weeks without wages, and were carried there and brought back at my expense. The next is two pounds ten shillings and eleven pence, for Major Cilley’s expenses; he was by the Committee of Safety appointed and detained as Muster-master for your troops, and I supposed you would make no difficulty in paying his expense. The next is one pound eleven shillings and one penny, for expense of Mr. Nathaniel McClintock, appointed my Aid-de-Camp while present, and remained as a volunteer with your forces, at the request of your commanding officer, when I was absent, and was very useful to him; and his bill, if paid, would not amount to the wages of a private soldier for the time he tarried. The next bill is for seventeen shillings and nine pence, expense of the Captain of the Riflemen sent there without my knowledge or consent, with a company to assist you if necessary. To crown the whole, is a bill of four shillings and six pence, expended in securing the Tories in your capital when the enemy appeared off your harbour, when I was at Head-Quarters, and knew nothing of the matter. This, gentlemen, is a state of the account handed me for payment, and which I am ready to pay, in case you think a single article ought to be paid by me.

Gentlemen, I am extremely sorry to find a person pretending so much patriotism as Mr. Folsom does, ever striving to give me pain and uneasiness, and this without the least provocation on my part. Every day do I hear of his insulting and abusive language, such as he well knows he dare not use if I were present. Every step he takes is pregnant with malice against me; and I am sorry to hear his malicious endeavours have but too great weight on some other minds; and by means of that I am daily censured in your cabinet; and for what, I know not. I now appeal to you all, and call upon you to give one instance where I have made money at the expense of my country, or where I have usurped a greater power than was at first delegated to me. What relations have I promoted, or what part of my family have I enriched? Which of my former friends have I promoted, or which of my former enemies have I persecuted with unrelenting fury? No, gentlemen, my motives are of a different kind; no private friendship or private quarrels shall take hold of my publick conduct. I call Heaven and earth to witness, that thus far, the good of my country has been my only aim. This I have endeavoured to evince by my conduct.

Consider, gentlemen, what sums of money I have already expended, and how many days I have hailed clad with new and threatening dangers to my life; how I have refrained from the seat of domestick happiness, and, confined by my country’s cause at a distance, heard the fatal tidings of sickness and death in my own family, while I was contemplating my own dangers here. Can all this be, gentlemen, and yet I not be in earnest? And shall he who basks in the sunshine of malice, and sleeps securely in the bed of revenge, set my own friends, my fathers in political life, against me? Let gratitude, let pity, forbid it; and let the heavenly justice take hold on the wretch whose sordid soul could never harbour a thought but that of gratifying his own malicious dispositions, or bringing about his own promotion. I most earnestly pray that Heaven may judge between us, and reward him that is insincere with infamy and disgrace. I know, gentlemen, that some of you thought it a great stretch of power in me to select officers for a new regiment out of those you sent before. Let the enclosed paper witness the justice of the choice, and the confidence General Washington has placed in the Field-Officers of that regiment, by trusting them with the most important posts, (never before entrusted to Militia Regiments,) witness in favour of my judgment. Sure I am that those persons have not in private life been my intimate friends—nay, some of them my most inveterate foes; but I wish we could leave our private resentments in our closets when we are acting in publick capacities, and consider only the means of promoting our country’s good.

Surely, by my having the choice of thirty-one sets of officers, who had been under my immediate inspection, I could have a much better opportunity of selecting eight good ones, than you who were not here, and could not know how they behaved. I made the choice, and the officers have done honour to themselves and the Province, and differ exceedingly from some of the Captains sent here before, who could neither sign a return nor give a receipt for the money they received at Head-Quarters, but by making their marks. Now, let me ask what power I have gained to myself by this procedure, or what could I have in view but the credit of the Province and the good of the service. Have I added to my own interest, or gratified myself by assuming a power and laying a foundation to destroy the liberties of my countrymen? I well know that Mr. Folsom, and some others, have censured my conduct at Portsmouth, for no other reason but because they were not at the head of affairs themselves. I well know that the fatigues I went through, and the large sum I expended, were not matters of sufficient inducements in themselves to draw me into the measures of which these malicious persons complain. I must observe that, when they feel motives similar to those which actuated me at the time, malice will cease to reign in their bosoms, and envy learn to be silent.

I am sorry to hear, gentlemen, that some gentlemen have moved in your House for my being reimbursed the expense I was at in coming to assist your capital. I find myself obliged thus publickly to assure you that this was done without my knowledge and consent, and to assert that I never hinted to any person that I expected a thing of the sort. I sensibly feel my obligation to those gentlemen who, actuated by motives of justice and humanity, made the motion without my knowledge or consent; but, at the same time, must beg leave to assure them that the loss of interest and the fatigues of war are what I expect nothing in return for, except seeing my country freed from slavery, and those worthy gentlemen and their posterity enjoying the sweets of peace and freedom.

Gentlemen, I beg pardon for the length of this letter, and that you will excuse any expression that may proceed from a mind conscious of having been basely injured; and believe me to be, gentlemen, with great respect, your most obedient servant,

JOHN SULLIVAN.

To the Honourable the General Assembly.

P. S. I must again entreat you to forward the commissions for this regiment.

J. S.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO A GENTLEMAN IN LONDON, DATED ON BOARD HIS MAJESTY’S SHIP CHATHAM, MARCH 24, 1776.

The retreat of the Troops from this garrison [Boston] cannot fail to be differently represented in England; for which reason I have found time from our great hurry to give you some account of it. In the first place, the General’s not receiving any letters or despatches from Government since the middle of October, could not fail of making everybody very uneasy; it looked as if we were left destitute to get out of a bad scrape as we liked best. Our provisions falling short, added to our discontent. The fleet afforded us no relief; little indeed was in their power—their own ill equipment was enough to make them as dissatisfied as ourselves. The Provincials, who knew exactly the state of our garrison, harassed us from their batteries, with an intention of making our people more dissatisfied, in hopes of desertions. Finding no probability of supply, and dreading the consequence of further delay, it was thought prudent to retire to the ships, and to save what we could. Our not being burdened with provisions, permitted us to save some stores and ammunition, the light field-pieces, and such things as are most convenient of carriage. The rest, I am sorry to say, we were obliged to leave behind; such of the guns as, by dismounting, we could throw into the sea, were done so; the carriages were disabled, and every precaution taken that our circumstances would permit, for our retreat was by agreement. The people of the town who were friends to Government, took care of nothing but their merchandise, and found means to employ the men belonging to the transports in embarking their goods; by which means several of the vessels were entirely filled with private property instead of the King’s stores. By some unavoidable accident, the medicines, surgeons’ chests, instruments, and necessaries, were left in the Hospital. The confusion unavoidable on such a disaster, will make you conceive how much must be forgot where every man had a private concern. The necessary care and distress of the women, children, sick, and wounded, required every assistance that could be given. It was not like breaking up a camp, where