You are, by every means in your power, to keep up an exact correspondence with the Congress, or Committee of Congress aforesaid, and with the Commander-in-chief of the Continental Forces in America.

As, by your instructions, you are empowered to equip such vessels as may fall into your power, and to appoint officers for such vessels: as often as this shall happen, you are, by the very first opportunity, 10 transmit to Congress, or the Committee aforesaid, the burden, force, and manner equipment of such vessels, together with an exact list of such officers as you may appoint, in order that their appointment may be confirmed by Congress, or others be appointed in their stead.

You will be particularly careful to give such orders and instructions in writing to the officers under your command, as the good of the service may, in every case, require; to devise or adopt, and give out to the commanding officer of every ship, such signals and other marks and distinctions as may be necessary for their direction.

You are to take very particular care that all the men under your command be properly fed and taken care of, when they are in health, as well as when they are sick or wounded. You will, also, very carefully attend to all the just complaints which may be made by any of the people under your command, and see that they are speedily and effectually redressed, for on a careful attention to these important subjects, the good of the service essentially depends.

You are always to be exceedingly careful that your arms, as well great as small, be kept in the very best condition for service, and that all your cartridges, powder, shot, and every accoutrement whatsoever, belonging to them, be kept in the most exact order, always fit for immediate service.

You will carefully attend to such prisoners as may fall into your hands, and see that they be well and humanely treated. You may also send your prisoners on shore, in such convenient places where they may be delivered to the Conventions, Committees of Safety, or Inspection, in order to their being taken care of and properly provided for.

You will, also, give proper orders and directions to the Captains or Commanders of the ships or vessels under your command, in case they should be separated by stress of weather or any other accident, in what manner, and at what places they shall again join you.

STEPHEN HOPKINS,

CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN,

SILAS DEANE,

JOSEPH HEWES.

ROBERT YATES TO JONATHAN HAMPTON.

New-York, January 5, 1776.

SIR: You have, by Mr. Christopher Duyckinck, eighteen quarter casks of powder, containing, large weight, four hundred and fifty pounds, to pay some powder we bad last summer of the Committees of Brunswick and Elizabethtown, and wood for the Continental Army, which I pray you (0 take in charge, and cause the payment to be made to those Committees, and give Mr. Duyckinck a receipt for the powder.

I am, dear sir, in haste, your humble servant,

ROBERT YATES, Chairman.

To Jonathan Hampton, Esq., Chairman of the Committee for Elizabethtown.

PROTEST OF KINDERHOOK (NEW-YORK) COSIMITTEE.

After those clear and convincing lights, which we have thrown on the business of the Kinderhook election, have been disregarded, we can promise little benefit to ourselves from a further appeal, either to reason or justice. We have shown that the late Committee for our District conformed to the rules of the Congress and of this Board; that a regular poll was held, at which they were appointed to preside, and of which they were, like other returning officers, the only judges in the first instance. We have proved that the rejection of even legal votes, does not absolutely vitiate an election; and we have declared our readiness to conform to the practice of all publick bodies in the case of scrutinies, when it is the invariable usage to strike off from the poll such as have been admitted without the legal qualification, and to add such as, being duly qualified, have been rejected provided they tendered their votes at the election: and to confirm this doctrine, we have alluded to the proceedings of the Common Council of this city, in the scrutiny between Yates and Hun, within a few years. We have remonstrated against the pernicious tendency of this Board's countenancing individuals who have acted in open and wanton violation of all precedents, and even of the orders of this Board. We are, therefore, constrained by the exigency of our case, solemnly to protest against this proceeding of the Committee, and to declare, that from henceforth, the District of Kinderhook is no longer represented at this Board; and in this measure we stand justified to our constituents, as well as our consciences, charging all the mischief upon that decision by which the right of election is taken away from the District and vested in this Committee, and by which the majority of electors is sacrificed to the minority. Such a conduct, too, we conceive, has a manifest tendency to destroy that union which some people pretend such zeal to maintain; and, by lessening the authority of Congresses and Committees, and encouraging a breach of their rules and orders, is subversive of that system of power which the United Colonies have thought proper to establish in carrying on their defence.

The above was delivered in to the Albany County Committee, the 5th January, 1776, by the District Committee of Kinderhook, and signed by

ANDREAS WILBECK,

CORNELIUS V. SCHAACK, JUN.,

BARENT VANDERPOEL,

DIRCK GARDINIER,

Committee.

NOTICE FOR ELECTION OF A COMMITTEE FOR KINDERHOOK, NEW-YORK.

Albany, January 6, 1776.

Whereas, the Genera! Committee of the City and County of Albany, by their Resolve entered into on the 5th instant, have invalidated the late return of the election for a Committee in the District of Kinderhook, and ordered that a new election be held in said District, on Monday, the 15th day of January, instant, at the house of Tobias Van Buren, in said District; and that Messrs. Peter Van Ness, Richard Esselstyn, John N. Beekman, Jacob Schermerhorn, and Matthew Adgate, or any three of them, be a Committee to hold the election; and that the Chairman of the County Committee give previous notice, by advertisement, to the inhabitants of said District, of the time and place of such election; and that four persons be chosen to represent said District in General Committee:

In pursuance of the said Resolution, it is hereby declared, that the said election will be held on the day, and at the place aforesaid, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, and the inhabitants of said District are hereby notified of said Resolves, and earnestly requested to attend on the day and place aforesaid, for the purpose aforesaid

ABRAHAM YATES, JUN., Chairman.

GENERAL SCHUYLER TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Albany, Friday, January 5, 1776.

I do not hesitate a moment to answer my dear General's question in the affirmative, by declaring that now or never is the time for every virtuous American to exert himself in the cause of liberty and his country; and that it is become a duty cheerfully to sacrifice the sweets of domestick felicity, to attain the honest and glorious end America has in view; and I can, with a good conscience, declare, that I have devoted myself to the service of my country in the firmest resolution to sink or swim with it, unanxious how I quit the stage of life, provided that I leave to my posterity the happy reflection that their ancestor was an honest American.

Here, my dear sir, you will ask, why then do you wish to retire from a publick office? Not because I am deterred by any difficulties I have experienced, or any that might hereafter present themselves; for I have had repeated experience in the course of life, that what the greater part of mankind deem impossibilities, exist only in idea, and are surmountable by a steady perseverance; but because I think I should prejudice my country by continuing any longer in this command. The favourable opinion that you are