ARTHUR ST. CLAIR TO GOVERNOUR PENN.

Ligonier, August 27, 1774.

SIR: The very extraordinary news from Fort Pitt, that I mentioned in my letter of the 25th, proves too true. Captain Thomson was there, and informs me that Mr. Butler was not only made a prisoner, but treated with every instance of insult and abuse. The crime it seems they are charged with, is a suspicion of trading with the enemy Indians; but for this there cannot be the least foundation, as their destination was no secret; and I had given publick notice, in writing, of the design of laying out a town up the river, and the time when. It seems this is the act of Captain Aston, Conolly being gone to meet Lord Dunmore; but in truth it is the act of Mr. Campbell, who is their Counsel General, and whose plan the removing any of the trade from Pittsburgh broke in upon. Captain Thomson offered any security they pleased to demand, but they would accept of none, and for some time would not permit any of their acquaintance to visit them; and jostled Mr. Smith and Mr. McKay out of the fort in the most insulting manner imaginable. The treatment these people have met with for a length of time, has been sufficient to break their spirit; but it has not succeeded; and those at that place who are friends of this Province, will meet me at Appleby tomorrow, and are making up another cargo, that they may have something to keep the Indians easy that will be there.

I am, sir, your very humble and most obedient servant,

AR. ST. CLAIR.

TO THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA.

Williamsburg, Va., August 4, 1774.

The time has at length arrived when American liberty must either be settled on a firm basis by the virtue and publick spirit of her sons, or sink under the despotism now suspended over her. The Colonies will no doubt look upon the violent and arbitrary proceedings of the British Parliament, with regard to the Bostonians, as levelled at the liberty of America in general, and unite their utmost endeavours by all means in their power to prevent the ruin they are threatened with. We shall deceive ourselves if we think Great Britain, (as the present Ministry call themselves) will easily be brought to recede from her claims of domination over us. The Parliamentary farce will not be ended till the virtue of America, and the cries of the British merchants and manufacturers, drive the present actors off the stage.

In this contention we must expect our courage and fortitude will be put to a severe trial; and, if they are not genuine, will not stand the test. But as our ancestors have liberally shed their blood to secure to us the rights we now contend for, surely every power of manhood will be exerted by us to deliver the depositum, sacred and inviolate, to our posterity. Let no man despair of success in so just a cause. Situated as we are, if we be united, and dare be free, no power on earth can make us slaves.

That our adversaries are powerful we fatally know; but, in a measure so wickedly destructive of the constitutional rights of British subjects, they cannot be united. But should they be so, are they more powerful than the Spaniards, or we less so than the United Provinces were at the time the contest arose between those two Nations on the subject of liberty? Philip the Second, at the head of the most powerful Empire in Europe, with the best disciplined troops, headed by one of the ablest Generals then known in the world, and supported by the riches of America, after a bloody war which lasted half a century, was not able to subvert the liberty of the poor, and till then, inconsiderable, but virtuous Hollanders. The example of our ancestors, in the last century, affords a noble proof of firmness and patriotick virtue. In the reign of the first Charles, they evidently demonstrated, that though Englishmen may bear much, yet when they find a determined resolution in Administration to persevere in measures totally destructive to their dearest rights, they will rouse at last, and when that period arrives, no force can withstand—no chicanery elude, their fury; and the more they have suffered, the greater will be the sacrifice they demand. The posterity of James the Second, fugitives in a strange land, still lament the dire effects of his encroachments on English liberty.

The spirit of liberty, when conducted by publick virtue, is invincible. It may be cramped and kept down by-external violence, but so long as the morals of a people remain uncorrupted, it cannot be totally extinguished. Oppression will only increase its elastick force; and when roused to action by some daring Chief—some great good man, it will burst forth, like fired gunpowder, and destroy all before it. Of this truth the English history affords the clearest demonstrations, through many of the brightest periods. We are the sons of those brave men, and let us now prove ourselves worthy of our glorious ancestors. Britain itself will applaud our virtue. The friends of liberty there will rejoice to acknowledge us their brethren and fellow-subjects; for it cannot be possible that a race of heroes and patriots should in so short a time degenerate into a band of robbers.

We need not on the present occasion shed our blood to secure our rights, though if necessary, let us not spare it; the purchase is more than equal to the price. Let us not buy their commodities; let us stop all exports from this country to that till they do us justice. We have the means of subsistence within ourselves. Nature's wants are but few; our imaginary ones have their foundation in luxury. Let us encourage our own manufactures by proper subscriptions in each county; and by wearing them ourselves, convince our enemies, (for so I must call those who endeavour to enslave us,) that we can and will subsist without them. Let gentlemen of the first rank and fortune amongst us set the example; they will be cheerfully and eagerly followed by the inferiour classes. This will give weight to our remonstrances; and when the great disposer of all things, the Ruler of Princes, shall in his mercy open the eyes of our oppressors, and direct their Councils to the pursuit of equity and right reason, then, and not till then, let us meet and embrace them with open arms: we will again be their children when they will deign to be our parents.

VIRGINIA CONVENTION.

At a very full Meeting of Delegates from the different Counties in the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, begun in Williamsburg the first day of August, in the year of our Lord 1774, and continued by several adjournments to Saturday, the 6th of the same month, the following Association was unanimously resolved upon, and agreed to:

We, his Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Delegates of the freeholders of Virginia, deputed to represent them at a general meeting in the City of Williamsburg, avowing our inviolable and unshaken fidelity and attachment to our most gracious Sovereign; our regard and affection for all our friends and fellow-subjects in Great Britain and elsewhere; protesting against every act or thing which may have the most distant tendency to interrupt or in any wise disturb his Majesty's peace, and the good order of Government within this his ancient Colony, which we are resolved to maintain and defend at the risk of our lives and fortunes; but, at the same time, affected with the deepest anxiety and most alarming apprehensions of those grievances and distresses by which his Majesty's American subjects are oppressed; and having taken under our most serious deliberation the state of the whole Continent, find that the present unhappy situation of our affairs is chiefly occasioned by certain ill advised regulations, as well of our trade, as internal polity, introduced by several unconstitutional Acts of the British Parliament, and, at length, attempted to be enforced by the hand of power.

Solely influenced by these important and weighty considerations, we think it an indispensable duty which we owe to our country, ourselves, and latest posterity, to guard against such dangerous and extensive mischiefs, by every just and proper means.

If, by the measures adopted, some unhappy consequences and inconveniences should be derived to our fellow-subjects, whom we wish not to injure in the smallest degree, we hope, and flatter ourselves, that they will impute them to their real cause, the hard necessity to which we are driven.

That the good people of this Colony may on so trying an occasion continue steadfastly directed to their most es-