1774, or those of spring 1775, answer any good purpose? Did they not add fuel to the flame?

If, then, you have found Ministers so very unequal to the task they have undertaken, can you be so very weak as to trust any longer to their management? You would not surely wish to become habituated to the recital of battles, in which English blood must be shed by Englishmen. You have now heard of above two hundred of your soldiers killed and wounded. The Gazette informs us, that the loss of the Provincials was much greater; in all, lost to England above five hundred men.

And as a salve General Gage informs us, that “the men behaved with their usual intrepidity:” if so, I have been mistaken in my opinion of English soldiers. If they can be brought to fight with ardour against their countrymen, who are standing forward in the most glorious of all causes, that of their Country, they should never be known, hence-forward, by any other name than “mercenaries.”

EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO A GENTLEMEN IN PHILADELPHIA, DATED FALMOUTH, ENGLAND, JUNE 10, 1775.

We have received the melancholy news of hostilities being commenced in America, between the King’s Troops and the Provincials, which will be attended, I fear, with fatal consequences to both parties. I was in hopes the armed force on both sides would have conducted themselves with such prudence as to prevent bloodshed until affairs could have been amicably settled, but now I fear an accommodation is by this means removed at a distance. Our Ministry have carried matters with too high a hand, and been too arbitrary in their determinations; they are greatly blamed (even by those who are of the same sentiments in respect to taxing the Americans) for sending any Troops to the Colonies.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM CHARLESTOWN, SOUTH-CAROLINA, DATED JUNE 10, 1775.

Our Congress has done hard duty this week, and are still sitting. They have resolved to raise two Regiments (each seven hundred and fifty men) of Foot, and another of Horse to consist of four hundred and fifty, exclusive of officers. The command of one Regiment is to be given to Mr. Gadsden, as Chief Colonel, and Isaac Huger as Lieutenant-Colonel; the other officers are to be determined on this evening. About two hundred gentlemen, I am informed, are candidates for commissions in our Provincials.

We are informed the Whigs and Tories in Georgia are disputing with each other, and that Governour Wright is much alarmed for his safety. The officers of the Grenadiers Company in that Colony, on receiving some orders from Governour Wright, positively refused to pay any attention thereto, threw down their commissions, and declared they would fight in defence of their liberties.

Officers of the First and Second Regiments of Infantry, and of the Regiment of Horse Rangers.

Field Officers of the First Regiment.—Christopher Gadsden, Colonel; Isaac Huger, Lieutenant-Colonel; Owen Roberts, Major.

Field Officers of the Second Regiment.—William Moultrie, Colonel; Isaac Motte, Lieutenant-Colonel; Alexander McIntosh, Major.

Captains of the First and Second Regiments.—Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Barnard Elliott, Francis Marion, William Cattell, Peter Horry, Daniel Horry, Adam McDonald, Thomas Lynch, William Scott, John Barnwell, Nicholas Eveleigh, James McDonald, Isaac Harleston, Thomas Pinckney, Francis Huger, William Mason, Edmund Hyrne, Roger Parker Saunders, Charles Motte, Benjamin Cattell.

First Lieutenants in the First and Second Regiments.—Anthony Ashby, James Ladson, Richard Singleton, Thomas Elliott, William Olyphant, John Vanderhorst, Robert Armstrong, John Blake, Glen Drayton, Richard Shubrick, Richard Fuller, Thomas Lessesne, Benjamin Dickenson, William Charnock, John Moat, Joseph Joor, James Peronneau, John A. Walter, Thomas Moultrie, Alexander McQueen.

Field Officers of the Regiment of Rangers.—William Thomson, Lieutenant-Colonel; James Mayson, Major.

Captains of the Rangers.—Samuel Wise, Eli Kershaw, Edward Richardson, Ezekiel Polk, Robert Goodwin, Thomas Woodward, John Caldwell, Moses Kirkland, John Purvis,

First Lieutenants of the Regiment of Rangers.—John Lewis P. Imhoff, Charles Heatley, Allen Cameron, Richard Winn, John Donaldson, Hugh Middleton, Lewis Dutarque, Francis Boyakin, Samuel Watson.

JOHN HANCOCK, PRESIDENT, TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Philadelphia, June 10, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: The enclosed Resolution of this Congress I am directed to transmit you, and to desire you will order it to be executed in as expeditious and secret a manner as possible, referring to your judgment the most suitable places for landing it, and where there will be the least risk of interruption from the ships-of-war. You will please to consign it to the Committee of Correspondence in each place, with a direction to forward the flour to the Army as soon as possible.

I have it also in charge to recommend to you that the flour be transported in small quantities, as there may be danger of the enemy. I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

To the Honourable Members of the Provincial Congress of New-York

NEW-YORK DELEGATES TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Philadelphia, June 10, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: We are now to acknowledge the honour of your despatches of the 7th instant.

We have long foreseen the difficulties you must be reduced to for want of money. They will not be lessened by the resolutions of the Congress of yesterday, recommending it to you to procure and forward five thousand barrels of flour for the use of the Army at Boston.

We communicated the paragraph of your letter, in which you complain, that unless the Congress shall make some speedy order with relation to the levying of money, it will be impossible for you to comply with their farther requests. They, however, seem persuaded that their note of credit, which accompanies the order for the supply, will remove every obstruction; and relying on your zeal for the common cause, they hope you will be able to throw in this provision, which we are apprehensive will soon become highly necessary.

We may venture to hint to you, that the emission of paper money will be discussed on Monday, and we expect in the course of next week to be able to present you with a determination of this important business, which will free us from much anxiety.

We shall not fail to attend to what you suggest concerning the Indians. This is an object to our Colony of the highest moment, and we hope in due time will be considered by the Congress. We think the Indians will not be disposed to engage in this unhappy quarrel, unless deceived and deluded by misrepresentations, and this, with vigilance and care on our part, can be prevented. As one step towards it, which we much, applaud, are the assurances you have given the Superintendent of his safety. From the temper and customs of the Indians, they would illy brook the extinguishing of their council fire; and had it been damped by any violence to Colonel Johnson’s person or property, they must have been alarmed and very probably excited to extremities.

It is much to be lamented that we are still destitute of ammunition. The Government of Connecticut have been more provident, or more fortunate, and will be able to supply the forces at Ticonderoga with powder.

We commend your caution in directing two letters to us upon the subject of general officers to command. our Troops. What we wrote to you was in the character of your own immediate Delegates, and with a view, to discover the sense of our Colony, that we might, when this matter came to be debated in Congress, be fortified with your opinion and arguments, which, having obtained, we shall, to the utmost of our power, enforce your recommendations.