Mr. Phelps will be considered as Deputy to Mr. Livingston, for the New-York Department, and be paid as such at the rate of forty Dollars per month, from his entrance into the service. The Congress are greatly hurt at the misconduct of a part of the Troops, and hope they will take the earliest opportunity to obliterate their disgrace. It is their earnest wish, that the strictest discipline be observed; for, as on the one hand they are resolved to reward those who deserve their favour, so on the other, a regard for their Country forbids them to overlook the offences of such as neglect their duty, or basely betray their trust.

I cannot conclude without assuring you, that the Congress are highly sensible of the spirit, activity, and zeal, of Mr. James Livingston, from which they cannot but promise themselves advantages that will be entitled to their earliest recompense.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

TO THE PEOPLE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Philadelphia, October 11, 1775.

To follow a certain party through all their windings, doublings, and Jesuitical contrivances, would require some judgment and attention, but certainly an indefinite share of patience. When the words faction, sedition, and oppugnation to Government, have entirely lost their force with the people, we are now plagued with a new Shibboleth or Witch of Endor, conjured up to set the lazy, timid, ignorant, ambitious, and corrupt, at variance with the men whose disinterested wisdom and spirit have long laboured for the deliverance of this oppressed and devoted Country. This dreadful, this alarming sound, is nothing less than the long word INDEPENDENCE; a word which, I confess, was grating to the ears of every devotee to the shrine of power, in Church or State, longer than any now living can remember. Did people universally apprehend the snare, little need be said on this ridiculous subject; but when real effects are observed to follow the lowest efforts to injure the Country, an honest man will not think his time totally misspent while he in busied is exposing the dark designs of its enemies.

The idea now held out for a scare-crow to the weak and irresolute, is, that if our dear Mother Country should once withdraw her omnipotent protection, we should instantly fall a prey to other nations; and that, to prevent this tremendous evil, we had better propose or accept of any terms of accommodation, than run the venture of falling into it. That once to indulge a thought of setting up for ourselves includes every idea of breach of our ancient Constitution, of rule by a King, Lords, and Commons, and threatens, if not the worst of anarchy and confusion, at least a Republican establishment, abhorred by some more than the tyranny of Spain or Morocco. To give this Centaur a more terrifick appearance, it is said that the moment we become free from a foreign master, we shall fall to cutting the throats of each other; and a combination is already discovered between the Massachusetts Presbyterians and Virginia Churchmen, to persecute, if not exterminate, the poor Quakers, Anabaptists, and all other persuasions, and render theirs the established faith.

To have a thorough understanding of these matters, it becomes necessary to analyze this chaos of tory jargon, and consider each part and parcel thereof soberly apart. And to take the most alarming supposition first into consideration: Let any one show me the probability of either of the maritime powers of Europe falling upon and endeavouring to destroy the granary from whence they derive the chief supplies necessary for the carrying on of their own plantations. Farmers are like Pythagoras’s sheep: they profit much more by their encouraged industry than ravaged plunder; all that is worth having from the Colonies may be obtained from them in the way of commerce; and whoever attempts other means with them will find loss and disappointment the consequence. Great Britain, founded on an exclusive trade to these Colonies, has long been boasting of giving law to Europe; will the powers thus insulted be reluctant to a circumstance which will check this enormous power? Credat Judeus Appela, non ego. Britain was certainly great at the end of last war, and great is the sorrow of every honest man that this era so much resembled the Julian period of all-conquering Rome. Britons, most strenuously aided by Americans, conquered; but for whom? For any solid advantage to the inhabitants of either Country at large? By no means. A George as well as a Julius seemed to think all won for himself and favourites. What have the common people, either in Britain or America, had in return for their so freely lavished blood and treasures in the acquirement of new territories over half the globe? New taxes, new boards of commissioners, with an indefinite train of dependants, to collect and consume them; and this innovation on pretence of making provision for the distribution of civil justice in and protection of the Colonies. Short was the term, however, that this ridiculous mask was used to cover the designs of Administration. Instead of protection of the Colonists’ properties from any invasion, foreign or domestick, it quickly appeared that their subjection to the will of the Ministry “in all cases whatsoever” was the object in view; and from that time to this it has, in a lower or louder tone, been uttered, that a standing Army was necessary to be kept up in the Colonies, at their expense, to ensure their obedience. Here is, in truth, the protection intended for the Colonies! Here is the constitutional dependance insisted on with so much eagerness, by the party who have already rendered Great Britain so dependant upon them, that the power of the people in Parliament is a mere vox et preterea nihil, the omnipotent Minister is all in all. He can raise fleets and armies, can shut ports and open them, can suspend legislatures and restore them, can tear charters into pieces; and of his own mere pleasure establish what kind of Constitution he judges most to his purpose, in territories where he never had an atom of constitutional power since the creation. Whoever thinks this representation of a Ministerial power overstrained, let them read Burgh’s Political Disquisitions, now reprinted in this City; and I dare pledge myself he will find that what our sleek courtiers here called dependance on the Parent State is in reality a dependance on George the Third, and Lords Bute and Mansfield. What proposals of accommodation Rebels are to make to these illustrious personages, may be guessed by any one who remembers the terms granted the Charibs, “to be at the King’s will.” If this be the dependance I must acknowledge, in order to be esteemed a liegeman and good citizen, I confess myself quite unripe for the surrender.

If any can show me that less than this, and the delivering up of a considerable number of the most conspicuous opposers of a most violent usurpation, will ensure us peace and liberty, I will candidly acknowledge he has conferred a great favour upon me, for which I am unspeakably obliged to him.

The next objection in course is, that once to indulge a thought of setting up for ourselves includes every idea of breach of our ancient Constitution, of rule by King, Lords, and Commons, and threatens (if not the worst of anarchy and confusion) at least a Republican establishment.

To talk of our breaking any compact or Constitution with the Parent State, at this time of day, and aiming at independency or revolting, and setting up for ourselves, and thereby incurring the imputation of rebellious and wicked children, is just as fair and pertinent as to accuse a son who had taken a wife and plantation for himself, and when he had by his own labour subdued the soil, and was enjoying from it a comfortable subsistence, of ingratitude and disobedience, or want of filial duty, if he refused to admit of his father’s absolute direction of all his affairs, and taking to himself what share of the profits of his farm he pleased. In every civilized community, one would expect to find a time when men ought to be esteemed of age to determine and act for themselves.

Respecting the ancient constitutional mode of Government, by King, Lords, and Commons, in the Kingdom of Great Britain, it may have been the best mode that could have been fallen upon for the government of that people; but why these young agrarian States, where no such being as a Lord exists, should have any regard to a set of prerogatives which a number of petty tyrants usurped, and by force of arms confirmed to themselves, I have Dot hitherto had penetration to discover. I presume, whoever will take the pains to inform himself of Denmark, Sweden, or Poland, will find nothing in the character of their Lords which will

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