what they will, or the sufferings of any other Colony ever so great.

As our cause is one, our happiness is the same; on which grounds I despise the narrow idea of acting Provincially, and reprobate the little unworthy principle conveyed in the following words, “in behalf of this Colony;” and the more so, because, by a late resolve, all Colony distinctions are to be laid aside. ‘Tis the American cause, the American Congress, the American Army, &c., &c.; whom God preserve. And for the same reason I subscribe my self, at this time,

A CONTINENTAL FARMER.

Philadelphia, December 6, 1775.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LEDGER.

SIR: In your Ledger of the 25th of November is a piece signed A Pennsylvania Associator, containing some remarks on a publication in the Pennsylvania Journal, under the signature of A Lover of Order. These remarks appear to me to be generally sensible, and pertinent to the subject; but the author has been unfortunate in one of the reasons he has given for his comment. He says, “Such pieces constantly attract the notice of Government, and have been made use of by a neighbouring Governour to support the false charge of independent designs in the people.”

Whatever truth there may be in the first part of this observation, there certainly is not the least foundation for the latter. So far from charging or supporting a charge against the people of such a nature, the Govemour, in a speech alluded to, expressly says that they have fears of independency, and an aversion to a Republican Government. And in a former speech, to which he refers, he declares that he is “fully convinced that the body of the people in the Colonies do not even entertain a wish to throw off their dependance upon Great Britain.”

A MAN OF CANDOUR.

Philadelphia, December 9, 1795.

NEW-YORK DELEGATES TO PROVINCIAL CONGRESS.

Philadelphia, November 9, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: The Congress have taken the resolution to appoint a commander of the fortress in the Highlands, with the rank of Colonel, and Wednesday is fixed for the purpose. As it must be of moment that this command should be vested in a person of abilities, and in whom the inhabitants place confidence, we wish you would name three or four gentlemen who are competent for the trust, and we shall endeavour to get one of them preferred. You will, however, be pleased to observe, that as these works are erected at a Continental expense, the Congress claim an absolute right to appoint the officers.

We have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient humble servants,

JAMES DUANE,
R. R. LIVINGSTON, JUN.

To the Honourable Provincial Congress at New-York.

MATTHIAS VISSCHER TO ABRAHAM YATES, JUN.

Albany, November 9, 1775.

DEAR SIR: Yours of the 1st instant I have received, together with the instructions for the Post-Office; which were very agreeable, as I very often was at a loss how to regulate the charges. As to the secrecy of this matter, your commands shall be readily obeyed.

By all we can learn from St. John’s, we have the greatest reason to expect that matters will turn out well there. General Wooster is to proceed, or is already gone forward, to take possession of Montreal. General Montgomery keeps St. John’s besieged, and, by the accounts of the prisoners, the Regulars at St. John’s must have but little provisions.

We are busy electioneering for Deputies and Committees. The voters dp not come in so rapid as I could wish, owing to the fair. The following are the candidates for Deputies: Abraham Ten Brocck, Abraham Yates, Jun., Jacob Cuyler, Robert Yates, Henry Glenn, Peter Silvester, Robert Pan Rensselaer, Francis Nicoll, Leonard Gan-sevoort, Robert R. Livingston, Peter R. Livingston, James Barker, and Henry Oothoudt. The Judge and Nicoll almost even. Henry Oothoudt by far the majority of Barker. Peter Van Ness and John J. Bleecker are also in opposition to each other; how this will turn out I cannot say, they being almost equal in votes of this City.

The Committee will be the same as last, only one or two new ones in each Ward.

I am, dear Sir, your very humble servant,

MATTHIAS VISSCHER.

To Abraham. Yates, Jun., Esq., at New- York.

THE MONITOR, NO. I.

New-York, November 9, 1775.

“A civil war, (says the incomparable Lord Somers) though very sharp, cannot continue long, and a nation may flourish and be happy again; but if once arbitrary Government be introduced, people’s miseries are endless; there is no prospect or hope of redress. Every age will add new oppressions and new burdens to a people already exhausted.” This sentiment, so entirely correspondent to fact and experience, ought to regulate the conduct of every man during the scene of publick alarm and commotion. It should incline us cheerfully to meet the inconveniences and calamities with which we are threatened from the unreenting malice of our enemies; in rational hope of being able eventably to disappoint their barbarous projects, to avoid the galling yoke of the most ignominious slavery, and to secure to ourselves and to posterity the permanent advantages of freedom, established upon an immoveable foundation. Great and noble enterprises are seldom unattended with danger and difficulty; but if they are conducted with prudence and fortitude, they more than repay the toils and hazards incurred in prosecuting them. When these become necessary in society, a generous mind embraces them with alacrity, and willingly encounters the perils and hardships resulting from them; while the timid and base, viewing them through the medium of an imagination distorted with terrour, are ready to magnify every appearance of evil, and to sink beneath the load of their own desponding fears. No enterprise can be more glorious than the preservation of liberty to a community, the most precious gift of the Creator, and the vital principle by which the whole fabrick of social happiness is supported. In defence of this, a wise and good man scruples not to risk either life or fortune; to him the desire of securing the most inestimable jewel of society, is capable of smoothing the furrowed brow of affliction, and of disarming even death itself of its terrour and sting.

A civil war is certainly an evil much to be deplored; nor should it be entered into, unless from motives of the most urgent necessity. But when it is requisite to defend the essential rights of humanity, and to defeat the desperate attempts of despotick violence, it is highly criminal, as well as iinpolitick, to decline it. Every duty we owe to ourselves, to our descendants, to mankind, to the author of our being, calls upon us to protect those privileges on which the dignity of our nature and the safety and comfort of our lives depend. Tamely to surrender the blessings of Providence is to undervalue them, and is a mark of ingratitude to the donor. To suffer ourselves to be despoiled of our liberties, and to be degraded from the rank of freemen to that of slaves, is an evidence of a grovelling disposition, and of a stupid insensibility to the greatest advantages a reasonable being can enjoy.

The mental appetite of some men is too corrupt to relish the sublime in morals: they rather turn it into derision and mockery. They affect to consider the rights of mankind as altogether visionary, liberty as a mere shadow, and the benefit ascribed to it as pretended and unreal. Patriotism and benevolence are in their eyes but hypocritical pretences; all their views centre in themselves, and they are ready to laugh when they are told of their obligation to sacrifice their own interest to that of their Country. It is in vain to endeavour to impress them with a sense of the excellence of civil liberty, by insisting on those more refined topics of its tendency to ennoble the human mind, to promote knowledge, virtue, and religion, to expand and elevate the powers of the soul, and to lead men in all the brightest paths of glory, magnanimity, and heroism. They feel not the value of those things in their own breasts, and therefore they can never allow them their intrinsick weight and importance. Present ease and tranquillity are preferable,

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