Livingston, chairman of the Committee of Safety, General Lee replied in another, dated at Stamford, January twenty-third, in which he expressed himself in the following manner.

6

With respect, Sir, to the alarms of the inhabitants, on the suspicions that my business was to commence active hostilities against the men-of-war in your harbor, I can assure you, that they may be perfectly easy. Such never was the intention of the General, as I hope you will believe, that I never entertained a thought of transgressing the letter of my instructions. The motive of the General for detaching me was, solely to prevent the enemy from taking post in your city, or lodging themselves in Long Island, which we have the greatest reason to think, Sir, is their design. Some subordinate purposes were likewise to be executed, which are much more proper to communicate by word of mouth, than by writing;

but I give you my word, that no active service is proposed, as you seem to apprehend.

'If the ships of war are quiet, I shall be quiet, but I declare solemnly, that if they make a pretext of my presence to fire on the town, the first house set in flames by their guns shall be the funeral pile of some of their best friends. But I believe, Sir, the inhabitants may rest in security on this subject. I am convinced, and every member who considers a moment must be convinced, that the destruction of the seaport towns would, if possible, be a severer stroke to the Ministry and their instruments, than to the inhabitants themselves. The seaport towns are the only holds they have in America; they are considered as the pledges of servitude; the menacing of destruction to them may indeed be of admirable use, but the real destruction of them must extinguish all hopes of suc

cess.

In compliance, Sir, with your request, I shall only carry with me into town a force just strong enough to secure it against any designs of the enemy, until it shall please the Continental Congress to take measures for its permanent security. The main body I shall leave on the western frontiers of Connecticut, according to your directions. I hope, Sir, and persuade myself, that the Committee and inhabitants can have no objection to this plan. If Mr Tryon, and the captains of the ships of war, are to prescribe what numbers are, and what numbers are not, to enter the town, they are absolute dictators to all intents and purposes. The condition is too humiliating for freemen to put up with.'

At the same time General Lee wrote to General Washington in the following terms.

'It was unnecessary sooner to trouble you with my scrawl, as I could give you no information the least interesting. I find the people through this province more alert, and more zealous, than my most sanguine expectations. I believe I might have collected ten thousand volunteers. I take only four companies with me, and Waterberry's regiment, which is so

happily situated on the frontier. Ward's regiment I have ordered to remain at their respective homes, until they hear further. These Connecticutians are, if possible, more eager to go out of their country, than they are to return home, when they have been out for any considerable time.

Enclosed I send you my letter to the General Congress, and that of the Provincial Congress of New York to me, with my answer. I hope it will have your approbation. The whigs, I mean the stout ones, are, it is said, very desirous that a body of troops should march and be stationed in their city; the timid ones are averse, merely from the spirit of procrastination, which is the characteristic of timidity. The letter of the Provincial Congress, you will observe, breathes the very essence of this spirit,-it is wofully hysterical. I conclude I shall receive the orders of the General Congress, before, or immediately on, my arrival; otherwise I should not venture to march into the province, as, by their late resolve, every detachment of the continental troops is to be under the direction of the Provincial Congress, in which they are, a resolve, I must say, with submission to their wisdom, fraught with difficulties and evil. It is impossible, having two sovereigns, that any business should be carried on.'

As soon as General Lee's letter to the Continental Congress enclosing a copy of the letter of the Committee of Safety to him, reached Philadelphia, the New York delegates proposed that a committee should be appointed to proceed to New York, and confer with General Lee, as to the immediate objects of his enterprise, and the mode of prosecuting it in a manner acceptable to the inhabitants. This committee consisted of Messrs Harrison, Lynch, and Allen, and they arrived in New York on the 30th of January, two or three days before General Lee, who was detained on the road by indisposition. Meantime he sent forward seven hundred troops, under the command of Colonel Waterberry. A part of them arrived in town the day after the committee of the Continental Congress.

The New York Committee of Safety here found themselves