honourable Congress to take some order respecting Lieutenant Cox and the said men, and make a publick example of him, if not of them. I am your humble servant, in great haste,

ARTEMAS WARD.

To Hon. James Warren, Esq.

P. S. Lieutenant Cox lives in Salem,

GEN. FOLSOM TO NEW-HAMPSHIRE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

Camp on Winter Hill, June 24, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: The New-Hampshire Troops being stationed at a very important post on the outlines, and exposed to the enemy’s batteries, I yesterday applied to his Excellency General Ward for heavy artillery, but he could not supply me with any. I have this moment received a line from him, wherein he requests me to apply to the Colony of New-Hampshire for two twenty-four and two nine-pounders, to be forwarded with all possible despatch.

I therefore, under the greatest anxiety, for the safety of our Troops, earnestly entreat you to send the above mentioned cannon, as soon as possible, fitted with carriages, as we hourly expect the enemy will attempt to force our lines before we have fully completed the intrenchments, which are in considerable forwardness, and some of the embrasures completed, but have no cannon to mount in them. No other cannon are suitable for the purpose.

By complying with the above request, you will, in all probability, save the lives of many of your brave soldiers, who have gallantly ventured their lives in the glorious common cause, suffered the greatest fatigues and hardships, and are now exposed where it is expected by the Engineers that the enemy will endeavour to force our lines.

And also oblige your humble servant,

NATHANIEL FOLSOM.

To the Honourable Committee of Safety for the Colony of New-Hampshire.

N. B. If nine-pounders can’t be procured, I should be glad to be supplied with two double fortified six-pounders.

JAMES McGREGORE TO THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE CONGRESS.

Medford, June 24, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: Enclosed I send you a memorandum of sundry articles that the General thinks is very much wanted here for the use of the New-Hampshire forces; and should be glad, if you think best, that the horses may be forwarded here as soon as may be, as there is scarcely any such thing as getting teams here, and likewise carriages with them. Salt provision is very scarce here, but we have been well supplied hitherto.

Colonel Hale has gone to Connecticut to forward provision; Mr. Motion is to Follow him with cash. The men are very uneasy for want of a month’s pay that was proposed to be given them. I hope you will forward it as soon as possible, and likewise some cash to me, as I am left here, and many people calling on me, which is sufficient to put a man of my patience almost distracted. I always shall obey your directions with pleasure.

I am, gentlemen, your very humble servant,

JAMES MCGREGORE.

PROPOSED VINDICATION AND OFFER TO PARLIAMENT DRAWN UP IN A COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS; JUNE 25, 1775.

Forasmuch as the enemies of America in the Parliament of Great Britain, to render us odious to the Nation, and give an ill impression of us in the minds of other European Powers, have represented us as unjust and ungrateful in the highest degree; asserting on every occasion that the Colonies were settled at the expense of Britain; that they were, at the expense of the same, protected in their infancy; that they how ungratefully and unjustly refuse to contribute to their own protection, and the common defence of the Nation; that they aim at independence; that they intend an abolition of the Navigation Acts; and that they are fraudulent in their commercial dealings, and propose to cheat their creditors in Britain by avoiding the payment of their just debts:

And as by frequent repetition these groundless assertions and malicious calumnies may, if not contradicted and refuted, obtain farther credit, and be injurious throughout Europe to the reputation and interest of the Confederate Colonies, it seems proper and necessary to examine them in our own just vindication.

With regard to the first, that the Colonies were settled at the expense of Britain, it is a known fact that none of the twelve United Colonies were settled, or even discovered, at the expense of England. Henry the Seventh indeed granted a commission to Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian, and his sons, to sail into the Western Seas for the discovery of new countries; but it was to be “suis eorum propriis sumptibus et expensis,” at their own costs and charges. They discovered, but soon slighted and neglected, these Northern Territories, which were, after more than a hundred years dereliction, purchased of the natives, and settled at the charge and by the labour of private men and bodies of men, our ancestors, who came over hither for that purpose. But our adversaries have never been able to produce any record, that ever the Parliament, or Government of England was at the smallest expense on these accounts; on the contrary, there exists on the Journals of Parliament a solemn declaration in 1642, (only twenty-two years after the first settlement of the Massachusetts, when, if such expense had ever been incurred, some of the members must have known and remembered it,) “that these Colonies had been planted and established without any expense to the State.”* New-York is the only Colony, in the founding of which England can pretend to have been at any expense, and that was only the charge of a small armament to take it from the Dutch, who planted it. But to retain this Colony at the peace, another at that time full as valuable, planted by private countrymen of ours, was given up by the Crown to the Dutch, in exchange, viz: Surinam, now a wealthy sugar Colony in Guiana and which, but for that cession, might still have remained in our possession. Of late, indeed, Britain has been at some expense in planting two Colonies—Georgia and Nova-Scotia; but those are not in our confederacy, and the expense she has been at in their name has chiefly been in grants of sums unnecessarily large, by way of salaries to officers sent from England, and in jobs to friends, whereby dependants might be provided for, those excessive grants not being requisite to the welfare and good government of the Colonies; which good government (as experience in many instances of other Colonies has taught us) may be much more frugally, and full as effectually, provided for and supported.

With regard to the second assertion, that these Colonies were protected in their infant state by England, it is a notorious fact, that in none of the many wars with the Indian natives, sustained by our infant settlements for a century after our first arrival, were ever any troops or forces of any kind sent from England to assist us; nor were any forts built at her expense to secure our seaports from foreign invaders; nor any ships-of-war sent to protect our trade, till many years after our first settlement, when our commerce became an object of revenue, or of advantage to British merchants; and then it was thought necessary to have a frigate in some of our ports; during peace to give weight to the authority of Custom-House Officers, who were to restrain that, commerce for the benefit of England. Our own arms, with our poverty, and the care of a kind Providence, were all this time our only protection; while we were neglected by the English Government, which either thought us not worth its care, or, having no good will to some of us, on account of our different sentiments in religion and politicks, were indifferent what became of us. On the other hand, the Colonies have not been wanting to do what they could in every war for annoying the enemies of Britain. They formerly assisted her in the conquest of Nova-Scotia. In the war before last, they took Louisbourgh, and put it into her hands. She made her peace with that strong fortress, by restoring it to France, greatly to their detriment. In the last war, it true, Britain sent a fleet and army, who acted with an equal army of ours, in the reduction of Canada; and, perhaps, thereby did more for us, than we, in the preceding wars, had done for

*VENERIS, March 10, 1642.—Whereas the Plantations in New-England have, by the blessing of the Almighty, had good and prosperous success, without any publick charge to this State, and are now likely to prove very happy for the propagation of the gospel in those parts, and very beneficial and commodious to this Kingdom and Nation; the Commons now assembled in Parliament, &c., &c., &c.