&c.,"having passed the House of Representatives, to be engrossed.

In Council: Read a second time, and passed a concurrence, to be engrossed.

Petition of Elizabeth Sampson, and others, setting forth: "that their families have been visited with distressing sickness, and the distress much augmented by their not being able to purchase proper necessaries for persons under such circumstances, as theirs were in the time of their sickness, which was brought upon them, at least in part, by the delay of the Trustees of Indian Affairs, in Graf ton, paying us our reasonable part of the interest money due in May last; we, therefore, pray that such measures may be pointed out as may be effectual for the speedy collecting and paying us our proportions of said interest money, respectively, not only for our present relief, but for the future."

In the House of Representatives: On the Petition of Elizabeth Sampson, and other Indian inhabitants of Grafton", praying to be relieved respecting their income by the interest money in the hands of the Guardians of that Tribe:

Resolved, That whereas, the Honourable Artemas Ward, Esquire, one of their present Guardians, is necessarily employed in the Continental service, and the others have neglected to relieve those Indians, it is become necessary that new Guardians shall be appointed, who shall, by such appointment, be vested with the same power, in all matters respecting the property of those Indians, as the present Guardians have.

In Council: Read, and concurred.

In Council: Ordered, That Moses Gill, Esquire, with such as the honourable House shall join, be a Committee to consider of the propriety of commissionating such Captains and Subalterns as marched and joined the Continental Army from the Militia, with full companies, in pursuance of the Resolve of the General Court, on the 1st of December last.

In the House of Representatives: Read, and concurred, and Captain Parker and Colonel Ward are joined.

Adjourned to ten o'clock, to-morrow morning.

Friday, January 19, 1776.

Present in Council: Honourables William Sever, Walter Spooner, Caleb Cushing, John Winthrop, Thomas Gushing, John Adams, John Whetcomb, Jedediah Foster, Eldad Taylor, Benjamin Lincoln, Charles Chauncy, Michael Farley, Joseph Palmer, Samuel Holten, Jabez Fisher, Moses Gill, John Taylor, Benjamin White, Esquires.

In the House of Representatives: Ordered, That.............be a Committee, with such as the honourable Board shall join, to confer with Mr. Thomas Harling on the subject of erecting a Powder-Mill, &c.

In Council: Read, and concurred, and Caleb Cushing and Joseph Palmer, Esquires, are joined.

Letter from Samuel Jordan, representing the fraud of Colonel Cargill:

In Council: Read, and Ordered, That Eldad Taylor and John Taylor, Esquires, with such as the honourable House shall join, be a Committee to take the foregoing Letter, and papers accompanying it, into consideration, and report.

In the House of Representatives: Read, and concurred, and Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Thompson, and Colonel Cushing, are joined.

In the House of Representatives: Resolved, That the Committees, or Selectmen, of the several towns in this Colony, send a just and true account of all the Powder, Lead, and Flints, by them delivered, by order of the Congress, or House of Representatives, of this Colony, for the use of the said Colony or Army, to the Committee of Accounts, by the 1st day of April next, in order to their being paid for the same: the Powder at five Shillings per pound, the Lead at five Pence per pound, and the Flints at five Shillings per hundred; unless they choose to have the same replaced, when the stale of this Colony will permit of.

And it is further Resolved, That the Selectmen, or Committees aforesaid, send an account of all the Powder, Lead, and Flints delivered to the Minute-Men, or others, that was used or left in the camps, for the benefit of the Army, on the alarm of the 19th day of April last, or otherwise be left in the camps for the use of the Army, that the same may be paid for by this Court.

In Council: Read, and concurred.

In Council: Ordered, That John Winthrop and Thomas Cushing, Esquires, with such as the honourable House shall join, be a Committee to take, into consideration the Resolution of the American Congress, passed the 2d of January, and called "the Tory Act," and report.

In the House of Representatives: Read, and concurred, and..................are joined.

The Committee appointed to draft a Proclamation, to be read at the opening of Courts, &c., reported a draft, which is as follows, viz:

By the Great and General Court of the Colony of MASSACHUSETTS-BAY:—A PROCLAMATION.

The frailty of human nature, the wants of individuals, and the numerous dangers which surround them through the course of life, have, in all ages, and in every country, impelled them to form societies, and establish Governments. As the happiness of the people is the sole end of Government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it, in reason, morality, and the natural fitness of things; and, therefore, every act of Government, every exercise of sovereignty, against or without the consent of the people, is injustice, usurpation, and tyranny.

It is a maxim that, in every Government, there must exist, somewhere, a supreme, sovereign, absolute, and uncontrollable power; but this power resides always in the body of the people, and it never was, nor can be, delegated to one man, or a few, the great Creator having never given to men a right to vest others with authority over them, unlimited either in duration or degree.

When Kings, Ministers, Governours, or Legislators, therefore, instead of exercising the power intrusted with them according to the principles, forms, and proportions stated by the Constitution, and established by the original compact, prostitute those powers to the purposes of oppression, to subvert, instead of supporting a free Constitution, to destroy, instead of preserving the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, they are no longer to be deemed magistrates vested with a sacred character, but become publick enemies, and ought to be resisted.

The Administration of Great Britain, despising equally the justice, humanity, and magnanimity of their ancestors, and the rights, liberties, and courage of Americans, have, for a course of years, laboured to establish a sovereignty in America, not founded in the consent of the people, but in the mere will of persons a thousand leagues from us, whom we know not, and have endeavoured to establish this sovereignty over us, against our consent, in all cases whatsoever. The Colonies, during this period, have recurred to every peaceable resource in a free Constitution, by petitions and remonstrances, to obtain justice, which has not only been denied to them, but they have been treated with unexampled indignity and contempt; and, at length, open war, of the most atrocious, cruel, and sanguinary kind, has been commenced against them. To this, an open, manly, and successful resistance has hitherto been made. Thirteen Colonies are now firmly united in the conduct of this most just and necessary war, under the wise councils of their Congress.

It is the will of Providence, for wise, righteous, and gracious ends, that this Colony should have been singled out by the enemies of America, as the first object, both of their envy and their revenge, and, after having been made the subject of several merciless and vindictive statutes, one of which was intended to subvert our Constitution by charter, is made the seat of war. No effectual resistance to the system of tyranny provided for us could be made, without either instant recourse to arms, or a temporary suspension of the ordinary powers of Government, or tribunals of justice; to the last of which evils, in hopes of a speedy reconciliation with Great Britain, upon equitable terms, the Congress advised us to submit; and mankind has seen a phenomenon, without example in the political world—a large and populous Colony subsisting, in great decency and order, for more than a year, under such a suspension of Government.

But as our enemies have proceeded to such barbarous extremities, commencing hostilities upon the good people of this Colony, and with unprecedented malice, exerting their power to spread the calamities of fire, sword, and