the earliest notice from Mr. Low,) and all of us, inhabitants of the same County, were unanimously disposed to send Delegates to the City of New-York, in order to consult what measures are proper to be taken in. this alarming situation of our publick affairs.

We hereby return our most sincere thanks to the honourable Committee of Correspondence, for the favourable notice they have taken of us in this far-distant, infant County.

You, Sir, and the honourable Provincial Congress, may be assured (although the minions and tools of power may assert to the contrary) that we, in this County, are almost to a man resolute and fully determined, (under God,) as much as in us lies, to vindicate and maintain those liberties, both civil and religious, which, by the laws of God and the British Constitution, we are clearly entitled to.

We detest and abhor those arbitrary, tyrannick, and sanguinary measures which the British Parliament are most industriously pursuing against the American Colonies, in order to dragoon them into compliance of certain late detestable acts of Parliament, replete with horrour, and repugnant to every idea of British freedom, and which have a direct tendency to reduce the free and brave Americans into a state of the most abject slavery and vassalage.

We, therefore, think it our indispensable duty to God, our Country, and ourselves, at the expense of our lives and fortunes, (if called,) to the last extremity, to join with our brethren in America in general, and most vigorously to oppose and resist the said detestable measures and proceedings. Confidently relying upon the wisdom and integrity of the honourable Provincial and Continental Congresses, we are determined to pursue, at all times, such salutary measures as they in their wisdom and prudence shall advise to.

We would earnestly request that you, Sir, would exert your influence with the members of the honourable Congress, that this poor infant County, at present in a very defenceless state, might have some relief from New-York. We esteem it a privilege, and a peculiar happiness, that we are in a Government, rich, opulent, and flourishing, and abundantly able to afford assistance to a needy but industrious people, who are settling a rude and uncultivated wilderness, but at the same time are heartily disposed to promote the grand American cause.

Sir, we would flatter ourselves, and humbly hope that the honourable Congress will assist our Delegates in procuring arms and ammunition, which are so very necessary for us at this, important crisis. Sir, you may rely upon it that our people in general are spirited, resolute, and active, in the defence of our dear-bought rights and liberties, and will not flinch, if called, generously to spill our blood to oppose and resist ministerial tyranny and oppression.

Therefore, wishing this Province, all imaginable prosperity, happiness, and success, we, in behalf of the freeholders and inhabitants of this County of Cumberland, subscribe ourselves your most obedient humble servants, &c.

JOHN HAZELTINE,

Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence and County of Cumberland Congress.

To the Hon. P. V. B. Livingston, Esq., President of the Honourable Provincial Congress now convened at the City of New-York.

PETITION OF SENIOR CLASS RHODE-ISLAND COLLEGE, TO THEIR PRESIDENT, ETC.

College in Providence, June 8, 1775.

To the Reverend President, Honourable Professor, and the rest of the Honourable Corporation of RHODE-ISLAND College: the dutiful Petition of the Senior Class:

MOST WORTHY PATRONS: Deeply affected with the distresses of our oppressed Country, which now most unjustly feels the baneful effects of arbitrary power, provoked to the greatest height of cruelty and vengeance by the noble and manly resistance of a free and determined people, permit us, gentlemen, to approach you with this our humble and dutiful petition, that you would be pleased to take under your most serious consideration the propriety of holding the ensuing Commencement in. a publick manner as usual; whether such a celebration of that anniversary would be in conformity to the eighth article of the Association, formed by the Grand American Congress, and which all the Colonies are now religiously executing, and that you would be pleased to signify unto us your resolution respecting the same, that we may govern ourselves accordingly.

Signed by Committee in behalf of the Senior Class.

JOSIAH READ,
ANDREW LAW,
JAMES FULTON.

ANSWER TO THE PETITION OF THE SENIOR CLASS.

College Library, June 9, 1775.

To the Committee of the Senior Class:

GENTELMEN: Your dutiful and reasonable petition has been duly attended to; and permit us to assure you that it gives us no small satisfaction, that the present members of this institution, and particularly the respectable Senior Class, are so sensibly affected with the distresses of our Country in its present glorious struggles for liberty. We rejoice that you are so ready to sacrifice that applause to which your abilities would entitle you at a publick Commencement. And though by this means you may be deprived of an advantageous opportunity to give proof of your abilities in pleading the righteous cause of liberty, for which your predecessors, in this institution, have been justly celebrated, yet you have hereby given us a convincing proof of your inviolable attachment to the true interest of your Country. Be assured that we shall most heartily concur in this, and every other measure which has been or may be adopted by the Grand American Congress, as well as the Legislature of this Colony, in order to obtain a most ample redress of all our grievances, and deem it the greatest honour to which a noble and generous mind can aspire, to contribute in any degree towards a restoration and reestablishment in our Country, of all those liberties and privileges, both civil and religious, which the Almighty Father of the Universe originally granted to every individual of the human race, and which all ought to enjoy till by law forfeited; which reason claims; which the right of soil, obtained of the natives by free purchase, settles upon us; which our charters ensure to us, and which have been recognised by Great Britain, and guarantied to us by the faith of the English Nation. These inestimable rights and privileges our Country has for many years enjoyed, the source of its present wealth and strength, more than its fertile soil or healthy climate. By the cruel and wanton invasion and violation of these, she now bleeds in almost every vein; and finally, it is these that her noble sons, the illustrious American patriots, prompted as well as justified by the examples of heroes in all ages, are now prepared to defend, by the same means which have hitherto preserved the liberties of Great Britain, and raised to royal dignity the House of Brunswick.

And though the din of arms, and the horrours of a civil war, should invade our hitherto peaceful habitations, yet even these are preferable to a mean and base submission to arbitrary power and lawless rapine.

Institutions of learning will doubtless partake in the common calamities of our Country, as arms have ever proved unfriendly to the more refined and liberal arts and sciences; yet we are resolved to continue College orders here as usual, excepting that the ensuing Commencement, by the advice of such of the Corporation as could be conveniently consulted, will not be publick.

JAMES MANNING, President.
DAVID HOELL, Philos. Professor.

GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL TO MASSACHUSETTS CONGRESS.

Lebanon, June 8, 1775.

GENTLEMEN; Since my letter of the first instant, I have received three Resolves from the honourable Continental Congress; the copies enclosed will show you their ultimate determination touching the fortresses on Lake Champlain, agreeable to our desires, set right by taking the sloop at St. John’s.

I take encouragement that the Indians of the Six Nations will prove friendly, from the speeches and answers to and from the Magistrates, &c., of Albany and Schenectady, with the Indians at Guy Park, May 25, 1775; too long to copy at this time, received this day.

From Albany and places adjacent, six companies, consisting