Committee for the abuses offered them, and promise, for the future, to regulate my conduct agreeable to the aforesaid Association, and a majority of said Committee. Witness my hand, the 11th day of May, 1775.

“SILAS NEWCOMB.”

Published by order of the Committee,

THOMAS EWING, Clerk.

FREEHOLD (MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW-JERSEY) COMMITTEE.

Freehold, March 6, 1775.

Although the Committee of Observation and Inspection for the Township of Freehold, in the County of Monmouth, New-Jersey, was constituted early in December last, and the members have statedly and assiduously attended to the business assigned them ever since, yet they have hitherto deferred the publication of their institution, in hopes of the general concurrence of the other Townships in the choice of a new County Committee, when one publication might have served for the whole; but finding some of them hitherto declined to comply with the recommendation of the General Congress in that respect, and not knowing whether they intend it at all, they judge it highly expedient to transmit the following account to the Press, lest their brethren in distant parts of the Colony should think the County of Monmouth altogether inactive at the present important crisis.

“In pursuance of the recommendation of the Grand Continental Congress, and for the preservation and support of American freedom, a respectable body of the Freeholders, inhabitants of the Township of Freehold, met at Monmouth Court-House, on Saturday, December 10th, 1774, and unanimously elected the following gentlemen to serve as a Committee of Observation and Inspection for the said Town, viz: John Anderson, Esquire, Captain John Covenhoven, Messrs. Peter Forman, Hendrick Smock, Asher Holmes, David Forman, and John Forman, Doctor Nathaniel Scudder, and Doctor Thomas Henderson, who were instructed by their constituents to endeavour, to the utmost of their knowledge and power, to carry into execution the several important and salutary measures pointed out to them by the American Congress; and, without favour or affection, to make all such diligent inquiry as shall be found conducive to the accomplishment of the great and necessary purposes held up by them to the attention of America.”

At an early meeting of said Committee, a pamphlet, entitled Free Thoughts on the Resolves of the Congress, by A. W. Farmer, was handed in to them, and their opinion of it asked by number of their constituents then present. Said pamphlet was then read, and, upon mature deliberation, unanimously declared to be a performance of the most pernicious and malignant tendency; replete with the most specious sophistry, but void of any solid or rational argument; calculated to deceive and mislead the unwary, the ignorant, and the credulous; and designed, no doubt, by the detestable author, to damp that noble spirit of union, which he sees prevailing all over the Continent, and, if possible, to sap the foundations of American freedom. The pamphlet was afterwards handed back to the people, who immediately bestowed upon it a suit of tar and turkey-buzzard’s feathers; one of the persons concerned in the operation, justly observing that although the feathers were plucked from the most stinking fowl in the creation, he thought they fell far short of being a proper emblem of the author’s odiousness to every advocate for true freedom. The same person wished, however, he had the pleasure of fitting him with a suit of the same materials. The pamphlet was then, in its gorgeous attire, nailed up firmly to the pillory-post, there to remain as a monument of the indignation of a free and loyal people against the author and vender of a publication so evidently tending both to subvert the liberties of America, and the Constitution of the British Empire.

At a subsequent meeting of said Committee, it was resolved, unanimously, that, on account of sundry publications in the pamphlet way, by James Rivington, Printer, of New-York, and also a variety of weekly productions in his paper, blended, in general, with the most glaring falsehoods, disgorged with the most daring effrontery, and all evidently calculated to disunite the Colonies, and sow the seeds of discord and contention through the whole Continent, they do esteem him a base and malignant enemy to the liberties of this Country, and think he ought justly to be treated as such by all considerate and good men. And they do, for themselves, now publickly declare, (and recommend the same conduct to their constituents,) that they will have no connection with him, the said Rivington, while he continues to retail such dirty, scandalous, and traitorous performances; but hold him in the utmost contempt, as a noxious exotick plant, incapable either of cultivation or improvement in this soil of freedom, and only fit to be transported.

This Committee did early make application to every other Township in the County, recommending the election of Committees; and they soon had information that those of Upper Freehold, Middletown, and Dover, had chosen theirs, and were resolved to enforce the measures of the Congress.

N. B. A very considerable number of the inhabitants of Freehold have formed themselves into Companies, and chosen Military Instructors, under whose tuition they are making rapid improvement.

Signed by order of the Committee,

JOHN ANDERSON, Chairman.

MAJOR BENJAMIN FLOYD, ETC., TO COMMITTEE AT SMITHTOWN.

Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New-York, March 6, 1775.

Mr. RIVINGTON: A Committee of Observation for several Districts met on the 23d of February last, in Smithtown, Suffolk County, Long-Island; they should have told the publick that the few from Brookhaven were not of the Committee. Whether any Committee in the County has been chosen, in the manner they speak of, we know not. Brookhaven never was represented; so it has not, it cannot, approve of the Congress. We mean to consider only what concerns us—the fifth and sixth of the Committee Resolves.

Why does this Committee so highly disapprove of the Major and others? Is it because he fulfils his oath to, and exerts his power in defence of, Government? Does his example shame and upbraid them? They assuredly would commend and justify his conduct, were they not enchanted by seditious, independent, republican principles! It is your opinion, that most of the subscribers in Messrs. Gaine and Rivington’s writing, were induced, &c. It is our opinion, that your opinion is a mere fiction. Have you heard both sides? Was there neither partiality or prejudice in the way? You may have an opinion that such as oppose you are traitors; this may lead yon to proclaim them; this may excite you to imbrue your guilty hands in the blood of the saints! By what law did you form the opinion; what evidence have you to support it? For our part, we contemn the Court, and its arbitrary mandates, that carries its statutes and laws in its bosom. Tell us the law we have transgressed, “the unfair means we used,” and who has used any. We, who carried the Petition, used none; the people needed none, being generally glad of an opportunity to sign it. You must know the Constitution disavows ill arts; it condemns tyranny and slavery, and yours among others. You say, you are informed a Court of Inquisition would have said as much. Who are your informers? “A great number are dissatisfied;” we call upon you now to name them, for “we are highly dissatisfied” with your unfair manner of stating things. We know not any “that are dissatisfied with what they have done.” But we know some who are sorry that they missed the opportunity of “signing it.” But we will bury this pious Resolve, with the solemnity of your next, saying it is replete with the most impudent falsehoods and grossest misrepresentations.

A very ingenious writer, who is an honour to the Province, somewhere says, “that Four Pence upon the Hundred for the fibs, falsehoods, and misrepresentations of America’s Sons, would pay a considerable part of the Nation’s Debt.” We are of his opinion.

“The Major and abetters of the ingenious A. W. Farmer” call upon you to prove “them traitors.” If they are in no sense traitors, it is base and abominable “to esteem