A copy of a Letter from the Committee of Correspondence of Princeton, signed by Jonathan D. Sergeant, Esquire, Clerk to the said Committee, transmitted by the Committee of Woodbridge, and by them directed to the inhabitants of this City, was read, wherein, after mentioning the very alarming intelligence lately received, a Provincial Congress for this Province is proposed to be held on the 5th day of May next; and a meeting of the inhabitants being now called, that their sense might be taken on the necessity and propriety of choosing Deputies to attend the said Congress:

The question was thereupon put, whether Deputies shall be sent or not, and carried in the affirmative unanimously.

James Parker, Stephen Skinner, and Jonathan Deare, Esquires, were then nominated as Deputies to attend the said Congress to represent this City, and were unanimously chosen; and it is requested that they, or any one or more of them do attend the said Congress accordingly.

It is also agreed by the inhabitants now assembled, that the expenses of the Deputies who shall attend the said Congress be defrayed by this City.

It is also requested that Mr. Deare acquaint the Committees of Princeton and Woodbridge of the proceedings of this meeting. By order of the meeting:

JOHN THOMSON, Clerk.

ADDRESS OF THE NEW-YORK COMMITTEE.

New-York, April 28, 1775.

To the Freeholders and Freemen of the City and County of NEW-YORK:

We regret, gentlemen, the necessity we are under of addressing you upon this occasion, and perceive with anxiety the disorder and confusion into which this City has been unfortunately involved.

From cool and temperate counsels only, good consequences may be expected; nor can union (so essential to the success of our cause) be preserved, unless every member of society will consent to be governed by the sense of the majority, and join in having that sense fairly and candidly ascertained.

Conscious that the powers you conferred upon us were not adequate to the present exigency of affairs, we were unanimously of opinion that another Committee should be appointed; and well knowing that questions of the highest moment and the last importance would come under their consideration, and call for their determination, we thought it most advisable that it should consist of a large number, in order, by interesting many of weight and consequence in all publick measures, they might meet with the more advocates, receive less opposition, and be attended with more certain success.

The names of one hundred persons were mentioned by this Committee; you were left at liberty to approve or reject them, and appoint others in their room; and that your sense might be the better taken, polls in each Ward were directed to be opened. What could be more fair?

By all means, gentlemen, let us avoid divisions; and instead, of cherishing a spirit of animosity against one another, let us join in forwarding a reconciliation of all parties, and thereby strengthen the general cause.

Many, no doubt, have become objects of distrust and suspicion, and, perhaps, not without reason; you have now an opportunity of trying them. It surely never can be good policy to put it out of their power to join us heartily; it is time, enough to reject them when they refuse us their aid. In short, gentlemen, consider that our contest is for liberty; and therefore we should be extremely cautious how we permit our struggles to hurry us into acts of violence and extravagance inconsistent with freedom.

Permit us to entreat you to consider these matters seriously, and act with temper as well as firmness; and, by all means, join in the appointment of some Committee, to whom you may resort for counsel, and who may rescue you from tumult, anarchy, and confusion.

We take the liberty, therefore, of recommending it to you to go to the usual places of election in each of your Wards, on Monday next at nine o’clock in the morning, and then and there give your voices for a Committee of one hundred; to consist of such persons as you may think most worthy of confidence and most capable of the arduous task. Being also fully persuaded of the necessity of a Provincial Convention being summoned with all possible expedition, we recommend it to you, at the same time, to choose twenty Deputies to represent this City and County in such Convention, to meet here on the 22d day of May next.

By order of the Committee:

ISAAC LOW, Chairman.

COMMITTEE FOR THE CITY OF NEW-YORK TO THE SEVERAL COUNTIES IN THE PROVINCE.

Committee Chamber, New-York, April 28, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: The distressed and alarming situation of our Country, occasioned by the sanguinary measures adopted by the British Ministry, (to enforce which the sword has been actually drawn against our brethren in the Massachusetts,) threatening to involve this Continent in all the horrours of a civil war, obliges us to call for the united aid and counsel of the Colony at this dangerous crisis.

Most of the Deputies who composed the late Provincial Congress held in this City, were only vested with powers to choose Delegates to represent the Province at the next Continental Congress, and the Convection having executed that trust, dissolved themselves. It is therefore thought advisable by this Committee, that a Provincial Congress be immediately summoned to deliberate upon, and from time to time to direct such measures as may be expedient for our common safety.

We persuade ourselves that no arguments can now be wanting to evince the necessity of a perfect union; and we know of no method in which the united sense of the people of the Province can be collected, but in the one now proposed. We therefore entreat your County heartily to unite in the choice of proper persons to represent them at a Provincial Congress to be held in this City on the 22d of May next. Twenty Deputies are proposed for this City, and in order to give the greater weight and influence to the councils of the Congress, we could wish the number of Deputies from the Counties may be considerable.

We can assure you, that the appointment of a Provincial Congress, approved of by the inhabitants of this City in general, is the most proper and salutary measure that can be adopted in the present melancholy state of this Continent; and we shall be happy to find that our brethren in the different Counties concur with us in opinion. By order of the Committee:

ISAAC LOW, Chairman.

TO THE INHABITANTS OF NEW-YORK.

New-York, April 28, 1775.

On the 18th of instant, April, the humane and benevolent General Gage ordered a select number of about twelve hundred of his Grenadiers and best Troops, in a most secret manner, to march up the country as far as Concord, (as supposed) to seize Colonel Hancock and Mr. Samuel Adams. The first exploit they performed was in their way to Lexington; they found about thirty men exercising, and, without any provocation, fired upon them, (for about fifteen minutes,) killed six men, and wounded several when they were retreating as fast as possible; then the Troops proceeded on their way to Concord. On the road they killed a man on horseback, and killed geese, hogs, cattle, and every living creature they came across; they came to the house where said Hancock and Adams lodged, (who luckily escaped them;) they searched the house, and when they could not find them, these barbarians killed the woman of the house and all the children in cool blood, and then set the house on fire.

Alas! would not the heathen, in all their savage barbarity and cruelty, blush at such horrid murder, and worse than brutal rage? Is this the bravery of British Troops? Is this the part of a truly great commander? Is this the native courage and intrepidity of English soldiers, so much boasted of? Is it not rather the ferocity of a mad wild beast, from whom they cannot be supposed to differ only in shape? Let every American hear and abhor; let every inhabitant consider what he is likely to suffer if he falls into the hands of such cruel and merciless wretches; what miseries and calamities shall we not be subjected to, if we

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