Monday, the 6th instant, for the purpose of choosing Delegates to go to the next Continental Congress.” Is this true? It is not;—it is a wilful misrepresentation. Examine the Committee’s advertisement: “they request that the Freeholders, &c., will be pleased to assemble, to signify their sense of the best method of choosing Delegates, and whether they will appoint a certain number of persons, to meet such Deputies as the Counties may elect for that purpose, and join with them in appointing Delegates out of their body for the next Congress.” Can any thing be more modest? Can words express a greater deference to the opinion of the publick? Or could the Counties be treated in a more respectful manner? There is no such thing as “commanding your attendance,” nor was it the design of the meeting “actually to choose” Delegates, as plainly appears from the Committee’s advertisement. It is true, you were “not called to deliberate on the expediency and propriety of appointing Delegates;” but the reason for this was, not an overbearing disposition in the Committee, but because the “expediency and propriety” of the measure was allowed on all hands; even those who met at Montagnie’s, where Mr. John Thurman was Chairman, did not deny either of them, but implicitly agreed to both, and only proposed trying to get “the meeting of Monday next postponed until the 20th of April.” So you see the artful falsehood used by this same Mr. Citizen.

The arguments drawn from the conduct of our Assembly are futile and ridiculous. What have they done about the matter? They have determined “not to take into consideration the proceedings of the Continental Congress, held in the City of Philadelphia, in the months of September and October last;” and that the sense of the House should “not be taken on the necessity of appointing Delegates for this Colony, to meet the Delegates for the other Colonies on this Continent in General Congress, on the 10th day of May next.” If I understand English, this is nothing more than if the Honourable House had said, these are matters with which we do not choose to have any connexion, and therefore shall neither censure nor applaud, but leave it entirely to our constituents, to act as they think proper; if they choose to approve the proceedings of the Congress, and adhere to their determinations, let them do it; if not, let them disapprove of them, and signify their approbation or disapprobation in their own way. This seems to me the most natural construction of the conduct of the Honourable House; and that of some of the Members yesterday appears to justify this construction, for a number of them attended the meeting at the Exchange; and to suppose they would encourage, by their presence, a meeting which was (as the Citizen is pleased to call it) “an open violation of their just authority, and a glaring insult on them,” contains such a reflection on the good sense of those gentlemen, and the propriety of their conduct, as I do not choose to make, and think ought not to be made by any person whatever. It appears, then, very plain, that the Citizen must have entirely mistaken the matter, or wilfully misrepresented it, that he might be furnished with weighty arguments against the meeting. From his perversion of the Committee’s advertisement, I strongly suspect the latter was the case, but it is not right to use our firm attachment to our Constitutional Legislature as an instrument to deceive us. Fie! Mr. Citizen; that is a low-lived trick.

The remainder of the Citizen’s Address is such an incoherent confusion of Provincial Congress, Republicanism, Constitutional Assemblies, Militia, Legal Authority, Cockatrices, Embryos, &c., that I am act to think the man was non compos mentis when be wrote it, and I shall not attempt to answer it, lest the publick should think that I am mad too.

You see, my friends, what arts are used to support a faction; be on your guard; you acted yesterday in a manner worthy of yourselves; continue to act on all future occasions with the same order, decency, unanimity, and firmness; you will thereby confound the friends of despotism, convince them your attachment to “the best of Kings” and Constitutional Government is inviolable, and will preserve you own liberty, and that of your posterity, till time shall be no more.

ANOTHER CITIZEN.

City of New-York, March 7, 1775.

Personally came and appeared before me, David Matthews, Esquire, one of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace, for the City and County of New-York, John Graham, Clerk to Robert and John Murray, of this City, Merchants, and being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, did depose and say, that he left this City on Monday morning last, in company with the said John Murray, and proceeded with him on board the Ship Beulah, then lying at the watering place; that shortly after they arrived on board said Ship they weighed anchor, and proceeded to Sandy Hook, where the said Ship continued until about seven of the clock this morning, at which time they weighed anchor and stood out to Sea; that the said deponent and the said John Murray left the said Ship, and came up opposite to Staten Island, where the said John Murray landed, about two of the clock this afternoon, and was going (as the deponent understood from the said John Murray) to Elizabethtown, to settle some business with Lord Stirling; that the deponent saw the said Ship pass the Light-House about eight of the clock this morning; that neither the said John Murray or the deponent was on board the said Ship after the anchor was weighed; that the deponent did not hear any conversation between the said John Murray and any other person, relative to the taking any goods out of the said Ship, nor does he believe that any boat was employed for that purpose; that the deponent’s business on board was to copy invoices and letters. And further this deponent saith not.

JOHN GRAHAM.

Sworn, this 7th day of March, before me,

D. MATTHEWS.

New-York, Wednesday, March 8. 17 75.

On Friday evening last, a number of persons who disapproved of the proposal made by the Committee for this City and County, in their advertisement, published Thursday, met at the house of the widow De La Montagnie, and after choosing Mr. John Thurman Chairman, proposed attempting to get the business intended for last Monday, (viz: the choice of persons to meet the Deputies from the Counties, for the purpose of choosing Delegates for the next Congress) postponed until the 20th of April, and published a handbill, desiring those who were of their sentiments to meet them there on Monday, the 6th instant, at ten o’clock, and proceed from thence to the Exchange.

A number of the friends of Constitutional Liberty, hearing of this manœuvre, and apprehending a scheme was on foot to defeat the design of sending Delegates to the Congress, met on the next evening, and determined to support the Committee, of whose virtue and patriotism we have had ample experience. At the close of the meeting, a gentleman having informed the company that the owners of the Ship Beulah (some time since arrived from London) had not performed their promise of sending her back, and that, therefore, the Committee’s Boat had left her; about three hundred citizens unanimously determined to wait upon the owners to know why the Beulah had not sailed, and required the Captain’s repairing immediately on board his Ship, then lying at the watering place, in order to her departure with the first fair wind. This service was effectually performed; and next day the Vessel fell down to the Hook, from whence she put to Sea on Tuesday.

Early on Monday morning preparations were made for the meeting at the Exchange. A Union Flag, with a red field, was hoisted on the Liberty-pole, where, at nine o’clock, the friends of Freedom assembled, and having got in proper readiness, about eleven o’clock the body began their march to the Exchange. They were attended by musick; and two standard bearers carried a large Union Flag, with a blue field, on which were the following inscriptions: On one side, George III.—Rex and the Liberties of America.—No Popery. On the other: The Union of the Colonies, and the Measures of Congress. Some time after they had arrived at the Exchange, came also the other company, who had met at the widow De La Montagnie’s, among whom were some Officers of the Army and Navy, several of His Majesty’s Council, and those