The report was adopted without amendment or change, and ordered to be forwarded to the delegates of the colony in the Continental Congress, with a letter drafted by the committee of correspondence.* It was left to the discretion of the delegates, who were desired to introduce such parts of it to the notice of Congress, as they should think advisable. It should moreover be kept in mind, that this discussion occurred some weeks before the subject was taken up by the Continental Congress, and it is but fair to presume, that the hints contained in the New York report, and communicated through the delegates of that colony, operated as important aids in arranging the plan, which was afterwards adopted by the representatives of the nation, and which agreed in its main features with the suggestions of the report.

ris appeared to have comprehended it throughout, and as it were by intuition. He advanced and maintained opinions new to all. There was none who did not ultimately perceive and acknowledge them to be just. They have since become familiar.' Judge Benson was at that day a contemporary with Mr Morris, and an ardent associate in the same general cause. He had been a member of the Convention then lately held for selecting delegates to the Continental Congress. *Soon after the meeting of the Provincial Congress, a Committee of Correspondence was appointed, of whom Mr Morris was chairman. It was their duty to take charge of letters received from other public bodies and individuals, and draft replies, as well as to write letters originating in the Congress.

CHAPTER III.

INDIAN DISTURBANCES ON THE FRONTIERS.-GUY JOHNSON'S LETTER AND THE REPLY OF THE

CONGRESS.-INTERCEPTED

CORRESPOND

ENCE OF GENERAL GAGE.-PREPARATIONS FOR MILITARY DEFENCE. -PROJECT OF THE CONGRESS FOR A CONCILIATION WITH ENGLAND. -MR MORRIS'S MODIFICATION.-BURKE'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE ASSEMBLY OF NEW YORK.-CEREMONY ON THE OCCASION OF GENERAL WASHINGTON'S PASSING THROUGH NEW YORK TO TAKE COMMAND OF THE ARMY.

6

HARDLY had the Provincial Congress convened, when intelligence was received of threatened troubles with the Indians on the frontiers, through the influence of Colonel Guy Johnson, superintendent of Indian Affairs, who resided in Tryon county. He wrote a letter to the mayor and corporation of Albany, which was forwarded to the Congress in New York, and in which he utters both complaints and threatenings. 'As the peace and happiness of the country,' he observes, are objects that every good man should have at heart, I think it highly necessary to acquaint you, that for a few days I have been put to the great trouble and expense of fortifying my house, and keeping a large body of men for the defence of my person, having received repeated accounts that either the New Englanders, or some persons in or about the city of Albany, or town of Schenectady, are coming up to seize and imprison me, on a ridiculous and malicious report, that I intend to make the Indians destroy the inhabitants, or to that effect.' And then, after mentioning the absurdity of this report, and the pains he had taken to quiet the Indians, and preserve tranquillity on certain occasions, he adds; 'In discharging this duty I likewise essentially served the public, but should I neglect myself, and be tamely made prisoner, it is

clear to all who know anything of the Indians, that they will not sit still and see their council fire extinguished, and their superintendent driven from his duty, but will come upon the frontiers in revenge with a power sufficient to commit horrid devastations.' He closes his letter by requesting, that such measures may be taken by the proper authorities as will remove suspicions, and leave him to the honest exercise of his office, without the necessity of keeping armed men around him for his protection.

To this letter the Congress replied as follows, on the third of June.

'At a time when the American subjects on this extensive continent are almost with one voice and united effort nobly exerting themselves in the glorious cause of liberty, and endeavoring to reconcile the unnatural and unhappy differences between the parent state and these colonies, upon permanent and constitutional principles, we cannot help lamenting that we have received disagreeable accounts from your quarter, that there are individuals officiously interrupting the mode and measures conceived necessary to bring about these salutary purposes.

'On the one hand, you may depend upon it, that we shall discourage and discountenance every attempt against your person and property, and shall use our utmost endeavors to render them safe and secure; but on the other hand, we expect you will not counteract any of the measures expedient for the common weal recommended by the Continental or Provincial Congress, or by the committees formed or to be formed. Should you take so unfriendly a part, we cannot answer for the consequences; on the contrary, if you and our Indian brethren do not interfere in this controversy, you may promise yourselves all the protection that this House can afford you. The dispute is become so serious now, that we cannot silently permit our plans to be frustrated by our own countrymen.'

It does not appear, that any attempts were made by an armed force to seize or molest the superintendent, and his

fears, mingled perhaps with some slight chidings of conscience on his part, that he had been over zealous in what he called his official duty, were the only grounds of his alarm. The part he chose to take with the Indians, is shown in a letter from the Reverend Samuel Kirkland to the committee of Albany, dated at Cherry Valley, on the ninth of June. Mr Kirkland had been for many years a laborious and faithful missionary among the Oneida Indians, understood their language and character perfectly, and was greatly beloved by them.

'I am much embarrassed,' says he, at present. You have doubtless heard that Colonel Johnson has orders from government to remove the dissenting missionaries from the Six Nations, till the difficulties between Great Britain and the colonies are settled; in consequence of which he has forbidden my return to my people at Oneida. He has since given encouragement, that I may revisit them after the Congress is closed; but to be plain, I have no dependance at all on his promises of this kind. He appears unreasonably jealous of me, and has forbidden my speaking a word to the Indians, and threatened me with confinement if I transgress. All he has against me I suppose to be a suspicion, that I have interpreted to the Indians the doings of the Continental Congress, which has undeceived them, and too much opened their eyes for Colonel Johnson's purposes. I confess to you, gentlemen, that I have been guilty of this, if it be a transgression. The Indians found out that I had received the abstracts of said Congress, and insisted upon knowing the contents. I could not deny. them, notwithstanding my cloth, though in all other respects I have been extremely cautious not to meddle in matters of a political nature. I apprehend that my interpreting the doings. of the Congress to a number of their sachems has done more real good to the cause of the country, or the cause of truth and justice, than five hundred pounds in presents would have effected.'

About the same time the New York Congress received a letter from the Provincial Congress of South Carolina,

signed by William Henry Drayton, Arthur Middleton, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and others, enclosing a curious intercepted letter from General Gage to Governor Martin of North Carolina. We are to thank you,' say the above gentlemen, 'for your intelligence of the fifth ultimo, and do most heartily congratulate you upon that proper spirit, which now appears in your colony. The apprehension of a defection in you, which we are happy to find was unjustly formed, occasioned in us, and must undoubtedly have given to all America, inexpressible anxiety, and at the same time have encouraged the Ministry to proceed in their measures, as a proof of the confidence, which our enemies placed in you.' The intercepted letter from General Gage to Governor Martin was dated at Boston, April twelfth, that is, six days before the affair at Lexington, and was in the words following.

'Sir,

Your letter of the 16th of March I have had the pleasure to receive, and am glad to hear that many of the people in your province are beginning to find they have been misled, and that they seem inclined to disengage themselves from the arbitrary power of the Continental Congress, and of their committees. I wish I could say as much for the people of this province, who are more cool than they were, but their leaders, by their arts and artifices, still keep up that seditious and licentious spirit, that has led them on all occasions to oppose government, and even to acts of rebellion. The late accounts from England have embarrassed their councils much. They have applied to the New England governments, and doubtless will to those at the southward, to assist them, but I hope the madness of the latter is wearing off, and that they will get no encouragement from thence.

'This province has some time been, and now is, in the newfangled legislature, termed a Provincial Congress, who seem to have taken the government into their hands. What they intend to do I cannot pretend to say, but they are much puzzled how to act. Fear in some, and a want of inclination