Is now the cry at St. James’s, and the dogs of war are let loose to tear out the vitals of our brethren. America, through the abandoned cruelty of an accursed Administration and an unrelenting King, is become a field of blood, overspread with desolation and slaughter. It is in your power to put an end to this horrid unnatural civil war; it must owe; its extinction or continuance to you. If you are virtuous, brave, and resolute, the lives, liberties, and properties of your fellow-subjects may be preserved, and your Country saved from destruction: if, on the contrary^ you should be irresolute and pusillanimous at this time, (unworthy the name of Englishmen,) thousand, many thousand lives must be lost; the liberties of England will be no more; and your property taken from you at the will and pleasure of the King and his Ministers.

It can only be from the virtue and united efforts of England and America, that the Constitution of Great Britain, and all our invaluable privileges, can be preserved. Should you remain quiet spectators of the present inhuman massacres and destructive measures, you will deserve the worst of slavery, and the cruelest punishment ever inflicted on a people.

If you have any honour, if you have any virtue, or any bravery, you will now stand forth and resist the tyrants; you will demand the heads of those men who advised those sanguinary; fatal, and ruinous measures, you will declare to the world you will not consent to arbitrary invasions of your liberties; arbitrary dispensings with the laws; and arbitrary governing by an Army: that you owe no submission to a King, beyond the bounds of law; that your lives, liberties, and estates shall not be disposed of at his pleasure; that you are bound by the laws of God and man to resist a tyrant; and that you will oppose all unjust violence, and those who attempt the life of the Constitution, as the great enemies of their Country. This has been practised in all ages; and all Nations determine, that Kings who invade the lives, liberties, or properties of their subjects; that tear up the foundations of publick freedom, and the sacred Constitution of their Country; may be resisted, either by calling in and joining with foreign assistance, or by taking arms in defence of the laws, and common liberty. This is what was declared at the Revolution, and this is the foundation upon which the people took arms in the time of Charles the First

The axe is now at the root, of the tree; the overthrow of the Constitution is the great design of the King and his Ministers, the open and avowed enemies to the natural right? of mankind, who have already sufficiently proved to the world that, they mean the subversion of the universal right of Christians and of subjects. Let those, my countrymen, who. plead for tyrants, submit to their power; but let us esteem our liberty, religion, and property, equally with our lives, every man’s birthright by nature; no Government ever received a legal authority to abridge or take it away; nor has God vested any single or confederated power in any hands to destroy it; and it is in defence of those glorious privileges, these common, rights, I have written this paper; and to preserve them unviolated by the polluted hands, of lawless tyrants, I would lay down my life, for life is a burden in any other state than that of freedom.

It is notoriously known, notwithstanding all the Royal and Ministerial falsehoods which have been, and are daily advanced to our disgrace; it is known that we do not enjoy undiminished, one single privilege purchased by the blood of our ancestors, and confirmed to us by Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights. Every man, then, who remains passive at this time, is an enemy and traitor, to his Country I lose all kind of patience when I reflect, upon the melancholy situation of England, and America, and the villanous principles of those men entrusted by the Sovereign with the management of the affairs of this once great, free, and powerful Kingdom. I am fired with a just indignation against the authors of our misfortunes; and if I appear to warm, I hope it will be imputed to my zeal in the publick cause, and not to any malice or resentment against individuals, for I here declare to have none. But I most sincerely wish to stop the further effusion of human blood, and would willingly sacrifice my life, could I. wrest my Country from the hands of parricides and traitors, and from that destruction which now threatens it.

In Provincial Congress, Charlestown, Saturday, June 17, 1775.

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Resolved, That this Congress shall expire on the sixth day of August next; that a new election be made on Monday the 7th and Tuesday the 8th days of August, except in Charlestown and that the new members then elected do meet in General Congress at Charles town, on the first day of December next, or sooner, if the General Committee shall think it. expedient to summon them.

Resolved, That each Parish, or District, shall, at the time of choosing Deputies to attend the Provincial Congress, likewise choose a convenient number to form Committees in the said Parishes and Districts respectively, in order to enforce the different Resolves of the Continental and Provincial Congresses. By order of Congress:

PETER TIMOTHY, Secretary.

TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, AND TO ALL OTHERS WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

Philadelphia, June 17, 1775.

Suppose this Major, Colonel, or whatever he may be, who is lately arrived from the Parliamentary Army at Boston, and says he sold out, should be a Spy sent from the Generals to examine into the state of our affairs; to fix on the ground which can be occupied to most advantage by an Army, Regiment, or party of Regulars; to see whether we are prepared to oppose their landing, or to prevent any ships from coming opposite the City, which by threats to fire upon it, might intimidate the inhabitants. Suppose the Generals have resolved, if the landing at New-York should prove too hazardous, on account of its vicinity to Connecticut, to send the Troops here, and that he is sent on purpose to assist and direct them in landing. Suppose all, or any of these to be the true supposition, what then”? Suppose he and the paroled Major (for I hear they are much together) should, by their united counsels, fix and recommend a plan for introducing a few Regiments to Philadelphia, what then ? These are reasonable suppositions. Generals who could affect nothing by force, have had recourse to stratagem, and may have again. I have but one supposition more, the rest I leave to your virtue, wisdom, and prudence: suppose the general desire of your fellow-citizens to be “dent operam curatores selecti ducesq; militares ne quid civitas detrimenti capiat”—Quid tum?

I am, &c.

JAMES DUANE ’TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Philadelphia, June. 17, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: Your favour of The . . . . by express came to hand, yesterday, and the papers you enclosed have been communicated to the Congress, who cannot but approve of your generous and spirited, conduct.

You have by this conveyance two packets from the President of the Congress, on the subjects to which they relate. I need make no remark.

As it was found, that you made no progress in raising men, the Congress Have thought fit that the posts directed to be taken in our Government should immediately be occupied by the Troops of Connecticut, which are ready for service, and unemployed. We enclose you, by order of the Congress, a certified copy of their Resolution on that head.

Your great complaint of the want of money will, I hope, be soon removed. For your present satisfaction, we have obtained leave of the Congress to inform you that the General Committee of the whole body have reported a Resolution to emit, in Continental paper currency, a sum not exceeding the value of two millions of Spanish dollars, for the redemption of which all the Colonies are to be pledged. Upon revolving the effect of this Resolution, you will find to, agree in the main point—the stability of the fund, with your own judicious system. We hope soon to furnish you with the particulars of this important transaction. We are likewise at liberty to acquaint you that the Congress have agreed to raise, at the Continental expense, a body of fifteen thousand men—ten thousand for the defence of the Massachusetts, and the remainder to be employed in New-York for keeping open the communication between the Northern and Southern Colonies; and that