by such mal-administration as has been specified, he unkings himself, and is liable to be deposed: Nay, he in a sense deposes himself. The person remains, but the constitutional King of Great Britain no longer exists in him. Nor can he be recovered from that degradation, that moral and political death, without reversing, annulling, and repealing those unconstitutional acts which he has ratified, and recalling the fleets and armies of those raparees, those bloody banditti he has sent forth to carry them into execution.

Can it, with any propriety, be called rebellion to fight against such robbers, such murderers, who came with an unjustifiable commission to rob, plunder, and destroy, contrary to the letter, spirit, and genius of the British Constitution? May it not rather be said, that they fight and rebel against the King, inasmuch as they rebel against the Constitution that made him King; and so fight against the King, though they fight for his person? And are not all those Ministers and lawmakers traitors to the King, who have led him into these destructive snares? And yet the King himself cannot be excused.

It would be vain to say, he did not make those unconstitutional acts, but the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled. For he ratified them, and passed them into laws, when he might and could have negatived them. His approbation passed them into laws, to enslave or murder his subjects. And he, having the power of making war as well as peace, sent his hostile fleets and armies to enslave or destroy his American Colonies, when he might have withheld them, and ought so to have done. Nor can he any more be deemed the lawful King of Great Britain, until he repeals those cruel acts, and causes the bloody war to cease which they have commenced. No King, unless it be a constitutional King, can subsist under the English Constitution.

GENERAL SCHUVLER TO GENERAL WOOSTER.

Ticonderoga, October 19, 1775.

SIR: The Continental Congress having taken the six first Regiments, raised this year in the Colony of Connecticut, (of which yours is one,) into the pay and service of the associated Colonies, at the earnest request of the honourable Delegates representing the Colony of Connecticut, and you having in a variety of instances obeyed the orders of Congress, who have conferred on you the rank of Brigadier-General in the Army of the associated Colonies, I was taught to believe you considered yourself as such, both from what I have above observed, and from your declarations to me yesterday; but I am just now informed, that you have called a General Court-Martial, at Fort George, in your way up here—a conduct which I cannot account for, unless you consider yourself my superior; and that cannot be in virtue of your appointment by Congress, by which you are a younger Brigadier-General than Mr. Montgomery; and unless you consider yourself as such, I cannot, consistent with the duty I owe the publick, permit you to join that part of the Army now under Brigadier-General Montgomery’s command, lest a confusion and disagreement should arise that might prove fatal to our operations in Canada. You will, therefore, Sir, please to give me your explicit answer to this question: whether you consider yourself and your Regiment in the service of the associated Colonies, and yourself a younger Brigadier-General in that service than Mr. Montgomery or not, that no misapprehensions or misrepresentations may hereafter arise.

I am, Sir, with much respect, your most obedient humble servant,

PHILIP SCHUYLER.

To General Wooster.

GENERAL WOOSTER TO MAJOR-GENERAL SCHUYLER.

Ticonderoga, October 19, 1775.

SIR: In answer to your favour of this day, give me leave to acquaint you, that immediately upon my receiving the Continental articles of war, I gave them out to the different Captains and commanders of Companies in my Regiment, but they universally declined signing them; of consequence, in the discipline of the troops under my command, I was obliged to continue in the use of the law martial of Connecticut, under which they were raised, which I certainly had a right to do, by virtue of my commission from that Colony. Upon the same principle, I ordered a General Court-Martial at Fort George, which, whether right or not, was never designed in the least to contradict or counteract your authority as Commander-in-Chief of the troops upon this department.

With regard to the other question, my appointment in the Continental Army, you are sensible could not be very agreeable to me, notwithstanding which, I never should have continued in the service, had I not determined to observe the rules of the Army. No, Sir; I have the cause of my Country too much at heart to attempt to make any difficulty or uneasiness in the Army, upon whom the success of an enterprise of almost infinite importance to the Country is now depending. I shall consider my rank in the Army what my commission from the Continental Congress makes it, and shall not attempt to dispute the command with General Montgomery at St. John’s. As to my Regiment, I consider them as what they really are, according to the tenor of their enlistments, and compact with the Colony of Connecticut, by whom they were raised, and now acting in conjunction with the troops of the other Colonies in the service, and for the defence of the associated Colonies in general. You may depend, Sir, that I shall exert myself as much as possible to promote the strictest union and harmony among both officers and soldiers in the Army, and use every means in my power to give success to the expedition.

I am, Sir, with much respect, your most obedient servant,

DAVID WOOSTER.

To Major-General Schuyler.

GENERAL SCHUYLER TO RICHARD HENRY LEE.

Ticonderoga, October 19, 1775.

DEAR SIR: I am indebted to you in a thousand thanks for your polite letter which Mr. Caldwell was so good as to deliver me this day. The utmost of my ambition is to approve myself a good citizen—an important and comprehensive epithet. You will pardon me if I refer you to my publick letters for an account of our operations: nothing as yet that is decisive. The intelligence which I have received from Congress, respecting the Ministerial designs on Hudson River, gives me much uneasiness, as I think it must to every friend to America acquainted with the geography of that part of the Country; but a timely attention, and a vigorous execution of any plan that may be formed to guard against the evil, may frustrate the designs of the Ministry. Were I in Congress, and capable of conveying my ideas with propriety, 1 should speak for hours on the subject, in order to impress gentlemen, were it needful with gentlemen, of the necessity of taking this matter in hand without delay. My good wishes attend you through life.

I am, dear Sir, most sincerely, your most obedient humble servant,

PHILIP SCHUYLER.

To Richard Henry Lee, Esq.

New-York, October 19, 1775.

We hear from Rhode-Island that Colonel Esek Hopkins, a brave and experienced officer, is arrived there, at the Town of Bristol, with seven hundred men, sent by General Washington in order to protect the inhabitants from the piratical incursions of a Captain Wallace and other freebooters, acting under the pretended authority of a set of traitors aiming to establish a tyrannical Government on the ruins of the English Constitution.

This pirate, Wallace, having presumed in a cowardly dependance on his lawless force to demand the property of the inhabitants, and, like other robbers, threatening them with destruction in case of refusal, which threat he enforced by murderously and treasonably firing a number of shot against the Town of Bristol, the inhabitants of which sent on board the said pirate a Committee to expostulate with him on the baseness and villany of his conduct. In his vindication he showed them the orders of the more atrocious and bloody traitors under whose authority he acted, by which he was directed to fire upon, murder and destroy every Town or City where there should be the least appearance of men in arms in order to defend their rights and liberties; and be told them that in case there should be the