tegrity may think necessary to adopt, for preserving America happy, virtuous, and free.

To the Honourable PEYTON RANDOLPH, Esquire, President, RICHARD HENRY LEE, GEORGE WASHINGTON, PATRICK HENRY, RICHARD BLAND, BENJAMIN HARRISON, and EDMUND PENDLETON, Esquires, Delegates from this Colony to the General Congress.

GENTLEMEN: We have it in command, from the Freeholders of Augusta County, by their Committee, held the 22d of February, to present you with their grateful acknowledgments of thanks, for the prudent, virtuous, and noble exertions of the faculties with which Heaven has endowed you in the cause of liberty, and of every thing that men ought to hold sacred, at the late General Congress; a conduct so nobly interesting, that it must command that tribute of applause, not only from this, but succeeding ages. May that sacred flame that has illuminated your minds, and influenced your conduct, in projecting and concurring in so many salutary determinations for the preservation of American Liberty, ever continue to direct your conduct, to the latest period of your lives. May the bright example be fairly transcribed on the hearts, and reduced into practice by every Virginian, by every American. May our hearts be open to receive, and our arms strong to defend, that liberty and freedom, the gift of Heaven, now banishing from its last retreat in Europe. Here let it be hospitably entertained in every breast; here let it take deep root, and flourish in everlasting bloom; that, under its benign influence, the virtuously free may enjoy secure repose, and stand forth the scourge and terrour of tyranny and tyrants of every order and denomination, till time shall be no more. Be pleased, gentlemen, to accept of their grateful sense of your important services, and of their ardent prayers for the best interest of this once happy country; and vouchsafe, gentlemen, to accept of the same from your most humble servants,

To THOMAS LEWIS and SAMUEL M'DOWELL, ESquires.

GENTLEMEN: Be pleased to transmit to the respectable Freeholders of the County of Augusta our sincere thanks for their affectionate Address, approving our conduct in the late Continental Congress. It gives us the greatest pleasure to find that our honest endeavours to serve our country on this arduous and important occasion, has met their approbation, a reward fully adequate to our warmest wishes; and the assurances from the brave and spirited people of Augusta, that their hearts and hands shall be devoted to the support of the measures adopted, or hereafter to be taken, by the Congress, for the preservation of American Liberty, give us the highest satisfaction, and must afford pleasure to every friend to the just rights of mankind.

We cannot conclude without acknowledgments to you, gentlemen, for the polite manner in which you have communicated to us the sentiments of your worthy constituents; and are their and your obedient humble servants,

To the Honourable PEYTON RANDOLPH, RICHARD BLAND, EDMUND PENDLETON, RICHARD HENRY LEE, PATRICK HENRY, GEORGE WASHINGTON, and BENJAMIN HARRISON, Esquires, Delegates from Virginia to the late General, Congress.

The Address of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of BOTETOURT.

We, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of Botetourt, assembled at the Court House, taking into our consideration the unhappy disputes which at present subsist between Great Britain and America, and being greatly alarmed at the dangerous and unconstitutional measures adopted by Administration, with respect to the Colonies, beg leave now to address you as the guardians of our rights and privileges.

Please, therefore, to accept our most sincere and grateful acknowledgments for your steady and patriotick conduct in the support of American Liberty, at the late General Congress. And we assure you, that although the alarming situation of our frontiers, for some time past, hath prevented our co-operating with our fellow-subjects, in their laudable efforts to obtain redress of our common grievances, we highly approve of the plan you have adopted for that purpose, and shall most cheerfully abide by your resolutions.

As you have so fully and clearly ascertained the Rights and Liberties of American subjects, we have nothing to add on that head. We are happy to find our sentiments entirely correspond with yours; because, in these sentiments, we are determined to live and die. We are too sensible of the inestimable privileges enjoyed by subjects under the British Constitution, even to wish for a change, while the free enjoyments of those blessings can be secured to us; but, on the contrary, can justly boast of our loyalty and affection to our most gracious Sovereign, and of our readiness in risking our lives, whenever it has been found necessary, for the defence of his person and Government.

But should a wicked and tyrannical Ministry, under the sanction of a venal and corrupt Parliament, persist in acts of injustice and violence towards us, they only must be answerable for the consequences. Liberty is so strongly impressed on our hearts, that we cannot think of parting with it but with our lives. Our duty to God, our country, ourselves, and our posterity, all forbid it. We therefore stand prepared for every contingency.

Philadelphia, February 22, 1775.

As the establishing of Manufactories among ourselves, must undoubtedly be of great advantage to the publick, it is hoped that every friend to his country will endeavour to promote the following Plan, to which a considerable number of gentlemen have already subscribed:

Plan of an AMERICAN Manufactory.

We the subscribers, being deeply impressed with a sense of our present difficulties, and earnestly solicitous, as far as in our power, to support the freedom and promote the welfare of our country on peaceable and constitutional principles, and well knowing how much the establishing Manufactories amongst ourselves, would contribute thereunto, besides exciting a general and laudable spirit of industry among the poor, and putting the means of supporting themselves into the hands of many, who at present are a publick expense, and also to convince the publick that our country is not unfavorable to the establishing Manufactories, do agree to form ourselves into a Company for the promoting of an American Manufactory, on the following principles, subject to such rules and regulations as shall be hereafter agreed on.

1. That the Company be called "The United Company of Philadelphia for promoting American Manufactures."

2. That the Company shall continue for three whole years, commencing on the day of the first general meeting of the subscribers.

3. That a share in the Company be fixed at ten Pounds; after the payment whereof, every subscriber shall be entitled to a vote in common on all occasions, and also to be elected to any office belonging to the Company, and no person shall be entrusted with any office but a member thereof.

4. That we will begin with the manufacturing of Woollens, Cottons, and Linens, and carry on the same to the greatest extent and advantage our stock will admit of during the three years aforesaid, for which purpose we do agree to pay into the hands of the Treasurer, who shall be hereafter chosen, one moiety, or full half of each of our subscriptions, within one week after the first general meeting of the subscribers, and the other moiety within two months after the aforesaid general meeting; all which moneys paid as aforesaid, together with all the profits arising from the Manufactory, shall be continued as Company stock, for the space, and to the full end of three whole years, commencing on the day of the first general meeting of the subscribers aforesaid.

5. That a general meeting of the subscribers shall be