blood on the Continent may be spilled, or daily in danger of spilling, and there is no sorrow, no lamentation on that account; but take up Dr. Kearsley or Isaac Hunt, Esq., who are well known enemies to their Country, one of whom the day before he was carted, had the effrontery to go into a gentleman’s store and take up a book, entitled, “Trials for High Treason,” and in a sneering, insulting manner, asked him, if this would not be a proper book for Mr. Adams to peruse? we say, only take and cart such enemies to their Country round the City, under an armed guard to protect their persons from violence, and then all is lamentation, all is mourning with these persons. The cry is, violence! riots! mob! no innocent man is safe! with a thousand ranting expressions of like import. We would have such to know, that no innocent man has hitherto suffered, and that we are determined none shall, while we are able to defend them. We would likewise have them to know, that as we have devoted our lives to the service of our Country, so we shall never risk them with more cheerfulness and alacrity than in bringing those offenders to punishment who despise the authority of the Committee, and refuse to abide by the laws of the Congress, with all their aiders and abetters

But some who would willingly be thought friends to the cause of America vent floods of wo in lamenting, not for those gentlemen, as they express themselves, but for their innocent wives and chrildren. Mr. Kearsley’s and Hunt’s wives and children are the objects of their compassion— they are indeed objects of compassion, and their distress ought to wring the hearts of those who have disgraced them. We feel for their distress; and did those people who lament so pathetically for the innocent connexions of those enemies to America, express half the concern for the widows and orphans of those brave patriots whose blood has already stained the hills of the North, we might have charged it to the account of their humanity. But, are the wives and children of traitors to their Country, who are either possessed of considerable property, or under the care and protection of an indulgent and an affectionate grandfather, to be lamented, while twenty thousand inhabitants of Boston, many of whom have beep accustomed to live in peace and affluence, are wandering from place to place in the utmost distress, and many of them depending on the hand of publick charity for the bread they daily eat, partake not of our compassion? Their misfortunes and distresses have either arisen from or been prolonged by the infamous arts of such men as Messrs. Hunt and Kearsley. Are we then to retain all our tenderness for such as have brought our distresses upon us, and to feel no compassion for those of our friends who have fallen the first victims to their diabolical thirst after Ministerial favour?

We give forth this publication on purpose to explain the principles on which we act; and to give the strongest assurances to such as may not be acquainted with our designs, that we mean not to disturb the peace and quiet of the City, but will to the utmost of our power preserve the same, as far as is consistent with the welfare of our Country. We are determined to bring publick offenders against our Country to publick disgrace; but in doing this we shall mark our conduct with calm solemnity; and this we apprehend necessary in our present circumstances and situation; for as no law can reach the present case, but such as are made for the present purpose, and as no magistrate is commissioned to act against those who attempt to destroy the Continental Association, or any other law of the Congress, but our Committees, so we are determined to bring the affair before no other body. Transgressors against their body shall be brought before the publick: and while we assure every man who has not discernment sufficient to draw such a conclusion from our former conduct, that no man shall be hurt in his person, while under our care, we would have them to know that the person who attempts to rescue such offenders from the punishment they deserve, be he who he may, or act in what character he please, shall undergo the same fate with the offender whom he attempts to screen. Publick punishment we are determined to see inflicted upon publick offenders; and herein we differ from those who recommend the exercise of private revenge, rather than the execution of publick justice. And we thus publickly declare, that we will pay no more respect to the person of the rich than to the person of the poor; but we will cheerfully risk our lives in bringing all publick offenders against the cause of our Country to the fate which their crimes shall merit. It will be extremely disagreeable to us to be at any time obliged to enter into a contention of this nature with any of our fellow-citizens; but if they will risk their lives in attempting to screen or rescue any publick offender against the cause of America, from the punishment he deserves, they may assure themselves that we will meet them half way, it being a matter of the utmost indifference to us, whether we risk our lives against an internal or external enemy.

Let those gentlemen who may, under pretence of civil or religious authority, hereafter attempt to rescue the guilty from the publick resentment which they have so justly incurred, remember, that if we have spared their insolence once, they are not to expect it a second time. The freemen of this County would have those gentlemen, who value themselves so highly on their Wealth and possessions, to know that they do not esteem it the sole end of Government to protect the rich and the powerful, however obnoxious they be; but that, on the success of the present controversy, depends the right of the industrious to the bread he earns by his labour. And they think it of infinitely more consequence to mankind that they should enjoy it undisturbed, than that the rich should riot in luxury; and that therefore no title nor dignity shall hereafter save offenders; nor shall they hereafter be treated as friends to the cause America who are exceedingly active in screening the enemies of our liberty from the publick resentment, while they have no zeal, no spirit to support the Committee in the execution of the unbounded important trust reposed in them by the publick.

Note.—As some persons, who have not had an opportunity of being well informed of the rise of this extraordinary transaction, have unjustly censured Mr. Schlosser for the part he acted, it is become necessary to lay before the publick, in addition to what has been published by the Committee, one circumstance which must fully justify him in the eye of every impartial man. Mr. Schlosser inquired of Conn, whether he had any more Linens than those be had with him? To which Conn replied that he had one hundred pieces.* Mr. Schlosser then asked him, how he came by them? Conn replied, that he had them from New-York. I would now ask whether Mr. Schlosser would not have been justly censured by his fellow-citizens had he suffered Conn with his Linen to pass without further inquiry? Indeed it may justly be made a question, whether he ought not to have seized and secured the person of Conn, until he made it appear that the Linens had been imported agreeable to the Association.

MAMACOTING COMMITTEE TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Mamacoting, Ulster County, August 19, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: We return you the following persons as officers chosen under the inspection of two of this Committee, agreeable to your Resolve published in John Holt’s newspaper of the tenth instant, to wit: John Craye, Captain; John Graham, First Lieutenant; John McKinstry, Second Lieutenant; and John McCrecry, Ensign. We desire you will be pleased to send up their commissions as soon as possible.

Signed by order of the Committee:

JOHN YOUNG, Chairman.

To the Gentlemen of the Provincial Congress.

COLONEL JAMES CLINTON TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Little-Britain, August 19, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: I thought I would have been obliged to return to New-York when I left it, before I proceeded to Albany, in order to collect my Regiment from the different Counties in this Province, but as I see by a resolve of the Congress the three companies on Long-Island belonging to my Regiment are excepted from marching with the rest of our Regiments, I think I have no occasion to go down, therefore I intend to set off for Albany with the seven companies belonging to my Regiment next Monday, at which time I have reason to think they will be nearly

*This is the story alluded to in Conn’s deposition, where he says he evaded Mr. Schlosser’s question by a feigned story.