on the subject, would be to affront your feelings as men. The insults and barbarity of our enemies are un­equalled, and the supineness of our Government can only be pardoned in consideration of the fatal obligations of allegiance, which they seem to hold themselves bound to by their sacred oaths—a supineness which, being continued, will involve us in distresses too great to be borne, and make our last struggles for liberty but the convulsive efforts of expiring life. From a free Government established on “the authority of the people,” and having their interest alone in view, we may reasonably expect the manly and effectual exertion of that strength which God hath given us for our defence, and on which, next to the Providence of Almighty God, will depend the future peace, liberty, and safety of the whole people.

We have seen, and some of us have felt, the melancholy effects arising from the opposing interests of the Proprietary and the people. Who can recollect the horrors of the late Indian war, and not shudder at the idea it brings to his mindonly, and for the? Fire, sword, desolation, and death in the most in­fernal forms, will be presented to our view; parents and children weltering in their blood; infants torn with savage brutality from their mothers’ wombs, and made the food of dogs!!! Objects yet more terrible than these will press upon our reluctant minds—objects which our fond affection for the softer sex forbid our recollection! Little does it avail to inquire who was most to blame, the Proprietary or the people then in power; it is plain, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the horrid ravages of that dreadful war were long permitted to spread through this devoted Province, by means of the unjust claims of haughty and “absolute Pro­prietaries.” To rid yourselves forever of their tyranny is now in your power: if you embrace it, your descendants will glory in their ancestors; if you neglect it, you will en­tail slavery on your posterity, and they will justly execrate your memory as unworthy of a parent’s name. Liberty and slavery is before you; take, then, your choice. For us, we are determined to be free, and invite you to partake with us of that freedom which all are entitled to. If you wish this Province to be restored to their rank in the Continental Union, we recommend to you to nominate such a number of your Committee as you may think proper, to meet, throughout the Province, Deputies from the other Com­mittees, in Philadelphia, on Tuesday, the 18th day of next month, in order to agree upon and direct the mode of elect­ing members for a Provincial Convention, to be held at such time and place as the said conference of Committees may appoint, for the express purpose of forming and estab­lishing a new Government, “on the authority of the people” only, and for the security of their peace, liberty, and safety, according to the enclosed recommendation of the honourable Continental Congress. .

We are, gentlemen, your humble servants.

TO THE PUBLICK IN ALL PARTS OF THE PROVINCE.

FRIENDS AND FELLOW-C OUNTRYMEN: The question which will come before you is short and easy; we know not how it may have been disguised or misrepresented to you by de­signing persons, but to prevent your being deceived we tell you concisely, until we can prepare the matter fully for you, that you either are or will be called upon to declare whether you will support the Union of the Colonies in opposition to the instructions of the House of Assembly, or whether you will support the Assembly against the Union of the Colonies. We have declared for the former, and we will, at the hazard of our lives, support the Union; for if the Union be broken, every Province on the continent will be upon us. We have been open in our affairs; the sense of this city hath been publickly taken, and we will not be belied by Tories. We protest against private machinations, and we shall consider the authors of such as enemies, and treat them accordingly. Let the men come forth who are endeavouring privately to undermine the Union; we will seek to find them out; we dare them to it at their peril.

P. S. Our situation makes us a kind of sentinels for the safety of the Province; and, to prevent our friends from being deceived by specious impositions, we give this open notice as an instance of our good will to them.

Philadelphia, May 23, 1776.

The following Remonstrance to the honourable the House of Assembly, which was yesterday agreed to at a meeting of a respectable number of the inhabitants of this City and Liberties, and is now signing by them, is earnestly recom­mended to the inhabitants of the different Counties of the Province, that in this, or some similar manner, they may express their sentiments upon the Protest referred to:

To the Honourable the Representatives of the Freemen of the
Province of PENNSYLVANIA, in Assembly met:

The Address and Remonstrance of the subscribers, Inhabitants
of the City and Liberties of PHILADELPHIA:

Whereas to our great affliction we find that a paper has been presented to the House, styled “The Protest of divers inhabitants of this Province,” said to be “in behalf of them­selves and others,” the purport of which is to subvert and change the Constitution of this Government, upon sundry allegations which we cannot conceive to be well founded: And whereas we think it an indispensable duty to ourselves and our posterity, to claim and support our birthright in the Charter and wise laws of Pennsylvania, either consented to by ourselves or delivered down to us by our ancestors, as far as may be possible without injury to the publick cause of America during the present distressed situation of our affairs: We do therefore remonstrate against the said Pro­test, for the following reasons:

First. Because it holds up the resolve of the Congress of the 15th instant as an absolute injunction for the “taking up and establishing new Governments throughout all the United Colonies, under the authority of the people;” where­as the said resolve is only a conditional recommendation “to the respective Assemblies and Conventions of the United Colonies, where no Government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs has been established, to adopt such Govern­ments as shall, in the opinion of the Representatives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular, and America in general.” And here it is obvious to remark, that in this and every other re­solve of Congress where “Assemblies and Conventions” are referred to, it must be intended (and the practice has been accordingly) that wherever Assemblies exist, and can meet as the ancient constitutional bodies, in their respective Colonies, the publick business is to be carried on by them, and by Conventions only in those urgent cases where arbitrary Go-vernours, by prorogations and dissolutions, prevent the Re­presentatives of the people from sitting to deliberate on their own affairs, or have subverted the Constitutions by abdica­ting their offices, and levying war against these Colonies; that the Assembly of this Province cannot be prorogued or dissolved; that they have been exceeded by no Province in their noble exertions in the common cause of liberty; that by the resolve of Congress, who have never interfered in the domestick police of the Colonies, the Representatives of the people are left as the sole judges whether their Governments be “sufficient for the exigencies of their affairs,” or not; that our courts of law are open, justice has been administered with due attention to our circumstances, and large sums of money issued, the credit of which might be shaken, and numberless confusions ensue, from innovations hastily or unnecessarily made.

Secondly. We remonstrate against the said Protest, as setting on foot a measure which tends to disunion, and must damp the zeal of multitudes of the good people of Pennsyl­vania in the common cause, who, having a high veneration for their civil and religious rights as secured by our Charter, never conceived, when they engaged, among other things, for the support of the Charter-rights of another Colony, that they would be called upon to make a sacrifice of their own Charter; nor can we now see anything in our situation which requires such an unequal sacrifice, while other Colo­nies, particularly Connecticut and Rhode-Island, the autho­rity of whose Assemblies is the same way derived by Char­ter as ours, continue their ancient forms of Government by these bodies, without Conventions; that whatever temporary alteration in forms the urgency of affairs or the authority of the people can be conceived to justify or render expedient, that, authority is fully vested in our Representatives in As­sembly freely and annually chosen. Six parts in seven of your body are, by our inestimable Charter, vested with the power of determining in this matter; we look to you as