mightinesses for approbation. You will justly accuse me of self-conceit and egotism, but I have not yet done. I propose, therefore, the following measures:

First. To seize every Governour, Government man, placeman, tory, and enemy to liberty, on the Continent; to confiscate their estates, or, at least, lay them under heavy contributions for the publick; their persons should be secured in some of the interior towns, as hostages for their treatment of those of our party whom the fortune of war shall throw into their hands; they should be allowed a reasonable pension out of their fortunes for their maintenance.

Secondly. I propose that New-York be strongly garrisoned and fortified, or destroyed.

Thirdly. That a strong flying camp, with not only an able officer at their head, but an officer who has the reputation of being able, in order to inspire the people with confidence, be kept about Hampton, York, or Williamsburgh, in Virginia; another, not quite so strong, about Alexandria; and a third, a strong one, about Annapolis, in Maryland.

Fourth. That Charlestown, in Carolina, should be well secured.

Fifth, and lastly. That, if the Canadians desire it, you spare no expense in furnishing them with an army; but, above all, that you be extremely careful in the choice of officers sent to that country; that they be not only men of strict integrity, but of a frank, open address, with elevated sentiments expressed in their manners. I should think such men may be found with you more easily than in these Provinces, as I find you propose in your letter, for I never saw a people so universally destitute du l'air du monde, as these here; Mr. Bowdoin, an invalid, is the only exception. These propositions, I before offered to a member of your Congress, with one other, respecting the construction of your army, here omitted.

Recruiting goes on here more briskly than we expected; the men are strange mortals, but they have virtue, and many good qualities. Adieu, my dear friend.

Yours, affectionately,

C. LEE.

GENERAL GATES TO GENERAL SULLIVAN.

Head-Quarters, December 19, 1775.

SIR: I have received his Excellency's orders in answer to your letter by the bearer. You have his permission to deliver the Connecticut arms to such of the militia as are in want of arms, taking proper receipts, and making proper persons accountable for the redelivery.

I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

HORATIO GATES, Adjutant-General.

To Brigadier-General Sullivan, Winter-Hill.

TO DR. WHEELOCK.

Cambridge, December 12, 1775.

Acknowledged receipt of two letters. Thanked him for information respecting Major Rogers, and enclosed a letter for him, which was saved, with other papers thrown over-board by Captain Forster.

R. H. H.

ROBERT H. HARRISON TO THE REV. DOCTOR STILES.

Cambridge, December 12, 1775.

SIR: I am commanded by his Excellency to inform you that he received your favour of the 1st instant, with your History of America, containing several useful and necessary maps, for which he is exceedingly obliged to you. It will be taken care of and returned when you want it. General Gates will have the perusal of it, to whom your respects have been tendered.

I am, sir, your humble servant,

R.H. HARRISON.

To the Rev. Dr. Stiles, Newport.

PROCLAMATION BY VIRGINIA CONVENTION.

By the Representatives of the People of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, assembled in General Convention.

A DECLARATION.

Whereas Lord Dunmore, by his Proclamation, dated on board the ship William, the 7th day of November, 1775, hath presumed, in direct violation of the Constitution and the laws of this country, to declare martial law in force, and to be executed throughout this Colony, whereby our lives, our liberty, and property, are arbitrarily subjected to his power and direction; and whereas the said Lord Dunmore, assuming powers which the King himself cannot exercise, to intimidate the good people of this Colony into a compliance with his arbitrary will, hath declared those who do not immediately repair to his standard, and submit in all things to a government not warranted by the Constitution, to be in actual rebellion, and thereby to have incurred the penalties inflicted by the laws for such offences; and hath offered freedom to the servants and slaves of those he is pleased to term Rebels, aiming them against their masters, and destroying the peace and happiness of His Majesty's good and faithful subjects, whose property is rendered insecure, and whose lives are exposed to the dangers of a general insurrection: we, as guardians of the lives and liberty of the people, our constituents, conceive it to be indispensably our duty to protect them against every species of despotism, and to endeavour to remove those fears with which they are so justly alarmed.

If it were possible the understanding of men could be so blinded that every gleam of reason might be lost, the hope his Lordship says he hath ever entertained of an accommodation between Great Britain and this Colony, might now pass unnoticed; but truth, justice, and common sense, must ever prevail, when facts can be appealed to in their support. It is the peculiar happiness of this Colony that his Lordship can be traced as the source of innumerable evils, and one of the principal causes of the misfortunes under which we now labour. A particular detail of his conduct since his arrival in this Colony, can be considered only as a repetition, it having been already fully published, to the world by the proceedings of the General Assembly, and a former Convention; but the unremitting violence with which his Lordship endeavours to involve this country in the most dreadful calamities, constantly affords new matter for the attention of the publick, and will remove every imputation of ingratitude to his Lordship, or of injustice to his character. His Lordship is pleased to ascribe the unworthy part he has taken against this Colony to a necessity arising from the conduct of its inhabitants, whom he hath considered in a rebellious state, but who know nothing of rebellion except the name. Ever zealous in support of tyranny, he hath broken the bonds of society, and trampled justice under his feet. Had his Lordship been desirous of effecting an accommodation of these disputes, he hath had the most ample occasion of exerting both his interest and abilities; but that he never had in view any such salutary end, most evidently appears from the whole tenor of his conduct. The supposed design of the Canada bill having been to draw down upon us a merciless and savage enemy; the present manoeuvres amongst the Roman Catholicks in Ireland, and the schemes concerted with Doctor Connolly, and other vile instruments of tyranny, which have appeared by the examination of said Connolly, justify the supposition, and most fully evince his Lordship's inimical and cruel disposition towards us, and can best determine whether we have been wrong in preparing to resist, even by arms, that system of tyranny adopted by the Ministry and Parliament of Great Britain, of which he is become the rigid executioner in this Colony. The many depredations committed also upon the inhabitants of this Colony, by the tenders and other armed vessels employed by his Lordship for such purposes, the pilfering and plundering the property of the people, and the actual seduction and seizure of their slaves, were truly alarming in their effects, and called aloud for justice and resistance. The persons of many of our peaceable brethren have been seized and dragged to confinement, contrary to the principles of liberty, and the Constitution of our country. Yet have we borne this injurious treatment with unexampled patience, unwilling to shed the blood of our fellow-subjects, who, prosecuting the measures of a British Parliament, would sacrifice our lives and property to a relentless fury, and unabating avarice. If a Governour can be authorized, even by Majesty itself, to annul the laws of the land, and introduce the most execrable of all systems, the law martial; if, by his single fiat, he can strip us of our property,