of this Congress, best calculated for appearance and defence.

Upon a motion, the question was put, whether the Congress will now go into the consideration of the propriety of keeping the Records of the County of Suffolk in the Town of Boston, and passed in the affirmative.

After a very considerable debate on the question, it was ordered that the matter now subside.

Resolved, That the consideration of the state of the Executive Courts in the Province be referred to the next meeting of this Congress.

Ordered, That Captain Gardner, Mr. Wheeler, and Mr. Watson, be a Committee to wait on the Reverend Doctor Appleton, with Thanks of this body for his constant attendance on, and praying with them, during their session in the Town of Cambridge.

Ordered, That the payment of the several expenses of this Congress be referred until the next meeting thereof.

Resolved, That the Committee of Safety be desired to write to the Continental Congress, showing them the grounds and reasons of our proceedings, and enclose them a copy of our Votes and Resolutions.

Ordered, That Major Foster Doctor Holten, and Mr. Appleton, be a Committee to look over the Resolves and Orders of this Congress, and point out what is necessary now to be made publick.

The Committee appointed to wait on the Reverend Doctor Appleton with the Thanks of this Congress, reported that they had attended to that service, and that the Doctor informed them that the Congress were welcome to his services, and that he wished them the blessing of Heaven.

Resolved That when this Congress shall adjourn that it be adjourned to the 23d day of November next, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, then to meet at this place.

The Committee on the State of the Province having amended the Replication to his Excellency's Answer to our Message to him, the same being read, was accepted unanimously.

Ordered, That Captain Heath, Captain White, Captain Gardner, Mr. Cheever, and Mr. Deaven, be a Committee to wait on his Excellency with the following Replication to his Excellency:

May it please your Excellency:

The Province having been repeatedly alarmed by your Excellency's unusual and warlike preparations since your arrival into it, and having by this Congress expressed a reasonable expectation that you would desist from, and demolish your Fortifications on Boston Neck, it must afford matter of astonishment not only to the Province, but the whole Continent, that you should treat our importunate applications with manifest insensibility and disregard.

The Congress are possessed of a writing with your signature, which purports itself to be a Message to this body, although addressed to sundry gentlemen by name, who, officiating as our Committee, presented an Address to your Excellency. We are surprised at your saying, that "what we call a Fortress, unless annoyed, will annoy nobody;" when, from your acquaintance with the Constitution of Britain, and of the Province over which you have been by his Majesty commissioned to preside, you must know that barely keeping a Standing Army in the Province, in time of peace, without consent of the Representatives, is against law, and must be considered as a great grievance to the subject—a grievance which this people could not, with a due regard to freedom, endure, was there not reason to hope that his Majesty, upon his being undeceived, would order redress? Is it not astonishing then, sir, that you should have ventured to assert that a "fortress," by whatever name your Excellency is pleased to call it, which puts it in the power of the Standing Army which you command to cut off the communication between the country and the capital of this Province; to imprison the many thousand inhabitants of the Town of Boston; to insult and destroy them upon the least, or even without any provocation, and which is evidently a continual annoyance to that oppressed community, "unless annoyed, will annoy nobody?"

A retrospect of your Excellency's conduct, since your late residence in this Province, we conclude will convince you of that truth, the mere hinting of which, you tell us, "is highly exasperating as well as ungenerous." We presume your Excellency will not deny that you have exerted yourself to execute the Acts made to subvert the Constitution of the Province, although your Excellency's connections with a Ministry inimical to the Province, and your being surrounded by men of the worst political principles, preclude a prospect of your fully exercising towards this Province your wonted benevolence and humanity; yet, sir, we pray you to indulge your social virtues so far as to consider the necessary feelings of this people under the hand of oppression. Have not invasions of private property, by your Excellency, been repeatedly made at Boston? Have not the inhabitants of Salem, whilst peaceably assembled for concerting measures to preserve their freedom, and unprepared to defend themselves, been in imminent danger from your Troops? Have you not, by removing the Ammunition of the Province, and by all other means in your power, endeavoured to put it in a state utterly defenceless? Have you not expressly declared that "resentment might justly be expected" from your Troops, merely in consequence of a refusal of some inhabitants of the Province to supply them with property undeniably their own? Surely these are questions founded on incontestible facts, which, we think, must prove that while the "avowed enemies" of Great Britain and the Colonies are protected by your Excellency, the lives, liberties, and properties of the inhabitants of the Province, who are real friends to the British Constitution, are greatly endangered, whilst under the control of your Standing Army.

It must be matter of grief to every true Britain, that the honour of British Troops is sullied by the infamous errand on which they are sent to America; and whilst in the unjust cause, in which you are engaged, menaces will never produce submission from the people of this Province. Your Excellency as well as the Army can only preserve your honour by refusing to submit to the most disgraceful prostitution of subserving plans so injurious, so notoriously iniquitous and cruel to this people.

Your Excellency professes to be solicitous for "preserving union and harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies;" and we sincerely hope that you will distinguish yourself by exertions for this purpose; for should you be an instrument of involving in a civil war this oppressed and injured land, it must forever deprive you of that tranquillity which finally bids adieu to those whose hands have been polluted with innocent blood.

Your Excellency reminds us of the spirit of the British Nation; we partake, we rejoice in her honours, and especially revere her for her great national virtues; we hope she never will veil her glory, or hazard success by exerting that spirit in support of tyranny.

Your Excellency's strange misconception of facts is not less conspicuous in the close of your Message than in many other parts of it. You have suggested that the conduct of the Province, for supporting the Constitution, is an instance of its violation. To declare the truth, relative to this matter, must be a full vindication of our conduct therein.

The powers placed in your Excellency, for the good of the Province, to convene, adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve the General Court, have been perverted to ruin and enslave the Province, while our constituents, the loyal subjects of his Majesty, have been compelled for the laudable purposes of preserving the Constitution, and therein their freedom, to obtain the wisdom of the Province in a way which is not only justifiable by reason, but under the present exigencies of the State, directed by the principles of the Constitution itself; warranted by the most approved precedent and examples, and sanctified by the British Nation, at the Revolution; upon the strength and validity of which precedent the whole British Constitution now stands, his present Majesty wears his Crown, and all subordinate officers hold their places. And although we are willing to put the most favourable construction on the warning you have been pleased to give us of the "rock on which we are," we beg leave to inform you that our constituents do not expect that, in the execution of that important trust which they have reposed in us, we should be wholly guided by your advice. We trust, sir, that we shall not fail in our duty to our country and loyalty to our King, or in a proper respect to your Excellency.