Adjourned till the ninth day of this month, at nine o’clock in the forenoon, to meet at the house of Captain Peter Dickerson, in Morristown.

WOODBRIDGE (NEW-JERSEY) COMMITTEE TO THE SEVERAL COMMITEES OF MASSACHUSETTS.

GENTLEMEN: We have received repeated intelligence by expresses of your engaging and defeating the Regulars under the command of General Gage, which is universally credited in this Colony; and we have the pleasure of assuring you, your conduct and bravery on that occasion is greatly applauded and admired by all ranks of men. In consequence of the intelligence, a Provincial Convention will be held, as soon as the Members can possibly be convened; in the mean time the inhabitants are putting themselves in the best posture of defence, being determined to stand or fall with the liberties of America. We have, for some time past, feared the New-Yorkers would desert American liberty, but are now fully convinced, by their late spirited conduct, that they are determined to support the grand cause. We also learn, with pleasure, that the inhabitants of Pennsylvania and the other Southern Provinces are firm, unanimous, and spirited. We have only to add, that you have our unfeigned and hearty thanks for the noble stand you have made, and our sincere and fervent prayers for a speedy deliverance from all your calamities.

We are, very respectfully, gentlemen, your most obedient humble servants. By order of the Committee:

MOSES BLOOMFIELD, Chairman.

New-York, May 1, 1775.

This day the following gentlemen were chosen a General Committee for the City and County of New-York, in the present alarming exigency:

The following twenty-one gentlemen were, at the same time, chosen Deputies for the City and County of New-York, to meet Deputies of the other Counties in Provincial Congress, on Monday, the 21st of May, 1775:

COUNCIL OF NEW-YORK.

At a Council held at the Council Chamber in the City of New-York, on Monday, the first day of May, 1775, Present: The Honourable Cadwallader Colden, Esquire, His Majesty’s Lieutenant Governour, &c., &c., Mr. Watts,

Mr. De Lancey, Mr. Apthorp, Mr. Morris, Mr. Smith, Mr. Wallace, Mr. White, Mr. Axtell, Mr. Cruger, Mr. Jauncey.

That the advice of the Council for the prorogation of the Assembly may not be interpreted a neglect of the last intimations of His Majesty’s pleasure for restoring the tranquillity of the Empire, signified in the Earl of Dartmouth’s Letter of the 3d of March, the Council observed to his Honour:

That there was, in the course of the last winter, a general expectation in this Province of some signification to the Colonies upon the contested subject of taxation and other grievances, and an earnest desire in the people to maintain their ancient union with, and dependance upon Great Britain.

That if the Secretary of State’s Letter had found the Colony in this temper, there was room to hope, from the explicit declarations contained in it, of His Majesty’s most gracious intentions of promoting a reconciliation between the several branches of the Empire, that the Colonies would have declared themselves upon its important contents in some way favourable to the Union, which every good subject to His Majesty so ardently desires, and which the Council conceive the people of this Colony were disposed most strenuously to promote.

That Lord Dartmouth’s Letter arrived on the 24th of April, the very day after the news reached us of the melancholy event in the Massachusetts-Bay, of the 19th April, which has thrown the Provinces into confusion, kindled a flame that renders it impossible for the Representatives of the people to give that attention to his Lordship’s Letter that is expected by His Majesty, until the, present ferments subside.

Astonished by accounts of acts of hostility in the moment of the expectation of terms of reconciliation, and now filled with distrust, the inhabitants of this City burst through all retraints on the arrival of the intelligence from Boston, and instantly emptied the vessel laden with Provisions for that place, and then seized the City Arms, and in the course of a few days distributed them among the multitude, formed themselves into Companies, and trained openly in the streets; increased the numbers and power of the Committee before appointed, to execute the Association of the Continental Congress; convened themselves, by beat of drum, for popular Resolutions; have taken the keys of the Custom-House by military force; shut up the Port; drawn a number of small cannon into the country; called all parts of the Colony to a Provincial Convention; chosen twenty Delegates for this City; formed an Association, now signing by all ranks, engaging submission to Committees and Congresses, in firm union with the rest of the Continent, and openly avow a resolution, not only to resist the Acts of Parliament complained of as grievances, but to withhold succours of all kinds from the Troops, and to repel every species of force, whenever it may be exerted, for enforcing the taxing claims of Parliament, at the risk of their lives and fortunes.

In such a change of temper and conduct, (which has entirely prostrated His Majesty’s Government in this Province,) there cannot be the least prospect of bringing the Assembly to a deliberate consideration of the Earl of Dartmouth’s Letter; nor is there any foundation for the most distant hope of accomplishing His Majesty’s intentions, if there is any farther irritation by the movements of the Army, and fresh effusions of blood. And as it appears to the Council to be of the last importance to the British Empire, that the true state of the Colonies be immediately made known to His Majesty, and also to the Commander-in-chief of his forces on this Continent, the Council, moved by their zeal for the interest of the Crown and the felicity of His Majesty’s subjects, recommend it to his Honour to transmit, as soon as possible, the full information of the late events in this Province, with assurances to General Gage that the great end of the reconciliation, so explicitly urged in the Secretary of State’s Letter, cannot be accomplished, agreeable to His Majesty’s expectations, unless he can find means to remove the suspicion of his meditating further operations on the part of the Army, that the people may, with due composure of mind, attend to the terms recommended by His Majesty for re-establishing the tranquillity of the Empire.