PETITION OF JOHN MERRILL.

To the Honourable Provincial Congress now at WATERTOWN: The Petition of the subscriber humbly sheweth:

That there, is now at Topsham a company of able-bodied men, the number about sixty, who have mostly good effectual fire-arms, but they have very little, or most of them no powder, on which account they are supposed to be in great danger from the Indians, as well as other ways; this is therefore to pray your Honours to give some directions where may be had about fifty or sixty pounds of powder, for which the cash shall be paid by your very humble servant,

JOHN MERRILL.

Watertown, May 23, 1775.

SELECTMEN OF WALTHAM TO THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY AT CAMBRIGE.

Waltham, May 23, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: In obedience to a letter we received from you with respect to Mr. Millicant, we have made particular inquiry into Mrs. Millicant’s passing to and repassing from Boston, and after the most critical inquiry, we find Mrs. Millicant went only once to Boston, to bring her little children out of Boston, which were at Mrs. Newman’s, before the engagement; and from a particular inquiry into that affair, are persuaded she conveyed no intelligence to our enemies, that can be any ways detrimental to the important cause in which we are engaged; and from Mr. Millicant’s Known integrity, uprightness, and good conduct, since he has been with us, we cannot but suppose the information you received of Mr. Millicant’s conveying intelligence to our enemies, was from a person either prejudiced against, or entirely unknown to him, and so suspected him to be our enemy, because he is on the half-pay list. However, we shall be on the watch, and very careful that no intelligence be conveyed to our enemies by Mr. Millicant, or any other person in this Town. We are, gentlemen, with due deference, your humble and obedient servants,

TEWKESBURY (MASS.) COMMITTEE OF INSPECTION.

Tewkesbury, May 23, 1775.

Whereas Mr. Timothy Brown, of this Town, has been suspected of being an enemy to the liberties of America: We, the Committee of Inspection of said Tewkesbury, having heretofore taken the matter under our inspection, and had the said Brown upon examination before us, and found no proof of the late charges laid against him, we set up notifications desiring any person that had any thing to offer by way of evidence against the said Brown’s character, to offer it to us; and again having met this day upon adjournment, and had the said Brown again upon examination, and still no further evidence against the said Brown appears, but he declares himself a friend to the liberties of his Country, and that he will use the utmost of his endeavours to defend the same; therefore we would inform the publick, that unless some absolute proof be brought against him, the said Brown ought not to be treated as an enemy, but as a friend to our just rights and liberties.

Committee of Inspection for Tewkesbury.

NEW-HAMPSHIRE CONGRESS TO JOHN SULLIVAN AND JOHN LANGDON, ESQUIRES, AT PHILADELPHIA.

Exeter, May 23, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: Although it is painful to us to have occasion to realize the necessity of deciding by the sword the present controversy with Great Britain, yet we trust you will know with satisfaction that, in the fullest representative body this Province ever had, it was unanimously voted to raise a body of men for the purposes of general defence. As we conclude you have been already sufficiently apprised of the hostile conduct of the Army under General Gage, we can assure you that the whole Colony seems to be of one heart and one soul; so that even those who had been formerly inactive, are now soberly awake and active. The blood of their brethren has roused them.

We could have desired to consult a General Congress, if time had allowed, before we had taken such an important step as raising a military force. But the case seemed too plain to be doubted, and too urgent to be delayed. We have resolved to raise forthwith two thousand men. How shall we pay them, you are sensible, must now be one question.

We trust, as you know the state of the Colony, that you will enter into the full importance of the question. We desire you will do your utmost to forward some plan in which we may be able to discharge our engagements. We must, gentlemen, press you on this article. The little cash we ever had, is by one means or another almost entirely drained off. The most are ready to join, and are willing to expend one half, if they may preserve the other. Yet we seem to have no method left but borrowing, and we don’t know that we can borrow, unless we issue a proper currency ourselves, or have a currency on a general plan, or can borrow in some of the other Colonies.

With regard to what is further necessary to regulate the general policy of the Colonies, you will find our situation and views, so far as we have formed any, in our enclosed letter to the Congress. You may rely upon it that if any general regulations of the Province are thought necessary or best, we shall be ready to receive the same, and govern ourselves accordingly.

Gentlemen, we commit ourselves and you, the honourable body of which you are members, and the cause of liberty and justice throughout America and the world, to the all-directing Mind, and subscribe, with much esteem, your most obedient servant.

To the Honourable John Sullivan and John Langdon, Esquires, Members for this Colony of New-Hampshire in the Continental Congress.

THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

[Received and road before Congress June 2, 1775.]

Exeter, May 23, 1775.

HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN: British America being be trusted to your wisdom, the proposal of those plans, by which, as by a pole star, it may steer in the tempest occasioned by the arrogant claims, the haughty threats, and unnatural attacks of the British Ministry, it is reasonable for you to expect, and for each Colony to choose, that whatever important step is taken by any of the Colonies, the consequence of which reaches the whole, you should receive the earliest authentick intelligence of the measure itself, together with the facts and motives leading to it, that it may be either diverted, forwarded, or ripened, so as to harmonize with whatever extensive plan the great Fountain of wisdom, and Friend of justice shall inspire the guardians of our common rights.

Long has America mourned to find those she wishes to revere, adopting one plan after another to strip her of the blessings of freedom, deaf to all her pleas for justice.

The counsels of America, united in that illustrious body, the late Continental Congress, we hoped, that, by denying ourselves, we should scatter the mists which hid the path of justice from the eye of Britain; but with pain we have learned that firmness is insolence, and that the most calm resolution to be free is treason in the new Ministerial language.

In spite of the gathering storm, we yet resolved, if possible, to avoid the last retreat of the injured—an appeal to God by the sword; but at length plain and pressing facts constrain us to believe that our enemies mean to deny us every other; though, to our view, the thought is shaded deep in horrours.

Not long since the alarm sounded through this Colony, that the insidious foe, though continually speaking of peace, had begun a scene of bloodshed and devastation on the lives and property of our brethren in the Massachusetts.

Listening only to calls of humanity, without waiting for consultations, with all the speed of common, interest and friendship, we generally run to their aid; but we come to